Albion Baseball

It was a cold, overcast day for most of the day. About 6:30 p.m. the blue sky chased the clouds off to the east and the sun came out. That's a good omen for tomorrow, but didn't help today's photo any at all.

This afternoon after my day's errands were accomplished I took a walk of a couple of miles up to Grand and Lex, then east to Dale, followed by a loop around Linwood Park. It was afternoon and the kids were out of school for the day. I hadn't seen any teams practicing in the last weeks, but today there was a baseball game in progress. More accurately slow pitch softball (maybe fast pitch, but the pitches were slow and loopy.) This was amateur kids' ball and they were having fun, plus they had spectators - grandparents and tiger moms were out in force. They even had t-shirts as team uniforms. I watched a while then continued the journey.

I spent a little time organizing some of my books today. It's a retired person's task. I have books left from about 50 years of sampling this and that. I stumbled onto some old books of prose and poetry by Richard Brautigan, a hippie-ish guy who lived in San Francisco when he was still living. I found "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster" and in it one of my favorite poems - one that makes me laugh out loud and at least smile broadly whenever I read it, "Albion Breakfast."

And I quote:

"Albion Breakfast"
For Susan

Last night (here) a long pretty girl
asked me to write a poem about Albion,
so she could put it in a black folder
that has albion printed nicely
in white on the cover.

I said yes. She's at the store now
getting something for breakfast.
I'll surprise her with this poem
when she gets back.

The Prairie Princess used this poem one time for a high school class when the instructor asked them to bring an amusing poem to class. I think it made her smirk a bit, too.

Late Spring

It rained the whole day. The total for the last 24 hours was about 1.35 inches, which, if the weather creatures on MPR are to be believed, sets a record for rainfall for all April 26's on record.  A cruel day in the cruelest month.

And yes, it is a very late spring. To illustrate I'm including a photo from Sunday at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and also calling up a photo from April 26, 2010, a year ago today. There is a noticeable lack of green leaves on the trees this year. Maybe the all day rain will change that soon, but the forecast for tomorrow morning mentions slush. Slush!

This is Harriet Island in 2010 from a perch next to the Smith Avenue High Bridge. Now that's what spring is supposed to produce from cooperative trees.

No tennis today.  I stayed inside and began to brush up on my French language skills.  They've been rusty for a good many years, but I'd like to get the pronunciation of chocolate eclair down so that I don't look like a fool at the boulangerie the next time I visit the city of lights.

Inside tennis tomorrow at Fort Snelling, it appears.

Birds and outdoor tennis

I'm still learning how to use my new camera. It was a nice day - real nice, by recent standards - and a Monday to boot. Mondays are nice because there aren't as many people out, and I feel less inhibited about where and when to snap photos. So about noon I went to Harriet Island to assess the recession of the flood and to try to learn more about the camera. As to the flood - the water is down and most of Harriet Island is again above water. A few puddles remain, but there is river mud everywhere. The city employees present were shoveling the mud off the sidewalks and power washing the surfaces. Soon it will be back to normal, ready for the Taste of Minnesota (which, incidentally will not be returning to Harriet Island this summer. Something about unpaid bills) fireworks.

There were some geese milling around. I took some photos with the telephoto to judge photo quality and whether my eye was up to using this equipment. So far, I think I can handle it.

When I got home I noticed a cardinal in the back yard. I've tried to get pictures of them before, but they are a shy breed and fly away whenever I get within camera range. The telephoto lens got me a little closer.

And then this afternoon became my first outdoor tennis day since February in Florida. The gang of geezers and I decided that Marie Court was a better fit for our games than the Fort Snelling bubble. We swept the winter's dirt off the courts before we started. It looked like top soil from South Dakota - black and rich. Then we played a couple of sets in the wind and sun, and thanked our lucky stars for a nice enough day to do it, at last. I guess it was about 65 degrees. Nice.

Kind of a nice Sunday

It was Sunday and also Easter. You'd think that there might be some lilies blooming somewhere outside on a Sunday this deep into April. I went to see what I could find. I haven't been to the Stone Arch Bridge in a while, so I drove there and spent the afternoon looking at the river and seeing what was going on. The first photo is the Stone Arch Bridge from an angle not often seen.

A wide shot of St Anthony Falls from just above the falls as the Mississippi roars over the edge.  Minneapolis' west bank is in the distance.

These aren't lilies, but crocuses. The crocuses in my yard are past prime, but these, on the shore of the Mississippi, are freshly emerged and looking good.

There were also a lot of people and water birds strolling around, enjoying the warm afternoon. These mallards were very tame and I was able to get close to them and got a pretty good photo.

No tennis today, but it would have been a good day to play outside. I was tired enough from last week's action to put off the outside play until next week. There will be more days like this and some better as we progress towards the summer solstice.

Content

Spring continues to be reluctant. I should be happy that the snow drifts are gone, but I yearn for 70 degrees and the sound of outdoor activities, and the opportunity to wear those new shorts that I bought in Florida in February.

I played indoor tennis at Wooddale this morning. The original foursome has dwindled to two and we play with subs every week. Jerry has a herniated disk and Pat has some other long existing and recurrent back problem. Bob and I remain and we played the new guys to a virtual draw this morning, 6-2, 4-6, 3-4 when we ran out of time. Our permanent court time ends next weekend, so it'll be outside all the time after that. Jerry is getting a cortisone shot in his back, and hopes to return in a couple of weeks.

Unky Herb was doing some P90X exercise this afternoon and I needed content for the blog. He was dressed in a unique way as he beat the pulp out of the air in front of him. It's keeping him fit while he continues his daytime desk jockey job.

The Prairie Princess seems to like her new job in Wisconsin. We iChat-ed this evening for an hour or so. She's five hours away, so she's not likely to visit much this spring, but technology seems to fill the gap. She's been participating in dry vegetation burns and doing some chain sawing. And living in a small town.

Another snow day

Sure enough, it snowed over night. It has all melted, of course, but it was a dark day and a little too chilly for much outside fun. I took a few photos of the morning snow, just to record the white cover to the bushes.

The snow didn't interfere with the indoor tennis schedule at Fort Snelling this afternoon. The extra courts are being used by high school tennis teams getting ready for the spring season. On the court next to us the boys from Highland Park were hitting the ball around. They had too many players for the court (more that 4), so they were engaged in drills directed by their coach. We played on an end court, so weren't disturbed by their activity, but it was nice to see the young guys out hitting some tennis balls.

The geezer guys and I played two sets and a tie breaker in 90 minutes. Good exercise and good competitive points.

Possibly Tulips

Walking is pretty good exercise. It's also nice to have a mission. I thought I could find some colorful outdoors flowers. The place to look is in the parks and people's flower gardens. There have been crocuses and glory in the snows, but I think I stumbled across actually blooming tulips. I'm not completely sure because the shape of the bloom seems wrong, but the leaves, and the season of the year seem right on. These were sprouting in the butterfly garden at Como Park. They were pretty enough for a picture.

Most of Minnesota is waiting for the next snow fall, predicted for tomorrow, that may make this year very near the snowiest ever - or at least since European-Americans arrived and started to measure and record snowfall amounts. It's hard to get too excited by spring, when it keeps on snowing.

The cruelest month - April

As expected, yesterday's snow disappeared. Today, although a trifle brisk, had sunshine and a hint of optimism. Unky Herb was around and we did some yard cleanup. I'm always a little nervous about messing with the Prairie Princess' garden when she's not around, because it's mainly native grasses and I'm not sure how she wants them to be treated. But we picked up some of last year's grass and bagged it for the recycled grass site. It was pretty low key clean-up. I had a close-up look at the rabbit damaged lilac bush. I'm convinced it will survive, but it has been cut back by the once hungry hares. It is beginning to bud. Nature is pretty much in control in the back yard, however.

UH and I took a walk to Linwood Park, then down to the tennis court (then not being used - too cold), up the long steps, then to Grand Avenue and home. On the way I caught Herb taking an artsy photo along one of the tall stone walls lining St. Clair Avenue.

There is some more weather coming this way next week. One site predicts three inches of the lovely white stuff for Tuesday night into the morning. April is indeed a cruel month.

Snow, again?

Winter refuses to give up its grasp. Another coating of slushy white stuff came over night and changed the prevailing color of the landscape to white. It was enough, I think, to make this the fourth snowiest winter on record here in the Saintly City. This was the view out my front door at about 7:45 am. Judicious use of the new camera.

Despite the snow, I was able to hit some tennis balls. Indoor tennis facilities are necessary here if one wants to be sure of a playable venue. The Saturday doubles competitors split sets this morning and we had to quit at 5-5 in the third. A reasonable score for Saturday morning.

Some ducks being ducky

The ducks are back for the summer, although in truth, many spent the winter here. I saw a whole herd of them at Carver's Cave at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in the dead of winter. I guess all they need is some open water and some accessible food. In this case these mallards are pairing up and probably will be leading a pack of little ducklings around in a month or so. I'll keep an eye out for them.

The Prairie Princess blogged today and announced that she has been accepted to the Norwegian graduate school that she applied to for the second time a few months ago. She was accepted the first time last year, but decided not to go this past year, but it looks like this time will be different. She starts sometime in August.  I sense that I'll be traveling to Norway sometime in the next year. In fact I made some sort of promise to that effect. Read about her new situation in her blog - Daughter of Norway.  She also has some photos from her new town in Wisconsin.

There was tennis on the agenda again today.  Jerry, a regular on Thursday and Saturday, was back tonight from a back injury that he suffered a couple of weeks ago, an injury caused by attempting to move a TV set that was heavier than it looked.  It looks like he'll have to play himself back into shape, but at least he's back.  We managed to finish a couple of sets tonight and except for one moment when the wincing was out of control, no one was injured ... or re-injured.

Snow is predicted for tomorrow night.  Winter refuses to go away quietly.