River Walks

 It's a little windy on this walk.

We have a wonderful boathouse community that lives on the Mississippi River.  Many live here all  year round.

The river has been very high with all the the snow and rains of the spring.  The earth is still so saturated.

Usually there is land between the tree and the chairs--a bit more than that little strip of sand.

 The wagon bridge

In previous years we could walk under the bridge and come out on land on the other side.  Now it is still filled with water.

When the water goes down a bit more, we'll go paddling our kayaks all around this area. For now I'm happy to walk over here and check out how the water and plants are doing.

Summer Flowers and Memories

This mock orange bush in full bloom yesterday when I walked by it sent a rush of memories to me of my Grandparent's garden.  They lived in the town that I grew up in  Sleepy Eye, Minnesota and they had the largest garden.  Some things that I loved about this garden were the stepping stones that we got to hop from foot to foot to keep the fresh tilled soil ready for planting.  They also had this amazing bush, a mock orange that created a lovely fragrance.  A person needs to come up close to take in the fragrance.  It is not as fragrant as a lilac.

I'm also back in my studio and looking at things to create next. Check out the Ancestry Art Works to take a look a some old pictures  of my grandparents that I incorporated into quilts.

Here's the mock orange bush at its full height and beginning to rain down some petals.  These beauties won't be out long.  Hope you get a chance to find one in your neighborhood.
Flowers are blooming.  These next couple of pictures, I don't have an identification, but I like them all the same.

                                   This blue wild indigo grows in my yard. 

Happy exploring the neighborhoods.  Let me know what you find on your walks.

Floating Concert

The Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers played their musical magic on Lake Winona on Sunday, May 27, 2018.  This duo from Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin played and sang on a floating raft.  They had a little generator to plug in their amps and microphones.

Bob and I and a whole group of people paddled kayaks or canoes or stand up paddle boards or motorized boats or inner tubes to take in the show.  It was a very fun event to experience on a very hot Memorial Day weekend.

Nikko, Trish, Willow and Paul in their canoe.

Bob and many more

Trina and Tove

Mary Lee and more, photo credit Bob Stuber.

Feet up, boats together

Gratitude for the arts and Winona, Mary Lee.  Photo credit Bob Stuber.

Musing in August

The morning light over the Mississippi river today was so lovely.  The sun was up, a bit hidden behind some clouds and creating this pink light.  The breeze was blowing and the birds seemed to be delighting in the air and light as well.

 Movement is one of the things that feeds my being.  Lately, in my Nia classes, we've been dancing a routine called Deep Dive created by Winalee Zeeb.  It is all about flow and water as life.

Here's part of the path that I walk or I run.  I'm playing with the idea of running.  I remember how much fun it was as a kid.  Now, it is more a half hearted attempt.  I love to take pictures along the way and stop and feel the breeze or look at the water.  Maybe it is really a whole hearted way to walk/run.

I walk off the dike, passed the marina, and then on Hamilton.  It is being upgraded and I've feared for my friend's flowers on the corner of Hamilton and 4th.  She was so brave and talked with the construction people and told them that these flowers were from her mother and her grandmother and give many people great joy.  They agreed to work with her.  She moved some flowers and they moved carefully on her boulevard.

It rained last night and the leaves were filled with water.  When the breeze blew, it sent a little blessing all over me and the land.  I breathe in the day and I'm grateful.




 

Highlights from Season 14 Great River Shakespeare Festival

Last Concert on the Green of the Great River Shakespeare Festival with Ilika Ward & the Moonlight Riders.

Grace Marco and Bob Stuber working sound magic for Concerts on the Green.



Two lovely artists, Margaret Kiihne and Julie Johnston, enjoying a few moments at the concert.

 Thirty-two artists showed their work at the River Arts Alliance Member Show.

I feel so honored to be part of this beautiful show.

 Hallowed Ground by Ken McCullough

The stage set of Comedy of Errors.  Watching the people on stage interacting with the actors was another part of the fun!

The Winona community thanks the artists of the Great River Shakespeare Festival after the final performance of a Comedy of Errors. Community coming together in love.

Prairie Garden Time

Our front garden--yard--is a prairie.  And now the butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is in glorious bloom.  The butterflies and bees love this plant.  

We have some pale purple coneflowers, echinacea pallida blooming now and the yellow ones are echinacea paradoxa--yellow coneflower.

Each year there are changes.  It's fun to see how the plants grow and change through time.

Here's a poem called 'Hum,' by Mary Oliver

HUM 

by Mary Oliver

What is this dark hum among the roses?
The bees have gone simple, sipping,
that’s all. What did you expect? Sophistication?
They’re small creatures and they are
filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not
moan in happiness? The little
worker bee lives, I have read, about three weeks.
Is that long? Long enough, I suppose, to understand
that life is a blessing. I have found them-haven’t you?—
stopped in the very cups of the flowers, their wings
a little tattered-so much flying about, to the hive,
then out into the world, then back, and perhaps dancing,
should the task be to be a scout-sweet, dancing bee.
I think there isn’t anything in this world I don’t
admire. If there is, I don’t know what it is. I
haven’t met it yet. Nor expect to. The bee is small,
and since I wear glasses, so I can see the traffic and
read books, I have to
take them off and bend close to study and
understand what is happening. It’s not hard, it’s in fact
as instructive as anything I have ever studied. Plus, too,
it’s love almost too fierce to endure, the bee
nuzzling like that into the blouse
of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course
the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over
all of us.

Thanks to the Honey Bee Conservatory for this poem.   

For more about Mary Oliver visit her website or connect and become a fan on her facebook page.

Looking Inside and Outside

It is the season of summer in Minnesota. Though the summer solstice marking the beginning of summer is 10 days away, the heat and humidity are high in our land.  The days are long with sun and everything is growing.  Here are some images around Winona in these beautiful days.

 Peonies are blooming and oh so fragrant.

 Fox live at the edge of the city

 Mississippi River is part of my favorite walking trail

 An inch worm on Bob's biking jersey

 Baby robin  fledgling

 End of the day--thanks for all the beauty on the Earth.




 

River Walk in all Kinds of Weather

I've been walking to the river often to see the changes in the river landscape.  And I realized that I could do it in the winter too. 

December 29, 2016

December 25, 2016

Inside warm and cozy with Norris

December 11, 2016

November 11, 2016

November 8, 2016










































November 1, 2016

September 17, 2016

September 3, 2016

August 30, 2016

 August 4, 2016

One lovely Saturday evening walk, oh my...

 

Some of my favorite places, Winona, Minnesota and the Mississippi River.