Drives – Valerie's Voice

September Sky

We have always enjoyed buckling ourselves into our car seats and taking scenic drives, heading out of town on country roads. It’s fun to see the varied landscapes in our great state.

Photo taken last week, on the outskirts of Northfield.

When the pandemic took hold we started to take more frequent rides to get us out of the house.

Last week we drove a short 20 miles loop around Northfield and were mesmerized by the sky. These dramatic photos were snapped when we quickly pulled over to the side of the road a couple of times.

The colors and lighting of these clouds are beautiful.

This particular evening we were on a road where you could see a whole lot of sky. The sky is always fun to watch. It has so many displays: blue with soft, white, fluffy clouds or clear blue with no clouds, and sometimes stormy skies with dark, angry clouds.

This is what the sky looked like when we left our house.

On our way back to town we saw this gorgeous sunset.

I’m compelled to include the photo below, taken in July 2018 (pre-pandemic) on a drive west of Northfield. It was eerie. Soon after I took the photo it began to rain. Fortunately it was not a tornado.

One Pandemic Pastime

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.

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…

Off the Beaten Path

Our first morning up on the north shore I followed my usual routine of rising early to watch the sunrise over Lake Superior. Soon it turned cloudy so we decided it would be a good morning to enjoy a drive through the woods. We had the luxury of time.

The sky was gray and the weather cool and crisp. With hot coffee in hand, we grabbed our warm jackets, climbed in our truck, and took off on a suggested fall color tour route.

As we drove around the Tofte-Lutsen area we were witness to some amazing fall colors: red maples, yellow aspen and birch trees standing among the ever-green pine trees with an occasional still green or lime-green leaves on deciduous trees.

Fluorescent orange and lime-green leaves among *ever*green.

At times it felt like we were driving through a fluorescent-lit tunnel. Even though the sky was cloudy the road seemed bright. The canopy of trees with magnificent colors overhead on this gravel, back road was beautiful.

After many years of coming up to this area we know our way around fairly well but we always find something, or somewhere, new to explore. This year we talked to a local business owner and asked where he would drive to look at fall colors. He gave us directions to a back road leading to a lake surrounded by maple trees. We found the road and the lake, and voilà – it was another glorious drive and sight!

This was not a suggested route of the many fall color tour routes up on the north shore. It’s always fun to get off the beaten path and discover something new.

This was our first day up north. We looked forward to colorful days ahead.