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.

Linked 2013 - (Furry) Faces

It's amazing the things animal lovers will put up with to share their space with furballs.

hair
slobber
bad breath
drool
snot
sneezing
weeping eyes
cauliflower ears
chronic ear infections
growling
litterbox cleaning
sampling from the litter box
poop pick-up
emergency vet bills
greyhound teeth (syndrome)
cuddles
warmth
friendship
walking buddy
smiles
kisses
barking...nonstop
incontinence
puking
hairballs
garden digging
dirt
wet dog smell
cat toenails - ouch

I can't remember a time when there wasn't at least one furball sharing my space, except for a short time when I lived in an apartment.

This is Annie Belle, an eight year old rough coat collie with one blue eye, one brown eye and a very long snout, longer than what is normal I think. She has this habit of staring at me, just like the picture above. Every evening, she sits in front of my husband and stares at him, while Oliver, our orange tabby with the snotty, sneezing nose, that showed up in our yard three years ago, lies on his chest. He likes to have his face nearly touching our face and he uses his paw to touch our face and mouth (the yucky part, because I Know where those paws have been). He absolutely will Not just quietly lay on my lap, that is simply way too far away from my face, and I won't put up with him being that close to my face, but my husband and sons will, so he doesn't pester me as much, and I don't mind, because that's just a little too much fur, a little too close.

These two have a very strange relationship, we think, for a cat and dog. They groom each other's faces and necks. Oliver uses his paw to get Annie's face into the position he wants, then proceeds to lick her snout. Annie uses her long snout to be able to get into the nooks and crannies of Oliver's neck, gently biting his neck. He rubs his face all over hers, and when they notice us watching them, the looks on their faces is just a little guilty, like they were caught doing something they weren't supposed to.
Honestly, you'd have to see it to believe me. I've even felt a little uncomfortable at times.

 

Now, while Annie is officially My dog (got her for my 48th birthday), and my son considers Little-Bit, below, his cat, he's really mine. Every night he saunters over to me, meows in a certain way that means he wants to jump up on my lap and I automatically grab the blanket. I Always have a blanket on my lap when he wants to lay on me because he's been know to get startled and jump off quickly, using his toenails to help - Ouch!
Bitty has a very expressive face, he'll have his eyes 1/2 closed and if one of us asks him a question, he'll nod at us us.
He is sooo warm and sooo soft. I love the color of his nose and his long white whiskers, and I like to play with his ears as long as he'll let me.
We just realized he is 13 years old, three years older than any of my furballs have ever lived.

More of the "couple"
Photo overload, but you can just skip over them.

Check out my friends view of Faces...


Amanda, Carla, Hanne, Heather, Heidi, Jenn, Kristin, Rhonda, Tracey and Tracy

Linked 2013 - Comfort

Comfort means different things to me at different times of the year..

When I get home from work in the Spring or Fall, the first thing I want to do is get some fresh air.
The clean air outside (certainly cleaner and fresher than the lab air) almost makes me giddy with
excitement. I feel sooo good after filling my lungs with outside air, and no matter how bad a mood
I may be in, after my walk, I feel much better.
I quick change my clothes, make a pit stop, fill up my water bottle and put on my walking shoes.
I call for Annie, stick a few dog treats in my pocket, clip on her leash, make sure my phone is in my pocket and we are off, down to the walking path by the Mississippi river.
Annie gets bored with this routine, but she's walking with me, and I like the path better than the streets, it's pretty by the river, I don't have to worry about getting hit by a car, I feel safe, and I have a better chance at seeing my eagles (we have two adults and one youngster)
I'm down here so often, I'm thinking of taking a weekly "from where I stand" photo of the same spot,
to show the change the river goes through.
The river changes even now, in February, two weeks ago, the river was almost completely iced over, last week it was almost completely clear and yesterday a lot of the ice was back again.
I really never took much notice of the changes the river goes through, until Instagram allowed the Android market...and I got my pretty new Canon 7D, now it seems like all I see is light and color and mood.
Thank you photographers for helping me to see the light!

During the summer, I usually wait till my hubs is off work and we've had dinner, then it's usually a little cooler
to walk and I don't worry as much about Annie overheating.

During the winter, I only walk when it's not really cold and windy because the only part of my face that I can't cover, (the bridge of my nose where my glasses sit) gets too cold and I guess I'm just turning into a wimp with my old age. I also tend to read more in the winter and once I'm engrossed in a book, that's all I want to do. So unless there is some errand I have to do after work, once I get home, I let Annie out,
change clothes, make a pit stop, make a cup of flavored coffee, let Annie in, stoke the fire, make sure I have my coffee, water, phone and book or tablet, sit in my chair, cover up with a blanket and read for an hour or so, until it's time to start dinner.

These things mean Comfort for me, see what Comfort means for these ladies...

Andrea, Amanda, Carla, Hanne, Heather, Heidi, Janet, Jean, Jenn, Kristin, Rhonda, Tracey and Tracy