“Taps is a bugle call played at dusk, during flag ceremonies, and at military funerals by the United States Armed Forces.”* Since most Memorial Day events have been canceled across the country due to the pandemic, an idea took off and today, at 3 p.m. CDT, bugler’s around America dusted off their bugles and played Taps at the same time.
We were out on a bike ride but stopped at a friends just in time to hear their neighbor play taps off their back deck. It was lovely, and very special, and I’m so glad I happened to hear it.
Taps Across America was an unique tribute this Memorial Day in 2020, to remember military personnel who have died while serving in the US Armed Forces.*
The fragrant smell of lilacs is a delight this time of year. I wish it could last a little longer.
There is such a brief time to enjoy the beauty of the lilac’s purple blossoms, and have their sweet scent fill the air.
I have two lilac bushes. One is a Miss Kim, a fragrant, smaller bush that is more tame and works well for the spot I tucked it into – just outside the side window off the kitchen. It is a late bloomer.
Miss Kim
The other bush is the “old-fashioned” lilac bush that grows huge and spreads and is wildly wonderful. It is in our back yard and is blooming right now.
Our old-fashion lilac bush.
I have cut branches of lilacs off this bush to bring its loveliness indoors.
Wonderfully wild.
This wild and wonderful bush is offshoot of the lilac bush that grew in my parent’s yard at the house I grew up in. Years ago, when Gary and I moved back to Minnesota, after a short stint in Ohio, my mom was still living in that house. I thought it would be fun to dig a sucker from the lilac bush and plant it in the yard of the house we bought in Burnsville when we moved back. It took off and grew into a wild and wonderful bush.
Fourteen years later when we moved from that house in Burnsville to our new home Northfield, I dug up a sucker from that lilac bush to plant in our new yard. It, too, grew into a wild and wonderful bush, and is still growing. We’ve been here 25 years.
So when I place my purple, aromatic lilacs in vases and put it them around the house it not only brings beauty and fragrance into the house, but also brings back some special memories.
Bringing lilacs indoors…in the entryway.
…on the counter.
…on the kitchen table.
…on the dining room table.
On a different note: below is a photo of our crabapple tree in bloom right now, in our front yard.
It appears face masks will be part of the new normal as the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives forever. Face masks are already required in some stores and requested in many others. It is a safety measure to protect all of us from spreading the virus. We are all in this together.
I eked out two masks on my old sewing machine, which has seen better days.
Masks that tie around the head…they have nose wire and a pocket for a filter.
At the time elastic was hard to come by so I used old t-shirts for the ties, which was suggested and was a good alternative. The masks turned out OK and have served us well.
There are many folks in our town making masks. There is a person in charge of the operation. She sends emails with updates and has created a station at a convenient location downtown Northfield for mask making supplies. She raised funds, ordered supplies including blue filter fabric, elastic (which is available again) and other items. Most, if not all of the fabric, has been donated. Mask-makers go to the station to pick up what they need.
Cutting fabric into 7×9 inch and 5×7 inch pieces.
Since I feel I cannot sew nice masks with my machine I decided to help by cutting fabric. The 100% cotton fabric needs to be washed, ironed and cut into different shapes (depending on style of mask and whether it is for an adult or child.)
Beautiful masks my friend makes with elastic…they have a filter already sewn into mask, and a nose wire.
I was talking with a friend the other day and we were lamenting about wearing masks because you cannot tell the expression on other’s faces when they have their masks on. When you cannot see smiles you miss a lot…so we thought it would be great to have masks with see-through space so you could see more of a person’s expression.
The very next morning on the news I read about see-through masks…made especially for those who need to lip-read.
photo off internet
Hmmm…Our good idea – already conceived, and created – by another. I think of the saying…”Necessity is the mother of invention.”
I saw this masked bunny in a window display shortly after Easter…
I have no doubt face masks will become a fashion statement. Soon.
We took a day trip to Beaver Creek Valley State Park to go for a hike. It is a ways away but it felt good to head out of town. The day was sunny, but cool. There were a few folks out and about but not many.
Spring greens!
An abundance of watercress in the creek.
There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom in the park. I had my wildflower book handy but it is always difficult to identify flowers because it takes awhile to look them up and figure them out, plus it’s hard to keep stopping every few feet! I usually end up just enjoying viewing them.
This white flower, which I believe is an anemone, carpeted the forest floors. It was in many areas of the park.
At one time, several years ago, my friend and I took a lot of wildflower hikes, with and without naturalists, and could identify more flowers than I remember now.
Spring wildflowers are a wonderful sight!
Plus so many other natural wonders…
Surprised to see mushrooms too.
Interesting lichen and moss on this dead tree limb.
A simple, clever log bench.
On a side note, we took many family-driving vacations when the kids were younger, and we camped and hiked in many national parks. Upon arrival at the visitor’s center in a park, I always bought a book of wildflowers found in that particular park, then I tried to identify some flowers on our hikes. It was fun and a nice souvenir of our trips.
This particular “tree stump art” took me by surprise. While riding my bike I rode past a friend’s house and she was out in her driveway so I stopped and we chatted for a few minutes (6’ apart). She told me to take a look at her tree stump in her backyard so I did. I asked her who created the design and she said “bugs”!
Photo by cb
I thought a pattern was burned into the stump to create art…but bugs created the artwork all by themselves. It was striking.
Trails in the stump made by bugs. Photo by cb
That week we took a hike at Cannon Valley Wilderness Park near Faribault and saw the creative work of eagles. There in the treetops were two giant nests and an eagle was sitting in one of them.
Of course spring flowers are nature’s art…Wilderness Park was full of Spring Beauty, a tiny pink spring flower carpeting the ground in many places throughout the park. Unfortunately my photo didn’t turn out.
Nature’s art is in clouds…
and tulips…
Bark with lattice work.
and tree bark…
Our pair of resident cardinals eating at the bird feeder attached to our window. It looks like they are perching on the back of our chair!
and birds. It’s all around us. God’s handiwork.
Look and see that the Lord is good…the beauty of the Lord is all around us.
For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.
For the beauty of each hour Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.
For the joy of human love, Brother, sister, parent, child, Friends on earth, and friends above, Pleasures pure and undefiled, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.
The Zoom App has been a great tool for connecting with others and I’m grateful for it. It uses modern technology to deliver its capabilities.
The other day I gathered some stationery and a pen and used the old fashioned technology of letter writing to keep in touch.
Recently my writing buddy and I challenged each other to write a couple of letters, long-hand, to someone (no typing it on the computer and printing it out). This extra time we find ourselves with at home lends itself to doing just that and I did. I have written two letters now and plan to do more. It is therapeutic. My handwriting isn’t what it used to be and I hope the recipients can read it. It was interesting to note my hand got tired after writing cursive. The letters were two and three pages long.
They say cursive is the secret language of the elderly because it is being eliminated from school curriculum and so kids in the next generations will not be able to read it. HA
I had some nice stationery given to me by a friend and it was fun to finally use it. I sat on our deck one nice day last week and found it very pleasant to write down my thoughts. The paper was extra nice…and it made the writing flow easier, at least in my mind, and it was a delight to be writing on extra fine paper.
When done writing I address the envelope, pick out a stamp (I like to buy the different themed stamps), apply a return label from the multitude I get free from different organizations, and finally, I add a sticker to the back of the envelope for fun. I then walk out to our mailbox, insert the letters, put the flag up and the postal carrier takes them away and they somehow end up at the correct address, miles away, a few days later. That’s impressive.
The two letters will be a surprise to the people who receive them which adds to the enjoyment of writing them. I plan to do more letter writing, at least for the time-being, during this pandemic.
I had not heard of the communication app called Zoom until this pandemic took over our lives. Then Zoom quickly became a part of everyday language, like email and texting. So we downloaded Zoom and started using the “user-friendly” app to stay in touch with others.
We have used Zoom to connect with both our sons and their families at the same time. It’s so nice to see everyone: Gary and me in Northfield, our oldest son and his family in Minneapolis, and our youngest son and his family in Colorado.
We have used Zoom to connect with other groups too. I meet weekly with my book club.
My wonderful book club buddies.
I’ve participated in a church ministry meeting using Zoom, and small group. We connected with out-of-state friends over a “social hour” one evening.
I have also started a story time with my two grandchildren in Colorado…I set up the meeting and their parents get them situated on their end and then I start reading children’s books to them and they stay focused and seem to enjoy it as much as I do. It feels good to me to be able to connect with them this way.
Reading to my grandchildren on the other side of the screen…in Colorado.
We even had an Easter egg hunt over Zoom. On Easter Sunday Gary and I hid Easter eggs around our house.
An Easter egg hidden in our Christmas cactus.
Gary took his phone using Zoom and walked around the house letting the grandchildren find the eggs as he scanned the rooms. When the kids spotted an egg they’d call it out and tell us the color. It turned out well…it was fun to see all three grandkids engaged in this activity (the fourth grandson is a newborn). They may not remember this Easter egg hunt but we sure will. It helped me overcome my sense of sadness at not being able to gather together in person to celebrate Easter, my favorite holiday.
We collected the empty eggs into an Easter basket I made many years ago.
And so, the beat goes on…and we will continue to use Zoom to connect with family and friends. This pandemic would be a lot more difficult without the technology we have these days to stay in touch. I’m grateful for it.
The live trap was delivered to our front porch. We have had enough with the squirrels in our yard. Squirrels are cute critters with fluffy tails, and it can be fun to watch their antics, but enough is enough. We have several in our yard and we don’t want them there anymore. In particular, I like to feed the birds. Several years ago a friend told me to use safflower seeds…the birds like them but the squirrels do not. So I bought safflower seeds and it seemed to work for years – squirrels kept away from the feeder. But recently the squirrels must have developed a taste for the safflower seeds because now I am feeding more squirrels than birds.
The snow was falling this morning…the trap was tripped
So, we bought a trap. It works well and does not harm the animal, Gary says. He puts peanut butter and sunflower seeds in a ball in the trap and we wait for the critter to go in for this tasty treat. We’ve captured four squirrels already. We could get more in one day but each time we have to drive the squirrel at least ten miles away from our house to let it go. That’s what the research says…if you let the squirrel free any closer than ten miles it will find its way back to you.
It’s so happy to be free!
We look for a nice clump of trees and let the squirrel out of the cage. It’s darts out so fast. I wonder what it’s thinking.
One of the new homes for the squirrels – out in the country.
At first we just took the squirrels away and let them go. With the fourth squirrel we decided to spray a bit of fluorescent paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter…to see if any of the squirrels we take away actually find their way back to our house. We hope not.
A little spray paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter.
During this pandemic is an interesting time to be doing this…our pandemic pastime. We’re taking drives into the country often for “squirrel transfers” and it’s been kind of fun.
This activity happened last week, before the 6″ of snow came falling down on Easter Sunday, snd stayed on the ground…
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39
