Venus in Eclipse

I admit it. I went to the Fair, not once, but twice. It's an experience that I won't repeat this year, but it was, as the old Norwegians are wont to say, different. PP was working at the MCC booth by the DNR area, so I stopped and picked her up as her shift ended and we took this photo of her pretending to be an MCC employee in the photo cutout. She actually is an MCC employee and has, on several occasions, wielded a chain saw. So, other than the wooden-like stance, it could be a photo of her at work.

Then we toured around the fairgrounds. We ate some of the on-a-stick gastronomic delights(?), like the alligator and a pronto pup, visited the International Bazaar, and generally checked out the Minnesota people out in public and on display. I had a tour of the Poultry Barn while PP was working, and only later thought that I could have encountered the bird flu in that venue. But I wasn't alone. Apparently Garrison Keillor spent some time there this week, too. I was struck by the variety of chickens that people raise, some of which are quite attractive birds, yet when one buys chicken meat in stores there is no mention of the variety that one is buying. Apparently they are all the same, at least taste-wise.



The other must-go exhibit for me is the fine arts display. The range of art work is wide, but there are a lot of very talented artists in Minnesota that enter their work for ribbons and a chance to be displayed. I personally like the sculpture and the oil paintings.

I found the car parks in the Como area pretty interesting, as did Mr Moohoo on his blog. My next photo is of some one's second income source. The $15 rate for parking seems pretty excessive, but they are filling their yards and collecting their fees. It was and is possible to park free at Highway 94 and Snelling and catch the bus to the Fair, also for free. It's hard to knock the free enterprise system though.



Venus lost her match this afternoon to the resurgent Kim Clijsters at the US Open, 6-0, 0-6, 6-4. It was a very weird match with the two offsetting bagel sets, before a hard fought third set. Clijsters is returning to the game after having a baby girl. The only mother, that I can remember to ever win a grand slam event was the athletic Evonne Goolagong. Clijsters has a few obstacles to winning this one, including Serena, but she's in the quarter finals. It's all a pretty good show.

Tiger Lily Time

The tiger lilies came out over the weekend. I guess it was time for them to begin to bloom for the summer. This one lives in my backyard.


The GTA had a session of tennis at Marie Park this afternoon. It was windy, sometimes gusting unpredictably, but the tennis wasn't bad. We managed two sets 4-6, 6-1 before taking the rest of the day off. Tennis Dennis made an appearance and explained that there is another week to wait before he returns from his current injury.

The other court was used by a guy and two 7-10 year olds that he was babysitting, he said. The boys kept throwing their rackets and refused to stop when asked. Eventually they left to go home, but for a while they were quite disruptive. Their rackets are pretty banged up from all the tossing, but no one got hurt.

Both Venus and Serena are through to the quarterfinals at Wimby and there is a large possibility that they will meet in the final. In the men's draw, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick are among the eight players left. Roger is looking good, but the guys who are left are strong players who really want to win this tournament. The finals are this weekend. I'm still picking Fed.

Ques: What's the difference between a pigeon and an investment banker?
Ans: A pigeon can still make a deposit on a Ferrari.

Ash Tree Blues, or Purples

The ash tree blight scrutiny has spread to my neighborhood, too. Mr Moohoo has reported these purple insect traps in ash trees in various parts of the city. This one is on Grotto, near Osceola. I, too, am obsessed with the purple traps - there is a row of ash trees lining both sides of the street on the block that I live. There are a bunch of trees on Grotto that don't look very healthy, not unlike a bunch on the Mississippi River Road, which are well along in the process of dying off. There are traps in Como Park, too, near the Conservatory. Ah. rotten luck.



The temperature in St Paul set a record for the date yesterday - 97. Unky Herb and I finally uncovered the AC and turned it on for the season.

I played two sets of tennis this afternoon with the GTA. It was about 80 degrees and my stamina was good enough to last through both sets. Curt and I played together, won some games, but managed to come out behind in both sets.

Wimby is well into the first week. Both Venus and Serena are playing well and may again meet in the finals. The Screaming Maria lost today and is no longer a factor. I'm predicting Serena to beat Venus in the finals. Roger Federer is the favorite in the men's draw, except for the Brits, who are hoping that Andy Murray (a Scotsman) will win before the blanc mange aliens do. He means to win Wimbledon. I hope he does. They haven't won their own tournament in over 70 years.

Tigers Return

This year's crop of tiger lilies have emerged from buds. They are later than last year by a couple of weeks, but still welcome. This fellow lives in my backyard, along with other assorted plants, including quite a number that PP guarantees to be native to this area.


I was committed to Saturday tennis, so I was unable to view the women's championship match from Wimbledon. Venus beat Serena and won her third Wimby title in four years (just as I predicted about a week and a half ago). I hear that it was a fairly serious match, and both were attempting to win. Later in the day they combined to win the women's doubles championship. Tomorrow morning is breakfast at Wimbledon wherein Nadal and Federer try to beat each other for the title that Roger owns. I still like the Spaniard.

My own tennis was pretty good. We had early morning courts at Sibley High School. The first set went to 7-5 and then the wind came up. We had six of the game's elder statesmen in attendance, so I also played most of a set of singles tennis. It was enough tennis for a windy Saturday in July and we scheduled another session for Monday evening and went home to check on Venus and Serena.

Herb and I are engaging in guerrilla gardening at Linwood Park. We have decided to water some of their (our) trees and see if we can get them through the current dry spell. Some of the smaller, recently planted trees are starting to wilt and appear to need some water. Since the city has no obvious plans to save the trees that they planted last year, it seems fitting that some citizens take action. Besides it gets me out of the house and to the park, where the prairie garden was planted last year.

I understand a bike race has broken out in France. Fancy that.

The End of June

The season is late. I looked at my tomato photos from last June and it is obvious that we are at least a week behind where we were on the same date in 2007. This is one of my tomato plants from this year. It's doing quite well, but it's a long way from producing those plump, red fruit that I'm waiting for - locally grown organic tomatoes.


It was a very nice afternoon on the tennis courts. I played ok, but I miss residing in the zone. We played two long sets - 6-7, 6-3 - and quit. Tennis Dennis showed up to watch and to chat. He's 67 and is 5 weeks past his hip replacement operation and was hoping to hit a few balls. I did some net volley drills with him, trying to keep the ball close so that he wouldn't have to move much. He still has good hand-eye coordination, but his lateral movement is missing. He says he has at least a month before he can start to play again. He needs to go slow, but also needs to keep moving forward. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

Wimbledon has reached the quarterfinals and the two top seeds are still around. Federer may have to beat the unpredictable Marat Safin, and Raphael Nadal has the gritty Brit, Andy Murray in his path to the finals. In the women's tourney, both Venus and Serena are still in the draw. They could meet in the finals yet again. I'm still picking Venus.

Plant of the Day

The plant of the day is the red bell pepper plant that resides in a green pot in my backyard. I could have chosen milfoil, but I like this better. A member of the nightshade family, capsicum annuum, is edible and a native of North America.


I spent some time hiking around Lake Como this afternoon. It is badly overrun with milfoil. I have pictures, but they are uggglly. The park board has hired a company to come in and "harvest" the milfoil and truck it off to a landfill or maybe to become mulch. They were at work when I circled the lake. They have a home built vessel that reels in the weed on a treadmill like device and carries it to shore for transport elsewhere. The lake is overrun. It's kind of sad. But there is money to be made when bad times strike.

It was a bad day for Americans and American wannabes at Wimby. Andy Roddick, James Blake, Maria Sharapova, and Lindsey Davenport all lost their second round matches to people I have not heard of. And I follow tennis action more closely than most Americans, I suspect. Venus and Serena are still in it, but most of the American competitors are now spectators.

It was also a bad day for US investors. Dow Jones was down 358 points to 11453, the low point on the Dow for the year. And the price of oil finished at $139+, another record high.

But here in St Paul, I discovered a hoard of goat cheese in the fridge, left there by PP when she left to return to the Big Blue Stem Prairie up by Moorhead. Brunost. Brown cheese from Norway. Herb and I have been feasting on the pungent Norski treat.

I put in about 45 minutes on a tennis court on McKubin street here in St Paul, crushing forehands in the general direction of one of the other geezers - the one who purports to be 100% Swedish (a little too much, I think.)

Seven Seven Oh Seven

It was the hottest day of the year thus far. It is 8:45 pm and the temperature according to the car thermometer is still 93. But life continues. The Saturday morning tennis match was again on the schedule. The characters were somewhat different because of injuries to two of the geezers, but with subs we blasted through three sets in a couple of hours and all in attendance went home whole. Scores do not matter when the blast furnace begins.

This evening Herb and I drove to Hampton where a new Buddhist Temple is being dedicated this weekend. The large Cambodian immigrant community has financed and built this temple on farmland between Hampton and Farmington about 25 miles south of St Paul. They are the remnants of people from Cambodia that survived Pol Pot, one of the last century's major mass murderers. They have settled in Minnesota and elsewhere in the USA. They are mostly farmers and supply much of the produce for the several farmer's markets in the Twin Cities.



It was an odd experience in the farm fields of Minnesota to be among a small minority of European Americans and be outnumbered by Asians. It was much like the experience of Japan in some ways. The people were friendly and the surroundings a little out of the ordinary. There were about 100 orange clad Buddhist monks on the premises talking and advising and taking their ease. And thousands of Cambodian Americans, some selling food, produce, and art work, some listening to the Cambodian dance music and some talking with family and friends.

Here's Herb next to a statue of a Buddha along with gifts to Buddha and to the monks. Herb and the monks were similarly coifed.



Venus Williams won at Wimby today, her fourth singles title there since 2000. I predicted Serena, but Richard Williams, their father (tousan), about two weeks ago, predicted Venus would win. He is a better prognosticator than this tousan. Tomorrow is the men's final between Federer and Nadal. My prediction is still Roger Federer. It should be an interesting morning.