Getting up to code!

 Deciding to sell one's home to move to smaller living quarters is a BIG STEP. We're not quite ready to make that final decision yet, but we have surveyed our house to make certain that it is up to code. Our back bedroom has a door leading to a roof that is above our first floor 3-season porch.  When we moved in, a wood railing was attached to the roof, but it eventually deteriorated.  Now, thanks to Kent and Bob, we have a sturdy, steel black rail around the perimeter.  I plan to put down an outdoor carpet, add a small table, two chairs and enjoy sunny summer mornings with my coffee and newspaper.  Maybe even a bit of reading in the afternoon while sunning in my bathing suit.

Linking to Good Fences

Wordless Wednesday

Nicole

I recently had occasion to spend some time chatting with this young woman.  Originally from Duluth,  Minnesota, Nicole came to the Twin Cities to attend Concordia College.  After graduating she decided that she liked it enough here to stay.  She found a position at Episcopal Homes in St. Paul as a Marketing Associate at Episcopal Village and has been with them for six years.  Personable and charming, she is an asset to the group!

Great Sale

I will be there when the doors open at 9:30.  No, wait!  I'm supposed to be downsizing!!  Nah! Books don't count!

Church Spires

Oh, my, there was a high of 70 degrees yesterday. We took advantage of the occasion and enjoyed one of our favorite road trips, along the Mississippi River on the pretty Wisconsin side.  St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Prescott, WI caught my eye because of the twin spires. A good choice for a Sunday post, right?!

Minnesota weather

My windshield yesterday morning!

Unbelieveable!

Snow flakes by my Easter Egg tree at 6 P.M. on April 9th.  we were treated to a rain shower that ended up as a light snowfall. I know it will not stay, but ENOUGH ALREADY!!

Good Fences-Mystery "Cottage"

This is an interesting house on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, but I could find nothing on its history.

Linking to Good Fences

Wednesday Dinner

On Wednesday nights for several months during the year, Unity-Unitarian church offers delicious meals that are prepared by volunteers for a nominal fee.  Tonight the menu consisted of roasted steelhead trout with herbs, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, salad and strawberry cheesecake bars. After the meal, diners either went to a brief chapel service or continued socializing at their tables.  Following that, programs included a panel discussion by those who recently traveled to Selma, Alabama, or grounded meditation or a Chinese Board Game.  Students in grades 5-8 had a meditation program of their own.

Year Round Guests

These two rabbits hang around our house all year and they particularly like the Easter season when they are placed on the mantle rather than on the floor by the fireplace where they reside for the rest of the year.  I'm especially fond of them because they are one of the first objects of "art" that I bought in 1962 from the Minneapolis Institute of Art shortly after Jim and I were married.  I should have removed the fading leaf before I took the photo, but my bunny pals don't seem to mind.

Pedicure Palatte

On April Theme Day enough bloggers commented on my red-nailed pedicure, I thought you might like this colorful pedicure palatte created by a friend.

"I had not thought of violets of late,
The wild, shy kind that springs beneath you feet
In wistful April days."
-  Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Birthday: Merle Haggard, 78, Country singer.

Easter Sunday in Savannah

Several years ago we were in Savannah on the week-end of both Passover and Easter so we attended the Sunday celebration at the Roman Catholic Cathedral.  Since this Sunday marks the Christian Easter celebration, I felt that it was appropriate to post this photo and for those of you who celebrate it, I wish you well.

"Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!"
-  Thomas Blackburn, An Easter Hymn

Easter Finery

Have you bought your Easter Bonnet yet?

April is Poetry Month

"April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

-  T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922                

Linking to Camera Critters & Saturday's Critters

A Tisket, A Taskit

Do you think darlin' granddaughter is too old for this?  Nah!  I think I'll make one for her and her adult brother, too!

Cristo's Minneapolis Greek Restaurant

I've never been to Greece, at least not yet,  so I cannot attest to the authenticity of the dishes but if you want a good Greek dish, hie yourself over to Cristo's Greek restaurant in Minneapolis.  A friend and I went there for lunch last Tuesday after touring the Hapsburg Exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  The food we ordered was fantastic!  I ordered Koupepia (lamb wrapped in grape leaves) on a bed of rice. Delicious! My companion finished off her Vegetarian Mousaka and declared it delicious. I decided to try to make Augolemono (my favorite chicken-lemon soup) for our own Easter dinner.  My son is smoking a leg-of-lamb so I think the soup will be a wonderful starter for the meal.  Now I just have to visit the Greek Islands to compare their dishes with these!

Sittin' and Rockin'-April Theme Day, 2015-Self Portrait

Just a-sittin' and-a rockin' on the balcony in Mazatlán, México last February. 

And, 

To satisfy my fantasy about being a Southwest cowgirl…

 Santa Fe, New Mexico

My favorite self-images in México and New México!!

On the first day of each month, CDP bloggers post photos with a common theme, which this April 1st is "My Camera Shy Self-Portrait."  To see how others have interpreted this theme, go here.

A day brightener

These still may not be outside yet, but seeing them on a restaurant table where a group of women were celebrating a friend's birthday has given me hope that perhaps spring is on its way!!

Gichitwaa Kateri-Monday Mural

Not strictly a mural, but this sign is outside a Catholic Native American Church on Park Avenue in Minneapolis.  The church and the canonization of the first Native American woman has an interesting history, not without controversy.  To learn the history of this woman and the Roman Catholic parish that has services in both Dakota and Ojibwa, go here.

By coincidence I posted a photo of a Kateri statue in front of the St. Francis Assisi Basilica Cathedral in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico on my February 3, 2014  Santa Fe blog.

Linking to Monday Mural

Surly Nation

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Two Minnesotans, one an avid homebrewer who runs an industrial abrasives manufacturing business started by his Pakistani father and German mother, and the other, a heavy metal guitarist-turned-head brewer, cross paths at the San Diego Brewers Conference. The homebrewer offers to help the head brewer brew at his current brewery, and eventually convinces the head brewer to team up with him to convert the abrasives factory into a brewery, make world-renowned beer, and become one of the fastest growing breweries in the country.

As weird as it may seem, that’s exactly how it happened. (To continue this saga, click here).
Alert: April Theme Day is fast approaching: "My Camera-shy Self Portrait"- 

"If you are camera shy, what would you show us?  Your shadow?  Your silhouette?  Your back or feet or hands?  Your heavily photoshopped self?  A collection of the things that are important to you?"

Big Hole in the Ground

There is neither a beginning nor end to street repair in St. Paul. . .or so it seems~

Alert: April Theme Day is fast approaching: "My Camera-shy Self Portrait"- 

"If you are camera shy, what would you show us?  Your shadow?  Your silhouette?  Your back or feet or hands?  Your heavily photoshopped self?  A collection of the things that are important to you?"