Winter in Minnesota was pretty OK; it was gloomy like usual but we had a whole lot of sun dogs and sun halos to stare at. It was neat to see the full rainbow, and, it’s not very often I get to see a full sun halo. We also had a nice treat with the northern lights again; it’s wild to me that I could see the aurora from my driveway when I’m near the city center. I’d love to say that this makes up for living in Minnesota during winter but it doesn’t – not even close.
This winter was different because of what happened in the cities; ICE was out in full force and there were quite a few disruptions including accidentally driving to where a protest was occurring. I had quite a few friends and family contact me to see how things were going and I couldn’t help but compare what was happening with ICE to the George Floyd riots during COVID. I felt the place was coming unglued during the riots, it’s the closest to anarchy I’ve been, and comparatively, the ICE events were pretty tame – for us. We’re not in the class or group of people who would be affected by ICE, we didn’t and wouldn’t join protests (on purpose), and, we live in an area without a whole lot of immigrants. It wasn’t great to see all the ICE agents around, going to our nearest Home Depot was a bit weird, and, seeing children in the restaurants we love during the school day was heartbreaking. The cities has a lot to offer, it’s a wonderful place to live, and, it’s too bad there is ANOTHER very black mark on the area.
Spring though, spring was amazing. We had a full month of apple blossoms. It was incredible to smell the blooms throughout the city and enjoy the blooms in so many places. I can’t recall having apple blossoms for so long; usually the wind, rain, and/or, snow rip the petals off the flowers quickly after blooming. Never has the spring in Minnesota been so mild and so temperate that the blooms lasted all spring. Besides the blooms, it was just a gorgeous spring unlike any other spring I’ve had in Minnesota. Let’s hope this phenomena becomes the norm.
We had a trip out to Rapid City and I, once again, was shocked to see something growing – plum trees growing in the wild not too far from where I grew up. I was also surprised to see the various fruit trees bloomed a whole month sooner than Minnesota. The weather is just so beautiful in SoDak.
We had a chance to go hiking in Red Wing, part of the driftless area, along the Mississippi and it was beautiful. I can’t believe so many people do not visit or do not care about the driftless. We’ve spent a lot of time in the area and we love it; we get to get away from people, it’s a fantastic deal, and, the hiking is decent. Far better than the north shore since the north shore is crammed with people and stupid expensive.
In the late spring we had a trip out to Mobridge, SD, a town in the middle of the state near North Dakota. It’s a long drive without a whole lot of traffic, and, it’s possible to see a dog run away for days since it’s so flat. We did get a treat with nature; the weather to and from Mobridge was very bad in some places and it was fun to watch.
The spring harvest in yard was mostly bountiful. The raspberries were devastated over the winter by the bunnies so we missed the first fruiting but the honeyberries and the mulberries came out in full force. All told, I canned 15 pints of honeyberries and 20 some cans of mulberry. There was still a lot of mulberry to go I just stopped because – who needs that much mulberry!? All those berries will go into pies, kolaches, and, other treats throughout the year.
This is the first year I started going for early morning walks in the neighborhood. The days around solstice turned out to be incredible – no wind, no rain, not hot, not cold. Very un-Minnesotan. During this time I found out the local sports field is left unlocked sometimes, and, downtown Minneapolis can be seen from the top bleachers! Bob Ross would call this revelation an happy accident :). The featured image for this post is the solstice sunrise from the sports field; it was a stunning sunrise!
All in all, I’m super happy winter is over, spring was AMAZING, and, summer has started off pretty OK.
Enjoy the photos!
Chris W.
