The Bronze Glassblower

Today Tom & I went on a guided tour of 5 rooftop gardens around Milwaukee! I signed him up without asking him first, as I knew if I asked him he wouldn't want to go, but if I signed him up & then told him I'd already paid, he'd (grudgingly) come with me, which is exactly what happened! I really enjoyed it, & Tom liked it better than he thought he would, but as he had low expectations to start with, that isn't saying much! Ha! What I loved most was how high up we were--the highest garden was 9 stories up, so we could see for miles--that alone was worth it! One of the rooftop gardens had beehives & also grew vegetables, as well as having lots of space for entertaining, which I thought was amazing. This picture was taken at the rooftop garden of the Grohmann Museum. Dr. Grohmann was born in Germany & came to the US when he was 20. He is an extremely successful, wealthy business man who built the museum to house some of his paintings & bronze statues, & then donated it to the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He loves his bronze statues so much that he chose 12 of his favorites, each of the originals being about 20 inches high, and commissioned a German company to make exact replicas, only he had each of them made 9 feet tall. He then had them mounted around the edges of the rooftop garden. Each of the statues is individually lit at night so that they can be seen clearly; during the summer, the statues are turned inward to watch over the garden, & in the winter, they are turned to look out over the city. I loved this one because it's actually 4 stories up & the perspective makes it look larger than the high buildings off in the distance! :)