Just blowing, swirling snow covering the vast field in stark whiteness And there, alone, appears one Canadian Goose Looking at us through our sunroom windows, Stopping to sit on the white blanket, Offering us something...what? An angel in disguise? Sent with a message? What could it be? Hope, for some reason comes to mind, but I’m not sure I’ll have to dwell on that awhile. We all need a little hope right now.
I didn't see him walk or fly away, but eventually he was gone.
Two weeks ago we roasted hot dogs over a winter bonfire in River Bend Nature Center. We’ve roasted “many a hot dogs” over the years. It’s fun, and they’re tasty (it’s the only way I’ll eat a hot dog). We’ve also made mini pizzas and apple pies over camp fires in our iron sandwich-maker sticks many times.
Roasting donut holes over a wood fire in a fire pit.
But this past weekend we roasted something over the fire that we have never roasted…we roasted donut holes!
The steeple was renovated on the 1894 white clapboard church.
It was a fundraiser for the Valley Grove Church steeple fund, near Nerstrand. I was intrigued when I learned about this event, so we decided to give it a try.
When we arrived, there were a couple of fire pits set up for the roasters, metal sticks in a bucket for roasting, and a variety of donut holes to choose from with extra toppings of chocolate dipping sauce and cinnamon and sugar for coating the donut hole after it was roasted.
Others enjoyed roasting donut holes.
We picked out our donut holes, stuck them on our stick and began roasting. The holes did taste good roasted…nice and warm and toasty. It was a fun and unique idea.
I don’t know the name for these waterfalls…we call it Hidden Falls Two.
Afterward, we hiked one of the prairie trails at Valley Grove, down to Hidden Falls Two. I have not seen much water run over these falls in the past, but on this day there was a full, frozen ice fall.
The tall golden prairie grass and bright blue sky.
We enjoyed the blue skies and prairie grass, and I always love seeing the two historic churches and cemetery on the hill.
Valley Grove Churches: The stone church was built in 1862 and the white clapboard church was built in 1894.
On another unusually mild February day in Minnesota, we took off for a day trip to Mankato. Upon arrival we went to two sizable thrift stores, and “scored” at both, buying some fun and unusual items. After perusing the goods, it was lunch time so we found a great local pub for lunch.
One very long beautiful mural painted on a retention wall along the Minnesota River in Mankato.
Afterward we continued on to a small piece of land next to the Mankato Train Depot (the depot is no longer in service), along the Minnesota River. First, we walked past a beautiful mural, on our way to a Minnesota River lookout. The mural was beautiful, the river was very low.
Very realistic paintings on this mural panel.
Another panel of this public art mural.
Next, we walked to Reconciliation Park, a small area created for a memorial for the 38 Native American’s who were hung in Mankato in 1862, by white folks. It’s a sad part of our history. It was moving to see these two memorials. The theme of the park is “Forgive Everyone Everything.”
This monument listed the names of the 38 Native Americans hung in Mankato at the same time, in 1862.
A limestone Bison, part of the memorial to Native Americans in Reconciliation Park, Mankato.
Next, we drove to near-by Minneopa State Park.
First, we drove through the bison paddock. and were fortunate to see many bison out grazing.
There was a large, lone bison crossing the road, walking very slowly. We decided he must be the grandfather of the herd.
This guy leisurely walking in the road, stopping traffic.
It was really special to see all the bison up close with only the car as our barrier.
Looking good… photos by gb
Our next stop was the waterfalls in the state park. We got out of the car and walked to the falls in sunny, 54 degrees temperature. Although there was no snow on the ground, the falls were still frozen over, with some water trickling down as the ice melted in the sun.
The frozen, lower falls in Minneopa State Park.
On our drive back to Northfield, we stopped in St. Peter for a coffee break and visited one more thrift store along St. Peter’s main street, which is the busy Hwy 169.
I like it when barista’s add a little flair to the coffee.
By this time of day, we were tired and the thrift shop was no longer appealing, but the coffee tasted yummy!
I think this guy was wondering if we had a nice day in Mankato…we did.
The Faribo Flyers Bike & Ski club have an annual winter picnic. This past Sunday was the day for this winter, and it was 50* outside. Instead of being bundled in all our winter gear and eating with our mittens on as per usual, we were wearing our spring jackets enjoying the unusually warm weather. What a difference a day makes.
This photo was taken in 2021. There was not that much snow on the ground at River Bend Nature Center this year.
After hiking almost 4 miles, we came back to a large bonfire in the oval fire ring…all ready for us to roast hot dogs and enjoy all the goodies everyone brought for the potluck portion. It was tasty – we think food always tastes better in the outdoors. Nobody was standing around the fire to keep warm. We were engaged in conversations and relaxing in the Sunday afternoon sunshine.
It’s easy to play outside in this kind of weather…
The goats were fun to watch at River Bend. 2/2/25
On another note…we have hiked at River Bend a few times this winter. Before the cold snap, there were goats penned in a large area to eat the invasive Buckthorn. They were fun to watch. Apparently there were 120 of them! They removed the goats due to the extreme cold temperatures last week, but plan to bring them back again this spring to let them munch in another location.
It’s cold here in Minnesota. Below zero temperatures were the norm this past week…with the wind making it feel even colder.
2/16/25
The sun makes a difference. When it’s shining out on the field behind us it doesn’t look to be so cold…until you open the door.
When we were driving in the cities yesterday, I saw this scene and thought, only in Minnesota. The outdoor service person working for Century Link set up a portable tent to protect themselves from the cold and winds.
2/19/25
The clouds opened just a bit this morning, for about a minute, to reveal another stunning sunrise. Then just as quickly, it clouded up again. We are in for two more days of very cold weather.
2//20/25, 6:59 am
I grew up in Minnesota, and I’ve always liked winter, but as I get older it’s harder to get motivated to go out and play in it. So, I’ll walk on my walking pad, and enjoy the outdoor scene from the warmth of our new home. And, anticipate the warm up that is coming this weekend.
When our boys were young, we went several times to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. It was a fun outing, and it was free back then.
The name has been shortened to Bell Museum.
In 2018 they built a new, beautiful building and moved from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. And, they added a planetarium.
A much larger and modern building houses the Bell Museum and planetarium.
I was excited to see the planetarium. I remember going to the planetarium in the downtown Minneapolis library when I was in elementary school. I really enjoyed it.
A scene in the planetarium.
I looked up the Minneapolis Public Library‘s history and discovered it opened in 1889 along 10th street and Hennepin Avenue. But that’s not where I remembered it.
That library became overcrowded and out of date. In 1961 a new Minneapolis Public Library opened at 4thstreet and Nicollet Ave. That’s where I remembered it. It too, has since been rebuilt (replacing the old stone castle-like building with a four-story glass and steel building , but no planetarium.) The one I went to as a child included a planetarium, and a small museum of Egyptian mummies, in its basement (which I had forgotten about until my memory was triggered when reading about it.)
Our massive, wonderful galaxy of stars shown in the planetarium.
All that to say, we went to visit the new Bell Museum last week. We paid extra to see the planetarium show…which was titled Minnesota Skies. This was a narrated program by a staff member interacting with the audience. I was disappointed because I was expecting to see more dark sky and starry, starry night scenes.
There were a few other choices for planetarium shows…so I suspect there are ones similar to the ones I remembered seeing as a child. I’ll have to try again.
Many of the dioramas in the natural history part of the building were the same ones in the old Bell Museum space.
Birds and waterfowl dioramas.
When they moved to the new building, they didn’t take the scenes apart…they moved the entire displays. They were well-done when they were created, so it made sense to keep them intact.
A beautiful fawn in one of the dioramas.
A Wooly Mammoth, in tact.
The new Bell Museum has so much more to offer, with a hands-on area and many more displays about outer space and other natural history.
Apparently there are gardens to explore in the summer.
The Bell Museum is a great resource for the Twin Cities…although now they charge a fee to get in. And you have to pay for parking. That’s disappointing, because that can be restrictive for young families. However, I’m sure it’s a great destination for school field trips so many children can experience this great place.
Gary and I started a tradition of giving each other greeting cards when we were first married and continue to do so to this day, 47 years later. We exchange cards for Valentine’s Day, our birthdays, our anniversary, Easter and Christmas – that’s about 470 cards by now! And, as per usual, I kept them.
A few fun cards from the large assortment of cards in the box.
Now it was time to go through them…to enjoy re-reading them and then recycle them. We don’t want to store them in our new house.
A few more…
We were home alone on Christmas Eve, so we thought that would be a good time to go through the cards and reminisce. It was a lot of fun looking at all of them… the different style of cards and reading our hand-written notes, if we added any.
To me this captures the 1970-80’s era.
Sometimes we gave each other the same card on the same year, and sometimes we gave the same card a year or two later. It was interesting and entertaining.
Same years, same cards exchanged.
There are so many b e a u t i f u l cards. It’s hard to give them up, and I did keep a few. I think there are places that collect old cards to create new cards, and I thought about that, but it was overwhelming to think about in the midst of moving.
LOL…
i like this writing theme…there was bicycle themes, cats themes, birds and flowers…o my…
We also made cards for each other occasionally.
A few hand-made cards.
Hard to tell in the photo, but these cards are extra large.
Going through the cards Gary and I gave to each other was a lot of fun, and then I was ready to recycle most of them.
Multiple cards made for us from our sons.
But, it felt different going through all the cards I saved that our sons had made and given to us over the years. We encouraged their creativity and they made some imaginative cards over the years.
Another pile of creative cards made by our sons.
We had the good intention to look at them and then recycle them, but I couldn’t do it. We looked at them, and I put them in some semblance of order, and kept most of them… to look at again when we’re even older. And who knows – maybe someday their children will find the cards in a box and enjoy seeing how creative their daddies were.
A sampling of Thanksgiving cards the boys and I made to send out to our families.
We went for a hike the other day, in 40* weather. We’ve had a few below zero days this winter, but last week we had a stretch of unusually warm weather for a typical January in Minnesota.
We have had only one measureable snowfall, and that was in December, so there is not much snow lying on the ground. As we hiked the trails through the bare trees in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, we were walking on dirt. The sun was shining bright, with no clouds in the sky. The temperature climbed into the 50’s by afternoon.
No snow in the state park on this day.
When we arrived at the park, we noticed a group of hikers were just starting their journey on the trail we usually hike. So we decided to reverse directions and “start at the end of the trail.”
The frozen Prairie Creek.
After a while we came to the creek, frozen over. As we crossed the bridge we took in the pretty sight of a smooth, sparkling white curve cutting through the brown landscape, with a blue sky overhead. It looked like an inviting trail, not a creek.
Gary walking on iced-over concrete blocks.
We continued on, crossing a frozen patch in the creek, covering the concrete block path that serves as a way across Prairie Creek normally.
We arrived at Hidden Falls. We wondered if there would be any water flowing and found it completely frozen over. It was like the White Witch of Narnia had cast her spell on these falls and the water froze instantly, in place.
Hidden Falls in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park.
It was beautiful…this blanket of white ice on this unusually warm day. Such a contrast between no snow on the ground, brown soil and trees, blue sky and lots of frozen water. It was such a great winter scene.
You can picture the water falling and splashing over the falls, now frozen in place.
We managed to sneak in a couple of photos before the other hikers descended upon us. They asked us to take their photo, and reciprocated and took ours. We found out they were a hiking club from the cities and they were identifying trees in winter. I think that would be difficult.
January 2025.
We continued on our fun hike…glad to be out of doors on such a winter’s day.
Our writing prompt was to write about a ghost. It took a couple of months for me to come up with an idea for a story…and then I encountered Toro, the Friendly Ghost.
On the shores of Lake Superior, October 1, 2024.
On our annual trip to the north shore this year, we brought some kindling from our shed. We enjoy having a campfire on the rocks outside the cabin. This is a fun activity we do when we go up to the north shore…build a campfire on the rocks near the water. On this night the sky was clear and we saw thousands of stars. A sight to behold.
I sometimes take photos of our campfires…they are so mesmerizing…and we love to sit and watch the flames dance as we poke a stick into the fire to rearrange the logs. I take photos for documentation, although most do not turn out. But I try, and so, I did this night.
It was interesting…a green blob appeared when I was framing the photo. I moved the camera slightly to get the green blob out of the photo, but it was still there. Then I tried many different angles, but the green blob was in every frame, just above the flames. I have proof!
So, we wondered… where did this “ghost” come from?
We decided it came from our shed in our backyard in Northfield. When Gary grabbed the old, blue, plastic container filled with kindling from the shed, to pack in our car, we decided this ghost hitched a ride in the plastic tub, to the north shore.
We believe that night our friendly ghost, who we named Toro (since he shared the shed with a Toro lawn mower) was set free. For the past thirty years he was confined to our shed, watching over the kindling and unlocked doors, keeping watch over our belongings. Now that we were moving away from this address, Toro felt free to ride along with the kindling.
That night, when we set the tub down by the fire ring on the rocks, he began testing his “wings” by hanging around the fire…hesitant, I believe, to let us go after all these years. Then, he remembered the reason he had tagged along in the box. He remembered we were moving away from the house, and the shed, on Aldrich Drive. He was now free and able to go find a new shed to protect.
He was hanging out at the fire saying his last good-byes. The next time I tried to take a photo…he had vanished… in the wind, or waves, or however a friendly ghost travels…
