A soft sell

The weird weather season continues. This is one of the reasons I don't live in the northern regions of Minnesota. When it flurries in St Paul, seven inches of snow falls on the Iron Range. While it makes the vistas very pretty, it also makes travel and most forms of exercise quite difficult. By Wednesday this new snow fall will have melted and will be flowing into the lakes and rivers of the region. And for a couple of days, at least, the threat of grass fires will be very close to nil. These snow covered trees stand near Swan Lake in Pengilly. I think they could be considered native vegetation. They look pretty comfortable with a white robe of snow.

Cars buried by the seven inches of overnight snow. The snow also took out the internet and cable TV for a couple of hours this morning, but all is back to normal now.

Yesterday PW and I went to Keewatin to visit some property that she owns there. On the way out of town, on a crisp spring day we saw a group of three seven or eight year old kids with a stand selling something. I'm familiar with kids selling kool-aid at stands. Unky Herb and the Prairie Princess did that very thing at about the same age. Keewatin is a small town - maybe 1500 residents - and there is very little traffic through the town, especially on the side street where the stand stood. I think that they probably had not had a single sale since they set up the stand. PW thought they may be selling hot chocolate or some other consumable, and she likes to encourage entrepreneur activities in kids, so she suggested that we stop. She went to talk to them and after a few minutes came back to the car with a purchase. It turns out that they were selling water balloons. Mini water balloons. For three dollars she was able to buy a bagful of them. A dollar for each kid and a chance for each to go home with a buck and to get out of the cold. Money probably well spent.

Mini water balloons. Car keys for scale. I'm not sure what she plans to do with them. I think maybe she'll make a center piece for her book club meeting.

Tomorrow is the national day of paying the government what we think we owe in taxes. Mine are in and I await confirmation that I indeed agree with the government as to the amount that consists of my share of the cost of running this large country. I wish good calculating to those still in the throes of the process.

Pengilly Golf Course

It was a beautiful day on the Iron Range, so the PW and I went for a walk on the golf course. I didn't play golf or even swing a club, but it was nice to see the green grass on the fairways and greens. Green greens, there's a concept. And the club had some quite interesting benches to add to the collection of sporadically displayed benches on this blog. The course is only nine holes so there were only about nine benches. This one was on the tee at the second hole.

Another bench, about the seventh hole.

And then there was this sign where the golf carts have just crossed a creek. "Scatter." Just advice, I suspect.

It was a day in the seventies even this far north, but the weather creatures promise snow on Monday. The rascals.

The Cruelest Month

"April is the cruelest month." Or at least that's what T.S. Eliot wrote in "The Wasteland" and today was another example. After the tease of a very warm March, this Friday the thirteenth of April was raw and windy. It started out with such promise, but turned to rain and dank. I took this photo of a blooming crab apple tree yesterday at Linwood Park when it was sunny.  At least these blossoms haven't been visibly harmed by the two straight days of morning frost.

But after stumbling though the morning and having a healthy lunch of turkey burger and home made soup, at least I had tennis with the geezers to occupy the afternoon. We played later than normal to allow one the guys, who had to teach a class, to be able to play, otherwise we would have been down to just three geezers. We played inside at Fort Snelling, so we weren't much affected by the wind and rain. We wedged two pretty good quality sets into the ninety minutes on Court eight - 6-2, 5-7. As we left the courts we saw the women tennis teams from St Kate's and Hamline begin a scheduled match that had apparently been moved inside. I didn't recognize the Hamline uniform colors right away, not until I read the name on the shirts. The old college colors from my days on the men's team were cherry and gray, and now they are a kind of cranberry and another version of gray. Also, their uniforms are a lot nicer than what we wore for matches. We had polo shirts. I guess the extra money for tuition to attend that institution must go for something. Why not better threads for the teams? [The tuition when I started there in 1961 was $700 a year]

More of "The Wasteland":

"APRIL is the cruellest month,
breeding Lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing Memory and desire,
stirring Dull roots with spring rain."

Kite eating tree

A second straight day of morning freeze didn't seem to faze most of the area flowers and plants. These daffodils, early bloomers, continue to bloom.

I took an early evening walk around Linwood Park. The park was busy with walkers and frisbee players enjoying the cool April sunlight. This view encompasses not one, but two, kite eating trees at Linwood. I guess the last few windy days got quite a few kiters out to the park, I guess to feed the hungry trees.

It was a tennis day inside at Fort Snelling. It's been interesting as Tennis Dennis tries to return to the court after a bout with a detached retina. He's doing pretty well and healing pretty fast for a guy just past 70. We, the geezers, played a couple of 6-3 sets of pretty good doubles. I guess he exemplifies my feeling that you have to keep playing, even if your body complains about it, because if you don't, you'll rue the day you quit. And I don't want to rue the day.

Wind chill returns

After a March like the one we had, it seemed inevitable that we'd get some cold weather, too. Today was a part of Mother Nature's revenge. While it did get to 43 degrees in St Paul, we had to suffer through some sub freezing weather overnight and a return of wind chill here in tundra city. After waiting out the cold, I decided to have a walk over by the park and see if I could get a photo of the second of two solar collector/chargers there.  This one is next to McMurray Athletic Fields and appears ready to use.  I think you would need a car with the correct electrical connections and probably a credit card.  I haven't seen a car using the charger as of yet, but it's purported to be a free service.

A closer view at the business end of the solar charger.

After a walk through the park, looking for frost damage and finding none, I walked towards the zoo and conservatory.  There are some daffodils blooming outside, but they are puny compared to the  fragrant flowers inside the glass building.  The current flower show at Marjorie McNeeley Conservatory is still the spring flower show, but they've changed the flowers to these.

One of the white lilies in the Sunken Garden at the far end in the photo above.

Earlier in the day I noticed a couple of parking spots for Nice Ride Minnesota, a project to supply temporary bikes for use in my part of town. There was a station at Lexington and Grand, another at Kowalskis and a third at Macalester College.  With these you do need a subscription ($65 for the year or $6 a day) and a credit card for I.D.  You can check a bike out for 30 minutes at a time for no extra charge.  I didn't get a photo, but maybe next time.

Spring retreats

We've had amazing weather all year, so I guess it's okay to get a little cold and wind. I walked around Como this afternoon, in the "heat" of the day. It was 45 with a wind chill in the teens. But the sun was out sporadically and the trees continued to blossom. This little tree in the photo is a recent planting and has almost purple blossoms. If it freezes in the next couple of days, as the weather creatures predict, it'll be interesting to see what happens to the blossoms. There's always something to wonder about.

It's the April birthday season. So many birthdays, so little time. Happy birthday to anyone I forgot to congratulate. I know Unky Herb and the Prairie Princess gained another notch in their age, as did some others who are less likely to want attention drawn to the event.

Spring outdoor tennis has not yet erupted. At least in my schedule. I still have indoor permanent court time until May, but given a day in the 70's, I think I'll be outside hitting forehands and backhands.

Minnesota early spring flowers

The flowers are out early this year. I've previously posted photos of crocuses from various yards in the neighborhood. There are some wild flowers that are blooming in this warmest of all Minnesota Marches. I found these at Crosby Farm park and they were thriving in this early season. These blue flowers, I think, based on an internet image search are wood squills or sometimes called siberian squill. These are also growing in lawns in my part of the city.

These yellow flowers are marsh marigolds. They grow in wetlands and this case very near Upper Lake.

It was a cooler day than it has been lately, but the weekend promises to set some warmth records. Sunday temps may hit 80+ degrees. I guess we're going to stay on this pattern for a while yet.

There was tennis again today. This time at Fort Snelling. I tried some different tactics to retain some energy into the later part of the session - mainly bringing an energy bar with me and eating it after the first set. It seemed to work reasonably well, so I'm going to go with it again tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a lottery ticket for the MegaMillions drawing tonight. I understand that the prize is set at 640 million dollars. I have a ticket, because you can't win without one.  Lightening could strike, although I'm certainly not counting on it.  I just hope that someone I know wins so that I can pester them to share the bounty. [Just kidding.]

Crosby Farm Park trail

After spending much of the morning fighting with tax forms, I took a walk down by the river to clear my head and to get ready for Thursday night tennis. It was about 55 and sunny, so a really nice day in March especially for a stroll in the woods. There weren't many folk about - a runner, a biker, a couple of mushroom hunters, and the guy from the Mosquito Control District testing for larva in Upper Lake. It's been dry, so I hope there weren't many mosquitoes getting ready to emerge from their winter sleep.

The river is low, but also ice free. The trees are beginning to green up, but their leaves do not yet obscure the view of the river.

A trail by the big river. The river is just off to the right. I spent about an hour moseying along the path and then went home for another shot at tax forms. I still have about two weeks before I need to mail them, but it's nice to be near the end of this annual task.

Marjorie McNeely Spring Flower Show

For a March day it was pretty warm and not a trifle windy. The GFTNC was in town, so we decided to take in the spring flower show at the Como Conservatory. It's spring break for some of the schools around, but the attendance at the Sunken Garden wasn't too over whelming. The flowers are always bright and colorful for the shows. This year it seems like the tulips are passed their prime, much like the ones outside. They seem to have been fooled by the early spring and some were about to drop some of their petals. The flower show would then be a stem show, I guess.

I managed to get a photo of a nearly empty of humanity garden. The room also smelled like a very good perfume. Spring flowers at the Conservatory are a treat while we wait for the outside ones to bloom.

Nice flowers in the display.

Some red flowers in the Sunken Garden.

"Play Days", a 1925 sculpture by Harriet Frishmuth, has graced the sunken garden for a good number of years. Earlier this spring they removed it to be cleaned and otherwise restored. They did a good job and now the copper tarnish is gone and they added a protective coat of some kind to keep the tarnish from returning too soon.

"Crest of the Wave," another Harriet Frishmuth sculpture stands in an interior area of the Conservatory. It has yet to be restored, but it seems to have used the same model for its creation.

The show was very impressive and we followed up the visit to the Sunken Garden with a walk around Lake Como. The ice is completely out and the mallards have returned from Ollie's Pond to begin again the circle of life in this city lake.

Winnie the Pooh-less

The GFTNC is in town for the weekend and we decided on a nice spring day to take a walk in the flood plain. At this time last year there were no paths open down there by the two rivers. The water was just too high and the park was closed. This year is a much different year. The paths are open to Pike Island and they are all dry. So we circled the big island on foot - a long, but pleasant trek. Maybe three miles or so.

We walked by this tree that looks like the home of Winnie the Pooh in Three Mile Wood, but there was no bear to be seen. At one time I took a photo of the tree and it was inhabited by the Daughter of Norway. Today she was in the small town of Ås, Norway, not far from Oslo. I talked to her later in the day and she's doing fine and probably misses some of the nature sites in Minnesota.

The gift shop at Ft Snelling State Park in the flood plain is now equipped with solar panels. There seems to be quite a few installations of solar panels going up lately. I think I'll be on the lookout for the new ones as they appear.