SkyWatch Friday in St. Paul

55Two views around Como Lake this week66

Up until yesterday we've had blue skies and sunshine in St. Paul. Then storms arrived, including tornadoes in downtown Minneapolis and east of St. Paul with much attendant rain today. Wildflowers have flourished along the lakes as well as much green algae atop which makes the ducks and geese happy. These are my SkyWatch Views for this week.

In a more wooded area around Snail Lake I found another rustic bench to add to Rune's Friday bench postings. Visit him here.

E is for feathered friends

E is the letter du jour for ABC Wednesday, Round 5. My E offerings are birds of a feather: eagles from the National Eagle Center in Wabasha and Snowy Egrets on the lakes near my home.

Visit more ABC Wednesday friends to see what E's they have up their sleeve.

Happy Wednesday!

SkyWatch Friday

Sailboat launch on White Bear Lake on any given summer day. . .my [blue] sky view this week.

See more worldwide skies at SkyWatch Friday here.

Happy Friday!

sitters unite

A bright new round of ABC Wednesday has begun and is graced by a new logo. Today the letter B is star. From a local park near my home in Minnesota I bring you the lowly bench. Benches usually reside out-of-doors yet never complain about weather, graffiti artists, heavy weights or being lovingly etched. Some are tucked away so far into the woods that they never become quite as sun bleached as others. [Fellow blogger Rune has been so taken by benches in his Norway that he is posting a new photo each Friday or thereabouts. Fellow bench-lovers visit him here.] Benches have history and some have great stories to tell. But I'm anthropomorphising digressing.

Visit Mrs Nesbitt the friendly host of ABC Wednesday here.

Y

'sitting on the shore'

I've been reading the latest book of poetry by my favorite poet, Mary Oliver called Evidence. Her active observations of nature in her amazing voice without fail make me long to be outdoors. At the very least, she makes my heart sing. My favorite so far:

Almost a Conversation

I have not really, not yet, talked with otter
about his life.

He has so many teeth, he has trouble
with vowels.

Wherefore our understanding
is all body expression--

he swims like the sleekest fish,
he dives and exhales and lifts a trail of bubbles.
Little by little he trusts my eyes
and my curious body sitting on the shore.

Sometimes he comes close.
I admire his whiskers
and his dark fur which I would rather die than wear.

He has no words, still what he tells about his life
is clear.
He does not own a computer.
He imagines the river will last forever.
He does not envy the dry house I live in.
He does not wonder who or what it is that I worship.
He wonders, morning after morning, that the river
is so cold and fresh and alive, and still
I don't jump in.

Y

red in my neighborhood

Erica and a bit of her red [favorite color] umbrella as she walks the red brick sidewalks in Georgetown.

Bright reds of Impatiens gracefully circling this lovely front porch in a St. Paul neighborhood--note the tree is full of deep red crab apples too. A timely reminder from another neighborhood, in red and turquoise. To my eyes it doesn't get any better than that.

Celebrate Tuesday by visiting Mary's cheerful meme Ruby Tuesday.

Y

history repeats itself

A is for Ancestors, in particular the Adams' ancestors in the photo below. This is [husband] baby Dave in the middle with his father Donald and his mother Vieno in front of their little house in the mining town of Mullan, Idaho circa 1950.

Take a good look at Vieno and then at the young man in the photo below. I literally stumbled upon this over the weekend and bought it because something in their faces was so dear and appealing. The young couple's photo was taken in Phelps, Minnesota, which is in the northwestern part of the state near Fergus Falls, by a photographer, possibly Finnish, named Sneva. Turns out that area was originally settled by a great deal of immigrants from Finland and Sweden. Dave's mother is full Finn and at closer inspection I thought I saw a slight resemblance to the her and the young man. Possibly related?

Probably not. . .but who knows?

This is the beginning of Year Three, Round Five of ABC Wednesday hosted by Mrs Nesbitt. Stop by to earn an easy A!

Y