I read an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press via the Brainerd Dispatch recently that I’m feeling the need to talk back to. The article is called “Antiques dealers find industry lagging, numbers shrinking – hope for eventual renaissance.” It quotes a number of people in the industry discussing how antiques stores are going out of business and making comments about how young people just aren’t interested in old things anymore. One says the…
Last Saturday, September 10, 2016, our daughter Olivia married a kind, sweet young man named Eric. Because his name is Eric and my hubby’s name is Erik, I’ve taken to saying “Olivia’s Eric” and “My Erik” in order to distinguish between the two. We are absolutely delighted to have Olivia’s Eric join the family. Olivia and Eric’s wedding was a lovely affair that took place on a beautiful farm in central Minnesota…
I woke to a major thunderstorm this morning. It is the end of August. Growing up in central Minnesota, you become accustomed to general weather patterns. Sure, some winters are colder than others; some summers are hotter or rainier than others; and weather is not climate. However, this past 10 years, we are increasingly seeing the effects of a warmer climate on our local weather. Thunderstorms and tornadoes are primarily spring and early summer…
Every year, for as long as we have been in this house (20+ years), probably longer, the grape vines, which seem to originate at the back of the yard near the shed, take over. They snake across the clothes lines and up into the trees, dominating small bushes so that we can’t see them. In at least one (maybe two) areas of the yard, the vines are so thick over the bushes that you could…
When I went online this evening, I checked out Google News, as I often do, just to get a handle on the major news of the day. Under the section for U.S. news, these are the headlines I was greeted with: Only four headlines were provided under the U.S. news section and every one of them deals with violent death. It’s enough to make me want to crawl under a rock. Certainly there was some…