When my son and his family knew their arrival date to Minnesota, from Mozambique, he asked us to set up dentist appointments for the family – if possible before the end of the year. So I did, but the only times available were 36 hours after they landed. They were still dealing with a significant time change, travel wearies from over 30 hours of travel time, and jet lag. On the way to the dentist office, Ezra age 2 ½, fell into a deep sleep.
Zoey in dentist chair.
Once we arrived at the office, Zoey who is 4 years old, went first. She did just fine for Dr. Brust, and enjoyed picking out a new tooth brush.
Ezra in dentist chair.
Next, it was Ezra’s turn. We could not wake him up, no matter how hard we tried. So, Dr.Brust just checked Ezra’s teeth while he was sleeping.
Dr. Brust said maybe he could use this photo for an advertising poster – to show how relaxed his clients are in his dentist’s office.
Dr. Brust checking Ezra’s teeth while Ezra is sleeping.
Ezra slept through a couple other events, but is well on his way to adjusting to the new time zone.
Our son and his lovely wife and their two adorable children have arrived safely in Minnesota. They are here for the long term…Andrea left her childhood town in Mozambique, Africa. They are beginning a new chapter in their lives, here in the USA. We have prepared a space for them in our home for their transition period. We are so excited this day has finally come. We are grateful.
I’m in a happy place…reading to the grandchildren.
We attended the 20th annual Winter Walk in Northfield last night. The downtown is festive: all lit up with white lights and Christmas decorations, different groups of carolers singing, and stores offering sweet treats.
One of the decorated trees downtown Northfield. Photo taken right before sunset.
We received a special invitation to stop in at a business in town, which is where we always start our walk, after tasting some wonderful morsels.
Beautiful and creative special invitation for a Winter Walk event.
Next we visited Content bookstore, then checked out two new stores downtown before heading to the old Model Train exhibits, set up in our library at the end of Division Street.
We strolled back towards Bridge Square, along the closed-off street, full of cheerful folks meandering, a horse-drawn carriage, fire pits, and different music groups. We stopped at a couple other favorite stores: The Rare Pair and an antique store. They were packed with people. Depending on the weather the stores can get very crowded. It was chilly and the stores were full.
Bridge Square during Winter Walk, Northfield.
When we first arrived downtown we caught the beginning of a parade. This is a first for Northfield’s Winter Walk. For me it was too chilly to stand out to watch it go by, but we did see a couple of the entries while walking to our first stop. I enjoyed seeing the tractor decorated in Christmas lights, then we dashed inside.
The lighted tractor to begin the parade at Northfield’s Winter Walk.
Last weekend we planned to go to Faribault’s Winterfest Parade of Lights, including fireworks, but it got postponed due to weather. How ironic, the Winterfest, postponed by winter weather. HA.
That parade has been rescheduled for December 14th so hopefully it will be “warm” enough to bring our newly arrived grand-children from Africa to see it. “O, what fun…”
Zoey, our 4-year-old granddaughter, is moving from Africa to the USA soon, with her family. Her mom says she is excited to see snow in Minnesota. Here are a few photos from our recent snowstorm…for Zoey… and Ezra, her 2 1/2-year-old brother. We cannot wait to see you!
Gary and I went outside after church and built a snowman for Zoey and Ezra. It will melt before they arrive in ten days, but hopefully we can build another snowman soon, with Zoey and Ezra.
I’m always taking pictures of the cardinals in our yard.
The red cardinal on a fresh layer of snow.
The snow covered trees in our front yard.
Snow-covered evergreen boughs out on our deck.
Grandpa’s snowplow.
Evergreen branches with white snow.
Looking out at the snow from our kitchen window, through a green-glass star.
We drove by this grove of trees.
I have a fun story about an African snowman. Our daughter-in-love is a native of Mozambique, and we knew she had never experienced snow but was curious about snow. Before we left Minnesota, on one visit to Mozambique, I dug through my Christmas boxes and found a packet of “Real Fake Snow” (when water is added to this white powder an instant reaction is a white-snow like mixture). I tucked the packet into my suitcase. One evening, after a very hot day in Mozambique, we opened the packet and mixed up the “real fake snow”. It was fun to watch a snowman being built, in Africa!
Our son looking on with joy as his wife makes her first snowman.
I’m beginning to notice the interesting artwork of Adam Turman. He is an illustrator, graphic designer, printmaker, and muralist from St Louis Park, MN. I was first introduced to his work when my son hired him to paint a eye-catching mural on his office building, depicting different landmarks of Minnesota and Minneapolis.
Hard to capture the extent of this wonderful mural by Adam Turman, depicting Minnesota and Minneapolis landmarks.
A closer look at part of an Adam Turman mural in Uptown.
The next place I noticed his work was at a St. Paul Classic bike ride, an annual event that we’ve participated in a few times. Turman has designed several t-shirts for the event over the years. A lot of Turman’s artwork includes a bicycle which, he writes, “is one of his favorite outdoor activities.”
And recently, at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN (which Is located right on the Mississippi River) I noticed artwork by Adam Turman on display. It was fun to discover it there. In 2016 he was commissioned to paint three works.
One is a large mural for the museum. It features the Mississippi River in Winona.
Titled: Push Boat and Pelicans (2016)
The plaque reads: “He painted a push boat frequently seen moving barges right outside the Museum, with a pod of American Pelicans overhead. The dramatic waves are influenced by Japanese wood block artist Katsushika Hokusai’s style while the sky and bluffs are in Turman’s distinct, simple and bold graphic style.”
Titled: Sugar Loaf This is the one of two prints in a series, commissioned by the museum.
The museum also commissioned Adam to create a series of two pictures depicting landmarks distinctive to Winona. The originals are on display at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, along with some other prints of Adam Turman’s.
Titled: Mississippi “This is the second print the Museum commissioned and we want to celebrate what makes Winona special. The herons and the boat-house are iconic to Winona, so I made sure to highlight those in the piece.” Adam Turman
The Museum store had several postcards of Adam’s work and I was attracted to this simple design (below) with white birch trees, a red cardinal, and the back of a red bicycle and tire leaving a trail in the snow. I brought that one home with me.
This is a postcard featuring a print of Turman’s, that I purchased at the museum store. Titled: Cardinal (2011)
As with all artists, Adam Turman has his own unique style. As he becomes more well-known it will be fun to find his art in different places.
My husband, Gary, enjoys researching and writing on different topics that interest him. I asked him if I could publish excerpts from his latest on ice cream and he agreed. Any words in italics are mine.
An electric ice cream maker, my gift to my husband.
My Scoop on Ice Cream
Some say chocolate is the food of the gods, but I say it is ice cream. I have always loved ice cream. When I was a kid, I remember we had ice cream in the freezer most of the time. Perhaps this was a luxury associated with my growing up on a dairy farm. My parents bought our ice cream from the same dairy in town where we sold our milk. So the ice cream we ate was (possibly) made from our own milk. The dairy packaged ice cream in both ½ gallon and 2 ½ gallon sizes, and best of all they had delivery routes. The ice cream truck would come to our farm on a set schedule every few weeks. It was like a Schwann’s truck, but only had dairy products.
In the summer we would occasionally make our own home-made ice cream. Our ice cream maker was a wooden stave container in which a metal canister would be placed. After my mom prepared the mix she poured the liquid ice cream mixture into the canister and inserted the scraper (called a dasher). Then ice and salt was packed between the canister and the wooden vessel. The device was powered by an electric motor. The metal canister would rotate and the dasher inside was stationery – so it continuously scraped the surface as the ice cream mix froze. It worked really well and only took about 30 minutes and we could hardly wait until it was ready. I have a lot of good memories of this ice cream making process, and eating it of course.
Now 6o years later, I still love ice cream. There are many types of ice cream available these days so I started doing a little research to learn more about the industry.
What is ice cream?
In non-technical terms ice cream is a frozen blend of dairy ingredients and sweeteners, plus a small amount of emulsifiers and stabilizers. Various ingredients and inclusions are added to create specific flavors.
For some intensive hands-on learning about the science and technology of making ice cream one could attend a well-known 7-day short course at my alma mater, Penn State. They offer the course once a year and limit the class size to 120. The course entitled “Cow to Cone” sells out very quickly despite it costing $2,300. First started in 1892, it is believed to be the first continuing education course offered in the country.
Ice cream cones in the cupboard…I like the cone, Gary likes a dish.
In the USA, to be legally called “ice cream” the USDA regulations state it must contain a minimum of 10% dairy milk-fat and weigh no less than 4.5 pounds per gallon, plus it must not exceed 100% overrun.
What is “overrun”? Overrun is the amount of air whipped into the ice cream base during freezing. It is expressed as a percentage increase in volume of finished ice cream greater than the amount of mix used to produce that ice cream.
For example 100% overrun means 1 gallon of base mix will become 2.0 gallons of finished ice cream. Similarly, 60% overrun means 1 gallon of base will become 1.6 gallons of finished ice cream.
In essence we are buying a lot of air! However some air is needed to give the proper texture and taste. Without any air introduced the ice cream would be like a frozen ice cube.
More expensive brands have much less air than cheaper brands. This can be seen by looking at the density (weight per volume). Expensive brands may be 90 or 100g / ½ cup whereas low cost brands may be 50-60g / ½ cup. This can easily be seen on the ingredient label and it is best to compare a simple flavor like vanilla, which does not have added ingredients impacting the density.
In 2017 the number one brand ranking of all ice cream sales in the US was Breyers and number two was Ben & Jerry’s.1
Consumption
According to one source5, the per capita consumption of ice cream in the USA is 20.8 liter (5.5 gallon). Let’s see how I am doing.
If I average 2 bowls a week at say 3 scoops per bowl and my scoop is ½ cup size; then 2 bowls x 3 scoops x 1/2cup/scoop = 3cups per week.
If I practice this ritual for 44 out of 52 weeks a year (this is an 85% rate- I’m trying to improve upon this) that makes 3cups x 44weeks / 16 cups/gallon = 8.25 gallons.
So I guess I am doing my part.
Sources: 1. Top ice cream brands of the United States in 2017, based on sales (in million U.S. dollars) Statista.com Accessed 11/8/2018 and 5. Chart: Ice cream consumption per capita around the world. Businessinsider.com Accessed 11/9/2018
I hope you’ve enjoyed the (partial) scoop from my husband, on ice cream.
Last spring, we took a three week road trip to the east coast. One stop was in Washington DC to visit neighbors that used to live next door to us in Northfield. We happen to be in DC during Passover, and they happen to be Jewish, so they invited us to stay in their home and to partake in the Passover meal with them, along with five other people from their synagogue. We were delighted, and excited, to sit down and experience this Seder meal with our Jewish friends.
The cherry blossoms were in bloom in Washington DC.
We were offered Kippahs (caps) to wear, and spent the next five hours at the dinner table with our friends and five wonderful folks we had never met. We ate large amounts of food – most with symbolism attached. We read through prayers and texts, and sang songs that go along with the story of Passover in the Torah (and Old Testament). We enjoyed sweet fellowship while participating in a completely different religious experience than our own. It was wonderful.
Two friends participating in the Passover meal.
So, when the newsletter for FiftyNorth (previously Northfield Retirement Center) came out with its November offerings, one class in particular caught my attention: Jewish Holidays: Backgrounds and Traditions. Stacy Beckwith, a Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and the Director of the Judaic Studies Program at Carleton College presented it. The class filled, with 25 people attending. The course was a general overview, and well done.
One of the slides from presentation… a picture of a Haggadah from the 14th century. Haggadah is the text book for the Seder meal.
This is the Haggadah we used at our friend’s house.
Another slide from her presentation showing a Seder plate for six symbolic foods.
Our hostess compiled a Seder plate – 6 symbolic foods which include shank bone of lamb, egg, vegetables, two types of bitter herbs and a sweet paste called haroset.
I have attended classes at FiftyNorth but was surprised when I drove into the parking lot for my class on a weekday afternoon, that the main parking lot was full. When I entered the FiftyNorth lobby it, too, was full of people, and there was a rather long line to check-in for all the different activities going on in the center.
A glimpse in the lobby of FiftyNorth.
FiftyNorth is a very vibrant place for Northfield seniors (seniors defined as age 50 and older, and North as in north – or in, higher than, age 50). It has a lot to offer including informational and fitness classes, a pool, workout equipment, rooms for bridge players or ping pong tournaments etc. In the lobby coffee is always available and tables are set up for puzzles, reading the newspaper, or just visiting. It is stimulating and invigorating place and a real gem for our small town, Northfield.
I was pleased to be in the bustling center this week, learning about Jewish traditions. I was among many others…there for so many different reasons. And that is a good thing.
On one of our last, beautiful autumn days, Gary and I drove to Hastings to check out a bike trail, and we discovered a park.
A view overlooking the Mississippi River from on top of the bluff.
Spring Lake Park Reserve is part of the Dakota County Park system and includes one long bluff, overlooking the Mississippi River.
A anchored barge on the river.
Schaaar’s Bluff derived its name from the Schaar family who owned and operated a family farm on the site from the late 1890’s until 1973, when they sold it to Dakota County to be included in the Spring Lake Park Reserve.
The entrance to Schaar’s Bluff.
Beautiful oak trees in the picnic area.
The park offers fantastic views of the Mississippi River. There is a picnic area, campfire rings, a playground, a Gathering Center, and lots of paved and unpaved trails for hiking and biking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. There are oak trees to form wooded areas, lots of open spaces, and some prairie portions.
The beautiful, wooden fence along the bluff.
While looking at an overview map of the area, a woman directed us to some unpaved trails along Schaar’s bluff. The trail was covered with leaves so it was not obvious to find the path. The trail went along the river and was very scenic. There was a significant drop-off to the river.
The obscure trail-head for path along the bluff.
The trail along the bluff.
We hiked on a few trails that day. One trail took us across a steel bridge that had a short, sharp jog in it…really? That’s not something you see very often.
A bridge with a sharp corner halfway across.
The last colors of autumn.
The Gathering Center was in use, for some company’s retreat. The funky building design was fun and inside, in the women’s bathroom, was a plaque explaining how the Center is “harvesting rain.” It states “Schaars Bluff Gathering Center is gathering rain from our rooftops for the toilets in our restrooms.” It makes me happy to know they are recycling rain water.
The Gathering Center at Schaar’s Bluff.
A fire pit outside the Gathering Center.
Another unique highlight of the park was a Tobacco-Free Zone sign posted, informing smokers there are designated smoking areas in the park…one can smoke only in the parking lots and along the roadways. That was a first for me. I have not noticed that sign in other parks.
This is the first time I’ve noticed a no smoking sign in a park, but I assume they are posted in all Dakota County parks.
I’m grateful for the Schaar’s who offered their land to the county, to make this wonderful park along the mighty Mississippi River, with it’s scenic beauty for others to enjoy. We will visit it again.
I have always loved the beauty and tranquility of seeing cows grazing in a field. Although I was born and raised in the city, I have always loved the country. But the only cows I knew about growing up were the black and white Holsteins. My husband however, grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. They milked Holstein cows, but he also knew about the other types dairy cows such as Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Jersey and Ayrshire. He was not aware of the kind I saw the other day.
I was traveling on a country road familiar to me, and although I do not travel it on a regular basis, I travel it often enough to be surprised at seeing these cows for the first time. I caught a glimpse of black and white cows. I assumed they were Holsteins, but as I got closer I noticed they all had the same markings. Unlike Holsteins that are black and have splotches of white in various places all over their bodies, these cows were black with a wide, white band around their midsection. Everyone one of the them. All 20-30 of them in the field looked identical. I took a double take, then stopped to take a picture of these unusual cows.
I checked Google…they are either Belted Galloway or Dutch Belted cows. Both breeds have similar patterns. The Belted Galloway comes from Scotland, also nick-named “Oreo cows”. They are primarily raised for their quality marbled-beef. The Belted Galloway survive well in much colder weather but their coat is longer and thicker. The cows we saw in the pasture had short hair, but maybe because we’re coming off summer – it may grow longer and thicker as winter settles in.
A second breed with the same markings is the Dutch Belted cow, from the Netherlands. They are raised primarily for dairy. In the Netherlands, the cows are know as Lakevelder, a term that means a sheet or blanket around the body.
