Outdoor decorations

On Saturday, my mom came over for a full day of painting and decorating. (First things first: thank you for all of your help, Mom!!)

In between coats of paint in the bathroom—I'll tell you about that later—she gave me a primer on outdoor decorating for the holidays. First, we wanted to replace the summer windowbox arrangement that the previous owners had designed with a festive winter windowbox. She also pitched the idea of setting up some little pots for the front step, which I liked.

Mom tackled the windowbox while I slowly started poking pine boughs into one of the pots. She used drapey pine boughs (they smell wonderful!) with artificial red berries, and she reused the summer arrangement's sticks. (I think she arranged the whole windowbox in the time that I worked on one pot.) In the pots, we stuck a different kind of pine bough vertically (very precise language here, I know) and then added more drapey boughs, pine cones, and red berries. The weather was good for working outside: temperatures were near 30, and the sunshine was surprisingly warm.

Mom at work:



And voila!



One more view of the windowbox:




And me with the little pots!






At the start of the morning, I had no idea how to even articulate what kinds of arrangements I liked best. Mom was so helpful in walking me through the steps, patiently advising me, and presenting different options. I like this new touch of cheer.

Minnehaha Falls visit

Now that I've decided to sign up for a trail 25K next month, it's time to start bumping up the mileage on my weekend long run. I love this because instead of making the long run feel more tedious, it actually is more fun for me because a longer run opens up so many more route options. I love a long run that takes me up to the University of Minnesota's campus or around Lake Nokomis or even over to Lake Calhoun. For these longer workouts, I keep the pace nice and gentle because I'm working on rebuilding endurance.

Today's route: a 12-miler that meandered over to Minnehaha Falls.

It's spring! It's spring?

Brr. It was hard to dress properly for this run because the temperatures were more typical of January or February, especially with the wind, but the March sun is so much stronger. I alternated between being toasty and cold, depending on whether the wind was in my face or at my back.

As I got close to the falls, I heard the water flowing. I remember visiting Minnehaha Falls with friends last summer, when the Sea Salt Eatery lines were long, the patio was packed, and the park was full of visitors. I wondered how different it would look.

The answer: pretty different. My first view:

(Author's note: A day after publishing this post, I stumbled across a photo from that summer visit and had to include it for contrast. Ready?)

The staircases leading down to the falls were closed, but I got a good view from above the waterfall. You can see the water flowing in the center of the falls area. The rest is ice. Here's a better look, with water on the left and ice on the right:

One last look before I turned around and headed back to St. Paul:

I've never seen Minnehaha Falls even partially frozen, and I'm glad I got the chance today.

Ice patterns

From this morning's walk, before pedestrians (and canines) crunched through the bubbly ice on the sidewalk's edge:

Snow blanket

Now that it's nearly spring—or at least there's more daylight and puddles everywhere—apparently I am eager to recap winter.

If memory serves me, the Twin Cities really had only one or two significant snowstorms this winter (though March isn't over yet). But because it was so cold all winter, everything stuck around and piled up (and I mean piled up).

And I got used to it, and because there weren't very many big, big snowfalls, I'd forget how much snow  was on the ground. (Until Wish would try to walk across a drift and plunge through snow cover that turned out to be taller than he was, which happened more than once.) The only really clear reminder of the snow depth were the little outdoor landmarks that got swallowed: the benches, the signs, the bikes.

I got a weird kick out of seeing those reminders this winter. The snow blanket is melting fast now, so I thought I'd collect a few examples before it's gone.

If you dropped by the blog on Monday, you saw these little benches without benches at the Lake Harriet Bandshell:

An Adirondack chair on a patio that's not quite ready for warm-weather lounging:

From over the weekend: that bar is the top of a bench.

And from after that big snowfall a few weeks back: the little stubs are the tops of the fence stakes around our community garden.

(Hard to picture? Here's what they looked like in the spring!)

I wondered at first why I was collecting these odd photos of things like buried Adirondack chairs—and then I figured out that these funny sights speak to my love of seeing these neighborhoods, one detail at a time, in every season.

Very tall

This is the only instance in which Wish and I might be mistaken for very tall.

Also, the shadow above him looks like a gigantic squirrel ready to pounce.

Happy Saturday to you, Reader!

Marvelous Monday: Week 9

First, a question: My first visit to the American Swedish Institute over the weekend made me wonder what else I've been missing all this time. Do you have a Twin Cities museum recommendation for me? Please share.

On with the marvelous tidbits:

1) Natty's due date is this week, and I am thinking of my friends in D.C. as they get ready to finally meet their little one!

2) Over the weekend, I finished Liz Murray's powerful book Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard.

3) It's March now, and that means spring (sometime soon!).

4) Temperatures are finally heading in the right direction: to the 20s and even 30s for the foreseeable future. I have been in maintenance mode with my miles lately, just trying to consistently get outside when I can. I was hoping to do 8-10 miles on Sunday morning, and when I woke up, it was -10 with a windchill of -31, which is just not very conducive to the mileage I had planned. (I skipped that run, just to be clear.) I am excited to finally do more outside and put together my spring and summer race calendar.

5) This scene from over the weekend:

Back to museum for just a minute: What's your favorite museum ever? (I just tried to type out a few favorites and had so many feelings that I might have to write about this another time.) What's the best one in your town? What museum would you love to visit but haven't yet?

Hoping that your week is starting out well - all of you.

Shadow Falls: winter edition

On yesterday's run I ventured down to the Shadow Falls trail, a rare treat. This place is fairly new to me, but I have a soft spot in my heart for it because it's right in St. Paul, next to a busy road and pedestrian path, but it feels so quiet and peaceful. The little half-mile path leads to a waterfall, which I discovered last year in late March. Josh and I visited again in early June, but it was too muddy to get to the waterfall. (We also went there for some of our engagement photos later that month.)

Yesterday was the first time I've seen the area in the winter, covered in snow. The path was neatly packed down by the ice climbers, hikers and runners that use the trail in the winter. I ran over to the waterfall and looked at it (frozen and covered in snow!) from up high but didn't hike down to see it up-close.

First amazement: after an extremely cold winter, the creek is still open:



I think this stream will always remind me of our Tennessee hike back in November 2012, but the memory was even stronger this time because the stream was steaming, just like the creek in Tennessee had been steaming at the end of our hike.

Second amazement: the snow had frozen on the rocks in the prettiest way:

Third amazement: I haven't seen anything green in nature in months, but tucked in this little creek in the ravine, here we are:

I also loved the little footbridge at one stream crossing, covered in snow:

I only had a few minutes to explore, but I love rediscovering this place in each season.

After the snowfall

Marvelous Monday: Week 7

I'm still grinning from my weekend in Washington with my friends. Ellie and I traveled there to attend a baby shower honoring Nat and her husband and their soon-to-arrive baby!

I believe we talked nearly continuously for the hours that we were awake. It was so great to have a couple of days to catch up with these dear friends, who have been part of my life for more than a decade, and so special to be able to celebrate with the two wonderful soon-to-be parents in person. (A big thanks to Nat and her husband for hosting us!)

The week is already marvelous because of those friends. More marvelous tidbits:

1) This morning in Minnesota, winter kept on truckin' with four or five inches of fresh snow. I got out for a few miles this afternoon for the first time in a few days. In Washington, I got a preview of what 40 degrees feels like, and I am looking forward to that temperature this week in Minnesota.

2) On my run, I saw a little girl learning how to skate on a neighborhood ice rink, using a folding chair for balance.

3) Josh cleaned the house today and I cleaned my side of the closet out this evening. I am very excited.

4) We're celebrating my sister's birthday with the family later this week.

5) I had been pondering a good way to preserve our holiday cards (which are still up), and learned this weekend that for the last couple of years, Nat has been punching two holes in each card and then stringing them all together with ribbon to form a little book. I love this idea and hope to try it this week.

The Olympics are on TV in the background and there are cowbells ringing, and they are rallying tonight's blogging. Cowbells are sort of appropriate for Marvelous Monday.

Sparkly trees

When I saw that amazing sun dog last week, it made me think of another beloved winter meteorological phenomenon of mine: hoarfrost. I usually notice hoarfrost once or twice each winter, and so far, it had evaded my observation.

And what do you know? This morning the trees were sparkling.

I don't know if it was full-fledged hoarfrost, exactly, or just a fun twist on a regular old frost. All I know is that the light shining through the trees was pretty nice.

A restorative run

Every few weeks, I go for a type of a run that I describe as either "restorative" (if we are being formal) or "lollygagging" (if we are not). (The last time I wrote about this here was in mid-December.) I head out on a shorter route necessary for the window of time I have, take my camera with me and do things like tromp through knee-deep snow to look at a frozen river or get closer to a shadow that catches my eye. I give myself a few minutes to wander, without a schedule.

It's easy, easy to enjoy this wandering in the summer - but I think it's equally important (if not more so) to make time for it in the winter.

Magnificent sun dog

Today I saw my first sun dog!

If you are in Minnesota, you are probably shaking your head in disbelief and wondering how this could be true. This cold, snowy, long winter has been exceptional for sun dogs, which basically involve sunlight passing through ice crystals when the sun is low on the horizon. (You can read lots more about this phenomenon on today's MPR weather blog.)

Periodically through the winter, my Twitter feed has exploded with content about sun dogs, and every time, I've been out and about either too early or too late to see a sun dog. You can guess that this greatly displeased me.

Today, I looked at Twitter before taking Wish out for his morning walk, and once again, Minnesota was on sun dog alert. I wondered if today would be the day that I finally saw one and if I would even be able to spot it.

We trotted outside, and there was no mistaking it. I gasped.

We strolled around the neighborhood for a few brisk minutes (it was -10) and I couldn't take my eyes off it. It was a magnificent sight to start the day.

Getting outside

Today the temperature climbed into the upper 20s and I spent nearly an hour outside. Saturday's long run felt like weeks ago, so the bright sun and blue sky seemed nothing short of amazing.

First, I went for a run and looked at the shadows.

Then Wish and I went out for our evening walk and decided to play in the snow at a neighborhood park instead. The snow is nearly-but-not-quite too deep for him, so he got a good workout in while we tromped through the snow.

There's nothing groundbreaking in this run-sky-shadow-Wish a-few-of-my-favorite-things post, but the fresh air felt like something special today. The little things.

Marvelous Monday: Week 4

A quick Marvelous Monday to begin the week!

1) Inspired by my running buddy Molly, I've mixed in some interval training on the treadmill over the last few weeks. Today's workout was a 10-minute warmup, then a ladder of one, two, three, four, four, three, two, and one minute(s) at a moderately hard pace, with one-minute recovery jogs in between each interval. If it were possible for a workout to fly by on a treadmill, this one did! I like ladder workouts.

2) I woke up to -15 degrees and a -40 windchill, but I have to admit that today's big blue sky was pretty.

3) Josh made tortas from our Rick Bayless Mexican Everyday cookbook for dinner tonight!

4) Over the last few months, my glasses have gotten so loose they fall off my face if I look down. I finally remembered to bring them in for a quick repair over the weekend, and I am so excited to have them fit correctly again.

5) At Trader Joe's last week a bottle of grapefruit juice found its way into my cart and I'm curious about how it will stack up to the fresh stuff.

What's nice about the start of your week?

Surprise swans

Reader, I am a Saturday morning long run fan through and through. But two degrees and a -20 windchill this morning had me leaning toward heading out tomorrow morning instead, after a forecasted overnight snowfall but with milder temperatures before the big winds and cold come back Sunday afternoon. (Big kudos, by the way, to all the runners who participated in a local half-marathon, 10K and 5K this morning!) By noon, the ship had all but sailed on the notion of me completing a run today.

You'll understand, then, how surprised I was at about 4 p.m. - after errands, shopping, crafts and a few HGTV shows about beach houses - to find myself thinking that it was a good time to see about that run.

I figured I should go with it, so I bundled up (the temperature had risen to seven degrees, with a light breeze) and scurried out to make the most out of the remaining daylight. I stayed pretty comfortable (thanks to my facemask) and enjoyed some peaceful miles around town.

In one Mississippi River crossing, I was admiring the St. Paul skyline from my bridge:

You can see there's a long open patch of water in the otherwise frozen-over river. When I got closer to the bridge's end, and thus closer to the open water, I noticed what appeared to be two swans!

I think the ice looks like coastline on a map, so I like to pretend that the swans are gigantic. Giant swans or not, this surprise fauna sighting was one of my favorite parts of a rare-for-me late afternoon weekend run.

Snowy Friday evening

A cold sunset

Long lines

Marvelous Monday: Week 1

This morning I woke up and checked the weather on my phone, and the weather app reported -22 degrees with a -47 degree windchill.

We will focus on the marvelous!

1) I have a beloved and very warm button-up gray sweater that has been missing most of its buttons for at least a few months. I finally remembered to get new buttons for it last week at Joann, sewed the buttons on last night and got to wear the sweater buttoned up today. (Once I mend the pocket liners that were chewed through by a certain dog in pursuit of treats I had left in the pockets, it will be as good as new.)

2) Tonight is the college football national championship, and I'm rooting for Auburn to win. Every year since I chose Tennessee to be my SEC football team, I've learned a little more, and this year, I was surprised by how much information about other SEC teams (and college football in general) I took in by following UT football. Tennessee's win against South Carolina was my favorite college football game this year, but Auburn's amazing game against Alabama in the Iron Bowl is a close second. (And the Auburn radio call of the game-winning play is my favorite call of 2013.)

3) Given today's temperatures, I hit the treadmill today for a few intervals, alternating hard efforts with recovery segments as the songs changed on my iPod. It felt good to run harder than usual, and really good to be wearing normal running clothes instead of 600 layers.

4) My friend Sara got a dog and I'm so excited for her!!

5) I am very excited to try Iowa Girl Eats' Thai Peanut Chicken Quinoa recipe sometime this week.

What's new this week for you, Reader? Any cooking projects going on? Favorite recipe to cook on a cold day? And do you have a favorite cozy winter sweater? 

Happy new year!

On New Year's Eve, I told Josh (maybe more than once) how nice it would be if Wish could wear one of those cute HAPPY NEW YEAR tiaras.

We thought it was just not meant to be. Yesterday, we bundled up for a walk to get some fresh air, and lo and behold, I found a slightly crushed but otherwise perfect tiara that had been discarded on a neighborhood sidewalk!

My husband encouraged me to not take it home, but I did just that. Unfortunately, Wish didn't seem to share my enthusiasm.

It has been really cold in Minnesota lately, with what seems like a perpetual wind chill advisory over the last week. I'm grateful that a brief reprieve will bring warmer temperatures tomorrow and Saturday. I've gotten out for a few miles this week, but my mileage (so far) has been eclipsed by the number of Friday Night Lights episodes we've watched lately - and that is just fine.

Now I am braising meat for the first time. Braised beef with onion, sweet potato and parsnip is in the oven, and I am excited to see how it turns out.

Cheers to 2014!