Septuagenarians rule

It's Wednesday. Before tennis I went into the back yard to see if any flowers were ready for prime time. I found this one in a pot of flowers that NCW planted for me about six weeks or more ago. It may be a petunia. It is certainly purple. I have some other flowers and a patch of garden that used to be, years ago,  for vegetables that now is the unruly home for the Prairie Princess' native plants - grasses, wild flowers and, I think, a family of rabbits. A single milkweed grows there, too. PP will be back from Norway to tend her native patch on August 15 - in about three weeks. There are also three tomato plants in the back yard. All three are growing rapidly and green fruit is starting to set. The plants were a gift from Unky Herb's friend, Drew, and thus I'm not sure what style of tomatoes I'll be harvesting in a month or less, but I do know that they'll be organic and fresh from the garden when I eat them.  Unky Herb says he thinks they're heirloom tomatoes.  I'll eat them with respect.

It was a really nice day for tennis outside.  The temperature was mid 70's and dew point in the fifties.  The tennis playing geezer group has expanded for the summer and now we're playing three times a week at Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.  Today we had ten competitors, most in their sixties, but one, at least, at 58 and two septuagenarians (you know, guys in their seventies). We draw cards for partners and then play mini sets to start so that we get some variety of competition. A mini set allows everyone to serve once and if the set gets to 2-2, we have a seven point tie breaker. It's all pretty low key, but silently competitive. No one wants to lose to an old guy, even other old guys. After three mini sets against a variety of opponents, the survivors and the hard core play a set of doubles against whoever is still willing to play.

As one of the septuagenarians, I got to play the last set with the 58 year old guy against two guys who are cousins and pretty good players. It was a fun day and we all managed to get out alive and well. It was good tennis, good for geezers and competitive enough to make the afternoon feel like two hours well spent.  I love those guys and I love that game.

Icicles on the Falls

The snow is over for a while and the cities are pretty well dug out from under the snow blanket. It was clear and reasonably pleasant (in the 20's) in these parts, so I went to Minnehaha Falls to see how the winter is going over there. The paths to the falls are plowed, but there were very few folks there to take in the view. It's pretty dramatic to see all those icicles hanging from where the falls should be. I've taken pictures of the falls in nearly every month of the year for this blog, and it is still an attraction - a place to walk and see some nature.



And tonight I went to tennis at Wooddale. It was a very entertaining evening. We, the hardcore girls (HG) and Jerry, managed most of two sets - 7-6, 5-5 - before we were forced to give up the court. Lots of good long points and running around retrieving lobs and angle shots. Good exercise and time well spent. Then I went to Yang's for mildly spicy singapore rice noodles to bring home. I shared the tasty meal with PP and UK. It was a pretty good day.

Simulated Avalanche

We are in the middle of a snow event. We have had snow continuously for 24 hours and are expecting, according to the weather experts, the snow to continue until noon tomorrow. I've been out for two rounds of snow removal with my trusty snow shovel and the two snow throwers that live here. There is a certain cold beauty that a good snowstorm brings to the land.

Before I began the first round I took a photo out the back door. The snow was still and white and waiting expectantly to be moved. And so I did.



The first round was aided by the efforts of the Prairie Princess. We were done with the job and rested on our shovels in front of the house. So I captured her image.

News item: "A skier was buried beneath an avalanche for 17 hours in the Swiss Alps before being pulled from the snow with only minor hypothermia. The 21 year-old man appeared to have survived because he was trapped next to a pocket of air." - Today's Strib



After the first round I roamed around the neighborhood a while, admiring the way the snow engulfed the landscape. And I mailed a letter at the mailbox on Oxford. The streets looked pretty much like the photo below. I stopped in the middle of Fairmount to snap the picture, knowing that the traffic today was light and moving slow. St Paul is expected to declare a snow emergency sometime in the next 24 hours, but so far not so much. I suspect that plowing will not improve the street surface much at all. Minneapolis is plowing tonight.



Most of the rest of the day was eating and planning what to eat. When Unky Herb came home tonight we shoveled round two. The main course for dinner was Santini's "squash in the oven." That and mac and cheese with eggs ala moohoo - spiced with the correct amount of dill. And bean salad. And herring. After a day of shoveling there is no need for gourmet cooking. Yum.

That cooking blog is coming in handy.



Tennis for tomorrow has been canceled due to injury to one of the anticipated participants. A second consecutive day of rest.

"So much of life is disappointment. That's why we have art." -Joyce Carol Oates

Return from Arizona

Unky Herb returned tonight from his vacation in the desert regions of Arizona. He traveled light and came home with photos of the big canyon and various other scenic treasures of Arizona. I dare say that he may have even taken some shots of the Saguaro cactus, that some say are everywhere in Arizona. He's smiling because I took the photo in the garage, not exactly the conventional scene of homecoming shots. He's looking swell. And I'm happy to have him back.



I didn't make it back to Lake Como to check on the ice over. It has been 96 hours since the temperature outside has risen to the melting point of water, so I'm assuming that ice over has occurred. I'll do more diligent reporting in the next couple of days. I think we are in winter.

There was more tennis today again. The usual suspects and a sub managed to play a set and a half and have some fun, too.

The Falls from Creek Level

The state is going below freeeeezing and staying there for the rest of the week. The weather guy says it's a cold snap, but it's really just an average December. I had to go to the bank and do some errands, so I extended my trip to take in Minnehaha Falls. This time I went down the long staircase to creek level to get another angle for the photo. The last time I was there the lower level was shut down for "alterations." There is some water going over the falls, but in a couple of weeks it will solidify and ice will prevail. There were very few people at the park today. It was about 31 degrees and cooling.

I did see a couple of bikers out in the afternoon. They were likely commuters, rather than pleasure riders, and they were dressed for the chill.



The mask exhibit below stands a few tens of feet from Minnehaha Falls. It's been there quite a while, but is not so noticeable when the trees have leaves. I think it was placed there by a native American group, but I'm clueless about the reason for its placement. It's an interesting object in an interesting spot.



It was a day off from tennis. I played with the GTA yesterday at Fred Wells Tennis Center. We've been extending our tennis week to a third day because the weather denies us some of our other activities. I'm playing pretty well and using my ten year old, duct taped racket. I may have to spring for new equipment for the cold season, just to keep pace.

UH is still in the wilds of Arizona. He called from the Grand Canyon and said he was getting some great photos. I guess it's high enough ground there to keep the temperature comparable to the North Star state. I look forward to the photo unveiling.