Sunday - Wednesday alphabet

Wednesday is F.for.Farmer's Market...David and I went to the Big one in Minneapolis and on the same day, Kira went to one in Arizona.

I didn't take too many photos, because I still feel weird taking them in public, of public things and people. Maybe I should get over that, huh? Except for when I'm on vacation, then I guess I figure no one knows me, so I'm safe. Strange...

That same day, I heard there is a new Farmer's Market down by the Guthrie and Mill Park, they are supposed to have only home grown and hand made products. I can't wait to check it out.

Here are a few of the pictures that I did take:

Notice that there are actually a couple of Fs in this picture...see them up on the sign??

\

David HAD to buy some Stupid Hot sauce (that's the actual name of it!)

They sell a little bit of everything here.

I didn't get a picture of it, but someone was selling whiskey barrel, rain barrels. 

We bought one on-line the next day after we did a search on prices and decided that it was a steal.

You all come back now, ya hear?

Hop on over to Kira's blog and look at her Arizona Farmer's Market shots.

Swans...

On the Mighty Mississippi, in the city of Monticello, MN, there is an area of the river that stays open year around. An area that is home to a great many duck, geese and Trumpeter Swans.

In Wabasha, which is in southeastern MN, there is another area in the river that stays open year around, and there you can find eagles.

This year there doesn't seem to be any problem with the river being open anywhere. We just live a couple blocks away from the Mississippi, and I don't remember it ever not having ice. Scary! We don't have any swans here, but we have our share of ducks and geese, it must be a tad too cold for swans.

I've been hearing people talk about the swans in Monticello for the past couple of years, so yesterday after church, we took advantage of the beautiful clear blue sky and the 40+ degree weather and took a drive up to Monticello to see for ourselves. We saw a few swans through the trees as we were driving, but no Swan Park, so we got out our trusty smart phones and relied on Google: swans in monticello mn. This is what we found.  A woman dubbed The Swan Lady lives right on the river, and feeds them nearly 900 lbs of food everyday, she has a huge deck that people are encouraged to use for picture taking. We got there a little after feeding time and the swans were all gone, but tons of ducks and geese were still there, making just a huge racket. We got back in our car, drove back to where we had spotted them through the trees, found a parking spot across the street, waded through the brush to get to the river bank, and were greeted with this...

They were everywhere, honking and quacking, flying and soaring, taking off and landing. It was pretty cool.
I took so many photos...good thing too, because most of them were completely washed out. I'll have to go back and try again. I even had it set on auto, so I wouldn't have to futz around with settings. hmmm, I apparently did something wrong.

I took a bunch of non-wildlife photos too...

Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day for a drive and some sightseeing.

On the way home, David suggested we stop for some ice cream, I suggested pie. Try to find a little shop that has either of those anymore that isn't a chain. Ha! We ended up at Perkin's. Apple pie ala mode for him and Cherry pie ala mode for me, along with some excellent coffee. Yum!!

Gibbons…

I was sitting here in front of my computer, my usual place, and looking through some photographs and I came upon the Gibbon photos I took when Kira was home over Easter. We ALWAYS go to the zoo because that is just what we do. I love it. No matter how many times I’ve been there, I can always see something new.

Tropics Trail
Venture into the world of the rain forest where lush, green foliage and beautiful orchids envelop guests along a winding path. Playful lemurs, inquisitive gibbons and agile tree kangaroos are just a few of the animals waiting to be discovered at each turn. Beauty and unique wildlife first attract you, but the Tropics Trail also showcases several of the world's  biodiversity "hotspots"—areas especially rich in species found nowhere else that are also at extreme risk of destruction.
Check out our newest additions in Faces of the African Forest.
Animals on the trail
Bali Mynah
Binturong
Colobus Monkey, Black and White
Coral Reef
Crocodile, West African Dwarf
De Brazza's Monkey
Fruit Bat
Gibbon
Goral
Herps, Tropical
Hornbill
Hyrax, Rock
Komodo Monitor
Lemur, Red Ruffed
Lemur, Ring-tailed
Loris, Pygmy
Macaque
Macaws
Malay Great Argus
Otter, Asian small clawed
Red Panda
Red River Hog
Sloth
Tamandua
Tamarin, Cotton-top
Tamarin, Golden Lion
Tapir
Toucan
Tree Kangaroo
Warty Pig
       
This is our favorite trail to visit mainly because of the Lemurs and the Gibbons. Every now and then the Lemurs will cling to the chain fencing covering their exhibit and rattle it while do their screamy yell. You just have to hear it. When they do that, they get the Gibbons whooping, although it doesn’t take the Lemurs rattling their cage to make the Gibbons whoop…
What They Do
Gibbons live in small family groups made up of a mated pair and their young offspring. Early in the morning, the group often “sings” in unison to claim their feeding area. Instead of physical conflict, the adult pair defends its territory with a loud vocal duet that can be heard for miles through the forest.
Kira made a recording of their “song”, I really can’t say that I would call this a song. I could be in the worst possible mood and this would make me giddy with laughter.

MN Zoo…

Well, I finally got to the zoo. I had planned on going a couple of weeks ago, but something came up so I went this last Wednesday, February 23rd. The zoo is being drastically remodeled. They will be a new entrance, a Penguin Island where the old entrance was, a new indoor Bird Show area, educational areas, even Starbucks moved. It was all a bit strange, I felt out of place. I spend so much time there, I felt I could find my way around blindfolded, but not anymore. Once it’s all done and I go a few times, I’ll feel comfortable again, but that will be a while.

As I was wandering around, trying to take some good pictures, I decided that if that day had been my first visit to that zoo, I would have been disappointed, because a lot of the exhibits were not on display because of remodeling and there weren’t very many people there, which is good and bad, and the animals that were on exhibit, were either sleeping, or too far away to be able to see well. I know that this was just a fluke, but I was hoping to get more pictures. I guess I’ll just have to go again soon. Gee, that may be difficult…snicker!

I did manage to get a few good pictures though, a tortoise, alligator, lemur, gibbons, flamingo, puma, amur leopard, and tiger. One of the leopards was posing for me, not really, but it felt like it. He (maybe she) was growling/meowing a lot too, so was the tiger, but I only heard him, by the time I got around to seeing him, he wasn’t making noise any longer.

I envy Kira being able to work at a zoo. I know it wouldn’t be for me because I think I would be too fearful, but I’m ALWAYS happy when I visit the zoo. Even going by myself was OK. I love to talk for the animals. Some times the expressions they have just scream for words, as with the Japanese Snow Monkeys…oh my gosh, when the adolescent young are running around, it’s just like watching human adolescents, they act exactly the same way, running and tumbling and being naughty.  The tigers love children, and when children are standing by the glass, the tigers walk back and forth by the glass, sometimes even running along with them. It’s a hoot! In the tropics area, if you’re very lucky, you’ll get to hear the lemurs and gibbons whoop and yell and rattle the fencing. That sound is so cool that when we hear it, we give each other a goofy smile and run to see them. I get goose bumps thinking about it. The bats (Flying Foxes) are my favorite though, and they are off display right now, but they are huge and active. To see them walk hand over hand (claw over claw) on the ropes in their display convinces me that these are the animals that movie people studied when they made vampires walk on walls and ceilings. Just watch them someday and you’ll know just what I’m talking about.

To get the best feel for the MN Zoo, you really do need to go at least four times a year, once each season, preferably during the week when it isn’t so crowded. The worst time to go is the middle of summer on a weekend. EVERYone is there, it’s hot, people are crabby, the animals are hot and they are hiding in the shade so you can’t even see them. We’ve found that the best time to go is spring with winter being a close second. It’s cool and there isn’t a lot of plant growth to hide in. Check it out!! Get a membership, it helps the zoo and the animals and you get free parking, plus you can go as many times as your heart desires.

MN Zoo…

The weather has been bitterly cold for the past week and tomorrow is supposed to be in the 20’s, which will feel like a heat wave. I’m really feeling the need to go visit the zoo. I can only stay away for so long and I sort of go through withdrawals. I think I’ll stop at Dunn Brother’s for a Mocha Icecrema, fill up my tank with some expensive gas and take a drive to Apple Valley to wander around the zoo and take pictures of the animals. I’m excited!!

Eagles…

David and I both have every other Friday off of work, unfortunately, they are not the same ones. We have been trying to figure out a good time to take a day trip down to Wabasha to the National Eagle Center to see the hundreds of eagles that hang out around the open Mississippi water at this time of year. I was going to trade a day with Shar, but she had taken Friday off and trading would have given her a really long stretch, so I asked Lanore, and she already had plans made with her son, so I took a chance and asked Lynne (a birder) if she could just work the day for me. Yes, she said yes, thank-you Lynne.

Friday turned out to be a really nice day, partly sunny, warm, in the 30’s, and the truck behaved nicely.

We saw a few eagles on the way, by Read’s Landing, which got me excited to see bunches. Once we got to the Eagle Center and looked around, we found that there were NO eagles. We paid our entrance fee and sat through an interesting talk about different kinds of eagles, their different sizes, what they eat, etc. The interpreter brought out a golden eagle, which was smaller than I had thought, then she brought out a bald eagle.  I’ve seen them eat before, but she let the bald eagle eat quite a bit and it was cool to see it swallow it’s food. The eagle, a female, looked at the woman expectantly once she was on her perch and waiting for her food.

The interpreter warned us before she brought the eagles out, that they may bate. They didn’t, which was nice because that is a little frightening to see. She did get the bald eagle to spread it’s wings though, which I got a great picture of. The other good pictures are of the four eagles sitting on their perches in this open room. One of the female eagles is an early warning system for free eagles flying outside of the building. She does that eagle yell, what ever that is called, when ever she sees an adult eagle fly by.  She told us last year at this time, there were easily 300 eagles in the area right outside the building. This year there aren’t as many because of the strange weather…figures. But a few flew by and landed in a tree close by, then flew off. They were very easy to see. We crossed the bridge to the Wisconsin side and drove a little further south and were able to see several more. Even though we didn’t see as many as I would have liked to, it was still a great day.

Wine and Cheese…

A few weeks ago on a cold snowy day in December, David and I took a little day trip to St. Croix Winery in Wisconsin.  Andy had given us a gift certificate for a five sample wine tasting with cheese and crackers, a tour and bottle of wine. We had the certificate for months when I thought I better take a look at it and see when we had to use it by. I’m so very glad I looked at it, because it had to be used by the first of the year. We called and made reservations the same day for the next Friday we both had off. The tour was a little lacking, but only because it is a very small winery. They hold special events there and it can be reserved for special happenings such as parties and weddings. They get their grapes and grape juice from California because they don’t have enough grapes yet. The grapes they have growing are special for this climate so they can leave them up and not have to bury them. It will be several years before they have enough to do much with, but they’ll get there.

I’m not much of a wine person because most of the wines I’ve had are too dry for me and make my nose stuffy. These wines though, mmmm, they were very good. Even the reds, which I always thought were dry, were Not! I didn’t get stuffed up either, and I found out that is because they use the smallest amount of tannin allowed by the FDA so their wines don’t give the headache and stuffiness.

Our ‘Free’ wine tasting event ended up costing us $46, because we just had to get some of the wonderful cheese we sampled and an additional two bottles of wine. They were so tasty! I think I may become hooked. hahaha

 

 

 

 

Thanks Andy, we had a great time, and we plan on visiting other wineries.

Zoo 2…

I guess I should give a little credit to the other animals we saw too.

I just love watching the bears. This one in the water is the darkest of the three, and seems to be the most outgoing. He loves to put on a show for the people standing at the glass. He got in the water and came right up to the glass and looked at each person as he made his way to the other side. It is so cool!!