Category Archives: Art

2026, Art, education, Uncategorized

Community Education

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I must confess I am somewhat anxious for Saturday when I am attending the first art class I will have been to since high school. I took art history in college. I loved it. I hated every art class I had to take in Grades K-12 that involved creating art.

We had good art teachers in our public school. I simply have no talent for drawing or painting. My handwriting is awful. It is even a chore for me to do special decorations on cookies or cakes. We have a very active Communuty Education program here that teaches everything from seed saving to toddler management to learning MahJong to making your own bath bombs. There also are art classes, and Boommate strong armed me into taking a Raku class with her this Saturday. I think it only involves choosing a pre-made piece of pottery bisque and painting it to be fired. I think I can handle that.

In December I am also signed up with her to take a class in which we will create acrylic paintings. It is being held in the high school art room. If it is the same art room from when I was in school, I will probably have nightmares. I would much rather take a class in toddler management!

What does your town offer for Community Education? Ever taken any classes? What were your most and least favorite classes in high school?

2026, Art, Baboon Achievers, Food, gardening, Gatherings

PJ

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PJ / Margaret brought something special to the Trail.  Wicked sense of humor, acerbic wit, thoughtful comments and great stories.  What a life she lived.  I thought we needed a full day to remember her.  Bill commented earlier that we all probably had our own special connection with her, so hopefully today, we can all share.  I have many memories but will just share a few that really stand out to me.  The rest will be up to you all.

The Garden Restoration.  When PJ got hit by a car and couldn’t do her spring gardening, it was amazing how many baboons came together on a Saturday to lend a hand.  Even Lisa showed up in her green cocktail dress (she didn’t garden in the dress).  Everybody picked a patch and went to work.  And, like magic, food showed up.  Amazing how that happens when baboons show up.  PJ sat on the patio and cheered us on.  She mentioned it to me more than once over the years; I know she was profoundly moved and grateful.

Paper Cutting.  Danish paper artist, Karen Bit Vejle brought her to show to the Swedish American Institute and the Twin Cities folks met for a field trip.  It was amazing to hear PJ translate some of the informational blurbs in all the Scandinavian languages – Danish, Swedish, Norwegian.  I don’t remember Finnish or Icelandic, but I’m pretty sure she could have handled those if they were there.  Amazing.

Don Panchos.  I delivered Ben’s farm fresh eggs to PJ several times and on our first egg visit, she clued me into a great Mexican bakery just a few blocks from her house – Don Panchos.  It got to be a ritual for me to stop there after every trip to take eggs. 

Advice.  PJ was a thoughtful woman and she gave me some excellent advice once about letting other people give of themselves without trying to make everything fair or even.  Wonderful advice that I think of often.

I could go on, but I’m going to let other baboons tell their stories.  Margaret, I already miss you terribly.

Tell me about your connection to PJ / Margaret.

2026, Art, Gatherings, Mysteries, State Fair, Uncategorized

Eye Catching

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For years I wore my State Fair t-shirts to work in August – a different one each day up until opening day.  But then, for some reason, I never wore any of them TO the Fair.  I’m not sure why and I’ll admit I never really thought it was weird.  I have a nice number of flowy, tunic-like tops (you Blevins folks have probably seen all of them) and I usually wore those during fair days.

Then this year, I had several dirty projects the first week of August and didn’t wear any of my fair shirts.  This made me think about my pattern and I decided to wear fair shirt to the fair.  Radical I know.

On Saturday, I wore my newest fair shirt (above) in addition to a pair of earrings I found last year at a little shop in the Grandstand:

I don’t think I’ve ever unintentionally drawn so much attention to myself.  From the time we got in line for the Park `n Ride bus until we got back to the parking lot (about 8 hours), 13 people commented on my shirt, 2 on the earrings.  All positive comments.  And after a few of the remarks, I started to realize that a lot of folks were noticing the shirt, even if they didn’t say anything.  It was weird and surprising since only two people had said anything about the shirt I wore on Thursday.  And one of them was at the Star Tribune booth; the shirt was a Steve Sachs design…

I met a gal later in the afternoon wearing the same shirt and we had a quick conversation about the shirt and she said she had experienced the same thing I had.  I suppose the colorful corn dogs on the black background make it stand out more than most fair t-shirt designs.  The great irony is that I don’t even eat corn dogs!  Haven’t even tried the vegan one at the fair yet!

Wonder if I’ll get a lot of comments when I wear the corn design shirt with the dangly ear of corn earrings?

Do you have any items of clothing that have gotten remarks?

2026, animals, Art, books, Kids, Uncategorized

Reading Rules

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Finishing a book that I started was a “rule” of mine for more than half my life.  If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have said it was a rule, but that must have been what it looked like from the outside.  My three copies of Ulysses are a case in point.  Ever since my college years, I have thought I should read it but could never make it more than a couple of pages.  Then I would forget I ever had a copy and eventually buy a new one. 

At some point I read some place that so many books are published each year that even if you read a book a day, you would never get to all of them.  That’s when I did make a rule for myself – if I’m not enjoying the reading, I quit and move onto the next book.  I can be ruthless about this; more than once I have dumped a book after just a few pages. 

Today I am returning a book to the library that I have not finished.  It’s a Maggie O’Farrell, an author who I normally adore.  Every one of her books that I’ve read has earned 5 stars.  But yesterday, while listening to it on CD in the car, she broke one of my rules… the dog died.  When it happened I turned off the CD immediately to think about it.  That’s when I realized that even though I was about 1/3 of the way through the book, I hadn’t really connected to any of the characters and wasn’t enjoying it.  When I got home I looked up the summary online and found that continuing was probably not going to be enjoyable to me.  That made me ponder my reading rules.  I’ve never written these down before, in fact have never really thought of them as a list before, but here things that can put me off:

The dog dying (specially if the dog is killed)

Children dying (same caveat as the dog…)

Torture/rape (I quit Rob Roy because of this)

Graphic violence (Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy went back to the library quickly)

Child abuse (a fairly long string of abandoned books for this rule – Demon Copperfield, Swamplandia, Where the Crawdads Sing….)

Vapidness.  This probably seems a silly rule, but if the main characters are all shallow and full of themselves, I don’t see a finished book in my future.  (These tend to get rejected very quickly so I can’t even think of a title!)

I realize that these are all negative rules.  I’ve been pondering if I have any positive reading rules; the only thing I can come up with is things that draw me to books and that list is way too long to put here.  Suffice it say that the list would start with dragons and fairies!

Do you have any reading rules?  What draws you to a book?

2026, Art, Science, space, Uncategorized

Nerdy Merch

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Me being a bit of nerd is nothing new here.  At Blevins on Sunday we talked about Neil deGrasse Tyson and his book The Pluto Files.  I’ve always thought that he was one of the smartest folks out there but he’s funny about it, which makes him almost a hero in my eyes.

So I suppose it won’t surprise you that I have NdGT merch.  Of course not!   My first purchase was a t-shirt with a funny physics phrase (well, I think it’s funny anyway):

About a year after I got the t-shirt, I saw a solar system bracelet on an NdGT site and I really liked it a lot.  I don’t do a ton of jewelry but I do like to wear bracelets when I get “dressed up”.  But the bracelet had a $35 price tag on it and it didn’t have Pluto – two strikes are enough for an out in my world. 

So I did the next best thing – I made my own.  I started with a very cheap ($4) solar system bracelet that I found on line.  This had beads that I liked for most of the planets.

Then I supplemented it at my local Bead Hive and also used a coil bracelet wire (another $6).  I like the coil style because it’s comfortable, easy to put on and let’s you use way more beads!  It’s really hard to tell in the photo but I put all the planets in order after the sun and even put a star between Mars and Jupiter to represent the asteroid belt.  And, of course, I added Pluto.  Sorry to all the other dwarf planets for leaving them out.  I filled in the spaces between the planets with little black beads and more stars – not to scale obviously.

This is probably my favorite bracelet – I can wear it with just about everything except maybe an outfit all of pale pink and it only cost me $10 to make to my exact specifications.   Luckily I don’t have any all pale pink outfits, so I’m good on all fronts?

Do you wear t-shirts?  Any good slogans?  Ever made jewelry for yourself?

2026, Art, books, dreams, Fantasy, Stories

Library Art

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My local library might as well be my second home; I’m there on average twice a week.  I was hoping they’d have some adjunct program this summer to the Library Passport but alas, they’re just running it the same as last summer.

Two weeks ago, they broke out the chalk for one of the Reading Hour programs and the pavement all around the entrance was decorated with colorful artwork.  The photo above that says “Pippa was here” is my favorite.  Yesterday I noticed that it’s still there, albeit a little faded after two weeks.  I love the idea that some kid planted a metaphorical discovery stake at the library.  Or maybe creating their version of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star?

Whatever the reason, I adore that my library is used and treasured!

OK, fantasy day.  I’ve giving you each a box of chalk.  What artwork will YOU leave in front of the library?   Will you use all the colors, or do you have favorites?

2026, Art, books, Fantasy, Mysteries

Fire Drill

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Last week when I stopped at the library to pick up a couple of things, there was signage at the entrance that at 2 p.m., there was a schedule fire drill.  I asked one of the librarians what was involved and she said “the drill rings, everybody goes outside and stands around until the bell rings to indicate they can come back in.”  She said that they are usually very low-key.

But it made me think about what would happen if it were a real drill and the library was on fire.  It reminded me of the ending scene of Legal Eagles, a wildly improbable film from the mid 80s.  The bad guy sets a fire in a swanky art gallery in New York (where they just happen to be having a memorial service for one of the owners).  As the funeral goers are rushing to get out, there is a quick shot of some folks trying to take some of the art with them:

So, here’s the drill.  You’re in the library when the bells go off, somebody yells “smoke, smoke”.  You have just enough time to save five books.  What books will they be?  I’ll get us started.

  • Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  • The Martian by Andy Weir
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Us by Heather McGee.

Go.  (elaborate if desired)

2026, Art, Family, History, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized

Small World

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On Saturday, Husband, I, and Boommate met up with our son and his family for a Father’s Day hike at the Pipestone National Monument, aka The Pipestone Indian Shrine. (I don’t think 47 would like to see that name.) It is almost equidistant from both Luverne and Aurora, SD, where son and family live. Here are some park photos.

My mother’s family is from Pipestone. My Uncle Harvey’s old farm abuts the park. It is an odd place, consisting of a quartzite quarry surrounded by prairie with a creek. For hundreds of years, native tribes would come from all over the contnent and get rock for ceremonial pipes. It is a holy place, and there were many cloth prayer bundles tied up in the tree branches. There continue to be native carvers at the visitor center who make pipes. Husband’s is in the header photo. We bought it several years ago. Boommate made the case it rests on. We keep it in its case, as our native friends say it is disrespectful to display it.

On our hike through the park we ran into a graduate school friend of DIL who heads a program at SDSU for disadvantaged students to help them transition to university. The students were with him. He and DIL hadn’t seen each other for some time, and it was nice for them to meet up.

We have a Hidatsa Indian friend from the ND Fort Berthold Reserve who attended the Pipestone Indian School. It closed many years ago. He also worked briefly at the park visitor center as a pipe carver. All the staff at the visitor center are native, and Husband took a chance and asked the older woman at the checkout if she knew our friend, Leo. Well, of course she did, and knew his wife’s name and the name of the band he played bass guitar and drums in. She was so delighted she gave us a bunch of free bumper stickers!

It is a small world, and it was fun to feel connected in so many diverse ways.

When have you felt the world is small? Ever been to Pipestone?

2026, Art, home, Uncategorized

Lost And Found

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One of the more frustrating aspects of moving and unpacking is the tendency I have noticed of my putting things away in places so they won’t get lost, and then forgetting where I put them.

I made certain when we packed up our pictures and wall hangings in ND that the hanging-up hardware was put into sealed bags and accurately labeled. Upon unpacking them in MN I tried to keep the hardware filled bages in one place.

This week I intend to finished hanging up the wall decorations and have done with them. One main thing I wanted to hang is a Zapotec rug. I knew I had the hanging hardware in a marked bag, but do you think I could find it? It wasn’t with any of the other picture hanging hardware. I also knew that neither I nor Husband I would have tossed it out. That meant that I had moved it somewhere for “safe keeping”. Sigh.

I spent much of yesterday going through drawers, arranging and straightening closets and cupboards, and searching any possible place for the rug hardware. I resigned myself to go to the hardware store today to find suitable hanging brackets when, at 5:45, I finally ran across the bag in a bookshelf in the guest room where I intend to hang the rug. I had put the bag there for “safe keeping” but didn’t remeber that I had put it behind a three ring binder. You can see the hardware in the header photo. Today the rug goes up!

When have you lost something after you put it away for safe keeping?

2026, Art, Business, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Postal Joy

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I’ve done the math before about how many cards I send out so I won ‘t bore you with the numbers again.  The biggest category is birthday cards – that averages to about 14 cards per month. 

For quite a few years, all birthday cards got the same postage stamp:

The post office also did a “Celebrate” stamp but I used those for anniversary cards and other momentous occasion cards.  Then five years ago, the postal service broke my heart when they announced they were discontinuing both those stamps.  Aarrgghhhh. 

I had a nice supply on hand and I bought a bunch of the Happy Birthday before USPS ran out.  A close friend of mine also gifted me with three sheets of them as well.  I began to use them a little more sparingly.  Six cards a month go to folks in one of my stamping groups – they got moved to the non-HB stamps right away.  Then “outer-ring” folks stopped getting my special stash.  Then the next ring in went to “regular” postage.   I limped along like this for FIVE YEARS.  I used the last one the first week in May.

So I was ripe for the on-line voting that USPS instituted last fall.  They said they were going to bring back some older stamps and let the general public vote.  The site did not have any limits about how many votes you got… .not even any limits on how many times a day you could vote; you gotta love a good loophole. I spent the entire month of September going online every morning and voting for the Happy Birthday option 20-30 times; it only took about 10 minutes a day. 

My persistence paid off.  They made the announcement the first of the year that my favorite stamp would be returning.  They released it on April 18 although the pre-sale went up in March.  The big surprise is that they did a completely new design – it’s in the header photo.  I’m not sure why – it probably cost them more, first for the design itself and then for whatever it takes to produce a new stamp.  Maybe after five years, the old design specs didn’t work anymore.  Who knows.  But no matter – the new design is fine by me.  Technically I like the old look better but I’ll take what I can get.

We won’t talk about how many of them I’ve already purchased.

When was the last time you actually went to a post office?