Valerie's Voice – Page 49 – Musings on Life

Two Fun Sightings

Last week, on a trip to a lake cabin in northern Minnesota, we were excited to see two fun and rare sightings.

The first sighting occurred as we were driving. There was a black bear on the road in front of us, mid-morning. We slowed down, and as I fumbled for my camera, he crossed the road in front of us and continued through the ditch into the woods. It was fun to see. I’ve seen a black bear in the wild a few times, but not often, so when I do see one it’s exciting.

The other sighting was the beautiful showy lady slipper, Minnesota’s state flower.

We were staying at a privately-owned cabin up north, on twenty-five acres, with a creek running through the property, and shoreline on Lake Kabekona. The cabin sits up high on a hill with a well-worn path down from the cabin to the lake. (The view from the screened in porch was lovely. We saw an eagle several times, fortunately seeing the majestic eagle is no longer a rare sighting – but always a wonderful one.)

As we walked along the path we saw this beautiful flower in bloom, and upon closer look, we discovered it was the showy lady slipper. Moments before we had seen the yellow lady slipper along the shores of Lake Kabekona, then as we turned to go back to the cabin we noticed the elegant showy lady slipper. And…there were several buds on stems nearby, ready to gently open.

Three of the seven showy lady slippers on the path.

I have only seen the showy lady slipper blooming in the wild one other time, years ago, up near Lake Superior. I don’t think it’s very common to see one in the wild, unless you know where it is located.

We made our way down every morning to check on this wonderful beauty. It was our morning devotion, appreciating and praising God for his unique and bountiful creations.

Summertime

Enjoy the Summer Solstice… today… June 21, 2019.

“On this day the length of time with sunlight is the longest.”*

Here are some excerpts from, A Summer Blessing, from the book entitled The Circle of Life.*

Blessed are you, summer,
season of long days and short nights,
you pour forth light from your golden orb,
energizing the earth and calling forth growth.
 
Blessed are you, summer,
with your generous gift of heat.
Your warm breath animates creation,
encouraging all growing things to stretch towards the sun.
 
Blessed are you, summer,
you call us into playfulness,
encouraging us to pause from work.
You renew our spirits.
 
Blessed are you, sacrament of summer, 
natures’ green season, sweet echo of spring.
You speak to us in living color as you renew the earth 
with symbols of life for our bodies and souls.
 
Blessed are you, summer,
with your firefly evenings
you minister to the child in us.
You feed our hunger for beauty.

* The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr

One Little Box

I was deep cleaning our bedroom closet recently and dusted off “a special box” on the top shelf. I wrote a poem about this box eight years ago. A few details have changed since then…the old Gateway Computer box has been placed inside a slightly larger fabric box for additional room, because now this fabric box contains 41 years of calendars and recorded history. I have shared this poem before, but I’ll share it again.

The original Gateway computer box, inside a larger fabric box.

One Little Box

In the bedroom closet upstairs, tucked away on the top shelf, is a box.

It’s an old Gateway computer box with the Holstein cow pattern, and it’s only about 14” X 18” and 6” deep.

It doesn’t take up much space, this one little box, but, if you open it up, out pops one great, big surprise! Thirty-three years of calendars, thirty-three years of life, thirty-three years of recorded history from one small family. It contains years of appointments, church activities, school and sports activities, vacation schedules, birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, dinners, all kinds of celebrations….

It reminds me of a Jack-In-The-Box. Each year it springs open, I add another calendar, force close the lid as it bursts with memories, and I put it away for safe keeping.

This one little box holds one big treasure.

And it’s amazing how little space this box takes, upstairs, tucked away on the top shelf of the bedroom closet.

The new fabric box that holds the original Gateway box
and additional calendars.

Don’t Leave Home Without It

The Cannon Valley Trail (CVT) is a “rails to trails” bike path near Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It is a favorite of mine, but we had not ridden it yet this season. One lovely, sunny afternoon, after errands and such, we decided to go for a bike ride. I was excited to go and ride on the CVT with my new electric bike.

We loaded the bikes on the bike carrier, grabbed our helmets, filled our water bottles and off we drove…15 miles to Cannon Falls, to the trailhead. When we were about three-quarters of the way to Cannon Falls I realized I forgot my bike battery! That’s an important piece of an electric bike. And, although you can ride the bike without the battery, the bike itself is extra heavy so it would have been difficult. Besides I was looking forward to trying my new bike on the trail.

Me and my bike, with the battery. The trail from Cannon Falls to Red Wing is 20 miles. We ride half way to Welsh, 10 miles, and turn around which makes it a 20 mile ride.

So we turned around and went home to get the battery then headed back. Once on the trail it felt good to be there.

It’s a bit of a sanctuary…the asphalt trail goes through some fields but mostly trees, and is very green with spring wild flowers blooming this time of year.

Sunshine dapples through the trees, and on one side the Cannon River flows for a good portion making for a beautiful trail.

The Cannon River runs along the Cannon Valley Trail.

It was a wonderful ride and hopefully I have learned a lesson…do not leave home without my bike battery!

Muddy Trails

Last week, after the rains and before the string of beautiful sunny days, a friend and I went for a hike in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park.

It was green. It was lush. It was muddy.

First we walked down the steps to take a look at Hidden falls which was very full and gorgeous. The sound of the water falling over the rock bed is mesmerizing.

Next we decided to cross the river which required carefully stepping on wet blocks, with water flowing over them, to get to the other side. We held our breath as we slowly stepped on each block.

Once safely across, we started down the trail only to find lots and lots of mud. We had to navigate each step forward. Thankfully we had hiking poles, and thankfully neither one of us fell in the slippery mud.

The muddy trails did not take away from our observations. On this cloudy day, in addition to seeing the beautiful overflowing falls, we saw several spring wildflowers…

and the best sighting of all…a Scarlet Tanager, a stunning, red bird.

Nerstrand is a wonderful park. This park is poetry to me. I have been going to this park even before we moved to the area 25 years ago and it holds a special place in my heart. I have many good memories of hiking, skiing, and camping…family times, winter picnics, summer picnics…and much more.

For me, Nerstrand is a wonderful place to get away, yet be so close to nature, to God, and so close to home!

Fairy Gardens

Two cute hedge hogs reading….I think they are my favorites in this fairy garden.

There is a wonderful, rather large, fairy garden along St. Olaf Avenue. On the property there is a large older home, under renovation with scaffolding outside, which detracts a little bit from its elegance…for now. There is a large garage that may have once been a carriage house, and a big yard. The yard has been turned into a garden and it is full of seasonal blooming flowers… I’d like to learn the history of the whole place.

A birdie reading while sitting on the elephant’s trunk.

It is a fun place to walk by and take in all there is to see on this one plot of land along St. Olaf Avenue. I walked by this spring and, although the colorful landscape of spring flowers was wonderful, I really enjoyed seeing is the sweet fairy garden, right along the sidewalk. It is full of miniature animals and most are reading a book.

The squirrel is busy carrying books while the cat is resting.

The first time I walked by the house, the owner was out in the yard. I asked him if I could take photos of the fairy garden. He said yes and told me his wife is a librarian, so that’s the why the fairy garden has a reading theme.

There is a lot in the miniature garden…flowers, mushrooms, rocks to make a pond, tiny ladders to a loft area, many different animals reading books, miniature plants. There is even a miniature “Free Little Library”. It is quite enchanting.

A bunny sitting on the edge of a book, reading.

This miniature frog is practicing yoga. Note the stones with the words love, peace and tranquillity written on them. And I like the blue gazing ball.

A couple years ago I wrote a blog posting about my ONE little fairy that I hid in my flowers one year. And then it went missing. Over a year later my husband was trimming a tree and found the fairy up in the crook of the tree. Apparently a squirrel carried it so far and then gave up on it, and abandoned it. When my husband found the fairy he brought it into the house and set it on the counter. I was so surprised to see it. We laughed and decided the only possible explanation was a squirrel’s folly. But now, my one little fairy is now back, hidden in my garden.

Behind the fairy garden are a few other larger garden figures. This is a cat with glasses, reading.

Another large figure behind the fairy garden…a frog sipping tea and reading.

Minnesota Twins

I’m not really a sports fan. I will watch an occasional football game and we always watch the Superbowl game but rarely will I watch baseball or basketball on TV, unless they are play-off games…those games can be exciting. But we had an opportunity to go to the Minnesota Twins baseball game over the weekend, and it was fun. It seems the Minnesota Twins team is headed towards the play-offs this year. They are playing really well.

Go Twins!!!

The tickets were free and the seats were good…in the shaded, lower section, first-base side of the field. The weather was fabulous! A beautiful Spring day and a super day to be outside. A great day to watch an outdoor baseball game in Minnesota. .

So off we went to, apparently, a sell-out crowd at Target Field. It took a long time to get through security check and into the stadium. We were outside the gates before the game began but missed the first inning because of the long lines to get in, and get through security. That was surprising.

The Twins played the Chicago White Sox and won! The score was 7-0 and there were two homeruns. It was fun to watch the game and even more fun to watch the people.

But one of the best parts for me was holding a two-month old baby! The little one was part of family we knew sitting in seats in front of us. I offered to hold the baby and was able to, for a good amount of time. I think I might have enjoyed that most of all.

Tulips

One day last week, in-between rain showers, I went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the tulips were in bloom. The tulips were bright and colorful – oh so many colors! – and all delightful. I didn’t take enough photos.

In Matthew 6 it says “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

As I “tiptoed through the tulips” in the arboretum I thought about the beautiful bouquet of tulips I received just a few weeks prior…and how gorgeous the “non-descript” white tulips were also.

Such beauty, such wonder, such intricacies in one specific specie of flower…and there are so many different species! It’s truly amazing.

Memorial Day

Flags are gifted to military personnel family’s upon death. My mother had two flags, one from her father and one from my father.

A day set aside to remember and honor people who died while serving in the US Armed Forces.

Herb, my father, in Belgium, Army Air Corp. Photo found in mom’s collection. Although he died at a young age (55) he did come home from WW II.

Memorable Hikes – Rocky Mountain National Park 2019

Towards the end of April, we spent six days helping our son and his family move into their apartment near Boulder, Colorado. The weather was wonderful…sunny skies with temperatures in the 70’s.

Since we were so close to Rocky Mountain National Park we planned to go into the park after we helped them settle in. It was another beautiful sunny day when we arrived at the park.

After orienting ourselves, we took a short hike, on snow-packed trails. I’m glad we had our hiking poles because there were several slippery spots.

The next day we decided to hike the Old Fall River Road at a higher elevation (the peak the elevation is 11,796 feet above sea level but we did not hike to the peak.) The Old Fall River Road is closed most of the year…it is only open July through September. The road leads to a side trail down to Chasm Falls which you can access when the Old Fall River Road is closed. When the road is open there is no room for hikers on the narrow hairpin-curved road.

One July, years ago, when we were in the park with our two sons we drove this one-way road up to the peak and across to the other side. It was spectacular scenery.

The beginning of our hike on Old Fall River Road.

We did bring warm clothes on our trip because we know weather can change anytime in the mountains, and we did need them on this cool and cloudy day. In the morning we bundled up, parked the car, took out our hiking poles and started up the 1.3 mile hike to Chasm Falls.

Gary hiking down the trail to the falls.

We were the only ones hiking on the road that morning. It was fun to have the wide road all to ourselves. It is an easy hike because of the wide road and because it is hard packed gravel. As we began our ascent, it started to snow…and it snowed all the way up to the falls and continued to snow all the way back down, to our car. It felt like we were in a snow globe. It was beautiful and dazzling and a memorable hike….walking in Rocky Mountain National Park in a snowstorm.

Steps leading down to the platform to view Chasm Falls.

The next day we woke up to eight inches of snow. We did go back into the park for the third day, just to drive around, and we saw a lot of animals this time…maybe because the animals were easier to spot in the snow. We saw a fox, turkeys, three moose, lots of elk, a beautiful blue bird, and several magpies.