Those June Celebrations!

The local university, where His Madness spent most of his career, installed a new Chancellor recently. Given that the new guy is not only an immigrant but also a person of color, showing up was important to send a message to our Republican members of Congress, both state and national. However, attending the induction ceremony required a great deal of digging around in the depths of our closets to locate the appropriate academic regalia. At one point ordering an outfit from Amazon seemed inevitable but luckily we were persistent and found way more caps and gowns than necessary. Now, we are thinking it might be a good idea to keep them handy as last resort Halloween costumes. Zombie Graduation anyone? 

Meanwhile, the cute critters in our backyard are growing up fast and being extra destructive.

They're not picky eaters and will chew up a row of tulips as easily as a dandelion patch. They're smart though, and give the poisonous ones like this Calla lily, a pass. Then, what they don't eat, they excavate. It was lucky that I took this photo before planting it in the garden because it hasn't been seen ever since. Maybe it will show up this fall, if it grows back from the roots?

 

To kick-off Summerween and the arrival of the first strawberries of the season, The Crew decided to make a batch of chocolate waffles. There was whipped cream and oddly, bacon too, but they didn't make it into the photo.

Ivy did her best to set the mood with all the spooky decor she could find that wasn't orange. Maybe it will look better at night?

  

(Or not!)

Burt was unavailable for suggestions.

The beginning of summer wouldn't be complete without a road trip and since our friends were having a huge party to celebrate a very big anniversary, His Madness and I hit the road.

As you can see, we're keeping the party going.

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Laura and Gene!

Continuing on with the joyous occassions, I hope everyone who celebrates had an amazing Pride Month. The Rainbow Flag was sadly missing from it's usual spot here on the riverwalk but the umbrellas sort of make up for it. There were thunderstorms that came through and I think the parade was moved to the arena.

Not sure if our neighborhood middle school was participating but they are certainly doing a lot of practicing even though school isn't in session. Up and down our street, over and over and over, again. Did The Tartan Army have that many drummers? Can't wait for the 4th of July to be over, in fact I can hear them as I'm typing this!

See you soon, and thanks for stopping by!

No More No Mow May?

 

We recently learned that our town ended the No Mow May program due to concerns over lawn health, the administrative burden and complaints. Seriously? Who knew letting grass grown taller that 8" was so controversial or that there are actual "standard turf requirements" and the city has a Weed Control page. Even the squirrels are stunned.

Apparently, the cancellation happened last year, when our street was being torn up and everyone's lawn looked looked like the surface of the moon. At the time most of us were so outraged by the toddler in the White House destroying democracy that nobody even noticed the city enforcing the "Lawn Care and Weed Cutting Ordinance". Actually, I never knew there was one.

The last of the excavating was done in February. Why do projects in a timely manner when you can drag it out for months? 

Then the snow melted and things got really ugly. So far our ignorance of the legal height requirement for our lawn has not resulted in a fine. Maybe it's the "mullet" approach? Short grass in the front yard, overgrown free-for-all in the back. Besides, there really isn't any grass back there to measure.  

On the bright side, our silly two-tone crabapple put on a great show this spring and was a big hit with the bees. Maintaining biodiversity isn't hard when you have a very tall hedge and nice neighbors.

The weird pattern in this photo isn't AI, it came from the window screen which started showing up right after a system upgrade to my phone. Why do these improvements always end up making things worse? At least the fuzzy patterning obscures the power lines.

Dealing with all the construction issues and city ordinances and crazy laws is exhausting. There's a full moon tonight, which usually means The Crew are looking for something fun to do that involves decorating or thowing a party. This one happens to be a blue moon.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really turn blue and the whole concept is based on a mistake printed in Sky and Telescope magazine in 1946, but that doesn't bother them. Since it's a Sunday night and they didn't have anything else interesting going on, they decided to give the second full moon of May some totally unnecessary attention.

In folklore, it's a good time to harvest herbs and flowers for home remedies. Right now, there are mostly poisonous plants blooming in our backyard so that's definitely out.

Then the new summer lights for the backyard were conveniently delivered this afternoon.

There certainly were a lot of them and since the squirrels have nibbled their way through several previous sets, these have an extra heavy cord. 

That was definitely too much of a good thing and they will probably look way better outside. Since a blue moon is a rare occurrence and nearly over already, they decided to spend the evening checking out the new Halloween decor online. Maybe even brush up on a city ordinance or two.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

A Springtime Ramble

Those of us who inhabit the frozen north don't get too optimistic about spring.

Those April showers can turn to something solid at the blink of an eye.

Then Easter comes around we start to think maybe winter might actually be over, which is a pretty good reason to party. Fortunately, there are individuals around who are always cheerful and ready to celebrate anything, anytime. A belated Happy Easter to those of you who observed it.

Thanks to a creative farmer at our local Saturday market we have Easter Eggs all year round. The colors are interesting enough and no messy dyes to clean up. I'd love to see their flock someday.

 A few days ago, on a dark and stormy night complete with lightning and buckets of rain, we thought, "it's pouring down, let's go out for dinner."

Anytime it's not snowing is reason enough to leave the house. 

This photo was supposed to capture the rain dramatically falling on the river but it just ended up looking like a wet street. I was reminded of Nighthawks, a painting by Edward Hopper, which has always seemed a little forlorn to me. Maybe it's those empty, mid-century tables against the dark night that are giving off such a lonely vibe? In reality, they were about to be pushed together and taken over by a raucus group fresh from happy hour. Not a sad story unless your were seated next to them.

The following morning our backyard was flooded but compared to nearby towns, we were really lucky not to need a boat. Somehow, the tulips and daffodils survived and so did all the bunnies. 

Burt was ready to do some gardening but that didn't seem wise under the circumstances.

Since there was no way those pansies were getting planted in the swamp, they ended up in the springoween decorations.

 

Who can't use a little extra color this time of the year?

Eventually, what goes up must come down . . .

and spooky spring has to be swapped out for Halfway to Halloween . . .

. . .  because spring has actually arrived and so have the Halloween decorations at Lowes.

It was a huge relief when our magnolia started blooming a couple weeks ago. During the street work last summer, it lost three big limbs to sloppy digger operators and worst of all, a lot of its root system. We are cautiously optimistic. So far it's acting like nothing happened but that seems too good to be true. At least the neon X is fading.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and a wonderful spring!

and . . .

a Happy Birthday to Laura!

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon. 

  

March

 

It's been awhile since The Crew have made an appearance here. There doesn't seem to be a right time to put up a silly blog post while a facist dictator is terrorizing our cities and killing school girls in Iran. I have spent the better part of this year worried about the safety of my family and friends who live in the Twin Cities area. I'm pround of them, they've held up well, but having to live with an invasion of ICE agents murdering their neighbors hasn't been easy. There are fewer masked agents now but wisely, no one is letting their guard down. When we don't stand up for what is right, the assholes win.

Earlier in the month, our local art center stunned us with a subtle statement on the current administrations assault on migrants. Every other year The Paine Art Center and Gardens invites area florists to show off their special artistry. I have to admit it would be great if they did it every year because walking through rooms filled with flowers is always a welcome diversion at the end of winter. This year's exhibit in the art gallery featured the folk art of Mexican festival culture. The elaborate masks and dance costumes are on loan from the collection of The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. 

There is a tradition throughout Mexico of creating colorful, handcarved masks and elaborate costumes to be worn by performers during danzas, the communirty celebrations that take place around religious holidays.

The masks portray a wide variety of subjects taken from religion, folklore, politics and popular culture. Everyone is fair game with a good dose of humor and a fair share of political commentary. The carving on this kindly elder is amazing, you can see him passing out candy as well as sage advice. 

Can't imaging what tales these guys might be intended to illustrate. Maybe there were some members of the community who needed a reminder not to stick their noses into everyone's business? This seems like the sort of exhibit that would travel around and it's funny and not too scary for all ages. I'd recommend checking it out if you happen to notice it in your area.  

In the rest of the art center (or what passes as a historic home here) the floral arrangements could only be described as profuse but naturalistic. Most of the flowers were noticably darker and subdued. 

There was a noticable amount of Resistance Yellow here and there. In the "Great Hall" of this Tudor inspired 1920's mansion, tables and chairs are set up by individual florests to show off their skills at creating tablescapes for special events like weddings. They're intentionally over the top, fantasy pieces but this year, among the half-dozen dining tables, covered with flowers and china, there was one was done all in black. Everything from the floor length tablecloth to the place settings. It puzzled me at the time but later I realized it was in remembrance of lives lost unjustly. There was trail of artificial monarch butterflies leading through the gardens from the mansion to the conservatory. They symbolize resilience and migrant justice but they are also our nation's only monarch. 

Next, on Pi Day, His Madness had to stand up for science in the light of all the funding cuts to research projects and education. The government has to pay for all those masked ICE agents somehow, they can't expect the billionaires to chip in.

In spite of the ire involved in creating it, the result was just peachy.

Now for something silly. Nothing says spring in our neck of the woods like big piles of ice blown ashore on the lake. Anytime we drive through the park it seems like half the town is out crawling around on them. To be fair, it doesn't happen every year and you can never tell how big they will get, but it is a sure sign that winter is almost over.

Three days later we got over a foot of snow, hello spring!

Fortunately, most of it melted just in time for the No Kings Rally! I kind of messed my sign and HM's broke but we showed up and that's all that mattered. 

This was the morning rally, there was another downtown in the afternoon. HM has declared himself to be the offical Mad Pinhole Photographer of civic events. It was one of those rally situations where everyone lines up along the street and hopes no one shouts anything mean while they drive by. That rarely happens and also, it was 25°F. so nobody was rolling down their windows. Lots of horn honking in solidarity, that's okay, but really loud.

There was the usual heavy police presence. The officer was kindly explaining to HM that it was okay to photograph him but he couldn't pose for a photo. 

Abraham Rochlin was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1917 and emigrated to North Carolina. His company eventually became one of the nations leading producers of plywood. I love a good sense of irony.

The officer may not have been interested in posing, but you can always count on a unicorn!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone had a good weekend. 

See you soon!