Category Archives: Art

2025, Art, gardening, home, Uncategorized

A Lightbulb Went On

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As of last Sunday we had our house on the market for two months. We had many showings, but no offers.

Our real estate agent couldn’t understand why. The house was clean, well kept, and nicely updated, with lovely features. We knew that our rather wild yard with the mass of raspberry canes, the large strawberry bed, the front veggie bed, the large flower beds, and the rampaging rose bushes just didn’t appeal to some viewers. Others wanted a larger yard, something we really couldn’t do much about.

Our agent wondered if the basement, which we had extensively remodeled and updated. was just a little dark. She advised us to try ro make it brighter, so last Sunday we replaced all the basement light bulbs with Bright White LED bulbs. We did the same to the upstairs lights for good measure. The whole interior was somewhat brighter, with uniformly tinted bulbs.

The next day, Labor Day, was somewhat trying as we had two showings, and that meant keeping the house beautifully pristine and having to leave for about an hour with the dog. I don’t quite understand this, but both of the viewing parties on Monday gave us offers immediately after the showings!

Was it the lightbulbs? I seem to think it was, and I find it ridiculous. I am grateful and relieved, though. Now we can focus on wrapping things up here.

What would you look for if you were buying a new house? What decorating trends, past or present, have you loved or loathed?

2025, Art, Kids, Uncategorized

Chalk It Up

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This is a late “tradition” story.

Eight years ago, my new neighbors moved in.  Two parents, one daughter; later a second daughter rounded out the family.  Early on it was clear that Minnie (the older daughter) and I had a clear affinity for chalk.  Often when Minnie was out doing chalk artwork on their driveway, I would go over for a bit and join in. 

When my next birthday rolled around, Minnie and her folks came over and did chalkwork all over my front sidewalk.  It was wonderful – lots of colors, flowers and rainbows.  After that, every year, we would have a chalk party.  A couple of other kids in the neighborhood joined in.  I even found glitter chalk online to add to the festivities.

This summer, the family moved a few blocks away and while I briefly thought about asking if the girls wanted to come over, I let it go as they are so busy with camps until school starts.  On Monday afternoon, YA texted me from downstairs (she was working from home and I was upstairs) that Marie (younger daughter) was at the door.  I hurried down and found the whole family outside, working on a spectacular birthday chalk display, down the whole sidewalk, up and down some of the driveway, even on the steps up to the house.

There is a fun “dance zone”

An exhortation to sing

And the obligatory hopscotch

Marie and I did the hopscotch several times and after some more chat and hugs, they all headed home.  That’s when I teared up a little – it was so special that they came over to do this for me.  Hopefully this tradition can keep going for a few more years.  I’m assuming that once Minnie and Marie hit their teenage years, coming over to do art on their “neighborhood gramma’s” sidewalk won’t be all that appealing!

When was the last time you jumped hopscotch?  Any notable chalk artwork in your  past?

2025, Art, books, Fantasy

Galahad, Gawain and Me!

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The legend of King Arthur has always appealed to me.  From an early age I loved the Prince Valiant comic strip (and Robert Wagner in the movie) and when Camelot came out in 1967 I managed to get my folks to take me a couple of times.  I’ve read Mary Stewart’s Crystal Cave series more than once and while the 2011 series isn’t quite to my taste, I have watched it – Joseph Fiennes playing Merlin was fascinating.

Had I lived in the legend, I could not have been a good Guinevere or lady-in-waiting.  Although I’m not crazy about the violence part, I would have loved to be a knight.  Fancy armor, horses, swords, cool knight friends and quests.

I am all about quests.  Set me a quest and I am all in.  So when the Hennepin County Library debuted their passport this summer, I had to play.  The passport is free for all who want to participate, with a page for each of the 41 libraries in the system.  There is a photo of the library and short description and each library has their own passport stamp.  There is also a few blank lines if you want to add any notes.

You know I had to make a spreadsheet of the libraries that I can sort by how far they from my house and their hours.  Don’t want to show up at a library that isn’t open yet!  And of course once I’ve visited a particular library, I can highlight it!  Quests and spreadsheets – I’m in heaven.

It’s been a joy to visit the various libraries (I’m about half way through).  They are each unique, with so many different programs.  Language classes, Lego Labs, chess tournaments, jigsaw puzzles (yes, every time I found one in progress, I had to find a piece or two), even community seed libraries.  And the artwork is wonderful.  There must certainly at some kind of art curator on the library staff.  Whoever it is has done a masterful job. 

Wall in Children’s section of Champlin Library

There isn’t a timetable on my library quest, although I’d like to be done some time in September.  Once it’s cooler, I have lots of indoor projects.  Also, I like stretching it out a bit!

Any quests that you’ve enjoyed?  Any you’re looking forward to?

2025, Art, books, Family, Government

Time for Coffee

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On Friday YA made our annual trek to pet deer and goats and llamas at Fawn-Doe-Rosa.  The route to get there is straight through Lindstrom, which is a pretty little town with deep Swedish roots and one of the cutest water towers ever (see photo above).  But it turns out that it’s not actually a water tower any longer. 

Back in 1992, the city built a new water tower because the original was no longer able to meet the demand.  At that time, the older water tower was “repurposed” as the world’s largest coffee pot.  A local business owner funded the conversion – adding the spout, handle and knob along with repainting it.  Initially there was a steam function but it hasn’t been working for years.

Several months ago the city council approved an initiative to spruce up the paint job and also to restore the steam function.  This time around, much of the cost was raised by the said of small water tower replicas.  Four weeks ago, the steam poured out of the pot again for the first time in years.

Just by luck, we were driving through Lindstrom at exactly 10 a.m., which is one of the two times per day that the steam functions.  YA was telling me about all this so I did a quick u-turn so we could circle back and get a good look.  There were folks hanging out on the street corners to watch as well.  It was cloudy, so while we could see the steam, I think on a clear day it would be more impressive.

A fun tangent, I recently read Off Main Street by Michael Perry and one of the essays is called “You Are Here” which is about water towers in the Midwest.  It was entertaining and I learned there’s more to a water tower than meets the eye.  Highly recommended reading.  Fun confabulation of reading and traveling!

Have you seen any fun water towers?  Ever climbed up one?

2025, Art, books, Gatherings, Travel

The Book Festival

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Barbara said last week (Where in the World is VS) that there was a book festival in Viroqua the weekend before.  Did anybody make the connection?

The first weekend of March I spent some time with my friend David, who lives in Viroqua.  His cousin lives in the Twin Cities, so I do get to see him several times a year.  In March he mentioned that this year he was the chairperson of the Ridges and Rivers Book Festival – he’s on the “board” and this year was his turn.  Is this right up my alley or what?

I put the festival on my calendar and then got busy reading.  There were about a dozen presenters and I tried to get ahold of the book that they were featuring; if not, some other recent book.  I volunteered to go down on Friday and help set up as a thank you for David putting me up.  There were a LOT of volunteers so it was actually short work.  I checked out the Viroqua Co-op for dinner – very big and nice for a small town.

On Saturday, the day of the festival, I had five presentations to go to.  The first was Keith Lesmeister talking about the EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Very compelling speaker.

Next up was Maggie Ginsberg, whose first novel Still True won some awards in 2023 – she spoke well but quickly, maybe a bit nervous?

After lunch it was time for Erica Hannickel who has a fascinating book about orchids – her presentation was really well put together and included a great powerpoint with lots of pictures.

The fourth author was William Kent Krueger in the Historic Temple Theatre.  WKK hasn’t been my favorite author; I actually realized on Saturday morning that all of his books that I’ve read have been his standalones.  After listening to his talk, I decided to give his Cork O’Connor series a try.

The last author of the evening was also at the theatre – Michael Perry.  I’ve read several of his books but have never heard him speak.  He was SO funny.  His presentation was over 2 hours and all of us in the audience were just howling.

In between presentations, I walked through the book vendors and author tables.  Bought a handful of items – that was a foregone conclusion.  Had Fried Sweet Potato Swirls for lunch from a food truck and fabulous gelato from a coffee/gelato shop in town.  Really the only downside of the entire day was that I couldn’t expand time to see more of the author presentations.  Oh and the very scary 30 minute drive back to David’s house in the dark.  Geez, it’s dark in the country.

Had breakfast with my godson and his family on Sunday morning before heading back to the Twin Cities.  I will definitely go again next year!

Here’s what I read in preparation:

  • The Fastest Drummer: Viola Smith by Dean Robbins.  This is one in a series of great kids books that feature women.  Great illustrations as well.
  • Forty Acres Deep by Michael Perry.  Not his usual funny stories but a remarkable look at depression at a farmer struggling with depression. Absolutely 5 star material.
  • Halloween with Morris and Boris/Morris and Boris at the Circus by Bernard Wiseman.  These kids books came out in the 70s.  There are twelve of them altogether.  Charming and funny.
  • We Could Have Been Happy Here by Keith Lesmeister.  Short stories, heavy on the theme of missing parents (literal and figurative).  Very nice.
  • Still True by Maggie Ginsburg.  Two women in a small town – one in an unusual marriage, one in a more traditional marriage.  Both have secrets that could rip their lives apart.  Really intriguing.
  • The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.  This is his latest standalone – and it’s actually my favorite of all that I’ve read.  A not-well-liked character is found dead by the river.  Lots of secrets uncovered as the death gets solved.
  • Driftless Gold by Sue Berg.  This was my least favorite read for the festival, although it wasn’t bad.  I think this slots into the cozy mystery genre a bit, although the main character is a male – solving a mystery involving some lost gold treasure.  This is part of series.
  • Orchid Muse by Erica Hannickel.  Fabulous look at our fascination with orchids, including some history, some art, some individuals who’ve made orchids their life’s work.  No mention however of Nero Wolfe!
  • EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Enchanting collection of short stories having to do with rural life. I’m not always a fan of short stories, but these were all excellent.  The anthology was curated by Keith Lesmeister and I think he did a great job.

There were a few others I would have like to have gotten to, but couldn’t get them in time.  Maybe next year I’ll start earlier!!

What’s the last “festival” you attended?

2025, Art, education, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

A New Logo

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The big local news here lately is that the public high school mascot/logo is being retired. We are known as the Dickinson Midgets. We have apparently been Midgets for 100 years.

What is even bigger news is that virtually no one is protesting the change. The school board tried to change the name in 1996, and the whole board was recalled in a special election by disgruntled citizens who wouldn’t stand for a new mascot. This time, things are different, and students talk openly about how embarrassing the mascot is. Another good reason for a new mascot now is that they are renovating the gymnasium, and they can incorporate the new mascot logo into the gym floor. It will save money in the long run, you see. It will be good to have this little guy put to rest.

The superintendent asked for ideas for a new mascot and had 850 entries. A committee of students and faculty settled on two: The Defenders or The Mavericks. Both ideas seem pretty palatable to me, and seem to go well with our Old West ethos out here.

What was your school mascot? What are some of the sillier mascots you have heard of? Make up some new school mascot names.

2025, animals, Art, Uncategorized

Theft Of The Golden Toilet

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I was rather amused to read the account from March of the conviction of some British guys for the theft of an 18 carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace.

The 6 million dollar toilet was part of an art installation titled America by an Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan poking fun at excessive wealth. The Guggenheim Museum, where the installation started out, had reportedly offered the work to 47 during his first term after he asked to borrow a painting by Van Gogh. The toilet has presumably been melted down and sold. The artist suggested, using the Clue game, that the chief suspects should have been the Butler, the Chef, or a family friend.

I am an Impressionist sort of art person, but I also like Renaissance art and Aboriginal art.

Ok. Help me understand modern art. I don’t understand Brillo boxes as art. What is your favorite art?

2025, Art, books, Family, Kids, Nature, Poems, Uncategorized

Flower Fairies

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I got a text from our daughter the other day asking if we still had the Flower Fairy books. I told her we had taken them with all the children’s books to our grandson in Brookings. I also told her I would order her another set, and did so.

I don’t know how many Baboons are familiar with these lovely books by British author and artist Cicely Mary Barker, but they have been family favorites since our son was born. Barker wrote and illustrated the books from 1923 to 1948. There about eight of them that feature seasonal flowers and flowers in different settings. The flower illustrations are quite accurate, and each flower is set with a fairy figure whose clothing corresponds to the flower in the illustration, along with a short poem. Barker used children from her sister’s Kindergarten as models for the fairies. Most of the poems were written by her sister.

We found these poems and illustrations wonderful for bedtime reading, as well as a great way to teach our children the names of flowers. We still recite “Scilla, scilla, tell me true, why are you so very blue?” when they pop up under the bay window in the spring.

What were your favorite childhood stories and poems? How did you learn about flowers and plants?

2025, Art, books, History, Mysteries

This Week’s Rabbit Hole – Khaju Bridge

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As happens often, a book sent me down a rabbit hole last week.  Martyr by Kaven Akbar has been highly lauded recently – New York Times Bestseller & Best Book of the Year as well as finalist for the Waterstone Award.  4.2 rating on GoodReads and the same on Amazon.  Only 3 stars for me.  It was well written but the protagonist was exceedingly annoying and unbelievably full of himself.  It had a plot twist that I saw coming about a million miles away and the ending wasn’t very satisfying at all.  Oh well….

There was a good story embedded in it though about a Persian poet named Ferdowsi who wrote an epic poem in order to get money from the king to rebuild a bridge in his town.  Akbar ended this section saying that the king built a bridge like no other and it is known as the Poet’s Bridge.

You know this was more than I could resist.  Looked up Poet’s Bridge and discovered that there is such a bridge in Isfahan, Iran but it was built considerably later than Ferdowsi lived and is called Poet’s Bridge because “it has been a popular meeting spot and a source of inspiration for poets and artists, with many beautiful poems written about its beauty and the surrounding area.”  However Ferdowsi was a poet and wrote The Shahnameh, one of the world’s longest epic poems (50,000+ couplets) and the longest epic written by a single person.  Here is one of the most famous lines:

“Though you have little wealth, fear not the decree of fate; for the ocean of the sea was once a drop of rain.”

It was written between 977 and 1010 and there are some resources that suggest there may have been a bridge involved, but it’s pretty shadowy.  And clearly any bridge built in Ferdowsi’s time is not the Khaju Bridge which was built in the mid-17th century.   But the Khaju Bridge is gorgeous and is a significant landmark.  If Akbar had not named the bridge in his telling of the Ferdowsi story, I wouldn’t have found the Khaju Bridge.  Not sure if this was Akbar’s intention or not, but I’m glad it happened.

Any favorite bridges?  Do you have any worries about long, tall bridges?

2025, animals, Art, Technology, Uncategorized

Ten Stars

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Today’s post comes to us from Linda.

I went to the post office to buy stamps. This happened awhile ago, so I was looking for stamps for Christmas cards.

I looked at the bulletin board that had the available stamps displayed. There was a design I liked, with a deer, a rabbit, a fox, and an owl in winter settings. Appropriate for Christmas or Solstice, or whatever.

While I was waiting in line, my thought was that I would ask for the stamps with the woodland creatures. It’s a design theme that’s been trending in recent years.

As my turn was approaching, the postal worker behind the desk turned and called out to the back room, “Hey, Judy – can you bring me some more of the critters?”

I felt inordinately delighted by this. When it was my turn, I asked, “Could I get a book of critters, please?” and it made me happy for reasons I can’t quite put words to.

My post office receipt had a QR code that took me to a survey, and I gave my postal worker top scores.

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