We had a couple of beautiful summery days last week so Joey and I walked the Bloomington Ice Garden trail - a pretty wooded walk that has a wood chip surface and goes around a marsh area. It’s not a real long walk and we never saw another person but did see some wildlife - a turtle on the path, a Red-tailed Hawk watching us from his perch on a branch, and some noisy Sandhill Cranes - two males vying for the affection of a female. There are some majestic Oak Trees along the path that haven’t leafed out yet. It just feels good to get out in nature and away from the residential streets where I usually walk.
Ben called me Friday morning a little after 8:00 to see if I was interested in meeting him at Staring Lake for a walk - all of his kids were already off to school and he had a little bit of time before his work day started. I scrambled to get dressed and met him at the park at 8:30. I love those walks and the opportunity to spend one on one time with him.
I went plant shopping with the building manager, Roni (she had the pocketbook) and Sherry, a resident from Building 2 (she volunteers to take care of their potted plants) on Friday afternoon to get plants for the decorative pots at the front of our buildings. We shopped at Bloomington Garden Center, a quaint little family owned shop near the Old Cedar Bridge trail that goes over the Minnesota River. Their plants are so healthy and their prices are comparable to the big box stores. We had fun shopping and Joann and I planted up the pots later that evening. I have lined up a few people who are willing to keep up with the watering.
Charlotte had a swim meet on Saturday morning and she improved her scores on each of the five events that she swam in. Ben brought her to my house later in the afternoon for a sleepover. I made a Cajun Shrimp Stir Fry for dinner that she really liked and I will definitely make again.
When I asked her what she wanted to do on Sunday, she said she would like to go to a Farmer’s Market. I looked around and found that there was a farmers market and an art show at the Franconia Sculpture Garden, about an hour’s drive from here. She was up for it but when we got there, it was a little disappointing - a very small market with only a few booths and the sculpture gardens seemed like junk made into bigger junk. A few of the sculptures were kind of cool but many were on disrepair and hadn’t been maintained very well. We stopped at a wayside at Marine on St Croix on the way home and she spotted this cool tree. It’s a wonder that it’s still upright.
We played Farkel and watched Taylor Swift videos when we got home and the family swung by to pick her up around 4 pm.
