Como Conservatory

The Como Conservatory is one of my all time favorite places to visit.  I have visited this place when I was a child.  Favorite area is the sunken garden, which changes quarterly with the seasons.  I really did not want to enter my picture with my best friend Karen M, but this is real.  After my stroke, I have gained a lot of weight along with not sleeping.  It has been a hard adjustment for me.  With time I hope to get some sort of normalcy. although my doctors tell me this is my new normal, which I hate with a passion.  I have a fighting spirit and will do my best to get better.

Kristina, Alex, Kalen and Kathy at Nickoleon Park at the Mall of America

 Kristina and Alex at Nickolodeon Universe.  So much  to see and do.

 Kalen, already tuckered out.

 Grandma and Alex at the park.  We had so much fun.

 Alex, at Legoland.  He loved the legos.  Alex was quite good at sharing with the other children/

 Kristina and Alex at the Peeps store, if front of the HUGE amount of peeps, mike and ike, etc  candy display.

 Peeps employee shared a few candy samples with Alex.

We had so much fun on a cold January day.  Kristina, Alex and Kalen came to Minnesota to be with me after my stroke.  I could not have done it without them!

My Parakeets

 Ricky

 Lucy

 Ethel

 Fred

First of all, it is hard to tell the blue parakeets apart so their names change quite often.  Fred seems to be the ring leader.  He is the first one to leave the cage and survey the outside.  Lucy loves looking at herself in the mirror.  In fact she gets quite upset if another bird is in the way.  Lucy also had her wings clipped  by a previous owner, so she can get out of the cage, but cannot fly.  Lucy needs help getting back in.  The parakeets provide lots of background noise, they love classical music, which I will put on when they need to calm down.  

I really enjoy these birds and their personalities.  They bring life to a quiet home.

Minnehaha Falls June 2014

These pictures do not do it justice.  But after lots of snow and lots of spring rains the Minnehaha Creek was over the banks,  lots of power in the water.  I cannot remember a time when the creek and falls were so high and powerful.

A brave soul was camping near the Minnehaha Creek on the banks of the Mississippi River.  A tent was visible, cooking gear, and a canoe.  I was quite surprised to come upon this.

Hope to see them when they come to Minnesota.

Maple Syrup Completion

Maple syrup making is a commitment
.
*  Our maple trees gave us about 8 gallons of sap. We own two silver maple trees.  After boiling it down we now are proud owners of 3 pints.  It sure does look yummy. 

* What I would do next year is boil most of the sap outdoors.  The house gets full of steam and then there is the mess on the stove when it boils over.  I would also create a new way of retrieving the sap into 5 gallon containers, so I did not have to watch it so much.

*  In all, this was a fun project and I learned a lot.  We are planning using our maple syrup for one of our meals tomorrow.  ONWARD

Maple Syrup

Today, I hope to finish making maple syrup.  I have included a you tube video, which helped me a lot.  I figure I have tapped about 8 to 10 gallons of sap.  I will fill in details when the job is done.

Maple Syrup Finishing

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends - ThePianoGuys

Hand knitted socks

My latest interest is knitting which I have not done for years.  I joined a craft group and we get together once a month.  K bought this yarn for me last month, and I just  completed the socks.  They are wild and crazy and I just love them.