Last Day of Autumn?

My older daughter and I took a small trip today to the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge. I had attended a conference near here this past week and realized we had not visited for quite a long time. On a Facebook page a person said this day smelled like snow.

The sky today definitely has the "blue" look of November. This view is from an overlook over wetlands for the Minnesota River. The river begins on the very western border of Minnesota where the border has a bit of a bulge to the west. It flows rather than a half circle going quite far south before it curves back north to join the Mississippi River about 4 miles upstream from where I live. The water that comes in from the Minnesota is what has caused the most recent floods in this area.

We did see a bit of bright color.

The museum has two very interesting banners. They are huge -- perhaps 100 feet wide by 30 feet high.

Here is a part of one. It looks like it is made from pixels and you are right.

Above are some of the "pixels" for this banner.

Here is the banner in another area:

And here is a part of the bird's leg:

We did a short walk outside. These weeds below are quite ready for wind or birds to carry the seeds about.

We have one day of October and then it's November, the dreary month in Minnesota. By December the weather is much colder but we get sunny, blue skies. The trick for November is to stay busy! With my schedule that's not a problem.

Halloween

Somewhere yesterday I heard two adults give each other a final greeting: Have a happy Halloween. I'm trying to figure just when this turned into such a major holiday. I heard recently that it has become even more an adult holiday than a children's holiday. Looked around on the net and found an estimate that more than $6 billion would be spent on Halloween decorations, costumes, and candy.

Everything turns to pumpkins everywhere.

I found these outside Kowalski's grocery storm on Grand Avenue.

Target decorates for Halloween --

but probably on Tuesday it will turn to Christmas overnight.

There are as many greeting cards for Halloween as for Christmas or birthdays.

I thought perhaps Halloween celebrations aren't as modern I thought when I found this book display:

but I'm thinking perhaps the Christie book instead has a new cover for the 21st century.

Two memories emerge as this time of the year. One is the very memorable 1991 Halloween blizzard when we got 28 inches of snow. Because the streets were very warm -- the weather had gone from summer to winter in about 24 hour -- all of this snow turned to glaciers on the streets. It took road graders rather than snow plows to remove it.

The other -- my younger daughter was enrolled in Spanish Immersion School. The School had Amity teachers -- young university graduates from other countries. One of the Amity teachers taught a lesson as Dios de los muertos. At the next PTA meeting one parent complained about this, saying she didn't want her child to be exposed to Satanic practices. The Amity teacher burst into tears and the rest of us sat there with our jaws dropped, quite literally, recognizing this to be important holiday and commemoration  in other cultures and there is nothing Satanic about it. . Finally some got themselves well enough together to tell this parent that if she didn't want her child to learn about other cultures, she had certainly enrolled her in the wrong school.

Love the Credit Union

I've been with Affinity Plus Credit Union ever since it had a former name. I always feel sorry for people who do their financial work with a bank. A bank exists to make money for the shareholders. A credit union exists to provide financial services for its members and that is huge difference. Some of my fellow Fulbrighters had bank charges for using their credit or debit cards while in Europe. The only charge I got was when the Fulbright office wired money to my account.

Last week I needed a document in association with a former car loan. I knew it probably existed somewhere in my apartment, but just where was that box since my move from a house. Rather than going crazy trying to find something, I simply stopped by the credit union and explained my problem. In 10 minutes the staff there provided me with the information needed, plus the signatures on it were notarized so that there was no question about whether it was an official document.

Last evening I went to an event at the Minnesota History Center. Before it started I went to the Museum Shop as was delighted to find a puzzle that is a map of the United States. The ones we have at Reymontowka have been used and loved too  much and new ones are needed, and actually this kind of puzzle is hard to find. When I went to pay for this, I realized my debit card was missing. I thought for certain I'd left it in an ATM on Monday evening. While getting some cash things dropped out of my wallet and I was certain that distraction caused me to forget picking up the debit card. This morning I went to the credit union with my sad story. We verified that no one else has been using the card. I was also told that since I had not removed it from the machine, the ATM would suck it back in and destroy the card. I walked out from the credit union with a new card in about five minutes. I really hate to think what might have happened had I had to go to the one of the banks in this community.

Where's the water in Europe?

While walking this morning I happened upon this colorful fire hydrant. Suddenly I remember fire hydrant turning up on a vocabulary sheet while teaching English in Poland this summer and having the kids quite puzzled about what it was. That weekend I went to Kielce and while walking around I tried to figure out what firefighters used for a water source in Poland. I'm quite certain I never saw a fire hydrant in Hungary either. Might I have translated somewhat correctly about a plate in the street that can be opened? That was my guess about where firefighters might get a water supply. Send me a comment. It will help me teach English next summer.

Colors of Autumn

A walk in the late afternoon revealed many beautiful autumn colors.

This summer flower was found showing its face in a courtyard in a nearby condo complex.

These long stalks I think are mullen. My mother used to gather these and spray them gold and use them in winter holiday decorations.

Gold is a real autumn color.

And so are red leaves.

While walking I also found a sign of spring. Readers of this blog will remember stories of the Spring 2011 Mississippi River flood. My walk was on  a trail that was totally flooded when I left for Hungary in late April and still not ready for walking when I left to Poland in mid-June. Today I noticed the fence which showed the height of the river on this trail by the mud left behind on the fence.

Enjoy!

Walking Along the River in Autumn

I took a walk along the Mississippi River right back of my apartment just about sunset. Interesting things are to be found.

One is pretty bush coming into bloom, shown here next to the native grasses. It is unusual to find pink blossoms in fall.

Here is a photo that shows the flower more closely.

We have had some very windy days and that has blown away a lot of leaves with some of the trees now looking like this.

Just how windy can be shown in the video below of the roses trying to hang on.

I heard a sound and turned to see some bike riders whiz by. It's a short video because they were truly flying!

 As I turned to walk back to my apartment the sun was now on my back. I noticed how long the shadows are this time of year.

This looks funny because the wind was blowing my coat open, thus the triangle shape.

Hope you all enjoy these views !

Walking around Wood Lake

My older daughter and I recently took a walk around Wood Lake. Wood Lake is in the suburb of Richfield, a suburb immediately south of Minneapolis. The entire lake is part of nature center, and just one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, but we know there are more. Wikipedia says that are 11,842 lakes that are 40,000 square meters or more (Americans-- that's 10 acres).

Our views were beautiful.

 

About half way around we encountered this wonderful little bouncy bridge.

On the north side of the lake we walked through a bit of a forested area. I found the sunlight on the trees to be interesting images. 

We've not yet had a hard freeze in this area, but flowers are becoming fleeting. Thus, we enjoyed these brave little flowers. Where I was raised we always called these Brown-Eyed Susans, but I'm sure they have a more formal name. 

Hoe you enjoyed this stroll around Wood Lake.