Owls – Valerie's Voice

Southeastern Minnesota is a beautiful part of our state. Recently we drove through green forested, rolling hills, along winding roads, dotted with small farms and small towns, to a cute, little camping cabin in a state park for a camping weekend.

One of the small towns we passed through was Houston, population 979. It is the trailhead for the Root River State Trail. The recreational trail (bicycles, walkers, runners) begins in Houston and has 42 miles of paved trail that leads through Lanesboro and on in to Fountain, MN. It connects with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail, which adds an additional 18 miles of paved trails, and makes for a great trail system.

One day we drove to Houston to begin a biking adventure, and during our brief time in Houston we discovered a few interesting things.

First, outside the trail center was a wooden bench carved in the shape of a mother owl spreading her wings over her owlets. It is a beautiful piece of art…and functional art for all to enjoy.

A beautiful carved bench outside the Houston Trail Center building.

Then, right in the back yard of the center as we started down the trail we passed two sandhill cranes in the park. On our way back the cranes were in the same area so we stopped to take photos. Sandhill cranes are big, beautiful, sleek birds and are always a delight to see.

While looking at the cranes we noticed something else in the grass…a sundial of some sort. We quickly found the sign that explained it: an Analemmatic Sundial. We had never seen a “clock” quite like this…

On the ground is a cement square plaque with roman numerals indicating different hours. There is a rectangle plaque within the square with the twelve months etched in certain places. You step on the month and notice where your shadow falls and it indicates the hour of the day….and it was accurate! How does that work?

I had never heard of this word analemmatic. I looked it up and it means: a plot or graph of the position of the sun in the sky at a certain time of day at one locale measured throughout the year.

We enjoyed seeing these different sightings in Houston and we had a great bike ride on this end of the Root River trail.

The modern science building at St. Olaf College.

When I learned the full, “snow moon” this month was a super moon I thought it might be fun to take the grandkids to see the moon from the top of Regent’s Hall at St. Olaf College. Not only would the four flights of stairs give them an outlet for some of their energy, it would be fun to see the view from the top atrium with three walls of windows. We piled in our cars and drove to St. Olaf at the scheduled moonrise time, walked along the winding sidewalk up to the building, and then inside climbed stairs up to the top floor.

4th Floor Atrium at Regent’s Hall, St. Olaf College.

When we reached to 4th floor we looked East but we couldn’t see the moon. What I hadn’t thought of was other buildings being in the way of the moonrise. Argh… However, we went to a different area and were able to see the beautiful moon after it rose.

The grandkids looking at the full moon. It’s always hard to capture the beauty of the moon, especially with an iPhone.

Although we didn’t see what I thought we would see, it was still a fun adventure. There were other displays to look at: several Owls and a large pileated woodpecker in glass cabinets, and a turtle in an aquarium.

In one display case there were a couple pieces of artwork. I particularly liked the one with a lone bird sitting in a tree with peach colored blossoms.

After we walked down the hall to draw on an old-fashion chalkboard for a bit, I came back and noticed a second image in the picture… a woman’s face. It was an optical illusion. Very clever!

The piece on display is credited to a St. Olaf student, Corinne Kieras. She’s a Psychology and Computer Science Major. Her piece is called Nature vs. Nurture. I have included a photo of her artist’s statement.

Tag: Owls

Houston, Minnesota

The Super Moon