The first weekend of “official summer” brought a cold front with temps in the 60’s – hardly feeling like the summer we’ve been hoping for. We were in Duluth to celebrate a friends’ return to Minnesota – a new home and wonderful people to welcome her back. The roads and highways were lined with lupine, standing upright and in full bloom. Colors ranging from deep purple, to lilac, to pink, to white – they were a welcome sight from the clouds and cooler temperatures. But I was most enthralled by the lupines along the shoreline of Lake Superior. With the huge lake in the background and the billowing clouds, the lupines stood tall against the wind and the weather blowing in from the lake.
landscapes
Peony fields
On a brilliant summer’s day we took a drive west of the Twin Cities to Swenson Gardens in Howard Lake, Minnesota. Their gardens were open for their annual Peony Field Days, and the timing was perfect. With warmer temperatures and bright sunshine many of the peonies had come into full bloom. It was a chance to wander and dream and plan for places in our own garden for more of these lovely plants. I especially liked these America peonies – their bright red was a wonderful contract to the green foliage and the blue sky with its puffy clouds.
Blue sky, Blue lake day
The Minnesota fishing opener was this past Saturday, and unlike some previous years the weather was lovely. We headed north to our favorite fishing lake and found an abundance of blue – the sky, and its reflection in the water surrounded us with this beautiful color of spring. Uncharacteristically calm and warm, the boat created the only ripples in the water. It was wonderful to soak in the warmth and the beauty of the day, while we caught our limit of large Northern pike. Saturday became even more perfect as we also headed out on the lake Sunday morning, but this was a much different day. The sky was filled with high clouds, and there was a serious wind from the east. There was no still and calm, no quiet reflection in the water, but rather a heavy chop and even some whitecaps. Sunday merely helped us appreciate even more that blue sky, blue lake day from 24 hours earlier.
The value of serendipity
I was headed somewhere else, took a detour on a gravel road, came to a high point and my eye caught a tall white steeple looming over the farmlands. A u-turn put me in the right direction, and as I pulled into the churchyard another car was pulling in behind me. Ken had just arrived to clean the oldest of the churches, and he graciously told me the history of the site near Nerstrand, Minnesota. The Norwegian community built the original limestone church in 1862, and the white wooden frame church was finished in 1894. Complete with a beautiful pipe organ, it is a simple, sun-drenched sanctuary. The church was decommissioned in 1973, but the Valley Grove Preservation Society has worked tirelessly to restore both churches and acquire many of the acres of land surrounding the site for prairie and oak savanna restoration. The haze of the sky in the photo was from the prairie that was being burned just to the west of the white church. I was delighted to have happened upon this site at the same time that Ken arrived, otherwise I would have missed the inside view and the stories he shared of the history and the efforts by the Preservation Society. I was even able to ring the old church bell and hear it resonate from its old tower. I am looking forward to sharing in the community’s country social in September, and hopefully attending their Christmas Eve service. It was my lucky day for having taken that winding road off my original path to follow the white steeple.
Pasque flowers on the prairie
Yesterday I drove south from the Twin Cities with a photographer friend in search of pasque flowers. The weather was unusually warm, the sunshine was bright, and it was good to catch up with my friend. We arrived at this gravel prairie area and were at first disappointed thinking the flowers were not in bloom yet. But as we looked more closely we could see peeks of flowers amidst the dry prairie grasses. The pasque flowers are only three to four inches tall, so they can easily hide. They start out as little fuzz balls (of which we saw many) and gradually open their petals to the warmth of the sun. Although there will be a larger and showier display with more flowers blooming in the days ahead, it was a delightful evening and a reminder of all the good things that come with spring.
