It's that time again: my 3rd chicken coop tour.

Any time before May of 2011, I never would have imagined myself saying this phrase:

On Saturday, I went on a walking tour of neighborhood chicken coops for the third time.

For me, one Saturday of my summer will always be devoted to thee Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association's Tour Des Coops. In Madison, it's legal to keep up to 4 chickens in a backyard, and local residents just love showing off their coops.

The Jones family (aka Scott, Elysha, Abby, and Clementine) and I took a leisurely walk down the bike path to get to the tour, which was smaller this year (only 6 homes). But still, I had the usual goal: snuggle a chicken.

Commemorative artwork from the 2011 Tour Des Coops (my first visit).

It didn't take us long to find some fresh eggs. 

And it also didn't take long for me to make a friend: Kuna, a 2-year-old Australorp chicken:

Kuna was quite talkative and did a lot of clucking.

Pretty girl, eh?

She had just finished laying this egg. Nice one, Kuna!

She lived in a well-decorated coop with some friends, like this gal.

Abby (a chicken coop rookie) had a great time feeding Kuna and her friends.

And soon, we were off to more coops! 

These 3 identical chickens stuck together, so I bonded with their cat instead.

Big Red posed while enjoying a snack.

It was getting pretty hot, so after our chicken coop fix, we grabbed some snacks at the Willy Street Co-Op and headed home via Jenifer Street. Of course, this meant walking by Andrea's house and seeing her latest sidewalk creation:

Ryan Gosling and a dog in sidewalk chalk: picture perfect.

As always, never a dull moment.

For my first Ryan Gosling chalk post, click here.

For my recap of the 2012 Tour Des Coops, click here.

For my recap of the 2011 Tour Des Coops, click here.

Unusual things I've seen in Madison: part 4, Ryan Gosling in chalk.

I stopped by my friend Andrea's house last Wednesday and wound up finding yet another unusual thing in Madison.

Sighting #6: Ryan Gosling in chalk on a Jenifer St. driveway.

Drawn by Andrea Miller, Hannah Stern, Nina Reynolds, and Veronica Sandoval
(photo by Veronica, of Paper Robot Design)

Andrea is a metal sculptor and a high school art teacher. In an effort to inspire her students while studying portraiture, she recruited her neighbors to help her bring Ryan Gosling to life in their driveway. The result is at once lovely and humorous (I think Andrea did a particularly good job on the eyes).

Never a dull moment!
For more of Andrea's work, click here.
For more of Veronica's work, click here.
For an amusing Ryan Gosling Tumblr, click here.

Wisconsin cities: hard to pronounce.

While I was lucky enough to end up in a city simply named Madison, the majority of Wisconsin city names are quite difficult to pronounce. For example, Potawatomi = paw-ta-wah-ta-me.

As a girl who was born in Boston, MA and raised in Charlotte, NC, I can certainly relate to this video of Texans trying to pronounce Wisconsin city names.

Unusual things I've seen in Madison: part 2 of many to come.

As promised, I am continuing my serious of photos that document unusual things seen in Madison.

Click here for my first "unusual things" post.

Sighting #3: Melvin, the world's only wacky wheeler. Spotted in Oregon, WI.

 

What can I say? Melvin is proud of his wheels, and he'd like you to call him about it.

Sighting #4: Cops on horses. Spotted at E. Washington Ave. & Milwaukee St.

My friend Elysha could not stop cracking up when the cops on horses crossed a busy, car-filled street.

Sighting #5: World Naked Bike Ride. Spotted on S. Park St.

On my way to meet friends for lunch yesterday, traffic became quite congested when the naked bikers came through. Click here for more information about the ride.

A fascinating place to live, indeed.

A good dose of cow.

Who doesn't like a good dose of cow every once in a while? I absolutely love this video of British cows jumping for joy after being cooped up in a barn all winter:

Special thanks to Val for sharing this video with me.

Driving behind cattle in peculiar places: the saga continues.

After a great Saturday morning skate and a very relaxing facial, I decided to run a few errands. I drove to Verona to my favorite local yarn shop, The Sow's Ear, to pick up some knitting notions. En route to the highway that leads me home, I realized I was behind a cattle car:

I spotted two black and white ladies in this fine car.

The cattle car proceeded to drive onto the highway, where I was behind it for most of my ride home. My windows were down and I even heard a nice "moo" from one of the gals.

To read about my first experience driving behind cattle, click here.

Cheese, fireworks, and gifts!

On my way to Chicago for the weekend, I made a pit stop in Beloit, Wisconsin. I was amused to see this roadside store:

Cheese, fireworks, and gifts! What more could a person need?

If I ever need to buy cheese, fireworks, and gifts at the same time, I will know exactly where to go. Fabulous.

My not-so-average morning drive.

Around 9:00am this morning, and I was driving to work while listening to the new Lady GaGa album (excellent wake-up music for me since I am NOT a morning person). It was a typical morning until I noticed that I was behind a large white trailer. As I looked closer, I noticed big black and white noses poking out of the trailer, along with a cow staring at me. There was a trailer full of cows driving downtown on a Wednesday morning. I managed to snap a picture while sitting at a red light:

Look closely: a cow is poking her nose out to get a whiff of the summer air.

I counted four cows in the trailer and they seemed quite content with driving around downtown. I'm hoping that they were on their way to a nice milking, rather than a slaughterhouse. This was quite an interesting start to my morning. I hope the cows enjoyed the ride.