Birthdays – Valerie's Voice

Earth Day

Earth Day was born in 1970 on my husband’s (Gary) birthday ~ April 22. We both remember the first Earth Day. I’m glad we’re still celebrating it, and I’m glad we’re still celebrating my husband’s birthday. HA!

For his birthday, we picked up trash along Highway 60 in Faribault, Minnesota. This clean-up is a bi-annual task the Faribault Flyers Bike & Ski Club does for the community. We are a part of the bike club so we volunteered to help.

This sign is along Highway 60, near Faribault.

This year’s clean up date happened to fall on Earth Day, and Gary’s birthday. Little did anyone expect that the temperature would climb to 90* in April! It was sunny, windy and hot. And there we were in the middle of the afternoon picking up trash in the ditches. It was hard work, but we survived and the group met at a Mexican restaurant for dinner afterward.

Our first year, four years ago, we picked up a lot more trash…so we assume our work is making a difference over the years. However, we placed multiple yellow bags, full of trash, on the side of Highway 60 to be picked up by the highway department.

There were several trout lilies surviving in the ditch.

There was one snafu. Gary and I started at one end of a section, and two others started at the other end so we would meet up in the middle. Along the way I took a photo of trout lilies in the ditch, blooming in spite of the trash.

I also took photos of animal bones in skeleton form. We have a retired vet in our group so he identified it as a deer (from my photo). We had no idea deer had such fierce looking teeth.

When we met the other two in the middle of our section someone asked me for the time. I went to retrieve my cellphone out of my pocket and lo and behold, it was not there! Sigh.

It must have fallen out while bending over for trash. So, Gary and I started retracing our steps. Fortunately, Gary had my cell phone on his “Find My” app on his phone…so it pinged when we were close. Even though we were in the vicinity, it was still hard to find, but after about 20 minutes we did find my phone in the ditch, and all is well.

Whew… I did not want to find my phone in the ditch among the trash next year!

The Circle of Life

I begin last Sunday afternoon, sitting outside on a hillside overlooking a lake, listening to music in the background, visiting with friends.

Monday morning I’m having coffee and catching up with a friend.

Tuesday evening we make a shuttle run to the airport to pick up friends and bring them back to their home in Northfield.

Wednesday was a beautiful evening for a pot-luck dinner and grilled hotdogs and a leisurely tritoon ride on Cannon Lake (toons and biminis…is this Dr. Suess influence?) and we celebrated a birthday.

Another birthday to celebrate on Thursday… flowers and a meal at Cosetta’s… with a lovely trio of multigenerational women.

Friday, being the Fourth of July, is yet one more birthday to celebrate – our country’s. We ate a piece of homemade pie and listened to a concert at a countryside gathering which claims to be the oldest 4^th of July celebration in Minnesota. Later in the evening, we enjoyed a great fireworks show back in Northfield.

But also, death came this week, to a dear friend and we gathered together to remember.

All in a week’s time.

The circle of life.

Grateful.

The North Shore

We went up to the north shore to celebrate my birthday last week.

There was a beautiful sunrise the morning of my birthday, and the sun continued to shine all day long.

We wanted to do a little hiking. We had tried hiking at Gooseberry Falls the day before, but we had to turn back due to a very icy trail. Although there was no snow on the ground anywhere, the shaded trails in the woods still had ice cover making it difficult to hike on them.

When we stopped for a specialty coffee at Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors, another customer joined our conversation with the waitress about places to hike in the area that might not be icy. The stranger asked us about the Gitchi-Gami bike trail. And it was one of those ah-ha moments; “I can’t believe we didn’t think about the wonderful paved bike trail with sections all along the north shore.”

An portion of the Gitchi-Gami Bike trail along Lake Superior.

So we found our safe place to hike along Lake Superior, and it was lovely.

Besides the sparkling lake, we saw different images on two different hikes. Do you see what I see?

A bat…a sheet of ice still clinging to a large rock in Lake Superior, facing south (no sun to melt it).

The head of a wolf (right), and a deer lying down looking out (left) in the hollow of a tree.

Several little bear cubs climbing up the tree.

It was a fun birthday; with hiking, cabin time, and watching the waves roll in. A great beginning to another trip around the sun.

March Celebrations

Our family has many reasons to celebrate lately.

Our fifth grandchild, Mila Hope, was born on March 19. A sweet, healthy baby girl.

I celebrated my 71^st birthday on March 20^th.

Gary and I are celebrating our 46^th wedding anniversary today, March 25.

Our two grandsons celebrated their birthdays this month.

And, we celebrate Easter early this year…March 31.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow….

The Recycled Birthday Card

In yesterday’s blog I referred to a birthday card my friend and I have been sending back-and-forth to each other since 1979. I am including a link to a blog post I wrote in October 2016 about this card.

Click here.

However, there is “more to the story” now.

Our little recycled birthday card is now a booklet with 10 pages added to the original card. It’s 44 years old.

This past year my friend, Diane, and her husband spent the winter in Florida, and enjoyed it very much. She did however, text me on my birthday to let me know the birthday card was back in Minnesota so it would be late in getting to me. She would send it when they returned from Florida. She continued to say her packing list for Florida next year will include, her swimsuit, sun tan lotion, and the recycled birthday card!

It is a very special card, from a very special friend.

An Unusal Gift

Thank you for all the wonderful happy birthday messages. 
I was delighted to read each one.

The sunrise over Lake Superior, the second day.

We had a very relaxing and refreshing birthday/wedding anniversary trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. Our cozy cabin had a wood-burning fireplace next to patio doors to the deck overlooking the lake.

Enjoying a fire while viewing the lake from the cabin.

We had fires In the morning and fires in the evening…and enjoyed watching the lake with its many moods. On Tuesday the lake was churning with huge waves crashing against the rocky shore. The other days it was much calmer.

Huge waves crashing and spraying high above the rocky shore.

Mesmerizing Lake.
All our attention goes there,
It’s restorative.

A calmer day…photo taken from the deck of the cabin.

However, we did bring along our cross-county skis, snowshoes, and Yaktrax to get out for fresh air and exercise.

We hiked at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

This is the upper falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park, where we hiked.

A old Norwegian fish house on Stoney Point Drive…a nice walk from the cabin.

Our hikes kept us close to the lake, but cross- county skiing took us inland.

We usually ask locals for recommendations. Our resort owner told us about Korkki Nordic.

In the morning, the sun was shining and it was a decent temperature so off we went to ski this trail. Next to the warming house (a nice touch to this trailhead) was a guy standing near a snowmobile with trail grooming apparatus hitched on the back. We started a conversation and found out he is the regular trail groomer. Mark lives on the property and grooms four ski trails.

The ski season is, of course, winding down – it was the first day of spring after all- so he was not planning to groom many more times this year. During our conversation, we mentioned it was my birthday. He was a jovial sort and said, as a gift to me for my birthday, he would go ahead of us and groom the trail. It would make skiing much easier for us.

And so he did, and we followed about three minutes behind him, and the skiing was great.

That is one of the more unusual gifts I’ve received for my birthday. It was a random act of kindness and we were grateful.

March 20

The first day of spring…(We are up near Two Harbors on the shores of Lake Superior, and there is a snowstorm predicted for tomorrow!)

and it’s my birthday…70 years young…

God’s gifted me with a beautiful sunrise over Lake Superior.

Sunrise over Lake Superior (3//20/2023).

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…

Spring = Hope

What season is it anyway? Our yard, raked clean last fall, is once again full of leaves. The snow has finally melted but it has exposed more leaves and the winds of March have blown them into our yard…as is the case in the fall. For some reason our corner lot is a collection site for the neighborhood leaves.

Daffodils are cheery and bright! These are along the path I walk in our neighborhood. (2017)

Spring in Minnesota is always welcome because our winters are long. No traces of snow or ice, longer days with sunshine and warmer temperatures are delicious, but it is not a pretty time of year in Minnesota. I wouldn’t want to show off Minnesota in the spring.

Bright red tulips on St. Olaf College campus. (2017)

True, there are the spring flowers which I love. Multi-colored tulips, white, yellow or purple crocuses, perky yellow or white daffodils and purple hyacinths, all popping up out of the ground. They add fuel for us to get past the mud and sand and brown grass and leafless trees, to summer.

Wildflower in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. (2017)

But the wind…the wind is not a friend. It’s hard to walk. It’s hard to bike. It’s brings in cold air. It changes the temperatures back to wind chills. It blows dirt and grime and garbage and leaves all over. It is not a pretty site.

An array of tulips in the front yard of a house on St. Olaf Avenue in Northfield. (2019)

So I need to focus on the positives of springtime. My birthday is in the spring. I always like saying my birthday is the first day of spring (because it is.) Easter, one of my favorite holidays, is always in the spring. Spring does not have the bugs of summer and in the spring, we can start to discard our jackets. It doesn’t “hurt” to go outside (as a friend likes to say) and you don’t have to put on all kinds of outdoor gear. The air is fresh and we can open the windows of our houses and let the stale air and winter sneezes out. Tress start budding. Spring is a hopeful time, and a time to dream of summer days and nights. I guess that is the best part of spring: Hope.

England, Part II

About that special birthday trip…

I mentioned the special trip my son gave me as a birthday gift one year, before either of my sons were married. It was a significant birthday and my oldest son said he’d like to take me to London. I had been there once before, when we visited him after his semester studying at Oxford University. I enjoyed London a lot and was excited to be going back. This was a wonderful, thoughtful gift. What I didn’t know is I was in for another amazing gift, and a great big surprise while in London.

An enchanting evening…the London Eye under the full moon, a photo from a page in my album.

Michael and I had spent a lovely, long day in Oxford the day before so we were having a leisurely breakfast the next morning. It was a traditional English breakfast, buffet style, at our hotel. After our first trip to the breakfast bar my son said he wanted another bowl of muesli and I got another cup of coffee. A while later he said he wanted a third bowl of muesli so I had another cup of coffee.

Little did I know he was stalling….and during that third bowl of muesli in comes my younger son. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Tim was living in Mozambique, Africa at the time and in he walks, up to our breakfast table in the London hotel, to surprise me… and I was 100% totally surprised!!! What a moment. I started to cry and then laugh and then excitedly I settled down to visit (my husband had known all about this rendezvous and managed to keep their secret).

My two sons and I spent a few more days together in London and some very special memories were made for this mom, that I will never forget and always treasure. My heart was full.