Author: Valerie

A Rainflower Project

We woke up to rain the day we were going to visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, but decided to go anyways. By the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and the sun popped out.

We meandered through the trails and enjoyed the fresh and many shades of spring greens. We walked through the bright Iris’ field…they were in bloom.

There were many varieties and colors of iris’. Oh-so-lovely. A stately flower. 

The azaleas were in bloom, too.

We walked through a corridor of bushes– it was like walking through a crayon box, so many colors on both sides.

When we decided to go to the arb we expected to see beautiful spaces, and we did. We also expected to eat lunch in the cafeteria and have a look around in the wonderful gift shop. And we did. What we didn’t expect to see was a special art installation: The Rainflower Project.

Early on our walk, I saw a lot of green, yellow and white off in the distance. I was curious to find out what it was…it didn’t look natural. What a found were 675 ceramic flowers placed in a garden space, depicting the average number of suicides that happen each year in Minnesota. 

A sign read, “The handmade ceramic flowers capture and preserve the sun’s rays in timeless beauty. They stand defying nature’s elements and displaying the strength and resilience of the human spirit. Their forms fill with tears from the sky, and their individual character reflects the unique beauty in the people who live in our hearts forever.”

And there they all were; 675 ceramic flowers, placed in this memorial garden, “to remind us of our loved ones and the vital importance of positive mental health.”

You were invited to honor a loved one you’ve lost to suicide or who struggle with mental health, by writing their name on a green tag and connecting it to a flower stem in the display.

I filled out two tags and added them to the more than 675 names already tagged. My brother-in-law Richard (1986), and my dear friend Jane (2005) died too young, by suicide.

This was a meaningful surprise to find at the arboretum. I’m grateful for the folks who thought up this creative display. It felt good to start our time in this way, in this place of beauty, and be reminded of two very special people who are no longer in our lives.

It was good to pause and reflect, and then to move on and continue to enjoy God’s creation.

A few tulips still hanging in there.

A Conflict of Interest

Squirrels are cute little critters, with comical antics and amazing flexibility. They are fun to watch. 

Two cute squirrels playing in our birch tree.

But they can also be destructive in gardens, and they can scare away the birds from the feeders. We have many squirrels in our yard, so we started trapping them a few years ago. We use a live-trap and once caught we deliver them to, what we’ve dubbed the “Squirrel Resort”, a land flowing with trees and water. We escorted many squirrels there. It has all the comforts of a happy place for the critters, out in the country.

Releasing a squirrel from the live-trap.

Our neighbors across the street however, feel differently. She feeds the squirrels. In fact, she has trained a young squirrel to jump up on her lap and eat from her hand! She demonstrated the act one morning. I was amused. She offered to send me a picture to use for my blog.

Is this for me?

He is cute. 

A young squirrel eating from our neighbor’s knee.

I didn’t tell her we’ll be setting up a trap in our back yard…

Hopefully this young one will stay in my neighbor’s yard where the food is…

A Bouquet of Lilacs, a Hard Way

I love the smell of lilacs…and the pretty delicate, purple flower blossoms are beautiful. They are a wonderful sign of spring. It’s always nice to bring a bouquet into the house.

This photo of our lilac bush was taken in 2020. It produced a lot of blooms that year.

The lilac bush we have in our backyard is an old-fashioned garden variety. The mother plant was planted in the yard of the house I grew up in, in NE Minneapolis when I was a little girl. In 1980, we moved to Burnsville and I dug up part of that bush from McKinley Street and transplanted it to our yard in Burnsville. Then, in 1994, when we moved to Northfield, I took along part of the lilac bush and planted it in the backyard of our new home.

Gary working on the lilac bush in our back yard.

The bush is old. 

Partially pruned.

The past few years it has produced fewer and fewer flowers, and this year not many at all. We learned it is not blooming because it has a lot of old and dead wood, since it hasn’t been pruned. The only pruning it has received the last 29 years is when I cut off branches to bring in a sweet-smelling bouquets into the house.

Apparently, we should have been pruning the bush every year. Whoops.

So we decided to prune it way back this year. When we cut off the top branches, I cut off the smaller branches with blossoms. 

A small bouquet of lilacs from the very top branches of our lilac bush.

That was a hard way to get a small bouquet!

We cut out a lot of dead wood and larger, old branches and trimmed back some of the new growth. We pruned a lot off.

It will take a couple of truck loads to get all the wood and branches from the lilac bush to the city compost site.

It was a good job that needed to be done. It looks pretty good…and hopefully the next year or two it will produce a lot more flowers once again. 

Our newly trimmed lilac bush.

Fairy Garden Stories

Many walkers and joggers use the sidewalk along the east side of our corner lot. We planted trees along the walk as a screen for our windows, but I do like to see the variety of folks who use the sidewalk. It leads to a paved trail that takes one around three ponds, and it is a delightful walk.

My fairy garden.

A couple of weeks ago when we were working out in the yard a gentleman, who was walking on the sidewalk, stopped to ask us about our house color (my all-time favorite green house). As we were visiting he said his grandson loves my fairy garden. He said his grandson will make sure everything is in place and clears out any dead leaves etc. when he walks by it. That made me smile, and inspired me to recreate the garden as soon as possible. I had just cleared the area of my fairy garden to clean things up and re-do it. It is along the sidewalk.

I took everything out of the first fairy garden…weeded and patted down the dirt, getting ready for a re-create.

I washed up the glass stones for the pathway and realigned them. I situated the porcelain table and chairs and fairies in place, including my troll from Norway. There were a few new items to add to the scene this year.

A string of lights from the thrift store.

When I opened a package that I bought at a thrift store last fall I was surprised. I thought it was street lamp poles, instead it was a string of lights, and that made me happy. I laughed. They do not light up but that’s ok, I like them.  I placed the lights in the garden, and added a new-to-me wishing well (another purchase from a thrift store). I put a turquoise stone in the wishing well, to represent water.

The Norsk troll, and the wishing well, plus my original fairy and bench…a little larger than the other items.

Now I enjoy my fun little fairy garden that will soon be hidden under a rose bush when it fills out. Right now, it is open for all to see. I’m trusting my little friend will enjoy it. My granddaughter did last summer.

A few years ago, a friend’s granddaughter took walks with her mom and passed a fairy garden, with a door. One day the little girl opened the door and to her surprise found a note in it. She was delighted and read the note from the fairy. Occasionally the fairy would leave her notes all summer, and the little girl enjoyed looking for a note every time. I’m wondering how to incorporate that idea into my garden…hard, since I do not have a door…

A door-shaped rock I placed at the bottom of a tree in our backyard. I want to paint a window and door knob on it sometime. But of course, it does not open. 😉

Another fairy garden story: A couple recently moved into a new house in the country and put out a gnome-size door next to a tree in their back forest, visible from their kitchen window. When I saw it, I commented on how much I like fairy/gnome gardens. They said they were going to add a gnome.

A few weeks later the guy came up to me in church and said he thought of me while snowshoeing one afternoon. It had gotten dark early and he was snowshoeing on their new acerage and kind-of got turned around. Eventually he saw a light through the trees and thought it was his wife with a flashlight, out looking for him. It was not. It was a solar light on the gnome door that was leaning against the tree close to their house. It guided him home!

Ahh…fairy stories abound.

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church

Recently on a road trip to Dubuque, my friend and I decided to begin our day in church. St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, built in 1896, is on the National Register of Historical Places for its architecture, its history in the region, and its Tiffany glass. We were interested in seeing the Tiffany glass.

Louis C. Tiffany (1848-1933) was a world renown artist. He created his own unique glass, which he used to make spectacular windows, lamps and more. 

A classic Tiffany iris, as part of one window.

His windows are made of multi-layers of glass, with iridescence/opulence qualities and deep, rich colors. 

 “Tiffany believed that this new material (his new creation and technique) … enabled form to be defined by the glass itself rather than by painting onto the glass.” The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art

There is much to learn about this artist’s glass and his magnificent works. Click here for more information: Tiffany Glass.

To see this display of Tiffany windows in St. Luke’s was a treat. The church is open to the public for viewing the Tiffany windows during the week, and offers weekly church services on Sunday. 

There was a short 11-minute video clip we watched as we sat surrounded by these beautiful glass windows. 

The windows had been meticulously restored a few years ago at the cost of $40,000 per window.

This is one of the three Tiffany lamps in the church.

There were also three Tiffany glass chandeliers in the church. There were even Tiffany glass windows in the restrooms!

Looking up to the balcony.

In the Midwest, there are only a few places that have Tiffany glass windows. We were grateful one of those places was Dubuque, Iowa.

My favorite window: The Good Shepherd.

As we left the sanctuary, we noticed a sign that read, “If you think our windows are beautiful…you should meet our people!”

What a pleasant way to start our day.

The Recycled Birthday Card

In yesterday’s blog I referred to a birthday card my friend and I have been sending back-and-forth to each other since 1979. I am including a link to a blog post I wrote in October 2016 about this card.

Click here.

However, there is “more to the story” now.

Our little recycled birthday card is now a booklet with 10 pages added to the original card. It’s 44 years old.

This past year my friend, Diane, and her husband spent the winter in Florida, and enjoyed it very much. She did however, text me on my birthday to let me know the birthday card was back in Minnesota so it would be late in getting to me. She would send it when they returned from Florida. She continued to say her packing list for Florida next year will include, her swimsuit, sun tan lotion, and the recycled birthday card!

It is a very special card, from a very special friend.

St. Anthony, Minnesota

My childhood friend and I have exchanged the same birthday card since 1979. I know I’ll hear from her in March, and a card exchange at Christmas, but only occasionally during the rest of the year. 

So, when I saw a text come through from her last week I was delighted, but curious as to what she had to say. She told me about a new luxury apartment complex that was built in St. Anthony, Minnesota.

I don’t have many photos of the house where I grew up. My dad built the house in 1953, the year I was born.

The back story is my mother, Ruby, lived in the house my dad built, the house where I grew up in NE Minneapolis, for several years after my father passed away. Eventually she moved in to a townhouse, not more than a mile away from the house. It was newly-built, and well-built, small complex of townhomes, and a wonderful place for her to live for the next 20 years. After the townhouse, she moved into a senior apartment complex and enjoyed a few years there before she died in 2009.

For twenty years we would visit my mother at her townhouse in St. Anthony, across from the old Apache Plaza Mall, which is no longer standing. Office units and strip malls with a big grocery store took over the space.

Diane, my friend, texted to tell me about a new luxury apartment building that was built in that space across the street from where my mother lived in the townhouse. And she went on to write, “I thought you’d like the name…The Ruby Apartments!”

The photo Diane sent me of the brochure for The Ruby Aparments.

What fun! It made me smile. 

And I like the logo…the capitol R in Ruby has a rectangular ruby stone as part of the letter. 

Art In Bloom 2023

Creativity was all around at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The annual Art in Bloom exhibit opened on Thursday, April 27th and I went on the first day, while the blooms are fresh.

This stunning bouquet greeted people as they entered the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The concept is for floral designers to pair with a piece of artwork in the museum, to create a floral arrangement to compliment the work, usually attempt to represent the art piece using flowers.

A great representation of the idea behind Art in Bloom, including the color of the vase.

It is a very popular affair… lots of traffic, buses, etc… but, once inside this free event, people are able to spread out throughout the second and third floors and it doesn’t feel crowded. 

I liked this arrangement for Immaculate Madonna. I have always liked white flowers.

We meandered around and enjoyed the floral designer’s creations, taking photos of some, but not all – over 100 displays.  

A beautiful portrait, a beautiful flower arrangement.

Occasionally the floral designer is standing next to their creation, ready to answer questions. That is a nice touch.  

This was a great “pop” of color.
Up close. Wow!

It’s always fun to try and see how the flowers compliment the artwork…sometimes using the imagination to make it work.

It is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, walking among great artwork and seeing so many beautiful flower arrangements at the same time. 

This is lovely, but some folks commented it needs a stand alone flower to represent the dog in the painting. I agree. 😉

It’s also a great way for MIA to highlight its many art pieces. 

I had to include this photo because the designer said it’s the only Norwegian painting in the museum. I liked the use of evergreen trees.
This was fun because the painting is entitled The Birthday Party, and the floral designer used a cake plate as part of her creation.
A dramatic dragon spiting fire made of flowers. This was next to a Chinese mask.

I forget what a gem the institute is to Minnesota…with or without fresh-cut flowers.  

A colorful wall mural.

iPhone Battery

Below are three thoughts about getting a new battery for my iPhone…

1. My iPhone battery died after only two years. “Sometimes that happens,” they said. So, on a Wednesday, I left my phone at the Apple Store to have the battery replaced, and they “would call me when it was ready,” they said. They didn’t. It took me over an hour and three attempts over the phone to get a live person to talk with, and then to get the answer I needed. This was on a Sunday, five days after I dropped the phone off at the Apple store. I had left Gary’s phone number to call when it was ready.  No one knew why they did not call me to let me know it was ready. It was very frustrating, but I was happy to finally get an answer.

2. Before leaving my phone for repair I needed to take down some information I wanted during the time I wouldn’t have access to my phone. I asked Gary for his phone so I could record the information on it and then realized …I had a pen and notebook in my purse! I forgot about that low-tech, but wonderful way, of recording information. I laughed.

3. As I said, it took over an hour and three phone calls to get anywhere with Apple service. The first guy I talked with seemed to be helping, but we got cut off…argh. So I tried again for another 50 minutes and talked with two others.  In the meantime, the first guy apparently kept trying to find an answer for me, which was nice. And when he did find the answer, he called my phone to let me know by leaving a message on my voicemail …he left the message on the phone that was in the repair shop…which I did not have access to…which was the phone I was calling about! Sigh. 

It was a nice break not having my phone available for five days…sometimes modern technology makes me crazy…but it is also hard to live without. I’m happy to have my phone back.