Playing Around

This is the result when a child plays around with my iMac!  Cute, isn't she?

My environment!

 I would have a very hard time living anywhere permanently which is not close to water.  I love the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. It's both primal and part of my genetic code!

Camera Critters- Hitching a Ride

T

The horse drawn wagons have been very popular at the Farmers' Market this past summer.  Interesting that most of the riders are adults, rather than children!

Added later: Originally I had posted these photos on October 1, forgetting  about Theme Day, but I soon switched the post to today.  Sorry if you already saw this last week when it was briefly posted.  But the horses certainly are worth viewing again...beautiful animals!

Click here to see more critters.

More Swedish Dancers

A few more of the 30 Swedish dancers that performed  in Stockholm, Wi last Saturday night.

Swedish Dancers

On our sunny Saturday road trip down the Mississippi we discovered these dancers in Stockholm, WI. The Nivren Folkdansgille are from Sundsvall, Sweden and the  30 musicians and dancers were scheduled to perform Swedish folkdances and sing, as well as discuss their costumes. They even were going to teach some of the dances! At the outdoor square they gave us a sample of what was in store that evening.  I wanted to join them at their free potluck performance but we were on our way back to St. Paul.  I felt a bit cheated that we missed it.  

ABC Wednesday-L-: Louise Erdrich's Birchbark Bookstore

Susan is the manager of the Birchbark Bookstore, which is owned by writer Louise Erdrich (pronounced: errd-rick). Close to Lake Calhoun,  it is nestled in a neighborhood next door to a cafe. Very convenient for book and coffee lovers. If you are a Twin Cities resident, take yourself over there to meet Susan who is an animated booklover who wants to help customers make connections to books they might love. If you're lucky, Louise might be there. The necklace Susan is wearing and which I admired comes from Santo Domingo Pueblo midway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM. Another "small world" experience since I just attended the Pueblo's Annual Arts and Craft Fair in September. The earrings I bought at that very same Pueblo are not quite as spectacular as Susan's necklace. Alas!  But I walked out of the bookstore with books!  To see more ABC Wednesday photographs, go here!

Lovely to Look At...ABC WEDNESDAY "L"

Marge Lindemann from Cumberland, WI taught emotionally disturbed teen-agers for 25 years but had no time to do art. After she retired she has been making originally designed garments, scarves and wall pieces from hand painted and dyed silk for the past 9 years. I met her in an art store in Stockholm, Wi where she was demonstrating her art-in-progress on a silk scarf with an autumn leaf motif. She has outlets for her work in several Wisconsin towns, including Algoma, a Lake Michigan hamlet in Kewaunee County which happened also to be the small town where I was born. Small world! 


To see more "L's" at ABC WEDNESDAY, go here.

Seamus Heaney

On Sunday afternoon, October 2, I was more than delighted to hear my favorite poet, Irishman Seamus Heaney, read to a full auditorium at St. Benedict's College in St. Joseph, MN. I had heard him before at the original Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in 1996 and knew that it was an event not to be missed. Currently the new Guthrie Theatre is performing The Burial at Thebes, Heaney's poetic adaptation of Antigone. Internationally known and honored with multiple awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature,  Heaney is probably the most important living poet in the world.

Mystery Object identified!

While waiting on the third floor of St. Joseph's hospital in downtown St. Paul, I leaned over the open balcony and saw the information desk on the first floor and a visitor ascending the staircase to the second floor. Eureka!  I found the mystery object I posted yesterday.  Because of the distance from the stairs to the camera, you really couldn't see the risers on each step, David was the first to think they could be stairs but clever Jacob figured it out for sure.

OOPS! Almost forgot about THEME DAY-MYSTERY OBJECT!

This is really too easy!  Tomorrow I'll show you the object in its original location!  Have some fun and go over to the other blogs with mystery objects. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Signs of Fall

Good Question!

He leads the way.

ABC WEDNESDAY -K- A Kid, a Mom, and a Horse

I wonder who is more interested in the horse..Mom or the Kid?

To see more "K's" on ABC Wednesday, go here!

Trimming Trees

An entrepreneur!

This young balloon woman offered some amusing advice.

A Pied Piper

There are always musicians and music at the St. Paul Farmers' Market.  Yesterday was the first time  I saw a musician involve the children in a square dance to the delight of onlookers.  He looked like he and the kiddies and the children were enjoying themselves!!

Camera Critters-Quite a Surprise

After exiting my house, I was surprised to see this critter on one of the hanging baskets, and it didn't move nor fly away despite my movement.  When I got too ambitious and tried to remove the dead leaf so that the photo would be more attractive, the critter flew away.  It was a pleasant surprise to see this beautiful creature.   To see more camera critters, click here.

A Matter of Choice

I think that I like my boots far more!!

What on earth is this?!

Medical technician, gentle Margaret,  posed in "The Chamber of Horrors" for me.   I felt that it was my civic duty to give the male members of CDP a peek into a technical advance endured by women who take their health seriously.  Don't know what it is?  Ask a female!

Check the coffee cup to understand the platform and top shelf which can be lowered and lowered!

Where Am I ??

Looks like Santa Fe in the winter

But . . .

It's really St. Paul in the fall!!

A Candid Snap

A stealth shot may not be open and above board

but

it produces the best unposed snapshots!

Knitters

 Many hands make quick work!  At one of the local cafes a group of women meet once a week to knit together and compare notes...about knitting, life, families. . .

A Bridge to the Island-Sunday Bridges

This bridge on St. Kate's campus goes to a small island where my children spent many happy hours as they were growing up, playing in the pond and watching the turtles and ducks.


Go here to see more Sunday Bridges!

Camera Critters at Gabe's

Gabe's is a local watering hole and the place to be if you're a Green Bay Packer football fan who lives in St. Paul.  Instead of cheering for the Vikings during football season, these fans gather together among their friends in a supportive environment, surrounded by like-minded Packer fans.  It gets particularly raucous if the opponent is the Vikings. I wonder if those Angus Burgers will be the same price during the games? To see more Camera Critters, click here.

Kati and Cath

Although this was not a happy occasion because it was the funeral of a very close friend, who happened to be the godmother of Kati and the Mother of Cath, it was good to see the two young women together again.  Our families spent many happy days and evenings with one another over the years, and like many events like this, we all got together to reminisce.

Art Fair

The Bearing of

An African Queen

ABC Wednesday-"I" Incredible Car!

What can I say?!

To see more ABC WEDNESDAY posts, click here.

ABC Wednesday-"I" Innocent Childhood

Three little girls sitting on the curb at the St. Paul Farmers' market, probably waiting for the horse and carriage ride.

To see more ABC WEDNESDAY posts, go here.

Flight 93-9/11, 2001

Two years ago I drove to Fort Snelling Cemetery to pay homage to the men and women who are buried there.  I watched a very moving burial ceremony of a recently fallen serviceman and walked around to see  the headstones in the newest section of the cemetery. I found Tom Burnett's headstone,  who was on board Flight 93 on that fateful day and who was one of the passengers who attempted to take control of the airplane away from the hijackers after learning what was occurring in New York and Washington, D.C.  Last night I watched an interview with his parents on one of the local television broadcasts. 

 Ten years does not wash away the sorrow. 

Happy Birthday, Max !

I met these two beautiful people yesterday so Max and I could celebrate our birthdays which occur today! Both Max and Jill were students of mine when they were in high school; after they graduated in 2003, I briefly lost touch with them, but followed Max's academic and professional career off and on.  So delighted that he and Jill are now "a romantic number."  Couldn't have happened to two nicer people.

Home Again #2--Sigh!

Since I returned home on Thursday, I haven't had an opportunity to do any photo shoots, so I snapped this artificial flower that was behind our booth during our late afternoon snack yesterday.  Even though I love my city, it's not as easy to find interesting subjects and images here as it was in Santa Fe...how I miss it already...sigh!!  Off to the Farmers' Market now to replenish the larder--perhaps that will lift my spirits!

Home Again!

         Well, I'm home again, folks.  I didn't use any of these public-rentable bikes that have appeared all over the city this summer, but I got back just in time to watch the Packers (MY team) defeat New Orleans.  My flight back was bittersweet: glad to be with my family but so sad to leave Santa Fe...that magical, wonderful place! I won't have many St. Paul photos for awhile, but feel free to visit me at at my Santa Fe blog where I will still be posting for a little bit longer since I still have snaps I wish to share.  Thanks to those of you who followed me on that blog while I was there.