Prairie Grass

The heat of summer has arrived. The Strib weather guy says that we'll be in the mid 90's for highs most of the week, topping out at 100 later in the week - maybe Friday. It sounds warm, but we have electricity, a commodity that apparently is lacking in parts of the East, where they're having a similar heat wave. So far, I've been maintaining a normal schedule, even playing tennis in the late afternoon. On Saturday, we had seven codgers at Marie Park in the morning, all well into their sixties or more. The next test is Monday afternoon.

I have some photos from late last week which I took on various walks with the GFTNC around more natural areas in the city. We checked out Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, a place where the Prairie Princess helped transform to a prairie with ambitions to turn into an oak savannah. The prairie grass looks very healthy and has a much different look from the usual lawns of other parks. The oak trees are doing pretty well, too.

On another day on a hike around Lake Como with the previously mentioned GFTNC, we encountered this bird sitting in a tree. I haven't posted a photo of this variety of bird before, so I took a chance. I think it's a Carolina Wren.

The Prairie Princess is just a month away from her field work trip to Africa. She'll be spending five months in Tanzania, at the Equator, then hopefully coming to Minnesota, home, for Christmas. Lately she's been going by a nickname of Daughter of Norway, but may have to temporarily change to something more African.