My wishes for you this holiday season: a feeling of wonder at the beauty around us, an appreciation of the family and friends we hold dear, a remembrance of those people no longer in our lives physically, and a sense of joy and happiness kept within our hearts not only during the holidays but each and every day too. Merry Christmas!
snow
A week’s slide into winter
Our landscape that was brown and cold last week has been transformed into winter. Daytime temperatures in the single digits, subzero temps at night, and snow have brought the look and feel of winter. Ponds and lakes that were previously frozen with clear ice are now covered with snow, and are once again being populated with fish houses. The ducks and geese have all headed south in search of open water. And we are learning again how to drive in ice and snow. How quickly this seasonal change has taken place!
Bonsai garden opening
This weekend was the grand opening of the Ordway Gardens at Como Park. The new addition to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory allows for the viewing of one of North America’s top ten public collections of bonsai. After a seven-inch snowfall on Thursday into Friday, the opening took on a non-springlike look. How unusual to see a Ponderosa Pine bonsai with snow at its base! It seemed a true testament to the hardiness and the beauty of bonsai. And with the conservatory dome reflecting in the glass panel behind the tree it was a perfect representation of the beauty and the specialness of the conservatory and the new gardens.
A weekend on the North Shore
Last weekend we decided to go to the North Shore of Lake Superior. We left the Twin Cities Saturday morning in rain, drove through the fog and into the sunshine in Duluth, and drove along the shore to 50 degree temps. We were looking for a unique place to spend the night and found the perfect spot – the Two Harbors Lighthouse Station. Neither of us had spent the night in a lighthouse, and this was the perfect time. This lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior, with the first lighting in April, 1892. The area was a major shipping point for iron ores and the lighthouse was crucial in providing safe passage into Agate Bay Harbor. A keeper in residence was assigned to the lighthouse until 1981 when the Coast Guard fully automated the station. Fourteen years ago the Lake County Historical Society opened the residence as a bed and breakfast, and a unique and wonderful one! Saturday night, as we came “home” to the lighthouse with a sky-full of stars sparkling above, it was easy to imagine what life was like a century ago. On Easter morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and noticed that the sky was fluctuating between sunshine and snow showers. Spring is fickle this year, and especially in northern Minnesota. When we left the lighthouse we drove inland on county backgrounds, going in and out of the snow squalls, reminding ourselves that spring will be arriving. Eventually.
Winter sun and shadow play
We headed out before dawn to Willow River State Park, located just outside of Hudson, Wisconsin. The temperature was a cold 9 degrees, but the eastern horizon was beginning to glow so we knew we’d have a bit of sunshine to warm us up. At one time the Willow River was used to operate mills for grinding grain, and later logs were driven down the river to Lake St. Croix. Today, in the cold of a winter’s morning, the area was quiet. We arrived early enough to observe whitetail deer that were starting to rise after being bedded down for the night. We saw an eagle soar overhead. And the snow all around was animated by the sun. Any small hills were accentuated and visible by their shadows, and where these small flower stems were standing tall through the snow they shed their shadows too across the white landscape. The sun caused the ice in the snow to sparkle as if it was filled with a thousand diamonds. It was a wonderful time to explore a new area and see all that offered up to us.
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