My Favorite Photos - August 2023

Another month passed and it feels like the majority of it was spent at work. The good thing is that many of the activities were ones that made me happy. One of the first ones of the month was Dalapalooza. We had a therapy horse at that one. 

His name was Arvid and he is a Norwegian Fjord horse. 

He was there on lunch break during a Dala horse painting class. Sophia took the class. 

Olivia did too.

At the Washington County Fair, I saw this sunflower. 

Olivia entered about a half-dozen projects. The blue Diamond-Dotz project was one of her projects. 

The girls and I played Bingo at the fair. 

The first week of August, I coordinated the first-ever Sewing Camp at the museum. In addition to sewing for half the day, the girls did other projects - like making these suet log feeders for the birds.

The girls also learned about natural dyes that the pioneers would have used. After the lesson, they created tie-dye t-shirts. They all turned out really well.

The girls also learned about bees and made rolled beeswax candles. 

The main project was a sewing and embroidery project. They made a shoulder bag.

The following week at work, the children learned about cynotype printing. I taught my daughters how to do this when I homeschooled them so it was fun to do again with other children and see how excited they were with the photography process.

The children made stuffed tomtes and a couple other projects. 

The new building signs that I had been working on since February were installed. There was a small team of volunteers and I who worked with to upgrade the signs. 

The signs are in English and Swedish since Swedish immigrants settled in Scandia in the mid- to late-1800s.

The heritage vegetable garden is doing very well now. The Washington County Master Gardens have revitalized this garden and a cereal garden.

The summer intern repainted and/or created different wooden animals that would have been typical of an 1850s-1880s farm.

There was another big event at the museum - Spelmansstamman. Some of the children from the elementary school where I worked and the camp at the museum showed up which was fun. 

There were many musicians at the event - including this older gentleman who was tuning his violin under a tree.

I enjoyed seeing different generations of fiddlers performing together. 

The event in August had a dual focus - Swedish and Ojibwe culture and music. This is Julian who did drumming and short presentations about Ojibwe culture and music. 

I liked seeing children interact with the Dala horses that we repainted and/or touched up. 

My sister and nephew attended the event. They had never been to it and really enjoyed the experience. 

Towards the end of August, Olivia moved back to college. She has her own room again this year as part of her accommodations. It feels so much more spacious than last year's room, and she has set it up well. Sophia gave some input, too, about arranging the room and helped set it up. 

Another project at work was coordinating a Tomte Community Art Show. There are 43 artists who designed and painted 48 tomtes. The artists ranged in ages from 7 to over 80 years old. 

The tomtes are all so different from one another. It's fun to see what people came up with and how some even added additional features to the wood cut-out.

On August 30th, I helped the Lions serve a meal and lemonade to students at the local elementary school. One of the students who I worked with last year (who is now going to school at the middle school) showed up. "Ms. Ann!!" I heard. Seeing him truly brightened my day.

We served food to a lot of families that evening. 

I started growing dahlias this year. This is a new one that just started blooming. 

This dahlia has bloomed constantly now for a month. There have been so many blooms on this plant.

We're seeing a lot of yellows now in the yard and pastures. There's a lot of goldenrod which I'm not a huge fan of, but the bees like it. I prefer these type of yellow  flowers.

Even these yellow flowers I like, especially when I see they benefit bees and other pollinators. 

And that wraps up August. It's been a full month. 

Favorite Photos from April 2023

Below are some of my favorite photos from April...or at least ones that I want to remember what happened in April. 

On April 1st, there was a major snowfall. The snow, by this point, covered half of the doors and windows on the barn. This has been a nightmarish winter, to say the least. 

One of the things I like about the winter, though, is that I can see tracks in the snow. It amazes me how much "traffic" there is around the yard by different mammals and birds in the winter and early-spring.

Once the snow melted a bit, I took the dogs out for a walk. I need to get into the routine of walking again.

The dogs love to walk along this road. There isn't a lot of traffic or walker/bikers, which is nice.

These photos are of Easter Cactuses that I got this year. In April, there was continued snow and it was becoming more challenging to deal with the never-ending winter and dreariness of the snow and ice. Bright, cheerful flowers were what I needed.

  

As the month progressed, the ice and snow melted. The seasonal pond was getting larger each day. The ducks and geese were returning which was uplighting. Spring was finally getting here!

Paige and I visited Olivia at college one day. We all enjoyed dinner together.

Afterward, she showed us the drawing studio. This is one of her pieces she did with charcoal.

The red-winged blackbirds were returning to Minnesota in earnest. The tough thing for the birds is that there's not a lot of food for them since the weather has been so cold. Only a few trees have buds on them. I love to hear the birds sing and call to one another in the trees.

Ashley (one of Sophia's roommates) had her final concert. There was a wide variety of music and everyone played beautifully. Sophia played the harp and Olivia played the flute. 

Sophia and Olivia along with Nessa (Sophia's roommate) came home for Easter break. I asked the girls if they wanted to dye Easter eggs and they did. 

They used crayons to create designs before soaking the eggs in dye which they enjoyed.

I had fun shopping for Easter baskets this year. This is Olivia with her Easter basket. She had more nature- and dog-themed items in her basket.

That sunlight was bright on Easter. We enjoyed having breakfast together. Paige requested pancakes and Sophia wanted blueberries in them. It has been a while since we had fresh blueberries in pancakes.  

This is Sophia's Easter basket. She was excited about the different items - some practical and others not so practical. 

We went to my brother's home for Easter. The girls were eating with two of their cousins at this table (one is pictured and the other joined later). 

The rest of us ate Easter dinner at this table. We had an untraditional taco dinner for Easter which we all liked.

For dessert, my brother got big decorated cupcakes. Here's Olivia and Sophia with their cupcakes. 

 

Sophia made a cheesecake since Paige had to work on Easter. He loves cheesecake.

On April 15th, I coordinated and held a Service Project Sampler Day. The event took about four months to create and relied on many volunteers from the Lions and community to make it happen. We had 199 people attend the event - up from 137 last year and about 60 the year before. We had 15 hands-on projects and 21 collection drives. It was the largest one to date.

My sister is working on the Sole Hope project - creating shoe kits from blue jeans for children in Uganda who had and were treated for jiggers. 

Another project we did at the Service Project Sampler Day was knit and crochet hats for newborns in third-world countries. The hats are one of many things we made and donated, and are used as incentives for women to get pre-natal care and to deliver their babies in clinics/hospitals. 

These were pillowcases that some of the volunteers made for children living on a reservation in California. The sewers made 55 pillowcases! 

At the museum where I'm doing marketing/PR and now have become the Associate Director, we have a new exhibit called Swedish Folk Painting: Tradition and Innovation. This is one of 37 pieces that are being shown. The cupboard/case opens and has two shelves that hold tiny glasses.

This is another painting. I like it because it has two animals in it. 

There are five historic buildings at the museum, and this is one of them. Originally, it was the pastor's house and then it was sold to a family back in the 1800s. One of the children who was born in the home lived there until the 1970s. There was never central heat, air conditioning, or a bathroom in the home. It was heated by a wood stove in the living room. It just amazes me that a woman in her 80s was hauling wood in the late-fall, winter, and early-spring to keep her home warm.

The last week in April, I attended the Minnesota Association of Local History Museums in Austin, Minnesota. I went on the Tree Trek that featured over 75 trees and shrubs that can grow in Minnesota.

Here's another sign of spring.

At the Hormel Historic Home in Austin, there was an old treadle sewing machine that was set up.

This was another display at the Hormel Home that I thought was clever. I liked how the trunk is on one end and displays various linens. 

One of the activities at the MALHM conference was to find rubber ducks that had been hidden around the conference area. On the underside of each duck were raffle tickets. I found four ducks - each with a different appearance. It was a great way to add more fun to the conference.

This was a small lake with a dam in Austin. 

My sister and I went to the Como Conservatory to see their Spring Show. It was beautiful with its purple, white, and yellow flowers. 

I love the colors on these flowers.

There were brightly-colored flowers tucked in little spaces throughout the display.

The smell of the conservatory was amazing! It was just what I needed in April when things still were not in bloom yet outdoors.

This flower had tons of little tiny flowers on it. I've always wanted to grow them, but the cost per bulb is so expensive. 

There was an orchid section in another part of the conservatory. 

This was one of the flowers in the bromeliad section. These flowers collect water in their centers.

My sister stood next to one of the bonsai in the bonsai room. This one was the most impressive one because it was covered in flowers. It's an azalea. 

This was one of the little waterfalls in the Como Conservatory. 

After going to the Como Conservatory, my sister and I went to Hmong Village to look around and then have some lunch. I got three spring rolls at Hmong Village. Before I realized that I didn't take a photo, I ate one of the spring rolls. It was delicious!

At Hmong Village, Mary ordered a sesame ball with her chicken pad thai. It was huge!

There was a long aisle of Asian restaurants - each with a slightly different focus. We ordered at one all the way at the end of the aisle. This was the first available table...that's how popular this place is!

Afterward, we had some bubble tea. 

That wraps up April.