Tag: Minnesota

Black Beach

Several years ago, a new beach opened up to the public near Silver Bay, Minnesota. It’s called Black Beach.

Black Beach on Lake Superior.

It’s along the shores of Lake Superior and it’s made up of small black pebbles…so it looks like a black sand beach, thus the name. This is unusual for this area of Lake Superior. We’re used to seeing rocky shores and colored rocks, so this is a fun addition.

The icy shoreline of Black Beach.

We’ve never spent a lot of time on Black Beach…we just stop by on our way up the north shore. There is parking lot with vault toilets, the path leading to the beach and some picnic tables set back from the water. It is pretty, so it’s a fun stop. 

Ice boulders.

So, when we were staying up at a cabin near Two Harbors recently, we took a drive one morning, up Scenic Hwy. 61 and decided to stop at Black Beach to see if there was any white snow left on the black beach. 

This shows perspective on the size of these ice drifts.

Wow! Were we surprised! There were humungous ice drifts settled on the beach. 

A path through the ice formations.

As we walked out closer to the lake, we realized how large these ice drifts… ice chunks… ice boulders were.

Are we still in Minnesota? This is another view of the path through the ice formations

It was fun and amazing to walk up to the ice formations, and walk through a row of them. I can only imagine what it was like earlier this winter. This is March and they were melting in the 38* weather…icicles were forming on the bottoms of the masses, dripping water back into the lake. 

The icicles forming as they drip back into the lake.

In a small way, it reminded me of the sea caves we walked to several years ago near Bayfield, Wisconsin, when the DNR created a path on the frozen Lake Superior so folks could walk out to see the sea caves, usually only seen by kayakers on the open water. 

Gary walking towards the lake. The photo is deceiving. There is a big drop off to the beach at the edge of the ice, with ice packs below, lining the shore.

We are continually amazed at the variety of adventures we find on our trips to the north shore of Lake Superior…my happy place!

BrainDance

Cannon Valley Elder Collegium (CVEC), in Northfield, offers learning experiences for learners aged 50+, and has done so for nearly 30 years. Classes are are taught by retired professors or anyone with knowledge on a certain subject, and are usually eight weeks in length.  It’s a wonderful offering.

For the second time, I signed up for a class called BrainDance through CVEC. The instructor is a professional dance artist and educator who lives in New York, but grew up in Minnesota and comes back to teach dance classes occasionally.

The BrainDance, is an “official” dance, created by Anne Green Gilbert. It is a sequence of eight developmental movement patterns (adopted from infant/toddler development) that reorganizes the brain, improves focus, and reduces stress. 

It is a fun class! We practice the brain dance to music, before moving onto other movements and dances, using our creative minds plus exercising our bodies. I wish this class continued all year. 

This picture makes me smile. Each week I put my mat and water bottle under this picture in the dance hall. It brings joy to my heart every time I see it. I remember it from last year too. Sometimes I’d mimic her movement in our free dance.

Each week we took time to practice a choreographed piece to the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. A fitting song for these days. At the end of our eight weeks, we put on a recital! We invited family and friends to watch our “production” and then the instructor invited the audience to join us in a circle dance…which my husband did! He couldn’t say no! Everyone enjoyed themselves.

BrainDance is described as “cultivating joy and enriching your mind, body, and spirit through the power of dance… it improves balance, strength and flexibility…” In addition to all that, I found it to be a delightful and energizing experience.

Sunrise, Sunset Quote

“What would you pay to see the sunrise or sunset if it were not free entertainment?”

7:17 pm
March 8, 2026

I heard this question/quote years ago, but I don’t remember where, and I can’t find a source (but I’ve always remembered it).

We saw this sunset out our back window the other night. Amazing! It lasted only a few minutes…

7:18 pm
March 8, 2026
The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.
                                                              Psalm 19:1

Beauty Way

St. Johns Lutheran Church in Northfield hosts a monthly event called Creating Community for Common Good – Courageous Conversations, and it is open to the public. Their focus is to invite speakers who will “enlighten local and national implications for education, housing, health care and the environment, as well as freedom of expression and equality.”

On this evening, Lupita McClanahan, a Navajo elder from Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly, was the speaker. She’s a storyteller and cultural historian and she drew a crowd. The room was full. Her event was focused on personal resilience and strengthening culture identity through adversity. 

When I learned a native American elder was speaking, I knew I wanted to attend and hear first-hand stories of her experiences. Lupita focused on her people’s way, her upbringing. She grew up in a world that doesn’t exist anymore. 

Lupita McClanahan, Navajo Elder

She explained her people are the Diné people (clan of Navajo) and her upbringing was known as Beauty Way. She told antidotes…how her people would introduce themselves including four pieces of information: first your clan name, then where you come from, who your grandparents are, and finally your name.  She told how a baby’s name was whispered into to baby’s ear and not revealed to the community for a long time, how they would hold a celebration for the baby’s first laugh, and many more.

She talked about her experience in boarding school. “They” couldn’t pronounce the names so “they” called people by a number. Her name was Number 55. She was at the school for nine years. She overcame the trauma and chose to become a bridge-builder between cultures by sharing her stories. 

She talked about the belief that their purpose in life is to take care of the earth and its four elements; earth and water, air and fire. They believe that the land owns us, we do not own the land, and we must take care of it. 

Picture from Canyon de Chelly National Monument, highlighting organization footpathjourneys.com

Lupita currently lives in NW Arizona, when she is not on speaking tours. She lives with no electricity, she tends sheep, grows corn and hauls her own water. She also guides public tours of her native land through the organization footpathjourneys.com

Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Four Corners Area) is considered one of the jewels of the Navajo Nation.

I always enjoy hearing other people’s stories. An hour and a half went quickly and I’m glad I ventured out on this evening to hear Lupita and learn about her Beauty Way.

Public Artworks continued…

To continue the public artworks post, here’s more I’ve seen in the past few weeks.

We took a quick trip to Florida to escape the Minnesota winter…only to be greeted by unseasonably cold weather there. O well, we had a good time. 😉

When we arrived in the Tampa (TMP) airport we were greeted by an oversized (floor to ceiling!) pink flamingo. His long pink legs and long pink neck bending down to the ground was fantastic.

In Dunedin, Florida there is an outdoor mural of dogs painted on a building in the downtown area. It takes up two outside walls of the building (one was in the shade and too dark for a photo). The artist called for photos from dog owner’s and then painted the mural depicting everyone’s dogs for all to enjoy.

Also in Florida, there was a well-done public shell exhibit close to the beach. I appreciated the collector’s willingness to educate the public on all the different types of shells found in the area.

Inedible, exquisitely decorated, layer cake.

Inside a restaurant, for all who entered to enjoy, was a tall, beautiful layer cake made of costume, sparkly jewelry. People come up with very creative ideas. 

There was a sweet picture in a coffee shop’s public bathroom. A framed print someone probably found just to fill a space on the wall, but this simple piece spoke to me that day. It felt like an invitation to a tea party. 

And finally, just the other day we went for a walk in the unseasonable 54* warm weather, along the Cannon River in Northfield. There, new to us (how long has it been there???) was another mural painted on a bridge abutment. There were several beautiful nature scenes.

The credit was only listed @surfaceofbeauty. What I could glean from online was the artist is Natasha May Platt, @surface of beauty, a floral mural artist…from New York!

We so enjoyed the public artwork of lovely floral and fauna paintings that bring hope for spring. 

I plan to continue to look for different public artworks that speak to me. May you enjoy looking for all the public artworks in your ordinary days.

Quotes & Artworks

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love; it will not lead you astray.”
                Rumi 1207-1273
“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” 
                Robin Williams
“Have I gone mad?” asked the Mad Hatter
“I’m afraid so,” replied Alice
“You’re entirely bonkers, but I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”
                 Lewis Carroll

Somehow these quotes speak to me of enjoying wonders of ordinary living. Living with abandon and paying attention to all that surrounds us.

One of a “nide” of pheasants that gather in the field in back of our house.
I learned a group of pheasants are called a nide.

I do love nature…oh so much. Recently I have enjoyed seeing up to 15 pheasants in the field behind our house. There is so much beauty in nature, and its proven to help our mental acuity when we stop to appreciate it.

Then there are made-made public artworks. I’ve taken more notice in the past few weeks as I’ve tried to be more in tune with my surroundings.

I had an appointment at the Park Nicollet Clinic in Burnsville recently. It is a fairly large facility so there is some walking involved to get from the parking garage, through the covered walkway into the building. There is a wall of posters hanging in the entry hallway. Many people walk on right by this display…I have before. But once I noticed the posters, I enjoyed looking at different Minnesota lakes on this cold winter day, when the lakes are frozen over now.

I’m posting four of the eight posters depicting different lakes in Minnesota.

As I stood admiring them an employee walked by and said to me, “I claim this one” pointing to the Lake of the Woods poster. I replied, “OK, I’ll take the Lake Superior poster.”

I took notice of several other works of arts on display throughout the clinic that day.

Other public artworks that caught my attention these past few weeks were huge (approx. 4 feet X 8 feet) photos printed on metal and posted along an antique store parking lot in Mantorville, of all places…

Rio Grande No. 5771
Photo by Brian Hindal, a local Mantorville resident.

Each photo is taken by a local person with a description next to the photo. There were ten huge photos and a variety of subjects… I’ve included three favorites…

Americana
Photo by Cory Ingram, a local photographer, writer, fisherman, and physician.
Sunflower
Photo by Annemieke van der Werff

These public artworks are a wonderful way to display local artists and create a warm and welcoming space…even in parking lots!

Also, there is a wonderful exhibit on display at the MSP airport, entitled The Felt Menagerie;

The bird is all made of felt…flowers, feathers, feet and beak.

A collection of unusual creatures by Dustin Black.

Felt fish and felt pebbles.

These pieces were so whimsical. They made me smile…and made me marvel at the work involved using all felt material.

Whimsical felt fishes.

Once you start looking…it’s amazing what you see all around on ordinary days.

More public artworks to be continued…

Quotes

The dawning of a new day….7:32 am, January 15, 2026

“To begin, begin”   

and

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

Both quotes are from William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

These two quotes resonate with me as a writer. I call myself a writer loosely…I like to write and I write, therefore I am a writer. Maybe not a great one, but it is a creative outlet for me.

Sometimes I get stuck…and I’m feeling that way now. But many “successful” writers offer the same advice as Wordsworth…To begin, begin. Just begin to starting writing. And it usually works…words flow!

My friend, who is a very good writer, expresses herself succinctly all the time, even during times of trials, and she finds it therapeutic. I also find writing therapeutic, to “fill my paper with the breathings of my heart” and sometimes that means to vent frustrations, but I do it for myself and not for others to read. 

And that’s where I’m at during these turbulent days we’re experiencing in Minnesota, with killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE. I felt the need to post something on my blog…as to why I’m not posting something on my blog. 😉

I’m taking a break…just for a short while.

Little Free Sled Libraries

When we moved from our house of 30 years into a one-level (no basement) twin home we had to downsize. It was a good exercise, but it’s hard to do unless you are actually going to move. You need to ask yourself about everything you own, “Do I really want to move this item?”  When we came to our old sled we decided “Yes, we would take it with us. We do use it occasionally, for sledding with the grandkids, or pulling our winter picnic supplies.”

When our grandkids came down a couple weeks ago, we decided it would be a great day to go sledding. We went to out to the garage to get our sled, but couldn’t find it. “It must be hidden behind storage boxes on the high shelf in the garage.”

Since we were all excited to take on this sledding adventure, I was happy I remembered seeing a Little Free Sled Library at the hill where we were going to go. The sled library works like Little Free (book) Libraries. You borrow one or two sleds and put them back when you are done using them, for the next person who may need a sled. 

We bundled up and crawled into the car and went to check out the Little Free Sled Library in hopes there were some sleds available. I was grateful when I saw there were three of them in the box for us to use. An added benefit was we had the hill to ourselves. We had a lot of fun sledding down the hill…even this old grandma went down a few times (the hardest part is getting back up the hill!)

I’m delighted the Little Free Sled Library has been set up here in Northfield…Isn’t this what community is all about? Sharing our resources? I’m so happy others shared their sleds for us to use this day so we could create memories with our grandchildren.

Bookshelf of Northfield Authors

There’s a new public art work display in Northfield, at the former site of the Archer House, called a “Bookshelf of Northfield Authors.”

I’m not sure when this art display was installed. I read a short blurb about it, dated December 10, after I noticed it driving down Division Street.

Fun magical characters, created by the artist, are featured throughout.
Steve Grove’s book is on this panel published in 2024, along with Giants of the Earth O.E. Rölvaag published in 1927.

I’m not sure how long the display will stay up, but it is a clever display and fun to see.

Pat Foley, our sons high school cross country coach, published a book on The History of Northfield High School Cross Country.
Sharon Henry’s Gone Fishing
Mary Bleckwhel’s Fetching Dreams

The artwork is on banners hanging along the fence at the former Archer House site. It’s 170′ long, with 17 smaller murals.

Fun characters throughout…

The mural depicts over 100 titles including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s books all by Northfield authors.

Reading out loud, in a tent or under a tree?

It also features “the artist’s magical characters” throughout the display. The Latino artist’s name is Rocky Casillas Aquirre.

A History of the Northfield Public Library
Kelly Johnson’s Once Upon a Tom

It is a nice to stroll along the sideway to pursue the pictures and find names of writers one knows, and their book titles.

Ben Percy’s Red Moon
Historian Jeff Sauve has written several books.

It’s a clever and delightful way to celebrate these hometown authors.

(There are additional panels to see. I did not include all the photos.)