A Salute to Public Employees

It has become quite popular to bash public employees, and since I've been one for my whole career in a variety of jobs, I'm a bit sensitive about that. But this isn't about me. This is about what I observed today.

I was driving down Jackson Street in Saint Paul about noon, towards the river. I had to pull over for an ambulance. When I got to the bottom of hill, I found a two car head-on accident there, cars on the median and a stop light crashed down on the ground. The ambulance pulled up there, having been called obviously by the fire-fighters who were crawling all over the two cars. (And so yes, there was also a fire truck there.) In Saint Paul nearly every fire-fighter is also an EMT.

I was able to turn right and continue on home. Four hours later I was on my way to my daughter's apartment and arrived at the same intersection. The stoplight was restored and there was absolutely no sign there had been a car crash there -- no glass on the road, nothing!

All of this fine work was done by public employees!

Christmas Lights

I had a meeting today from 5:00 - 6:30 PM so of course it was dark when it was done. I went first to the Conservatory to see how that space looked in the dark. (See post below for day views of this place.)

Then I started home and turned on Summit Avenue for I knew from recent trips there were some pretty trees on that street.

 Here is the tree on the lawn of the Governor's Mansion.
Across the street there is another large decorated for the holiday season.

And just down the street is another very large tree in the front lawn of a home.

 Next to the trees I found a house that looks very beautiful.

I drove to another are of Summit Avenue where I knew there were decorations.

Found a house in this area too with lots of lights.

I think I like the more classic decorations I found on the home behind me.

Lights are one way to deal with this dark, dark month.

Visiting the Tropics in December

I had an errand today near Como Park in Saint Paul, so when done decided to visit the Conservatory to see the holiday flowers. What a treat to be semi-retired and able to visit here without crowds on a weekday!

The Conservatory opened for the first time in November, 1915. The first Holiday Flower Show was held in 1925. It enjoyed a renovation between 1987-1992.

The Sunken Garden shown above is the area with seasonal changes. Now obviously it is decked out for the Christmas season.

At the far end is a small fountain.

The sculpture is called Play and is the work of Harriett Whitney Frishmuth.  A review of the link provided will reveal she was a quite noted sculptor during the early 20th century, having lived in Paris and Dresden as a young woman and even studied for a bit with Rodin.

But the title of this post says tropics, so let's move there.

 The garden area under the dome of the Conservatory is called the Palm Dome. This garden includes many beautiful flowers.

 I found one curious plant with flowers.

It grows very low to the ground and the blossom appears to emerge out of the red leaves.

Nearby is another garden area, the Fern Garden. In the center of this is another Frishmuth sculpture.

This sculpture is called Crest of a Wave and was also placed in the Conservatory in 1925.
I wandered just a bit too in the Tropical area of the nearby Como Zoo.

Here is a fish video.

Today was a lovely sunny day in Saint Paul with a seasonal temperature of 33 (+1 in Celsius), cooling down from nearly 50 degrees when I came home last evening about 8 PM. It was still nice to visit the tropics, and it will not be my last weekday trip to this area this winter. What a wonderful place to escape!

Making Lemonade

There is an expression that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Certainly a similar expression may exist in other cultures and languages, too.

I need to make invitations of an important family event coming up. I bought a kit to do this myself, only to discover yesterday that the weight of the paper in the kit is incompatible with my printer. So I went on quest to find some professional printing help.

I started out this morning to one place, having to get myself around the light rail construction and road construction going on in St. Paul. The web page for this company said they had office hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 - 2. I arrived a bit after 10 and found no one there. Another person who works in the same building said the office is often closed "when they are not busy." I left a voice mail message, and now nearly 10 hours later, no one has returned a call. Got myself out of the light rail construction and went to restaurant to get a late breakfast.

Pulled out my Kindle and got on the internet and looked up a couple of other places. One gave me an appointment for 11:45, so I headed over to Minneapolis. We got the invitation business all sorted out and then I headed home.

I was driving along 50th Street in Minneapolis, a street I've driven on many, many times. Suddenly I saw the top of a tower a bit to the right. I turned off 50th and found this.

I walked up the hill and around the building. Here is a closer view of the figures around the bottom edge.

 But what is this? Finally on the opposite I found a sign explaining this is the Washburn Water Tower. The sign explained this is the second water tower on this hill -- this one built in 1912. It stands 110 feet high (33.5 meters) and can hold 1.35 million gallons of water! The structure is now in the Historic Register.

Here is a glimpse of the landscaping around the tower, now with a very late autumn view.

So here is one glass of lemonade for a day that started out somewhat frustrating! Notice no snow, but we did a bit of rain during the morning. I always say, "One doesn't have to shovel rain!"

Here are the berries close-up.


As I continued towards home the sun came out -- a nice change after gray and foggy days. But it's December, time when we start to see sunshine again in Minnesota.

I went by a small park area that I've passed many times and getting out in the sunshine seemed like a good idea. I went investigating what this sculpture is.

On the back of the sculpture I found the artist's name, S. Hammond and a note the he is from Egypt and the sculpture done in 2006. Then I remembered back to when huge blocks of stone were placed on the lawn of St. Paul Technical College and artists were given the opportunity to make whatever they wished.

Another nice glass of lemonade.

Hope you enjoyed these surprises from the Twin cities.

Night time Views

I take my Polish lessons in an office building in the area of Minneapolis called St. Anthony Main. This area is across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis. Class begins at 6 PM, so this time of year it is dark. I enjoy the view across the river. I tried to take a photo but couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good photo at such a slow shutter speed. So I decided to try a video -- after all one can move the camera in a video.

The video shows office high-rise buildings across the river and also the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

Celebrating Transportation

My older daughter and I are on the way to Lincoln, Nebraska for the Thanksgiving weekend. We stopped at a rest stop for a few moments in central Iowa. Iowa has a theme for every rest stop and we found one that celebrates transportation.

The front walk way is lined with pillars. Here are some examples

A celebration of travel by the use of horses.

Those readers who live far away may be surprised to see boats. However, we must remember that Iowa is bordered on the east by the Mississippi River and on the west by the Missouri River and for much of the 19th century, steamboats were an important means of transportation.

And here's one that has gone around forever.

Walking!

When entering the building, one walks over the Highway 30 sign.

Highway 30 is Iowa's part of the famous Lincoln Highway.

The interior of the building has decorative blocks highlighting facts of transportation history.

The exterior of the building is outlined with decorative blocks displaying old cars.

The temperature was 70 degrees (26 C). Trust me, this is a great temperature for the Midwest in November. What a treat to walk around outside a bit and find something so interesting.

A Good Plan

that turned out differently! There is a boy in my Polish class, perhaps 9 years old. Last week I took a book I had purchased in Poland and gave it to him. It is a book of fairy tales written in both English and Polish, and actually designed to help Polish kids learn English. I've had it on my shelf for several years and never did much with it, so thought moving it out of the apartment would be a good idea. I explained to the boy that it was a book to help kids learn English, but that he could learn a lot of Polish with it, too.


This week I passed over a heart sign that said Poland that I brought home from Polish night event.

This all is part of the effort to keep the number of things in my small apartment down. 

He reached into his bag and gave me this.

What a nice surprise! And yes! jam will disappear.