Swingers

Jody and I hit the lake again this afternoon. We had a moment of whimsy and had to try out the swings.

Unfortunately, we both have issues with motion sickness, so that didn't last long.  Not to mention that my butt doesn't fit the sling quite the same way it did when I was eight! 

We caught a woodpecker attacking the old concession stand.  He's doing quite a job on it.

I love that so many of the birds around here are not the least bit afraid of humans.  So much easier to take their pictures! 

The Minneapolis high schools were holding a cross country meet.  I was heard to yell "Go Teddies" at one point. Well, not really yell, but I did say it out loud.  And, for my dear daughter (who went to South, but we love her anyway) I did "think" to myself "Tigers, Tigers, Mighty, Mighty Tigers", when a few of their team ran by.  She was a cheerleader at South, so I have a lot of their cheers permanently stuck in my brain from her constant practicing, though I can usually pull up a Roosevelt cheer from deep within my memory and drown out the Tiger chants.

Southwest and Washburn were running too.  I didn't notice Edison or North there, but I wasn't really looking for them.

Just a side note - neither Jody nor I have seen Speedo Man since spring.  We've been a little worried about him.  Well maybe not worried, but wondering.  Has anyone seen him?  He's been such a reglar fixture for a long time.  Hope he's okay.  Maybe's he's just been wearing clothes and we don't recognize him?  

Three Days For The Price of One

I had a lovely walk with Jody on Thursday.  It was a bit chilly and a little windy, but we survived.  I had to put my gloves on part way around.  I felt like such a wimp.   Gotta get used to the cooler weather sooner or later.   The brightly colored yellow, orange, and red trees of last week are mostly bare now, but there are very, very many trees that still are green.  They probably will lose their leaves before they ever change color.  

There was one lonely sailboat left on the lake....

But,  come Friday when I walked, that was gone too.

On Thursday, Jody and I noticed about 20 robins all hanging out together.  I've never seen robins in groups before.  Do they migrate in groups, even though they seem pretty solitary during the spring and summer?  On Friday I noticed them again.  There were about 15 or 20 on the south shore, hanging out on the shoreline and in the trees.  I saw two more large groups like this in other areas around the lake. 

I'm so glad I don't have to rake all this!

As much as I hate the thought of winter coming, as much as I complained about the end of summer back in August, as much as I love the beauty of the fresh new greens of spring, and the bright flowers of summer,  I really do love fall here in Minnesota. 

Bird food!

On Friday when I stopped at the Little Beach to take a "fall" shot of my favorite willows, these characters came swimming toward me.......

Then the brave one of the group came up onto the beach to check me out.

I'd noticed a duck or two at each of the beaches over the summer, walking amongst the sunbathers.  They're quite tame, and apparently used to handouts.  I only had my latte from Nokomis Beach Coffee, and I'm pretty sure that's not what she was looking for.

The other two weren't as curious, they kept their distance.

Today, I went down to Carver, Minnesota to see my knitting friend Sarah.  Her family lives in a very old former hotel in this historic river town.  She, and our friend Tamara, have started an "occasional" shop (only open occasionally), called Temperance Arts and Gifts,  and I brought a few things down  that I hope to sell there.  There are hand knit and crocheted items, jewelry, one of a kinds, some clothing, antiques and other pieces of interest.  There are other occasional shops and antique shops in town.  If you get down there, check it out.  http://www.facebook.com/TempranceArtsAndGifts?ref=stream was most interested in the Minnesota River, which is just over the levee that runs along the side of their home.

The red building is theirs.  The heavy equipment belongs to the town. Not an ideal parking place.  The little steam boat? Maybe a way to float out of town if the levee is ever breached.  Sarah told us that Justin's Grandmother's diaries say that when the river flooded (before the levee), they would just move to the second floor and tie a boat outside a window to use when they needed  to go anywhere.

There's a nice walking trail along the top of the levee.

This is the river side of the levee, looking up.  Pretty woods - Sarah & Justin's land.  I would have spent more time down here, but it's a rainy day.

This is looking up river.  All that land  in the foreground is usually riverbed.  See the high land across the river on the left?  That's about how high I was on this side of the river, which is the normal shoreline.

Looking down river.  There are hundreds of trees that have piled up here from previous floods.  A driftwood graveyard.  I'm standing on what would be a normal shoreline, you can see how it drops off here.  It's a very beautiful area, and I hope to get down here for more photo ops.  Maybe that will be something to do next year?  River towns on the Minnesota?  My folks lived in Henderson, MN,  up river from here, the first few years they were married.  They ran a restaurant there called the Red Feather, and Mom also had a beauty shop in the back of Bender's Drug Store.  I remember tales they told of the river rising up almost to the door of their place.  Henderson has a levee now too, and I think a flood gate.  I've never been farther up river than New Ulm, my dad's hometown.  I just might have to go exploring next summer.

I noticed right away how young the trees were down here.  You can appreciate the damage that spring  flooding does. The bigger trees are all down.  They don't get to grow for 50, 60, 70 years or more here.  They barely get established and then, BAM!  Major flooding.  The power of Mother Nature!

I have more pictures from Friday, part of my "what I wanted to write about over the summer but never got around to" series.  Maybe tomorrow.

No Words Necessary.........

What I Meant To Write About This Summer - Part I

It dawned on me today, as I realized autumn is really here, that I didn't  take pictures of and  write about all the things I had planned to this summer.  I had grand plans.  I didn't make it to the Monarch Festival.  I didn't get down for any of the many (way to many if you ask the people who live next to the lake) running, biking, swimming, streets closed again, hundreds of cars parked everywhere, lots and lots of people cheering, type of events.  The last one I'm not so worried about - there's sure to be several more before the snow flies.

What was I going to write about?  I was going to write about the summers of my youth.  How it used to be.

WOW!  I just read that last bit and I thought "Holy crap Lisa, do you ever sound old!  Might as well tell everyone that you had a pet dinosaur when you were a kid."   But, since most of my readers appear to be old classmates, and a teacher or two, well, you're all old too and I bet you  tell similar stories to anyone who will listen.  So here comes a memory............This is one of my earliest memories of independent exploration down here.  Sure Mom and Dad brought us down swimming when we were little,  but I was about 8 or 9 when I started coming down here without an adult. Not by myself of course, but with a couple of neighbor girls.  You may remember when I talked about My Two Linda's?  Well there was a third Linda.   She lived across the street from Linda #1 and I.  I'll call her Linda #3.  She was about 3 years older than we were, but let us hang around with her all the time.  I got to see puppies being born at her house - I'll never forget that.  This particular summer Linda #1 and I were allowed to go with her to the lake.  We discovered a neat little hideaway, a great place to play make believe. Remember when kids did that?  

This is the little creek bed that comes off the lagoon.  Pretty dry right now.  I'm taking this picture from the bridge that crosses it.   Back then, the bridge was a little closer to that teeny little puddle in the center of the picture, though I'm not exactly sure where - it was a long time ago after all.  But, that summer there was water, and there was a little dirt  island that we could get to by climbing through the slats of the bridge.  We probably could have jumped from the bank to the island, but we were kids, we didn't know how deep it was, or in this case wasn't.  There weren't many people walking around the lake back then, so we rarely saw anyone all day.  We'd pack lunch and and head out.  We'd spend a good part of the day there.  We  named our island.  Antler Island.  I think we found a branch that looked like an antler.  We built a barricade around our island with branches, and made it a fortress.  Of course we made up all kinds of stories about our island.  We had a grand time.  Boys weren't the only ones that had adventures with pirates or other villains.   One day when we went down to play we found that our island had been invaded.  Someone had taken our barricade down.  Someone "found" our secret spot.   Antler Island lost it's appeal.  It wasn't ours anymore.  I don't think we went back after that.   It just wasn't the same. 

OOPS #3

This one didn't capsize like the first two, it actually went down.

Met Jim the Fisherman.  I took his picture, and then I asked if I could take his picture.  I'm sneaky that way!

He put on his trusty fishing hat and then let me take a couple more shots.  He's a photographer.  I hate to hear that, since I'm not.  But, I took a couple more pictures and promised that I'd e-mail them to him, and I will.  Hope he's not too disappointed.

I prefer the first picture - when he wasn't aware, and with his tackle box and  the dock in the shot.

We had a nice visit.  He told me he'd been in the neighborhood for 45 years.  I didn't care to admit that I had him beat by 10!

I didn't ask permission.  They never even knew I  was there.

The water has cleared up again with the cooler weather.  The clarity I've seen most of this year amazes me.  I remember the water always looking like pea soup.  We swam in it anyway.  It's just the way it was.

This GTO brought back a lot of old memories too.  And, it was something else I had wanted to write about this summer.  Muscle cars.  Cruising the lake.  And, I will write about those memories too, but not today. 

Seasons Change And So Do I

A few weeks ago I was griping about summer winding down, about how blue I get when I notice the days are starting to get shorter, when the leaves on the trees start looking old and tired, knowing that in a few short months we will have winter.   But, fortunately, those feelings are short lived.  Even thought tomorrow is the last day of summer, I am enjoying the changing weather.  It's good sleeping weather.  Boy, do I sound more and more like my Mom!   But it is.  Cool enough at night that you need to pull a blanket up to your chin, but warm enough during that day that you can still wear short sleeves.   Transition days.  You need a jacket in the morning on your way to work, but, it's so nice in the afternoon when it's time to go home that you forget it there and then come morning, no jacket.  I've done that three days this week so far. 

I did pull some old friends out of the back of my closet yesterday.  I'm a jeans kind of gal.  I love wearing jeans.  But, since I can't wear them to work, except on rare occasions, I wear cords a lot during the cooler weather.   I wore a pair yesterday, and it was like finding an old friend.  I was so happy and comfortable.  I know it sounds silly, but I think just about everyone has something in their wardrobe that they love to wear more than anything.  Even more than my jeans, I love my corduroys.  And, I love sweaters.  Sweaters and cords go together so well.  My sweaters are ready and waiting, but it will have to get pretty cold before I pull them out.  I do have a fall-ish vest on my needles that should be done soon, and I can wear it during this transition time.  I also have a nice cardigan that I finished this past spring, but haven't worn yet.  It will be perfect with cords, or dress pants.   I'm ready for the change.  Change is good.

I was able to walk with Jody today after work.  It's been weeks.  She was busy, then I was busy, then she was, and well, we finally connected.   Hopefully we can get back to walking together more regularly again.
 

OOPS #2.  What's with the capsized boats?

The leaves are starting to turn.

There was a flock of geese at the Big Beach today that fascinated us.  They were all doing somersaults.  Really.  Somersaults!  Neither of us had ever seen this before.  We assumed that they were cleaning themselves, rubbing their backs on the sandy bottom when they flipped over.

I don't think anyone else really even noticed.  No one stopped to watch like we did.  They all just kept walking by.

Lots of fluffy clouds and bright blue sky.  Beautiful day for a walk.

There's been some work going on along the creek over the past week or two. A new dam has been built to keep the creek from flowing into the lake.  A few years ago they put an inflatable "bladder"  here to keep the creek water out.  They did it to clean up the water quality of the lake.  Now they've built this dam.  Looks like there will be a gate, probably to let water out of the lake if it gets too high,  not to let the creek in.

Minnehaha Creek is just about bone dry.  Did they close the dam at Lake Minnetonka so they could do the dam building, or is it dry due to the lack of rain?  

Always something interesting to see around here when your eyes are open. 

Enjoy the last day of summer tomorrow!