In preparation for the annual Monona Festival over the Fourth of July Holiday some interesting people will arrive this week.  One of the highlights of early summer in Monona is catching sight of the carnival workers arriving with their various rides, spending days before the event putting together the carnival while Monona begins to construct the tent for the festival. Artists will start to prepare their booths for display during the festival.  Monona residents should keep their eyes open for this yearly rite of passage that, like most things in summer, passes by too quickly.

The loss of Ellie this spring has been an abrupt reminder that there is more than meets the eye to most lives. Each summer Ellie was known for singing Frank Sinatra tunes while wearing splendid outfits in front of the Town Hall in Provincetown, MA. Ellie pulled a wagon with a sign that read 72 years of living my dream the first time we really took notice. Over the years the number on the sign changed.

This spring Ellie passed away, leaving a silence in Provincetown that will forever be known. In memory of Ellie THE FRONT PORCH TIMES will serve as a means of getting to know the many aspects of Monona residents…because there is always more than meets the eye to most lives lived.

Suggestions of local persons readers would like to know about, or know about, are welcome.

There’s more to a life than meets the eye. We were always encouraged to live our dreams by Ellie during our visits to P-Town.

Here’s a video tribute to Ellie:

Ellie December 1, 1931 – April 7, 2011 | local Obituaries
provincetownmagazine.org

Remember the storm that swept through here last week on the evening of June 8? There was an F1 tornado associated with that storm, which followed a path from Verona to McFarland. It also happened to be the anniversary of the June 8, 1984 Barneveld tornado, an evening I remember well because that storm kept blowing open the front door of our Stoughton home, a home which remained standing after that storm, but then was leveled during the F3 2005 tornado in Stoughton (dramatic video footage here).

Anyway, last week’s storm knocked down one of the trees in our backyard.

A normal person would have already had the tree hauled away by now, but it didn’t hit the neighbor’s fence or the power line, so we’ve left it alone for now because our two youngest daughters like to play in the “jungle” the fallen tree has created in our backyard (photos taken with my phone by my 9-year-old so excuse the poor quality):

The above photo may have given you the false impression that the green space is actually grass instead of the weed-filled rustic terrain it actually is. It would be unfortunate to leave you with that impression, so here’s a shot where you can see some of the weeds. Unfortunately the Creeping Charlie, dandelions and wild violets aren’t in bloom right now:

The jungle presents climbing opportunities that were heretofore unavailable:

Attempts to turn the jungle into a rain forest by using a sprinkler have so far been underwhelming, but the girls will probably try again.

Other advantages to the fallen tree:

It cuts down on the mowing I have to do.

It blocks my view of the “way back” of the backyard from the kitchen window so I’m unable to determine at a glance the height of the grass back there, which will cut down on yet more mowing.

It ultimately saves us some money because we were going to have that tree taken down anyway and it will be cheaper to haul it away this way.

Eventually the novelty of the jungle will wear off – probably when the mosquitos take up residence – and the leaves will die and it will look unsightly. If you know of someone who could remove it without charging a fortune,  leave a comment or send an email to info @ thefrontporchtimes.com.

Our blog developed technical difficulties in April and I wasn’t able to figure out how to fix it. Because I was swamped with client work I kept putting the problem on the back burner.

Yesterday Tom told me someone at the pool commented on how they like the positive atmosphere on this blog, so that reminded me to contact an expert I know and get the site fixed already. I guess it’s a sign of how the Internet has made the world a small place when the first person you think of that you know you can trust to hand over the passwords to your site, and will charge you a reasonable rate, lives thousands of miles away in Hawaii. Many thanks to Inoa Technologies for bringing us back online and for their speedy assistance.