Linked Rivers - June 2013

I keep meaning to take a drive and get some pictures of the Mississippi River from a different location, but for some reason, life keeps getting busier when I actually have less to do...maybe it has something to do with getting OLDer. I'll try to convince David to leave the wood cutting (even though I really want him to clean that up) and go for a drive, do some sightseeing and have a picnic, heck, I'll even let him stop and fish!

The following pictures are near where I live and often walk. The river is still quite high from all the rain we've been having, but I noticed today that it has gone down about 8 inches since this last Thursday.  It really doesn't take very long to recede when we go for a couple weeks with no rain.

These are Not Annie's paw prints...I have one of hers in plaster. One day I'll have another dog and we'll go walking by the river and leave our own paw/foot prints, but for now, I'll enjoy these.

Visit my friend Hanne
(she's all the way over the ocean in Italy!!!)
We're doing a monthly river link-up.

Linked - Rivers May

We finally got Spring here in Minnesota...it was a long time coming, and everything is all lush and green now. Of course it happens to be raining at least half of each week, which sort of helps with the lush and green part.
I really shouldn't complain, because the weather can abruptly change and throw us into a drought, so I'll just be happy with the rain and gloom and depression that comes with the lack of sunshine.

anywho...I took my weekly river pictures with my phone

This is as high as the river got before it started to recede, but with all the rain, it came back up again.

I decided to move on down river and take some pictures from a place called Mill City Ruins, right in the city.

I love wandering around, looking at the river, the ruins and all the different architecture in the buildings and bridges. There is everything from very, very old and abandoned, to old and renovated and very new and modern. Even the bridges are of different architectural design. And I have to admit, people watching is fabulous, never a dull moment!

I took this one from the bridge, looking down at the water...you can just see the tip of my foot.

These are some of the buildings on the bank of the river. Above is the Guthrie Theater, which looks totally different than the original one, which was a few miles away.

Two shots of a ruin building and renovated condominiums...I would Love to live here, but it's just a tad bit pricey for me.

 

Above is the street side of the Guthrie Theater, and below is a cool reflection of the 

Gold Medal Flour sign.

And a last one from a mile or so upriver, this is where the Mississippi River Rats practice their synchronized water skiing.

Stop on over at Hanne's blog, we're Linking up monthly to share "Our rivers" with you.

Linked - Rivers April

Wow, April has come and gone already. Time seems to move so much faster the older I get.
Because of our lovely Spring weather this year "snort" there still hasn't been much change in the Mississippi River, at least not where I live.
It has been steadily rising, but not yet flooding any of the markers we watch.
Our biggest marker for how high the river is getting is a fishing pier near Hwys 94/694

The water usually comes up over the top of the pier and floods the parking lot. yay I'm keeping track of it though, it's strange the things I find interesting and stimulating (I always liked going to the Emergency Department to draw blood when a trauma came in too).

I guess I never knew I could see three of the bridges from the walking path, maybe because there used to be a LOT  more trees down here, more likely I'm just a lot more aware now that I'm taking pictures everyday.

This island used to be full of trees that were full of Heron nests...but no longer, some of the Herons relocated south and some relocated north to Coon Rapids. This rookery was so nice to watch because it was so close to the shore.

We decided to walk a different part of the river this week and went up to the Coon Rapids Dam. I don't think it's nearly as pretty up there, but then I don't live there, so I'm not partial to it. It's much flatter than by me, but it does have this dam, which was pretty cool and there are two Heron rookeries.

When I ran down to the river this last Sunday, in between spurts of rain, I saw these big puffy clouds and couldn't resist a few pictures of them.

Then there was this pretty rainbow...look how high the water is already. It will get higher, I will bet just about anything on it.


My friend Hanne and I are doing a monthly Linked river post...stop by and see her river...she's in Italy!

Linked Rivers, Mississippi - Arno March 2013

 All of the following pictures were taken while on our nearly nightly walks by the river.
The Three River's Park District has miles of paved bike and walking paths that I feel we are fortunate to be able to use. Years ago, before the construction of Hwy 94, there were private homes, and 2 hotels built on the steep banks of the Mississippi.
I remember driving Lyndale every Sunday to and from church, and waiting for just the right moment to be able to see a small valley of Iris. We marveled over the beauty of all those flowers and who it was that grew and tenderly cared for them. We met Laura years later because of the garden we were trying to get started on our front bank. She was out for a walk, we were probably weeding and she stopped to say Hi and talk flowers and one thing led to another...we still have some of the Iris she gave us. When the homes were demolished, the planners chose to keep some plants and trees that were already established, and Laura had a Magnolia tree that was thoughtfully left in peace. Right now, it is once again loaded with little furry buds just waiting for the right time to burst open and reveal a beautiful white flower.


Native grasses were planted in place of one of the hotels (the scary one) and something I would call a water garden (my hubby and I were having a discussion about whether it was or not). My daughter and I saw tadpoles and frogs in the water there when it was just made, and I'm sure there still are, but now it's so established, it's hard to tell, and I for one do Not care for woodticks, so I'm not taking a chance of walking through the tall grass just to get a peek at a frog, nor do I want to pick a tick off Annie (after it's been on awhile and is huge and grey and disgusting).
The grasses are gorgeous in the summer, but I think they have a lot to offer in the winter too.

The following are of two different sites taken on March 3, 2013

It's not very interesting in the late winter, nothing really is though at that time in Minnesota. The colors are brown, varying shades of brown, but still brown. Yawn!

I keep waiting for the huge ice chunks to float down, but I've only seen a few last week...I'm certain they will be showing up any time now (my husband disagrees with me).

 We did have one really exciting thing happen, because neither of us remember seeing these here before, Trumpeter Swans! We took a little drive up to Monticello last year to see the swans that hang out by the power plant up there and that was amazing...there were soooo many, but my normally very bird aware hubby doesn't remember seeing any here either. We counter six in all and are assuming they were all pairs.

I do not have a very high powered telephoto lens yet and I apparently am unable to hold still enough to take a clear picture (great camera.great lens.too cold.dog leash on my arm.heart beats to hard...and that's all the excuses I can come up with)

They put in some storm drainage holding ponds, so after a good storm, we hightail it down to the park and see how much water is being held...ladies with small children...see what you have to look forward to when they have flown the coop??? Excitement! snort

My eagles! Yes, I have claimed them because I don't think anyone else could possibly get as excited as I do when I see them, even though I see people standing on the trail with their hand shading their eyes as they stare mesmerized by one soaring overhead. 

We've seen at least two adults and two adolescents. 

I was fortunate to have my camera with me this day instead of just my phone, and I was still a ways away when I spotted them, and I quickly turned on my camera, took off the lens cap and started to say a little prayer that they would stay put until I got at least one shot of them.

I got about 1/2 a mile further down and one of the youngsters soared right over my head. I am a slow reactor and as I first spotted him, instead of reading my camera, which I should have left on in the first place,  I dropped my jaw and made giddy noises, but thankfully, I was able to get a few shots of him.

March 17, 2013

No noticeable change

 Every evening at dinnertime, flocks and flocks of crows fly south. They remind me of swarms of locusts.

The following were from our Easter Sunday walk and it was SUNNY, such a nice change.

Our son Ethan has joint custody of Kilo, (he and a female friend of his used to be roomies and decided to get a rescue dog. Kilo lives with my son, but has regular visits with his Mom)
Please ignore the nasty looking prong collar, I know this goes against manymanymanymany people, but we've been using them for ever and they Work! And we have never harmed one of our furballs.

This is as close as I was allowed to get to this Great Horned owl before he got irritated with me an flew off.

My friend Hanne and I both live and walk near rivers so we decided to do a linked series, hop on over and take a look at her first river installment.