A Favorite Neighbor

This soulful canine is one of our favorite neighbors! On August 30th, I introduced you to our new neighbors, a young family that moved in next door.  Both Frankie the dog and  JJ the baby bring a smile to my face whenever I see them. Occasionally when I drive up to my house I can see Frankie peering out the window to greet my arrival.  Perhaps he'd like to go out for a walk?!

Boots!

These boots were made for walking! Granddaughter Olivia after our Thanksgiving meal!

Positive Medical Care!

This is how I felt yesterday after ten miserable days of illness, which got increasingly more difficult with each passing day. Just as I was praying for a quick, relatively painless death, a young woman swept me into her office and diagnosed pneumonia. After just ONE antibiotic pill, I feel human again and am ready to go out to vote today. Praise the miracle of modern medicine!

Trolley ride at Lakewood Cemetery

On October 10 I introduced you to Lakewood Cemetery where I just finished an OLLI six week, once-a-week-afternoon course on the history of the cemetery, including its development, current condition and relationship to the Twin Cities population. In addition to lectures, we had field trips and the grand finale was this trolley ride that canvassed the grounds. Believe it or not, it was fascinating and I hated to see its end. Stories connected to some of the sites, famous residents (some of which I showed you here and here) the varied tombstones, the unbelievably beautiful grounds that includes a lake, greenhouses, crematorium operates with an eight million dollar yearly budget.

November, 2018 Theme "Friends"

You are probably tired of seeing photos of these two pals, but they are the best example of the theme because they are fast friends: Wild Wendy, our little rescue dog and our granddog Lexi, another rescue dog. They both play together, race and wrestle together, share walks, and take snoozes in various places in our house.  Here they are relaxing with another old friend, a rather tattered and torn as well as much loved Kanga and Roo: BFF-Best Friends Together.

ASIDE: I need to attend to some other areas of my life so I will not be posting every day but will visit  sporadically because I consider each of you my FRIEND!

ADDED LATER: I have a noticed that my comments on several of your posts are not appearing where normally I have had no past issues.  I suppose it's my computer!!

Click here to see more CDP Theme Day photos from around the world.

Fitzgerald Theatre

The Fitzgerald Theatre, named after one of our favorite sons and until recently owned by MPR,  is located around the corner from this mural. My family and I have attended many theatrical shows and performances there and wonder how the recent sale to First Avenue will affect programing. 

Linking to Monday Murals

Sitting It Out

After several calls to tech support and three visits to an Apple store I had to leave my MacBook Air
at the shop so that one of their Genuises could wipe the slate clean and reinstall the only upgrade that my 7-year-old computer could handle.  How can a computer of that age be considered OLD?! I do not want to replace it  and will use it as long as I can before it dies a peaceful death. When I picked it up yesterday it looked terrific, but now I have to relearn part of the new format.  I think that I have a love hate relationship with the internet and technology.

Everybody Works

One of the rules of St. Benedict that is observed by Benedictines is that everybody works. Chef Victoria demonstrated how to hold knives and how to cut onions, carrots, and vegetables. The large container of apples is the result of about 10 minutes of effort by us. If you want to know more about the retreat I just attended, read last Sunday's explanation here.

Count Down!!

Better stock up--0nly 7 more days before ghosts and goblins will come knocking on your door~

Linked to Signs2

The Chef's Magic Oven

Chef Victoria and her Alto-Shaam, Oven-Steamer

It had been years since I attended an honest-to-goodness retreat, but last week-end I stayed at St. Paul's Benedictine Monastery to participate in "Food and Faith." I learned so much about our current agricultural system: industrial farming or sustainable agriculture.  Wikipedia describes the latter this way: "Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways based on an understanding of ecosystem services, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment." I also learned about our local, state, and federal food programs and intend to pay attention and learn more.

During the summer months, it has been easy to support local farmers, but now I am determined to change many of my habits during the non-growing produce season. Yesterday our family joined a local coop where I had occasionally shopped, but am now determined to become a regular customer. I discovered myriad ways to shop, cook, and bake in order to support our local farmers. Now all I need is a gourmet kitchen!!

The above photo is of the chef, Victoria, who described her magic oven and how it  works. It  truly is quite remarkable! Stay tuned for more photos the next few days.

Annual OysterFest III-Crêpes

These two young women cheerfully worked during the entire OysterFest providing a different kind of sustenance!
crêpes

crêpe

G.A.R MEMORIAL AND SAWYER CANNON

The Grand Army of the Republic Memorial was donated by the Lakewood Cemetery Association in 1889 to honour the Civil War dead. Near the memorial stands a Sawyer cannon made for the Union Army. This cannon represents a breakthrough in cannon design and is the only existing model of its type remaining in the United States. (Credit: Lakewood brochure-"A Self-Guided Tour")

Homage to Todd Bol

Little Free Library creator Todd Bol Died

The founder of the Little Free Library movement has died. Todd Bol was 62 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A St. Croix Valley native, Bol was born in North St. Paul and went to Stillwater High School. He was a serial entrepreneur, founding companies that created nursing fellowships and a health care staffing company.

For the full story, Click here

Family Cemetery Plot

These markers in Lakewood Cemetery display a very difficult and tragic history  for one family. 

Hard times!

 I am going on a three-day retreat today.  Will be back on Monday.

First Snowfall-October 14, 2008

The snow melted by noon, but I got a few interesting images.

Annual Oysterfest II

Oysterfest Scene

I described this annual event earlier this week.  Here are some more scenes.

Humphrey Memorial

Last Sunday I posted a tribute memorial photo of Paul Wellstone,  a Minnesota politician. Today I would like to honour another famous politician, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. and his wife Muriel.

Humphrey Quotes:

• Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
• Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
• Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law. ...

Oysterfest 2018

Despite the early snowfall that luckily melted by mid-afternoon and the cool temperature, the annual outdoor OysterFest organised by the Meritage restaurant in downtown St. Paul was enjoyed by a large crowd of people on Sunday. White tents were set up to shelter those who expertly shucked the oysters for the hungry gourmets who waited patiently in line for the delicacies  supplied by The Fish Guys.  The well-organised event also had beverage tents, delectable crepes, an oyster store, a shucking showdown stage, a band and fire pits to help keep us warm.  DH and I had a great time!

Wellstone Memorial

The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source of all political power.Paul Wellstone

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A member of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, Wellstone was a leader of the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party.

On October 25, 2002, Wellstone, along with seven others, died in an airplane crash in northern Minnesota, at 10:22 a.m. He was 58 years old. The other victims were his wife, Sheila; one of his three children, Marcia; the two pilots, and campaign staffers Mary McEfoy, Tom Lapic and Will McLaughlin. The airplane was en route to Eveleth, where Wellstone was to attend the funeral of Martin Rukavina, a steelworker whose son Tom Rukavina served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Wellstone decided to go to the funeral instead of a rally and fundraiser in Minneapolis attended by Mondale and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy. He was to debate Norm Coleman in Duluth, Minnesota, that same night.
(Credit: Wikipedia)

Beloved by many, his absence is still sorely missed in the political arena.

More Wellstone quotes:A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.

We all do better, when we all do better.

Autumn finery

Although these trees are lovely in all of their autumn finery, most of the colours on other  trees are not as prolific and beautiful. The wind and rain has stripped many of the leaves off the trees in our neighbourhood.

You may notice that the house in the top photo looks tilted.  Unfortunately, I need a new computer for a lot of different reasons. The one I am using refuses to allow me to edit my photos.  I may be offline for awhile while I make a computer decision.