Spring Strawburries

 Tree Planting at Vermillion River
What a muddy mess. I didn't get a picture, but we planted just shy of 315 trees in an ex-pasture along the Vermillion River. Its one of about 14 trout streams in the gravitational pull of the twin cities. The DNR and Friends of the Mississippi River were there with a whole bunch of little twiggy trees and protective tubes and shovels. All this rain made everything really easy to dig, and we didn't have to water them. But what a lot of mud. Cottonwoods closer to the banks, some shrubs for higher lying areas. It sleet/hailed ever so slightly for a little while. The birds didn't give a sniff that we were tromping around. I saw Barn Swallows and Red-winged blackbirds in abundance. 


Bird watching at Eloise Butler Wildflower and Bird Sanctuary.
Eastern Kingbird was the jem here. Sara and I strolled through these winding paths with no end of little things to wonder at. Lots of familiar locals- I got a nice shot of some honeysuckle. We were attacked by diving bugs and mosquitoes.

Also walked through a bog. Real, true to life, loamy, alive bog. The Quaking Bog to be precise. Right smack in the middle of Minneapolis.



Jardin d'Andrea

Stupid stupid cold. Enough threatening frosty weather that I haven't put a thing in the ground. But I've got a couple happy corners and a whole lotta space eager for some roots!

Name of Flower -- Snapdragons -- Other Name of Flower

Ok, this is creeping jenny (Lysimachia Nummularia). I know its technically a weed, but this is just too lovely not to notice. 

Of course. But I'm not one for chemicals, so I don't really get much choice here.

Who can resist petunias? This is the only color in my flowerbeds this season. Everything else is white.

Birds

Let's look out the digital back porch window:
cardinal
baltimore orile
grackle
starling
robin
bluejay

morgan

Rekindle

Reading, writing, authors, plants, books, paper books, dandelions, are these all tags I should be placing elsewhere. I feel like I'm warming up or something. Like the "red leather yellow leather red leather yellow leather" up and down the scales to warm up one's voice. which I haven't done since high school. There are a good number of creative things I am good at that I haven't done in a very long time, and I think that writing is one of them. So much of my writing is all stuffed away in journals never to be sifted again, so I need to get a fire going under me to write online. I have no issues sharing every little thought that crosses my mind with the world around me. Strangers or no, if anyone actually take the time to read my thoughts to myself, that's great, and hopefully something artistic or poignant will escape periodically.  Hopefully I can sort through the muddy thoughts to create something, hopefully soon:

Here's the chart-
Gardening - as natural and basic as I am busy and partially lazy. Hopefully get some interesting photos of tomatoes and 2 new shady flowerbeds I have. We'll see some pics here quick.

Books - I'm always in a vampire kick it seems. I've branched enough to be able to compare, contrast, and generally speak better of these books than their proximity to Buffy and how that is a good or bad thing.

Events - This will relate to my book reviews cuz my events are all authors these days. Saw David Lipsky at Talk of the Stacks talk about David Foster Wallace on Thursday and it was BIZZARE. Minnesota Book Awards were Saturday, and they were less bizarre and fun, and today was Neil Gaiman, who inspired this writing kick in me, so thanks much! This Thursday is Michael Chabon for the Pen Pals series and I'm selling books.

-- THE FUTURE -- 

House on the Rock for Halloween? Yes, please!

Book Reviews in the Library Catalogue

Hazen High School All Class Reunion 

That's a good square meal of productive homework eh? Kinda summery and charcoal grilled activities and ambitions.