Happy Halloween!

From festive . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . to scary,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Natural History museum, London)

Beware-y,

Be merry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

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Reflections -- Three Thursday Thoughts

 

I see blog posts on favorite books and think, how could I ever pick a favorite out of all the wonderful books I've read? To me, it would be like a mother picking a favorite child. Impossible!

I have read so many books; one or two a week since I learned to read would be a ballpark estimate. That would be maybe 5000 books. Each book is unique, as different as a fingerprint or a snowflake. I read different genres for different purposes and value them for different reasons. Some entertain, some inform, some provoke. I read them at different times of my life, when I am nearly a "different person".

So how can I pick a "favorite"?

I like to read other people's choices, so I thought I would give it a try. To make it remotely possible, I am making three age categories: childhood, middle years, and recent. And I am giving myself three picks in each category. Just because I can!

So . . .

Childhood Favorites

#1

I grew up in the country, went to a country school, and books were scarce. One had to pay for membership in the town library (a luxury we couldn't afford), and there was no central school library. Each classroom had a shelf with a few tatty old donations that could be borrowed. They had an dry, musty smell and were ancient.

The books I owned were called Little Golden Books and could be purchased at the dime store for 29 cents.

My favorite was The Little Red Hen, a Russian folk tale about a hen who finds some wheat and tries to get all the other animals to help her make it into a loaf of bread. No one will help -- until it comes to the eating of it and then everyone wants a slice, so to speak. I can close my eyes and still see the pictures. My sister had red hair and so was chosen one year to play the starring role, the hen herself, in a classroom play!

#2

I think I might have read The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, from my grandma's bookcase, and it probably belonged to my dad and aunt. We visited there every Sunday evening. I would pick a book and sit on a prickly chair by the bookcase, devouring it. I learned to read very fast because I wasn't allowed to take a book home.

The story is about four orphaned children who make a home for themselves in an abandoned railroad car. I loved their resourcefulness in making useful things out of discards and spent many hours lost in stories of my own, imagining a similar life of my own creation. Behind the ballet studio where I took lessons there was an appliance junk yard of sorts that I could see from the window. In my mind I created endless useful things for my own boxcar home from the junk I could see. It's a wonder I wasn't tripping over my feet and the other students because my mind was so busy elsewhere!

#3

I can't tell you how many times I read Anne if Green Gables, first for myself and then over and over with my girls, who loved it as much as I do. We've watch the movie a bajillion times, and once drove many miles to see the musical play. Why? I loved the setting (turn of the century Prince Edward Island) and the lifestyle and values it represented. But mostly I loved Anne ("Anne with an e").

Anne was another orphan, mistakenly sent to live with an old man and his spinster sister, both set in their ways and expecting a boy orphan. Anne always meant well but nevertheless was a girl, a strong-willed girl, who constantly found herself in trouble because she lived her life so passionately.

*****

As I look at these book choices from the vantage point of today, I can see how profoundly they influenced me and the way I have lived my life, how they either shaped or reinforced values that are important to me today. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get on with it. Look around at what you've got and make good use of it. Live your passion. And as my dad and the Red Hen would say, "No work, no eat!"

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what books you loved from your childhood and how they influenced your life.

(The photo is from a hallway at Leadenhall Market, London.)

 

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What an October!

I'm really tired of raking leaves, so I propped the rake against a tree and went for a hike. The day just couldn't have been more perfect to be outside enjoying it.

Much of the corn has been picked and the fields ahead look naked, like a newly shorn sheep, or a summer haircut.

The boardwalk through the marsh is glowing golden and a few summer frogs provided some background music.

Past the tight new cat tails . . . .

. . . and into the piney woods. I wish my blog had Smell-o-Vision. The sun on the pine needle carpet made a heady perfume, so lovely I had to sit down on the warm pine needles for awhile, lean against a tree, and just inhale.

This has been the sunniest, warmest, best October in Minnesota I have ever experienced!

 

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

 

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Pumpkin Power

Welcome to the PUMPKIN FESTIVAL in Wabasha, Minnesota!

 

Pumpkins are everywhere at this time of year,

piled in farm wagons for sale along the country roads,

heaped beside homemade pumpkin canons,

in soup,

on doorsteps,

and in the streets as . . . .

Pumpkin People!

 

Slow down and enjoy the beautiful day.

(This creation by the town's school crossing guards)

Right this way, folks. (Built by a local construction company)

A lovely school lunch lady. Note the clever use of the pumpkin stem as her pert little nose. (Cooked up by the school lunch ladies, of course!)

And my favorite!

(Styled by hairstylists at a beauty salon. I think that is obvious by the Cowardly Lion's hairdo, don't you?)

Lastly, a naked pumpkin, which appears in its natural splendor by virtue only of its 668 lbs of flesh.

668 pounds!!!

( I think he sneaked in, though, because he looks a lot more like a squash than a pumpkin to me.)

Thanks for reading. I do enjoy seeing your comments and I will be by to visit your blog in return.

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Trash to Treasure

 

On the bluffs above Prescott, Wisconsin, some strange birds look out at the Mississippi River -- two nesting herons atop the antlers of an 8-point buck.

All materials for the sculpture came from clean-ups along the Mississippi and Minnesota River banks, 500 lbs. of it. It contains rusted car parts, headlights, pliers, a license plate, jumper cable clip, toy tractor, rubber cement bottle, rebar, shoes, gears, and scrap metal. The herons were constructed of tire tubes and garbage bags full of plastic water and pop bottles.

*I have no idea why my last post appeared again this morning all on its own. Thank you, Blogsy, but that was unnecessary! If I delete one, they both disappear, yet only one is listed in my posted blogs . . . . If anyone has any idea why, I would love to know!

 

 

 

The sculptor, Raina Belleau, is a Minnesota native. She was inspired to create the sculpture after a tornado destroyed nesting herons and their rookery in Minneapolis.

 

 

 

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Reflections - Three Thursday Thoughts

 

Reflections in Leadenhall Market, London

I.

Note to self:

Contentment is something I've not always felt in my life. I seem to have a natural proclivity to be constantly rushing ahead, focused more on the next thing than the moment I am in the midst of, excited about all the possibilities of what might be around the corner and less prone to relax into awareness of what is currently happening.

I think finding contentment is an important part of the work of aging well.

Of course there will always be discomforts and new desires in our lives, but contentment does not require perfection. Rather it is, I think, a mixture of peaceful acceptance of one's situation, of gratitude and recognition of what is enough, of wisdom in making choices.

The work is in creating a life that fits comfortably and fills basic needs, that cultivates relationships that satisfy.

How to do that? Achieving contentment, I think, is a choice of focus.

• Being fully present in moment you are living.
• Finding the balance in cherishing memories of the past, appreciating the present, and planning for the future.
• Not comparing yourself to others or to yourself in the past.
• Practicing an attitude of gratitude.
• Accepting that people are who and what they are, for their own good reasons. Look for reasons to enjoy them. If you can't, find other relationships.
• Being clear within yourself about what you need to be content. Start taking the necessary steps to move in those directions.
• Valueing the things you already have and make the most of all their possibilities.
• Accepting physical strengths and limitations with grace and gratitude.

I'm working on it!

 

II.

"At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you."

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

 

III.

"Thoughts become things. Choose the good ones!"

--Mike Dooley

 

**Thanks for reading. I really enjoy your comments and will be over to visit your blog.**

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Reflections - Three Thursday Thoughts

 

Reflections in Leadenhall Market, London

I.

Note to self:

Contentment is something I've not always felt in my life. I seem to have a natural proclivity to be constantly rushing ahead, focused more on the next thing than the moment I am in the midst of, excited about all the possibilities of what might be around the corner and less prone to relax into awareness of what is currently happening.

I think finding contentment is an important part of the work of aging well.

Of course there will always be discomforts and new desires in our lives, but contentment does not require perfection. Rather it is, I think, a mixture of peaceful acceptance of one's situation, of gratitude and recognition of what is enough, of wisdom in making choices.

The work is in creating a life that fits comfortably and fills basic needs, that cultivates relationships that satisfy.

How to do that? Achieving contentment, I think, is a choice of focus.

• Be fully present in moment you are living.
• Find the balance in cherishing memories of the past, appreciating the present, and planning for the future.
• Don't compare yourself to others or to yourself in the past.
• Practice an attitude of gratitude.
• Accept that people are who and what they are, for their own good reasons. Look for reasons to enjoy them. If you can't, find other relationships.
• Be clear within yourself about what you need to be content. Start taking the necessary steps to move in those directions.
• Value the things you already have and make the most of all their possibilities.
• Accept your physical strengths and limitations with grace and gratitude.

I'm working on it!

 

II.

"At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you."

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

 

III.

"Thoughts become things. Choose the good ones!"

--Mike Dooley

 

**Thanks for reading. I really enjoy your comments and will be over to visit your blog.**

 

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Ol' Man River

Like the mighty river, autumn along the Upper Mississippi is a beautiful thing.

These photos were taken Sunday between Prescott and Stockholm, Wisconsin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An eagle soars effortlessly in the wind over the bluffs.

 

 

 

 

 

It's Indian Summer -- sunny with temps that return to the 60s F after frosts or even a freeze, and it is nothing short of glorious.

 

 

 

Everyone wants to get outside and enjoy the last days before the river turns to ice.

The little river towns seem to have hung on to the pace and style of an earlier time,

when the river was younger,

and so were we.

 

**Thank you for reading my blog today. I do enjoy reading your thoughts and reflections, and I will be by to visit your blog in return.

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Reflections - Three Thursday Thoughts

 

Minneapolis, Minnesota

I.

I've always said fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler weather, the trees changing color, the intense blue of the sky, the acts of gathering the harvest, taking stock, and battening down the hatches for the harsh winter ahead.

I kind of like it that my age is also referred to as the autumn of life.

I see striking parallels with the natural world. As fall approaches, there is a sadness at the ending of the fun of summer, but then comes realization of autumn's own gifts and incredible beauty. And there is the same mellow beauty to these years of life, a deep appreciation for and savoring of the abundant gifts the summer brought us -- our children and grandchildren, a career, hobbies, friends, home. There is a slowing down of responsibility, of intensity, even of needs, I think.

For me it has taken the whole first year of retirement to get past the stresses of my working life and calm my thoughts and activity. To slow down and savor moments without the fear that Monday is always snapping at my heels. To squirrel away the abundance of summer's bounty to enjoy now and over the winter years.

That feels like a pretty wonderful place to be.

II.

"What most people really, really want is simply to feel good about themselves, and when you realize that with just a few well-chosen words you can help virtually anyone on the planet instantly achieve this, you begin to realize just how simple life is, how powerful you are, and that love is the key. " - Tut

III.

Remember: If you laugh a lot, when you get old your wrinkles will be in the right places.

 

NOTE: In my last post I wrote about light rail in Minnesota and mentioned the cost of a ticket. The 75 cent ticket is for seniors, good for 2 1/2 hours, during non-peak hours, 9 am to 3 pm and weekends. Non seniors pay $1.50 for those same days and times. Full price for peak hours is $1.50 and $ 2.25. Within the downtown zone tickets are 50 cents for everyone. A great bargain, I think, and all tickets are for 2 1/2 hours.

 

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Training - New Light Rail to St Paul

 

I'm really happy about the $1 billion new light rail line that connects St Paul with Minneapolis because it opens up a lot of new places for me to explore. I don't drive in either city unless I absolutely have to, happily turning over my 75 cents for a ticket and parking my car for free at the station farthest out.

It opened this summer and last week I had my first chance to ride the new rails.

 

The new line is called the Green Line -- some say because it cost so much money.

When you change trains in Minneapolis, the Green Line trains head across the Mississippi River and through the University of Minnesota campus where the train has to slow down to a crawl so as to not disturb sensitive experiments going on in the laboratories there.

 

 

 

 

Each station has artwork that reflects that community's history or character and an information board with some interesting facts or something to see nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also a lot of interesting things to discover from the huge windows as the train travels through immigrant neighborhoods I've never seen before.

I took this photo for Connie at FarSideof50. I thought she might like to visit sometime and would feel right at home!

It's a Finish sauna that also rents cross-country skis in the winter.

 

 

Old meets new in this mural -- streetcars used to run this same route up until 60 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several miles of the line run through areas that are victim of urban blight, but already signs of renewal are cropping up.

Smal ethnic restaurants are claiming empty buildings and giving them new life, and upscale apartments are being built in some of the old factories.

My destination was the end of the line -- the magnificent old Union Depot, recently restored to its former glory, in downtown St Paul. I'll save those photos for another day.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog. I really enjoy reading your comments and I'll be by to visit your blog in return.

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