Valerie – Page 13 – Valerie's Voice

Fairy Houses

As the snow melts, daffodils and hyacinth sprouts will begin to emerge, and fairy gardens will be uncovered.

The beginnings of my fairy garden in our backyard, in 2021.

I am enchanted with fairy gardens. They are whimsical and I love finding them in surprising places: under a flower or next to a tree trunks, maybe under rocks in a rock garden. I also like creating one in my own backyard flower garden.

A fairy garden on St. Olaf Avenue (summer 2019) is large, and has a theme “reading”. You can find many animals scattered throughout the garden, reading books.

Some fairy gardens are elaborate, like one on St. Olaf Avenue in Northfield. The garden is filled all kinds of miniature critters with some fairies, most are reading books. It is clever.

An inviting entrance to a fairy house, at the bottom of a tree trunk. Photo taken: 2019.

A frog enjoying a cup of tea while reading a book. Photo taken: 2019.

My fairy garden is simpler; a table with chairs, with one fairy drinking from a tea cup and another fairy with a watering can…and oh yes, I added a Norwegian troll last summer.

I’m planning an expansion to my garden this year with a few trinkets I’ve picked up in thrift stores…a lamppost and wishing well to name a few.

One of three fancy sheds on display at the Home + Garden show in Minneapolis.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Minneapolis Home + Garden Show in the convention center downtown Minneapolis. The show always has colorful flower gardens to show off and lots of different vendors promoting their wares. Every few years we think it’s interesting to go see “what’s new in home-style”.

This year my favorite display was…what I call… life-size fairy homes…uniquely designed sheds that look like fanciful fairy houses. I wanted to bring one home to play in, but they were asking an exorbitant price!

This shed has a large side window, for a lemonade stand or such fun.

What fun it would be to have an adult-size fairy house in a backyard…especially if it were tucked in between some trees. It could be a great place to set up a small library scene: book shelf full of books, a lamp, and a comfortable chair… or a place for sitting in quiet contemplation…or a fancy garden shed with all manner of plants and dirt, tools and planting supplies…or maybe even a game room?

When writing about these sheds, a memory surfaced of playing in a shed in our backyard when I was a little girl. My dad and brother made an adult-size play shed out of scrap wood – nothing fancy like these fairy sheds – but it had a door and a window and that was enough. The neighborhood kids and I played for hours in that shed.

My brother had two photos of the shed. This is when he and my dad were building the shed.

The finished shed. Looks like deep snow that winter…up to our waists.

I’m thinking that subdued memory was what sparked such a joyful response in me when I saw the creative fairy sheds at the Home + Garden Show.

March

The question always is will March come in like a lamb or a lion? Of course, the questions refers to the weather…

A mama robin, has perched on the tree outside our living room window the last few mornings.

For me, either way, March comes in with mixed emotions. There are several significant anniversaries for me in the month of March:

March 7, my father died in 1974
March 9, my mother died in 2009
March 16, our first grandson was born 2016
March 19, our second grandson was born in 2020
March 20, I was born in 1953
March 25, Gary and I were married in 1978

My mother died on this date in 2009. I created an album with items from her funeral and her last days.

Then, during the next 10+ years, I kept stuffing bits and pieces into the album as a safe place to put something significant related to her. It needed to be re-organized, so I took the album off the shelf to work on it during a recent snowstorm. I enjoyed going through the journal entries, the funeral program, and looking at the pictures. The hymns sung at her funeral were printed out, and included On Eagle’s Wings, an uplifting song (no pun intended!).

Chorus:
And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand

We recently took a day trip to the National Eagle Center, in Wabasha.

Angel, a permanent resident eagle at the National Eagle Center.

Columbia and Angel are resident eagles there, because of injuries. Both are female, and both in their “20’s”. Such majesty, beauty, power.

Columbia, also a current resident at the eagle center.

We tallied 14 eagle sightings en route to Wabahsa, on that pleasant March day. They are a magnificent sight. But I digress…

Back to momentous March dates…

My father, Herb. Photos from the 1940’s.

My father passed away on March 7, 1974. He was only 55 years old. I have accumulated pictures and written history information from our recent trip to Norway with intentions to compile them in an album. I plan to do so during the upcoming predicted snowstorm this week. Another 2-3 inches…downgraded from 7-8 inches.

Then, on to warmer spring days, and happier celebrations of births and marriage.

Ah, the circle of life…

Nerstrand’s Library

In the very, very small town of Nerstrand, Minnesota (population 279 in 2021) there is a quality meat market called Nerstrand Meats & Catering. It has been a mainstay of the community since 1890. Attached to the market is a recently opened café called Boot’s & Lu’s.

The owners of the meat market opened this cute café serving one lunch option daily (a different option each day, of course), and has limited hours. Nerstrand also has a convenience store and gas station, a couple of churches, a woodworking business, grain elevator, elementary school, a post office. The wonderful Nerstrand Big Woods State Park is two miles down the road.

The building next door to Boot’s & Lu’s is city hall, and within city hall there is a newly created library that recently opened, also with limited hours. As I was going to Boot’s & Lu’s one day, I noticed the library sign hanging in the window of city hall was turned to “open”. I have always liked libraries, so I was excited to step inside to take a peek.

A portion of the children’s library space.

Immediately a woman came out of her office to welcome us. She was pleasant, but I didn’t get her name or job title. She welcomes all who walk through the doors, and turned on the library lights for us.

One area of the older reader’s sections.

We browsed around. There was a nice-sized children’s section, and traditional books were shelved in different areas on the main floor. There seemed to be a very good selection of books.

The boxes are books that need to be sorted.

No library cards are needed. The honor system is used. You fill out the library card that is tucked in the back of the book and leave it in the check-out basket. There is no due date, you return the book when you are finished reading it. There are no late fees.

Our new friend continued to talk a bit about the history of the building. It was built in 1908 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The city hall housed city offices, some fire equipment, and a jail.

She unlocked a door in the back room to show us the original jail cell with bars still on the window. The old fire station was housed in the building next door (Boot’s & Lu’s).

This photo hangs in the hallway of Nerstrand’s city hall. It is a photo of Osmund Osmundson, a Norwegian immigrant who is credited for founding Nerstrand, incorporated in 1897. He was also one of the four founders of St. Olaf College.

We were impressed with this little library in this little town…a big step above “Little Free Libraries”. Plus, we had our own delightful guide, willing to share a lot of information about a place she cares about.

A quote on the wall in the children’s section of the library.

All Creatures

All Creatures Great and Small is a delightful PBS series featuring the true stories of a veterinarian, James Herriot, in Yorkshire England in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Abigail, Zacchaeus, Barnabas (hidden behind his brother) and Nanita.

The stories come from four books James Herriot wrote years ago. I enjoyed reading the books, and still owned them until recently I gave them to the Northfield Hospital Auxiliary fundraiser event. The books were filled with wonderful tales about the vast and interesting experiences James Wight (James Herriot is his pen name) had in the beautiful, rural area of Yorkshire, in northern England.

There have been several renditions of these stories in films and television series, but the latest series (began 2021) on public television is a favorite of mine. There have been three seasons to date, with plans for another season. YAY!

I thought of James Herriot when I arrived at the farm where I help out occasionally. The friendly, and hungry creatures (pictured above) were ready and waiting for me to feed them: 2 horses, 2 donkeys, 2 goats, 8 chickens, 4 cats and one dog.

I enjoy helping feed these fine animals, but do realize this is fun for me because I do it once in a while, while farmers do this daily – actually two times a day. This is the extent of my farm experience, while my husband, Gary, knows all about the daily work having grown up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania.

I’m thankful for ALL creatures, great and small…and for farmers!

The Storm is Over

Thursday morning the snow started to taper off mid-morning, and stopped before noon. The official snowfall total for Northfield was 15.1 inches over this three-day storm. That’s a lot of snow, but not a record. Now, this morning, it’s cold out there…below zero temperatures!

This is our back deck…the table was clear of snow prior to the storm.

Thankfully we have a snow blower. With Gary behind the snow blower and me using shovels to clear out the front porch and short walkway, we make a good team, but he does the brunt of the work shoveling out.

We are also responsible to clear the public sidewalk along the east side of our house…Gary uses the snowblower for that.

It wasn’t too cold when we went out to clear snow. It went quickly. Then we wait until the snowplow comes along to plow the street and pushes a huge mound of snow back into our driveway. Gary goes out once again to plow it out…and the sidewalk entrance too. And so it goes.

The birdfeeders suctioned to our windows were full of snow. I saw a chickadee pecking through the snow to find seeds. I “spooned” out the snow and added fresh seed in the feeders.

The bird feeder and bird bath is another gauge of how much snow accumulated in our yard.

The first day of the snowstorm we were on country roads driving home. It had been snowing for awhile and the wind was blowing across the fields making it low visibility and white-out conditions over the fields. At that time, it was just beginning to snow…I can only imagine what it is like out on open roads with much snow and wind.

It looks so innocent and serene looking out our windows.

The front of our house…lots and lots of snow. It will be a while before we see green grass!

Ah…Minnesota winters…not for the faint of heart.

The Tale of Four Cats

The writing assignment: Write about a time you had to put an animal to sleep…

Over the years I’ve lived with four cats.

One, I had as a child. He was a stray cat that our family took in. We called him Chief, until she had babies, then we renamed her Chief-asina, after the popular cat movie at the time (in the early 1960’s) Thomasina. I think she eventually ran away. I thought I saw her sitting in a neighbor’s window down the block once. But for some reason we didn’t pursue her.

The other three cats were a part of our lives when our two boys were young. The first cat was a black and white shorthair male. We named him Mittens. He was a cute black and white kitten with white paws. We bought him at an animal shelter. On the way home we asked the boys what we should name him. Mittens was chosen. After we got Mittens settled in his new home we sat down for dinner. When we were done eating our youngest said, “May I please be excused? I want to go pet Gloves!”

Although, Mittens was a well-groomed cat, he would not use the litter box. We tried all kinds of tricks and suggestions, short of bringing him to a cat psychiatrist (one of the suggestions). The animal shelter did not want him back either, so we had no choice but to put him to sleep. That was a hard decision, and one not made lightly. I do not remember how we told our boys.

Our second cat was a calico cat…a lovely mixture of gray and white and tan. We named him Cocoa. He did use the litter box, but he didn’t like to be inside. We wanted an indoor cat. Every time the door opened Cocoa flew through the air to get outside. This was a constant problem.

One day I was going to run some errands. As I backed the car out of the garage, I ran over something I thought was a toy. Little did I know Cocoa was out there, under the car, and I had run over him. It was traumatic. Gary was out of the country on business, but fortunately our neighbor came over and helped us dig a hole and bury our naughty, but loved, kitty in the back garden.

Our third, and last, cat was an orange, female tabby cat. I had heard orange female cats were usually gentle and calm, so back to the animal shelter we went. We found one there and brought her home. We named her Caramel Corn. She was a beautiful cat…the color of caramel corn. She was a good cat: she used the litter box, she liked being in the house…she didn’t even try to get out of the house when the doors were open.

She loved to sit among people. I would pull up a stool at the kitchen table where Caramel Corn would perch contently and listen in on our conversations around the table, no matter who was visiting. In the mornings she would jump on my lap to snuggle while I had my morning coffee and devotions, and we’d rock in the rocking chair. She was a wonderful kitty-cat that we had for twelve years. I missed her when she died.

I like stuffed animals and years ago I bought a stuffed caramel colored kitty to add to a few pillows on our bed, as a reminder of Caramel Corn.

In the meantime, we found out our son was allergic to cats so we could not invest in another cat. But that’s OK. We had a delightful one for a long time, and it would be hard to find another one like our beloved Caramel Corn.

New Prague

We went to check out a new (to me) thrift store in New Prague, Minnesota. It is housed in the warehouse of an old flour milling site, and it’s called the Urban Flea Market. It’s fairly large, and had some “flea market items” along with antiques. There were several people browsing and finding bargains.

After the flea market we walked along New Prague’s historic main street. We passed different shops and bars and businesses…and several vacant store fronts. The booming businesses seem to be on the east side of town, before entering the downtown area.

This is the front of the church…and it is larger that it looks!

However, the magnificent cathedral is a looming structure on main street, right downtown. St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church is beautiful. Its cornerstone is dated 1906, but the congregation was established in 1857. We’ve driven past the church many times but have never been inside. When we walked up the steps we were surprised the doors were unlocked, so we went in.

From the altar looking towards the entrance and pipes for the pipe organ.

Once inside, we could see the lovely stain-glass windows and the many organ pipes and a lot of evidence of a vibrant church community. I’ve learned there are public concerts and events held in this great space.

Many of the stain-glass windows were of different saints.

We learned Saint Wenceslaus is the patron saint of Czech people. The New Prague area prides itself in its Czech heritage, affiliations and community.

On a plaque about St. Wenceslaus, it explained he ruled Bohemia from 924 to 929 AD, therefore called a King. I remembered an unfamiliar Christmas Carol with the title “Good King Wenceslaus” in my old piano book, but I didn’t know who King Wenceslaus was.

A John W. Schaum Christmas Album piano book from my childhood. I got a star sticker! 😉 I’m not sure I have ever heard this carol sung. There is no date…it reads an Old English Carol.

Also on the plaque, I found it interesting to read, “Raised a Christian and educated by grandmother Ludmila, he ruled strictly but justly.”

A beautiful stain-glass window depicting events of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Exploring this church was a highlight of our time in New Prague.

The Story Behind a Necklace

Recently I bought a new sweater and I have a necklace to go with it. I am happy to be wearing this necklace again. I have a few special pieces of beautiful jewelry (with stories), and some costume jewelry. For a while I didn’t wear much jewelry, but I’m trending towards wearing a few pieces again.

I received this enamel heart necklace years ago. It was a gift from my Auntie Ag. I was probably in my 20’s…I don’t remember. I’ve had it for a very long time. Agnes brought it home for me, as a gift from Norway.

I like the heart shape, the color, the simple rose pattern, the enamel.

And there is something distinct on the back. It is embossed with the Lord’s prayer, in Norwegian. I remember being told that when I was given the necklace, but today I wondered if the prayer could possibly fit on the back. So…I translated the words on Google and sure enough, it is the Lord’s prayer.

I always enjoy a good story behind the different things we have and use.

Colors of California

We had a dazzling time observing all the colors during our few days in California.

Sun rising over the mountains, at the exact minute it was scheduled!

Lemon trees, lime trees, avocado and clementine trees, o my!

Gary an I on this rocky beach on the Pacific Ocean during low tide.

A lone tree on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean.

A fun hint of blue on our toenails to remind us of the ocean water and blue skies

We went to fly a kite and the wind took hold.

Lil’ Toot’s captain took us on a harbor cruise.

Pellet

At home, I use lists and set timers to help me at remember to do things around the house…like check the dryer, make a phone call, etc. Otherwise, I tend to forget…

In my car, I use a different method. Years ago, I was given a cute, hamster beanie baby -officially named Pellet by its maker, the TY Corp – and it has always lived in our cars. I have come to rely on this sweet, little stuffed animal to help me remember things. When I’m driving and think of something I need to remember upon arrival at my destination, I pull Pellet up from the driver’s side door pocket and put him in my lap, or by my purse, or on the passenger seat. Then, when I stop the car to get out, I see him and think, “O, yes…” and he reminds me of what I needed to remember!

Content to ride in the driver’s side door.

He has worked well. Pellet has been in our car for many years…I want to say over 20 years…maybe longer. We transfer him when we get a different vehicle. He is my friend! Maybe not as beloved as The Velveteen Rabbit, but he does look a bit worn from being a treasured and a reliable asset to me. I’d miss him if he ran away…