Category: Glimpses of Life

A visit with the grandchildren last week was quite delightful. Aged 3 1/2, 2 1/2 and 3 months they all have their own personality that made me smile.

The oldest, a boy, likes to sit, read and play interactive games on my iPad. He is being potty trained and has to be reminded to go to the bathroom. One morning, he came to the family room in his pajamas shortly after he awoke. He pulled down his pajama bottoms and showed me that he had taken off his overnight diaper and put on his “big boy” underwear. He was so proud of himself and so was I.

The youngest boy has a big heart of gratefulness. He almost demands food, milk or juice and when he’s finally handed what he wants he breaks out in a smile and yells THANKS! I laughed every time he did it.

The baby, a girl, is smiling and cooing. I saw her over 3 months ago shortly after she was born and she now has her own personality. She is calm most times unless she is hungry. Her smile melted my heart over and over again.

Oh how they grow so fast!  Sleep baby sleep … tomorrow will be filled with so many learning opportunities for you.

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I was doing so well with not getting sick this year and then bam! A sore throat, cough (only when I talk), chest congestion and fatigue. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have the fatigue to go with it as I could still get things accomplished.

But, as is normally the case, the body wants to rest and it makes itself known. Fortunately I have no fever. My fear is always the chest congestion as I am asthmatic and in previous times colds get in my chest and then I have to make a run to the emergency room for the wonder drug called Prednisone. It helps clear things up but it also has side effects if used too much that aren’t so healthy.

So I do all the good things — eat healthy, drink lots of fluids and wait for the virus to run its course. Hopefully it will run fast!

With crummy weather behind and ahead of us, my husband and I decided to get out of the house, drive to the Indian Mounds Park and go for a walk. Why not join in the bleakness of the day by going to an Indian burial ground? Actually, it was quite pleasant.

The park is in St. Paul, Minnesota and has 6 Native American burial grounds with the oldest supposedly constructed 1500-2000 years ago.  All of the mounds are protected by a low fence. The park overlooks the Mississippi River and the St. Paul airport.

As we drove up, we saw a children’s playground and a picnic area. Once out of the car, we took a paved walking trail.

Peek-a-boo views of the Mississippi River and the St. Paul airport can be seen although later in our walk we were able to get an unobstructed view of both of them.

As we continued on our walk, we saw an Indian? statue and a large covered shelter area that had a view of the street on the other side of the park. The area has a lot of older houses and is an “established” neighborhood. Friendly joggers greeted us as we walked past them.

Currently there are six (6) mounds (literally) that have Indians buried beneath them. At one time there were a lot more but some of them were destroyed in the late 19th century by developers.

Off in the distance the skyscrapers of St. Paul can be seen.

An old “airway” beacon that was built in 1929 still stands and was used to provide the city of St. Paul with air service between Chicago and St. Paul. One thing I learned is that “airway” beacons flash white-to-white while the normal airport beacons flash white-to-green. The beacon is original except for a refurbishing that was completed in 1995.

It was a goodly walk we had today. The constant rain/drizzle that we have been having makes everything look very very green and the tree trunks look dark. Guess beauty can be found just about anywhere, eh?

(To read more about the history of these burial grounds, click here for the Wiki article.)

The last two days in Minnesota have been simply dreary. There is no better word for it.  We’ve had quite a few rain and thunder storms pass through.

It’s almost 4 in the afternoon and the skys are dark with huge white clouds hovering and drenching us with torrents of water.

Last evening around sundown, we had a respite from this weather. The clouds turned pinkish white and off in the distance a large patch of beautiful bright blue sky with puffy clouds interspersed in between made me say “Wow!”

I wish I had taken my camera with me to snap a picture but since I was on the highway picture-taking wouldn’t have been practical. Not to mention that my new camera had a mishap that will force me to look for another camera — again.

I usually like to iron on days like today but it’s Sabbath and my back and neck feel achy so it’s time for a much needed nap. Hopefully when I awake the weather will have taken another respite from its dreariness.

On a recent stroll through our neighborhood I saw an unusual sight.

As I passed the neighbor who was working in this yard, I couldn’t help but go back and ask him “What are you doing?” The discs hanging from ropes around his garden looked, well, unusual.

The neighbor promptly explained that deer have been feeding in his yard for quite awhile and he was tired of it. “Deer are creatures of habit so they will continue to come back to places where they have found something to munch on.” He also explained that deer don’t like to look at their reflections so earlier he had set up posts, hung rope and attached CD’s to them. So far, he has had success keeping deer out of his backyard so now he was trying the same thing in the front yard.

It does look unusual and reminds me of the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle although there I was never surprised by any oddity because it was a usual occurrence. But in Minnesota the people tend to be more, well, normal.

Every day we have deer who walk through our property at dawn and dusk. One time I saw them in my front yard looking for young plants to eat. When I flailed my arms and sternly told them to go away I was greeted with blank faces. Only when I went stepped towards them and made my physical presence more obvious did they choose to run away.

I have tried deer repellant on my plants and bushes but every time it rains it seems like I have to do it all over again. So … this may be another solution.

I guess I’ll be considered one of the “odd” neighbors now but at least I won’t be alone.

Sometimes driving can become boring, so on a recent trip to the Twin Cities from Fargo, my husband and I decided to take a different route than the usual I94 (Interstate 94).

And so it was that we came across Interstate 10. The route is about 10 miles longer and 30 minutes more to drive but it was well worth it.  We did have to slow down as we went through small towns but most of the time the speed limit, currently at 65, went anywhere from 35 – 55 mph and only for a very short period of time. In addition, there were fewer trucks and traffic which made for a very pleasant drive.

There is one rest area on the way in the town of Frazee which is about 1 hour from Fargo. The rest area is on the left (instead of the right) and was very clean. My husband noticed that the benches (including the picnic tables) were made of granite or perhaps quartz. I wonder how much it cost to put those in as granite can be very expensive.

The drive was very scenic with rolling hills and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) track following the route of the highway. I hadn’t realized that the BNSF is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Just an interesting tidbit …

Yes, this drive back to the Twin Cities was less stressful than if we had driven back on Interstate 94.

My husband and I went to hear the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis last week for the first time. It was also the first time we walked around downtown Minneapolis with its beautiful tall architectural buildings.

I found this sidewalk sculpture intriguing — I believe the rusted look is natural.

Some of the downtown area reminded me of Spokane, Washington as they had sky bridges going from building to building. I don’t see these too often in the cities I’ve visited.

On the side of one of the buildings we passed was a musical mural that caught my attention as it loomed in spite of everything around it. I wonder who made this mural … anyone know?

After dinner, we walked to the Orchestra Hall. It looked a lot smaller on the outside than I expected although I’m not sure why I had any expectations since I don’t frequent orchestra halls very often.

We arrived a little early so we sat and waited until the pre-symphony performance was over. We could have attended this performance also but chose instead to walk around the downtown area and have dinner. We weren’t the only ones early though. Soon enough we handed in our tickets and went to find our balcony seats on the second floor.

I think we had one of the best seats as we could see everything and everyone and the music sounded great from here. The orchestra hall lighting was not very conducive to picture taking so the couple pictures I did take didn’t turn out very well.

I was pretty impressed with the inside of the hall and felt happy in my belly. I’m not sure why but I think I smiled throughout the whole performance.

The performance we chose to see was Vanska Conducts Beethoven. The violinist, Jennifer Frautschi, was impressive although sometimes it looked like her arm was tired from holding the violin as she shook it rather vigorously a couple of times between sets.

The music director, Osmo Vanska, was quite spry and his whole body moved with the music as he was directing. I could tell that he has a passion for the work he does as his directing was so intense. What a great job he did! He is now in his ninth season in Minnesota and has led the Orchestra on four major European tours.

One of my favorite pieces that was played was Wheat Dance which is part of a Ballet Suite from Estancia. It made me feel calm. A second piece they played that was quite upbeat and I enjoyed was part of Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68, Pastoral and was called Andante molto moto: Scene by the brook.

My mother-in-law gave us these tickets for Christmas and we are so appreciative that she chose this unique gift. We will have to go back sometime as we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Spring in Minnesota is very different than Seattle. At least where I’ve been, I haven’t seen very many azaleas or rhododendrons and one couldn’t walk a block without seeing one of those bushes in Seattle. Part of it, I’m sure, is that our neighborhood is considered “woods” so not much sunlight penetrates the ground.

The pollen count was high the other day and I couldn’t stop sneezing. One “trick” that both Dr. Oz and my doctor recommend to help with handling allergies is to buy a nose saline solution spray and use it in the morning and also at night. It’s worked for me quite well except for that one day.

I enjoy looking at the buds on trees and bushes. New growth is always beautiful even in its early stages.

Another thing we don’t see too much of are tulips as the deer eat them up as if they were drinking water. I don’t know why they don’t eat the daffodils though.

On a recent walk, we spotted an albino (white) squirrel. Apparently there are quite a few towns that “fight” over who has the most or the best looking albino squirrels. I was just happy to have spotted one.

Ahhh … spring.

Lastly, I found an old wasp nest. This thing is huge and I believe it’s from last year as there were no wasps flying to and fro. One of the advantages of being short is that I’m always looking “up” so I see things that my tall husband normally wouldn’t see.

It’s a blessing that I am able to enjoy these little snippets of nature even though I have not found an appreciation yet for the bugs of this world.

This morning the news people announced that because we’ve had a few days of colder weather overnight, the mosquitoes have been kept at bay. Whew! That’s another blessing I’m thankful for.

It feels odd for me to walk around the inner city of Chicago and see … a rabbit.

He stood quite still as I took a picture of him and only hopped away as I got a little closer. What are rabbits doing in Chicago, I wonder? If they are pets then this one must have gotten loose. Perhaps someone had a pet, it had too many babies and they just let it go? With busy streets nearby, a hospital, a church, filled parking lots but no parks, it feels odd.

Quite odd. And, it reminds me of a camp song I used to sing …

I Love A Rabbit

I love a rabbit
A crazy, crazy rabbit
Hop, hop, bunny, bunny, hop, hop bunny, bunny
Hop, hop, ho, ho, hop, hop.

He loves carrots
He’s crazy over carrots
Chew, chew, bunny, bunny, chew, chew, bunny, bunny
Chew, chew, ho, ho, chew, chew

When we go to sleep at night
I kiss he and he kiss I
But if he’s been a such and such
He has to sleep in the rabbit hutch

Oh — I love a rabbit
A crazy, crazy rabbit
Hop, hop, bunny, bunny, hop, hop bunny, bunny
Hop, hop, ho, ho, hop, hop

Yeah, ok, maybe I’m the one going crazy!  (laughing)