Author: Valerie

Adirondack Chairs

The St. Olaf College campus is peppered with gold-colored Adirondack chairs this time of year, and we all – students, faculty and staff – use them. This spring we have two new chairs, a little different from the others, but even more wonderful because they come with a story.

About a year ago a colleague in our building passed away. He cleaned out his office one Friday afternoon and co-workers teased him asking “why?” and “are you not coming back?” Well, he didn’t come back. He had a heart attack Saturday morning and died a few days later. This week two Adirondack chairs were dedicated in his honor.

The rest of the story comes from the wood used to make the chairs. Apparently  he saved a pile of wood from a deck he dismantled years ago. He  thought the wood was too good to be thrown out. He kept saying some day I’m going to make something from it. He and his family moved the wood pile several times from house to house, much to his wife’s chagrin. After he passed away a friend  contacted St. Olaf and wondered if anything could be done with the wood. It was decided chairs could be built in his honor. His wife thought it was a great idea and when she saw how beautifully they turned out she quipped that she now wants the wood back.

The chairs have been placed outside our building, but who knows how long they will stay there…our students move these chairs all over campus and that is a good thing. These Adirondack chairs are a wonderful addition to St. Olaf’s  landscape in spring, summer and fall.

This reminds me of the verse in Ecclesiastes… He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

 

St. Olaf’s Collegiate Chorale

I have posted a link to the St. Olaf  Chapel service today. It was phenomenal.     One of the favorite parts of my job is to be able to attend chapel everyday…in fact it is encouraged. Today the Collegiate Chorale sang. It is a non-auditioned women’s chorus with female students from all four class years, and faculty/staff/emeriti women, conducted by Dr. Anton Armstrong.

The song “Peace, Hope & Love” was written earlier this year by a student from the class of 2019. The lyrics were a balm after these few days of turmoil on campus. What perfect timing. The song is towards the middle of the service.

Listen if you can…click here.

 

Seven Generations

Reading Audrey Helbling’s Minnesota Prairie Roots blog on Oak Ridge Cemetery in Faribault prompted me to write about a very special cemetery to our family.

Rudolph Bollinger Tombstone

In Lancaster County Pennsylvania, where my husband grew up, there are many old cemeteries simply because the East Coast was settled much earlier than the Midwest. Outside the doors of Middle Creek Church of the Brethren, the country church my husband attended as a child, is an cemetery surrounded by picturesque, small farms in the rolling countryside of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

In Middle Creek Cemetery lies seven generations of the Bollinger clan. My husband enjoys genealogy research and has traced his family back to Rudolph Bollinger who came over from Switzerland about 1720.  Rudolph is not buried in this cemetery but his tombstone was found in a farm field nearby. This was a very exciting discovery by my husband and his brother. Rudolph (died 1770) is the fifth great-grandfather of my husband.

Abraham Bollinger Tombstone

The first Bollinger in the church cemetery in my husband’s lineage is Abraham Bollinger, a son of Rudolph. His tombstone in German tells us he lived from 1756 to 1814. My husband’s younger brother Richard, who died in 1986,  makes for the seventh generation.

Since Abraham, each succeeding generation of males (and their spouses) in my husband’s direct Bollinger lineage have been buried in this cemetery. On our last trip to Pennsylvania we visited each graveside. I think it is unusual to have seven generations buried in one cemetery in the Untied States. It’s a wonderful family history.

 

 

 

 

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Dwarf Trout Lily

Dwarf Trout Lily

​Each year I get excited to see the Dwarf Trout Lily blooming in Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, one of the only places in the world where it lives. It is a federally endangered forest wildflower found only with in 275 square mile area in Rice and Goodhue Counties, MN. Because it is found in only this small area the dwarf trout lily is considered a Minnesota “endemic” – i.e. a species that grows in Minnesota and nowhere else on earth.*

That is why I go looking for this flower each spring and why I get a thrill seeing it each year.  I have found a spot where one blooms so I can find it easily even when the volunteer naturalists are not around.
The Dwarf Trout Lily are miniature…the flower is about the size of a little finger fingernail (therefore very hard to spot.) The common white trout lily is much bigger and is widespread throughout the park.

The forest floor had other spring flowers blooming…the trees were budding out and the colors can only be described as “spring greens” sprinkled with white, pale pinks and yellow.  It’s so beautiful.

Marsh Marigolds

And then on campus I couldn’t help but notice these bold red tulips near a budding Red Bud.

Red Tulips by the Red Bud
Ah…spring flowers.
*Biological Report #18 of the MN Natural Heritage Program Section of Wildlife, MN dept. Of Natural Resources.

Two Gifts

Wednesday I received two gifts…the first gift is our newborn granddaughter…Aria Grace. She arrived Wednesday morning weighing  6 pounds 15 ounces and is 20 inches long. She’s beautiful! It was wonderful to be able to hold this sweet baby girl.

The second gift was this book from Aria’s parents…to us from Aria…How To Babysit a Grandma. A very fun book indeed. I look forward to reading it to her someday and then having her babysit me!

Fun Solutions

T-shirts are a popular item to create and give away for awards or gift items…It’s a practical gift and if you can get the right fit they are fun to wear.

My boys collected a lot of t-shirts over the years. I did not save all the sport ones – they wore them out I suppose – but I did save the t-shirts they collected as an award for their art projects. Both sons had artwork chosen to participate in the local Children’s Art Fair when they were in elementary school. It was an honor. Grandma came and our family went to see their artwork on display.

As I am slowly going through things I found the t-shirts from the art fairs. I showed them to my son and asked if he had any ideas of what I could do with them…one solution is to take a photo for remembrance and then give it away or discard the item/s. I do that with other things. But as he was looking through these special t-shirts he decided a couple of them would fit (they used to wear t-shirts a lot larger back then) so he kept two to wear! It’s so fun!

I am often amazed at the way things work out sometimes.

Easter Traditions

When our boys were growing up we had a tradition of buying them new Easter shirts to wear to church on Easter Sunday….just like girls getting new a Easter dress I suppose. The shirts would often be the same style but a different color or pattern. That tradition continued into high school (although the shirts no longer matched). Often we would take them to get a picture taken with their new shirts.

One year I made Easter baskets for them. A friend and I were taught how to weave baskets and we would get together after the kids were in bed and to make them. That’s when I could stay up past midnight.

An Easter egg hunt in the house was tradition too, but when the boys were very young we had healthy options like raisins, stickers, and such, instead of candy.

I rarely bought a new Easter outfit for myself. When I was a little girl I don’t remember getting a new dress for Easter but it seems like something my mom would have done. This is the type of question I can no longer ask her or dad since they both have passed away. Therefore,  I like recording our own family traditions.

 

Spring in Blue

You can’t miss the sea of blue when you drive down 4th Street in our town. There is an amazing display of the blue, spring wildflower, called Scilla or Siberian Squill,  covering a most of the yard. It is stunning.  The house is pretty charming too, and adds to the overall beauty.

The Carriage House

I dug up some scilla from a friend’s yard and transplanted the bulbs into our yard over the weekend. It spreads but it will be years before it looks like the carpet of blue we see this year on 4th Street.

This spring flower blooms in yards all over town…then it dies out and the grass starts to grow and the bulbs lie dormant until the next spring. It is such a gift in early spring, after a Minnesota winter.

Near sunset…the blue is still vibrant.

Two Book Shelves

We had a wall repaired in our living room and then the walls repainted so we needed to move our two tall book shelves out so the painter could paint. One evening it took about thirty minutes or so to transfer the books into boxes and moved the shelves out of the way. We were amazed at how many books were on those two book shelves. Both my husband and I love books so we’ve collected a few over the years, although I borrow many books from the library, especially the books I read for book club.

Now that the wall is repaired and room has been painted we put the book shelves back in place, but we are finding that it is taking a lot longer to put the books back on the shelves.  We handle each book lovingly, remembering where it came from and what it was about etc…and then we determine if it really is going to go back on the bookshelf or in the box to donate to the annual Hospital Auxiliary Sale which happens to take place every April in our town (great timing!!!)  It is not easy to part with books. They become our friends and we have emotional attachments to them and we think maybe we’ll reread them again someday, which rarely happens. So we are taking our time and enjoying the process while thinning out our books.

I will keep all the children’s books though. I am particularly fond of children’s books…and not all of them are on these two shelves…I have a box-full in the closet …but I’m not telling anyone about that!