It was hard to tell at first glance but then we saw what seemed to be thousands of butterflies clinging to the trees.
Last week friends told me about a place where they saw these Monarch butterflies roosting on trees. After getting details as to where to find this wonder, Gary and I planned to look for them in the early morning light the next day (before it reached 60 degrees we were told).
We woke early, brewed coffee, poured it into our thermos’ and followed GPS directions to a country church, on a country gravel road that led to the butterflies. We didn’t know if the butterflies would still be – literally – “hanging around” but they were, and we were grateful.
The line of trees where the monarchs were roosting, next to a open field.
It was a sight to behold. Myriads of butterflies clinging to the trees, wings folded in, sleeping or resting. It was a joy to see some flutter their wings, and some take off in clusters soaring in the air over the field of wildflowers, just as the sun was rising…shining on them.
At times a cluster of butterflies would take off.
One of God’s amazing creations.
These beautiful monarch butterflies will begin migrating south to Mexico soon. They make this journey every year…not having been there before yet knowing where to go.
Indeed, a miracle.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
Job 9:10
They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty - and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
Psalm 145;6
Going on bike rides has been a great way for Gary and I to get away during this pandemic. Gary bikes frequently with his bike club, but we have gone on rides together too. It’s an activity we both enjoy. And Minnesota has an abundance of bike trails to explore.
One day we went up to Stillwater to ride the “Loop Trail.” This trail goes along the river walk through town, then up the hill to the new, expansive bridge crossing the St. Croix River over into Wisconsin and back to Stillwater, creating a five-mile loop.
The new bridge crossing the St. Croix River in Stillwater.
Another view of the new, expansive Stillwater bridge.This photo was taken in May 2018, showing the newly opened bridge from a distance.
The paved bike trail on the Wisconsin side guides one to a steep, downhill road leading to the historic Stillwater lift bridge, now repurposed as a pedestrian/bicycle bridge. Until recently the old lift bridge was the only bridge, in Stillwater, for vehicles to cross the St. Croix River.
Approaching the steep hill going down towards the old Stillwater bridge.
The old lift bridge made into a new bicycle/pedestrian bridge. The bridge still lifts for tall boat traffic on the St. Croix River.
The old bridge became too congested and a new bridge was built. In comparison, looking at the old lift bridge and the new superhighway bridge, is comical because of the major size difference. It does make for a fun five-mile bicycle ride.
The old lift bridge up close.
After the loop trail we rode past the old, Zephyr train depot, now the Zephyr Theater, on a trail along Brown’s Creek. Another lovely ride, in the shade, slightly uphill for six miles and connects to the Gateway Trail. After we turned around at the intersection of Brown’s Creek and Gateway it felt like we glided down into Stillwater. It was fun.
A view of the old lift bridge in the background…photo taken from the new high bridge in Stillwater, MN.
We were in Stillwater on a weekday and it was bustling. The weather was sunny and hot, a great day to be by water…we ate our lunch on the deck of a restaurant near the river, and after lunch we laid out blankets on the shore and watched the people and boats go by.
A gondola on the St. Croix River.
A view of the St. Croix River and the old lift bridge, lifted up.
Recently we spent a day exploring the bike trails in Owatonna, a town 30 miles south of Northfield.
Our first stop was to get some homemade pie, to-go, for a snack on the trail later. My husband’s bike club often stops for a break at The Kernel to get a piece of pie which the guys claim is delicious. A quick Google search of The Kernel comes up with this review: “American chow, including an all-day breakfast & homemade pie, offered in this unfussy local diner.’” I like the description “unfussy local diner”.
There were many benches along the trail. I like the tree silhouettes on this bench back.
We rode on three short trails along the Straight River, over and under bridges and around a couple hairpin curves on a wide, paved trail, lined with benches, street lamps, and mature trees.
Looking out at the Straight River.
I noticed more than a few bat houses. I’m not sure when they were put up but it seems it was some sort of project at one time.
One of several bat boxes in trees along the path.
…and another bat box…
It was a gorgeous day and a delightful ride.
We stopped to eat our delicious pie selections at a picnic table along the river and spent a long while watching a great blue heron stealthily walk the shoreline looking for fish, or pie perhaps!
The Great Blue Heron.
There were a lot of ducks on or near the river and multiple Canadian Geese on shore. The geese are nice to look at but messy to be around.
Ducks lined along the river bank.
After our initial ride and pie break we drove to explore a different park in Owatonna; Mineral Springs Park. In this park there is a statue of Owatonna next to a plaque explaining the Legend of Owatonna: a frail, Native American princess who was restored to health by drinking water from the mineral springs in the area.
A statue of Owatonna, a native American princess healed by the mineral springs.
Contrary to the legend, the town of Owatonna was named after the Straight River, not the princess. In the Dakota language Wakpá Owóthaŋna means Straight River and it was first settled in 1853 near the river.
The Legend of Princess Owatonna.
There were actual mineral springs gurgling out of a large, water fountain and cistern in the park. We tasted the water…it was cold but had an “irony” taste to it.
The mineral springs water bubbling up through the fountain.
There were more bicycle and walking trails throughout the park.
As we walked the trail along the river we stopped to read a red granite plaque with a Native American letter etched into it, credited to Chief Seattle in 1854. We normally do not stop to read lengthy plaques but after reading the first two sentences we were drawn in and began taking turns reading it out loud.
This red granite stone with a long text we would normally pass by.
The the piece is called Teach Your Children. After doing some research on the internet I found out there is controversy as to how much of this letter was actually written by Chief Seattle and how much of it changed in translation and how much was really a part of one letter… but we enjoyed it none-the-less. We found it very profound and poetic. Here are a few excerpts from this letter:
Teach Your Children
“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect.”
“Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a stand in it. What he does to the web, he does to himself.”
“We love this earth as a newborn loves his mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you received it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.”
The credits…
Owatonna has a lot of areas to explore but this day we were focused on bike trails, parks, and pie! We were not disappointed.
We always enjoy our trips to Lake Superior. We never grow tired of sitting on the rocks, watching the waves roll in. Or crash in…depending on the weather.
And I seem to always get caught up in looking at the rocks…large and small, that roll onto shore with the waves. I love how the rocks feel so smooth after years and years of tumbling in the water. I like their colors too.
Beautiful Lake Superior rocks.
For years we had a great spot, near a cabin we rented, where we could collect fairly large stones and brought them home; a few each year. We used them to line our back garden.
Lake Superior rocks lining our garden in the back.
I also have accumulated smaller rocks that I pocketed here and there. They were adding up so I started to place them around our front flowers, but due to some work we had done recently we had to remove them. I took the smooth stones and created a new apron for our shed.
Shed apron before….
The original shed apron was a conglomeration of pieces of limestone and other rocks I’ve found in the area. Over the years I just started putting them by the door of the shed and it eventually formed an apron. I liked the idea and decided to pull out all the old mismatched rocks and remake the apron with our pretty Lake Superior Rocks.
The new stone apron. This will grow larger as more rocks are collected!
It was a fun project and I was pleased with the result.
Apparently the city of Faribault has been hosting concerts in the park for over 100 years. That’s impressive. Currently the outdoor concert series are held at Central Park. I don’t know if the concerts have always been at that location, but it is lovely, and there is a permanent band shell there.
An email from the Kings of Swings announcing their gig.
We were alerted the band scheduled to play last week was a popular Faribault band, Kings of Swing. We have heard the band several times before and really liked their music so we packed up some drinks, a snack, our lawn chairs and headed to Faribault’s Central Park. We found a shady place to sit back, relax, and listen to some great, jazzy music.
The band shell in Central Park.
It was well-attended and people did cooperate by physical-distancing themselves from others. There were folks of all ages enjoying themselves. We saw, and talked, to a few friends we haven’t seen since March, the beginnings of this pandemic. That was special too.
And we really enjoyed sitting there people-watching. Near us was a woman with a big bubble wand, creating giant bubbles and having a good time, while providing enjoyment for onlookers too.
A child at heart…
Every once in a while a couple would get up to dance to the music together, on the lawn.
Dancing to the music.
There was an over all sense of merriment in the air, so for an hour and a half we listened to some great music and the only way you knew we were in a pandemic was the presence of physical- distancing and some folks wearing masks.
A beautiful evening in Central Park, in Faribault.
This was the last concert of the summer series, although they announced a couple encore concerts planned for September 3 and 11.
I’m grateful the city of Faribault continued with their summer concert series in spite of the pandemic. It was a nice way to spend an evening. It felt “normal.”
The honey locust tree in our front yard, placed purposely outside our kitchen window 25 year ago, quickly became one of our favorite trees.
This is a view of the front of our house in 1994. You can see the honey locust tree, one of the three spruce trees and a maple tree in the back that we planted when we moved in, in 1994.This photo is from the same viewpoint as above in 2020, after the locust was trimmed.
We planted several trees in our yard back then, and we are very happy we did. They were small trees, and now they have grown to be very large trees! A realtor once said the best kind of tree is the one planted 20 years ago.
The honey locust before it’s big trim.
But many branches of our beloved locust tree have been slowing dying in the past few years so we needed to decide if we cut it down… or trim the dead branches off and hope it starts growing again. We had a hard time thinking of cutting it down so we chose the latter.
The dead branches on the honey locust.
It was interesting to see three workers and two huge trucks show up at our house. One truck settled into the driveway. It had a cherry picker bucket that hoisted one guy towards the tops of the trees to start cutting the dead wood.
Trimming the honey locust.
Two guys went at the trees fast and furious and seemed to know what they were doing (we only hope!). Another worker piled up the branches for the other truck to extend an arm with a claw and pick up all the debris then haul it away.
Our newly trimmed honey suckle, looking good in the evening sun.
And since the tree trimmer was coming we decided to have our crabapple tree get a good trim too.
The crabapple tree before it’s major trim.
The crabapple tree after its trim.
I had an errand to run so I left before the workers were done and I came home to a cleaned up yard and two smartly trimmed trees about 45 minutes later.
Our honey locust, trimmed. I think my flower bed is back to a sun garden…
We will hope it isn’t too much of a shock for our honey locust and that it will start thriving again.
My friend and writing companion, Sheri Eichhorn, and I have a lot of fun writing haikus for just about any word. Haiku is a writing pattern of 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Here are a few summer time haikus…I wrote a few and so did Sheri.
Shade from the hot sun
Wonderfully delicious
and very welcomed. (VB)
Bright, sunny flower in a garden in Colorado.
Sparkles in the night
There is magic in the air
Twinkling fireflies. (VB)
Fireflies at night
Blinking in the forest glen
It is enchanting.(VB)
This is a unique card, received from a friend.
Bicycles ask us
to be both the passenger
and provide the fuel. (SE)
Two wheels on a frame
Around and around they go
Bicycles are fun.(VB)
Bicycles never
run out of fuel until
you climb off the bike. (SE)
And since this is the summer of the pandemic, a few haikus about that…
A “masked statue” in Golden, CO.
Pandemic. That word...
it hurts to hear it, it hurts
to know—it lives here. (SE)
Global pandemic
Novel coronavirus
Took us by surprise.(VB)
The distance we’ve come
from normal with this virus
feels too much too far. (SE)
I like coffee…and coffee shops. So does my husband. My town, Northfield, supports six coffee shops for 20,000+ people. It seems coffee shops are one business that usually “makes it” in small towns.
An antique creamer filled with milk set next to a coffee cup for perspective.
I remember traveling with my parents when I was younger and going to cafes in small towns, where my mom and dad would get their coffee. At that time there was only one kind of coffee to choose from (well…maybe two…caffeinated and decaffeinated). If you wanted cream it came in little, individual glass bottle sealed with a paper cap. I liked to drink any left over cream my dad didn’t use in his coffee.
It seems coffee shops are the new “cafes”. It’s easier to find a coffee shop in small towns, than a cafe.
This coffeehouse had curbside apeal.
On our way home from our recent road trip to Colorado we decided to get off the interstate for the last 400 miles of our drive. Instead of staying on Interstate 80 we took back roads through parts of Nebraska and Iowa into Minnesota. We made fine time with less traffic and less rush.
In the entrance to Milady Coffeehouse is a mural of the May brothers, and three antique bicycles on display, which we always like to see.
On road trips usually our first task when we start out is to find coffee. We have a cup of coffee at the hotel but we always look forward to getting a better cup of coffee at a coffee shop.
The kitchen wall and more tables in the balcony.
We scouted out one coffee shop along the new route, not far from the hotel, but when we got there we discovered it was closed on Sundays. So we went on to the next town searching for the next coffee shop, which happened to be Fremont, Nebraska.
Set up for streaming a church service on the big screen.
We were delighted with our find of Milady Coffeehouse in the historic downtown area, not far off our route. It was housed in an old restored building, the May Brothers Building built in 1881, with eclectic décor and delicious coffee choices.
Brick, crystal chandelier and metal art…a fun combination.
It was not crowded so we enjoyed looking around. There was a small stage with a big screen TV and they were preparing to stream a church service, with social distancing. There were groupings of sofa and chairs, counter with stools, hi-top tables with chairs, all around the large gathering space.
A lone person at the window table.A door to separate the space if needed.
The name Milady comes from a brand of coffee that the May brothers sold within the same walls 130 years ago, when it was the May Brother’s Wholesale Grocery. There was an old “Milady” coffee tin and jar on display.
It was a fun diversion for our coffee break that morning, to find such a great place on the back roads. Too bad this wonderful coffee shop is 330 miles away.
While in Colorado we looked for outdoor areas to explore. Red Rocks Park came to our attention so we took the grandchildren along for another adventure.
Driving into the park, through a red rock.
Red Rocks Park is known for it’s naturally formed, world-famous open-air amphitheater.
Looking down from on top of the amphitheater.
This amphitheater is surrounded by huge, beautiful red rock outcroppings which provide natural acoustics and amazing ambience for the amphitheater.
The natural outcropping on one side of the theater.The other side of the theater lined with red rock outcroppings.
We had not heard of this gem and little did we know how famous it was for its concerts (including big name bands and orchestras) and how long it has been in use. It opened in 1941. The Beatles performed there in 1964.
On stage, looking out into the bleacher seating.A natural shelf in the red rocks behind the stage area.
The grandchildren wanted to walk down the many flight of stairs to the “stage area”. We did, and then hiked back up.
Another side view.
There were people sightseeing, and some locals were using the rows of stone bleachers for their exercise routine. The capacity of the theater is 9,525 seats!
It’s hard to get perspective of the vastness of this theater that has 9,525 seats.
Another look down to the stage, and beyond.
The amphitheater is in the Red Rocks Park, which also has hiking and biking trails.
When I mentioned how we enjoyed Red Rocks Park to a friend who previously lived in Colorado, I learned she and her husband had attended a couple of concerts at the amphitheater. I hope to attend some day, when concerts can resume in this beautiful outdoor venue.
Looking up from the stage area into the bleacher seats.
While on a different hike in the foothills near Boulder, Colorado we came upon another outdoor amphitheater called the Sunrise Amphitheater. This was not nearly as elaborate but it was built in a beautiful setting facing east and meant for folks to come and watch the sunrise.
Trolls made a comeback
The vintage trolls went away
but returned transformed.
My three vintage troll dolls.
Before we left on our road trip to Colorado I was going through a closet and found a bag of old trolls. They were the ones from the 1960’s that I used to play with when I was a little girl. I decided I would bring them to Colorado to see if my grandchildren would be interested in playing with them… Zoey was.
The vintage trolls were a big hit. Inside the bag were three “regular-sized” troll dolls, approximately 3” tall with wild hair (well, one troll had thinning hair!), two baby troll dolls, and a lot of trolls-size clothes.
Troll with thinning hair, and a baby troll doll.
I sat down with Zoey to look through the clothes and surprised myself with all the clothes I had made for my trolls, mostly from felt material. I do remember my neighborhood friend, Diane, and I playing with our troll dolls for hours on end when we were growing up, but I did not remember making all the clothes until I saw them again.
Some of the clothes I made for my trolls in the 60’s.
Most of the clothes were cuts in the felt fabric but there were also a couple of outfits that I had stitched together and/or trimmed with sequins and such.
It was very fun for me to look at these pieces of clothing I made for my trolls. I remember the fun we had dressing them up and then changing their outfits. I left my trolls behind in Colorado knowing Zoey was enjoying the trolls too…dressing them up and then changing the outfits.
I know trolls have made a comeback and look a bit different these days. I wonder what The Troll movie is about? I may watch it now that I’ve been reintroduced to my trolls. According to Wikipedia, “The dolls were first created in 1959 and became one of the United States’ biggest toy fads in the early 1960s.”
