Simply Norma

Our Washington County park permit does not expire until September so we went venturing out to check out the Big Marine Park Reserve. The permit allows us to bypass the main office to register.

Upon entering the park we noticed that everywhere we looked the park was well maintained.

The park has a boat launch which was being used but the path to the beach was under water. There is also a fishing pier available to fishermen.

The park has ample picnic shelters with charcoal grills, tennis courts and even a place to play horseshoe.

It took awhile for us to find the path that led us to the view of the St. Croix River as it was not clearly marked. We were a little disappointed that the view is somewhat obscured by trees.

As we were walking we noticed an evergreen tree that looked like a weeping willow. Anyone know what the name of it is?

Although we were there in the early afternoon on a beautiful sunny day, few people were frequenting the park (with the exception of one large group).

This would be a good place to have a family reunion as they also have a playground for children.

The park is located at 17495 Manning Trail, Marine on St. Croix, MN.

I think I ruined my view of life in Minnesota by taking a quick one week vacation to Seattle. While I was gone, the Minnesota Twin Cities had multiple 90+ (and one time 102) degree days of record heat. I was thankful that I was missing all the heat waves while I sat in overcast 60 degree weather in Seattle. My last 2 days there were sunny and in the 70’s. Perfect weather for a vacation.

When I arrived home around 1 a.m. this morning, the temperature gauge in the house showed a balmy 87 degrees. It took over an hour and a half for the air conditioner to start cooling the house.

We have 1 more day of 90+ degree heat before we cool into the high 80’s. I hope our plants will continue to survive. The two large new guinea impatiens outdoors were starving for water but are re-invigorated and have come back to normal life minus the flowers on one of them.

As I’ve said many times before, summer is not my favorite time of year in Minnesota. Autumn is right around the order … yeah!

I finally found a shade plant that likes, well, shade. Imagine that! Haven’t had too much luck with a lot of the plants I’ve put in the ground but the impatiens seem to be doing really well.

Ahh — but here’s the rest of the story.  Back in March our doorbell rang and since we rarely get visitors, my husband and I both jumped (okay, that might be too strong a word — perhaps we eagerly walked) to the door to see who was there. Looking through the side window, we saw a young man with a piece of paper in his hand. We instinctively knew he was selling something.

But something about our neighborhood makes you want to open the front door. The people are friendly. Even our mailman has knocked on our door and given us his life story. But I digress.

I opened the front door and the young man was smiling. He introduced himself and told us he attended a Catholic military school and was selling plants for their fundraiser. I recently bought some plant seeds from a niece that didn’t grow so I was skeptical but we purchased some anyway as we would be purchasing plants not seeds.

I asked the young man to come in and he was very polite and answered all the questions we had about the fundraiser and included information about himself also. So it was that we bought two (2) large new guinea plants from this young man. We also bought 24 smaller ones to plant in our yard.

In May the plants were delivered and boy were they healthy and large!

They have survived through three (3) major rainstorms and love the shade. Because of the deer in the area, I have sprayed them with deer repellant to make sure they last the summer.

So — besides hostas and ferns, I can safely say that the new guinea impatiens will also grow in total shade. Although the label sometimes says plants will grow in sun/part shade, I have found it to not always be the case.

Slowly but surely I’m getting some color in my yard.

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Yes, I did it again. I found a unique animal on my property although this time it was not a bug. While moving some cement pavers from one location to another, I heard a rustling that quickly stopped. I looked and there he was.

He looked black in the sunlight and stood motionless. I eyed him suspiciously expecting him to jump at me. After a minute or so I figured he must be as surprised as I was. So — I did what I usually do.

“Okay so, you’re going to have to move in order for me to continue working in this area. Both of us can’t be here. So — get a move on.”

Nothing. His (her?) expression didn’t change and the pavers I needed to reach were behind him. Undaunted, I continued my coaxing.

“You heard me, right?” I said. “We both can’t be in this area so get a move on.'”

(In spite of what it may sound or look like, I believe I am still a rational being, well, er, no men in white have picked me up yet. haha)

I’d been working in the front yard for awhile and decided that perhaps, since the toad/frog was not cooperating, I would work elsewhere. So I left but kept looking at my new “companion” out of the corner of my eye.

After about an hour, the toad/frog turned its back to me and just stood there. When I finally finished my work, I looked and he was gone.

Since I am not familiar with toads/frogs I decided to read up on how to tell the difference. Not much luck in that. “They” (that would be the internet) say that its hard to distinguish between the two. I did find out that frogs can contain mild toxins and toads have large poison glands (called the parotoid) located behind the eyes, on the top of the head.

Well, thankfully I didn’t have the desire to pick one up and pet it.  Eeewwwww!!!

I was telling my husband the other day that perhaps I should, in my effort to overcome my fear of bugs, hold them in my hand. It sounds quite creepy to me though to have something crawl on me. Another eeewwwww!!!

I do have to say that in spite of my aversion to creeping, crawling and flying “things” I have an aunt who lives in Puerto Rico and will not leave her house to work in her yard because of her aversion to the same things. So — I guess there’s always someone worse off than we are, eh?