The surest sign of fall is the end of the Minnesota State Fair. With perfect temps and blue skies, the fair set a new attendance record this year. Living just a few blocks away from the fairgrounds has its good and bad — lots of car traffic, people everywhere, the sounds of the shows at the Grandstand, and the fireworks every night. Now the neighborhood returns to its usual routine, and we slide into fall. Already there are spots of color in some of the trees. The temperatures slide a little bit cooler in the evenings, and the sun has lost its intensity. The Canada geese are flying again, cruising over our rooftop as they commute between the agricultural fields at the university and Como Lake. The summer flowers are fading and the fall mums are evident in gardens and on entry steps. This morning the children were standing at bus stops waiting for their first day back at school. All the familiarities that tell us the seasons have changed.
Minnesota
Concord grape harvest
The end of August signals the start of harvest time for many fruits and vegetables. Our small garden has done well, yielding a bounty of cherry tomatoes and fragrant and delicious basil. But over this past weekend we harvested concord grapes. Our one large vine gave us way more grapes than I’d ever imagined. Their sweet scent filled the kitchen as we worked. They are a beautiful color when picked, yet once they are squeezed and the seeds removed, their juice is a rich, deep maroon color. As careful as we were, our hands took on this same color and smell. We now have a scrumptious concord grape sorbet in the freezer, and a collection of freezer jam waiting for us to unleash the smell of late summer when the winter snow is falling.
The things we overlook
How often do we start out to do one thing and end up with something else? And how often do we overlook what’s right in front of us? We headed out a bit before sunrise this morning for Wild River State Park. This is a large Minnesota state park located on the St. Croix River. My intent was to photograph the wildflowers that bloom in the restored prairie in the park. As we’re driving along the edge of the prairie, my eyes were seeing some unusual white “flowers” — they seemed to have a tuft at the top. They certainly didn’t appear to be anything I recognized, but I was intrigued enough to stop and look further. Upon closer examination I realized that these weren’t flowers at all. The early morning dew was undisturbed by wind and sun, and it was decorating the cobwebs that had been woven between the dried flower heads and stems. And once I looked through the camera lens further, these intricate dew drops almost appeared to have been “strung” along the web, with a small eyelet on each one. As I photographed I was thinking of how grateful I was to have been curious enough to stop the car and look closely at what I was seeing from a distance. How much easier it would have been to have said “no wildflowers here” and continued down the road. How sad it would have been to miss the wonder and beauty that was there for that small window of time before the wind blew and the sun dried the dew.
Water and sky
One of the joys of living in the upper Midwest is the ability to see “forever.” The sky is large and the vistas can go on forever. And in Minnesota (land of 10,000+ lakes), we have the wonderful opportunity to see the sky reflected in our beautiful lakes. Last week we put our canoe in one of the local lakes. It had been a day of thunderstorms and rain, but the clouds seemed to part and go around the lake. A warm summer’s evening, a bit of dinner, and a paddle on the lake is a great way to relax. Then add to that a beautiful sky, and summer is wonderful!
Fort Snelling Civil War weekend
I spent a few hours at historic Fort Snelling yesterday during their Civil War Weekend. The old fort sits high on a bluff where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers come together. Originally set up to protect the fur trade in the northern wilderness, it was also used to train the 24,000 Minnesota soldiers who fought in the Civil War as well as the US-Dakota War. On this weekend the Fort was filled with members of the Living History Society of Minnesota (www.lhamn.org). This photograph was taken during an infantry demonstration on the parade ground. It struck a deep chord with me: through the lens I saw a young boy, accompanied by men of all ages, preparing for war. I have a dear friend whose daughter is presently in Baghdad. I also have a friend whose son was recently killed in Iraq, and I can only sympathize with the mothers and fathers who have lost sons and daughters due to war throughout the centuries. I wish for the safe return of our brave soldiers.
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