Tag Archives: Cat

A beautiful day for a walk around Bemidji …

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We had a beautiful day for walking today. In fact, we were all over the place. We started out downtown and wandered over to 15th Street and then in the Bemidji State University area, finally coming back around the waterfront.

When we were in the BSU area, we both saw what looked like a cat in the back window of a sealed car, which would have been animal abuse on a warm day like today, but it turned out to be a cat of the fake-fur variety.

The sky was blue, the temperature was wonderful and the view was gorgeous. We saw lots of other people walking around town as well.

Even though some trees are still nearly bar, there’s still lots of green out now, and the spring flowers are coming up beautifully. I wish it was like this all year round.

It was just, overall, a nice spring day for a walk.

What more could we ask for? :)

Oh yeah, maybe … instructions on how to make these cute things:

They look like cement and pretty rocks formed in maybe a meat pie tin?

In any case, they’re very cute and it was fun to run across them!

The Return of the Red Pants!

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We’re back, and we brought our red pants.

It’s been about two months since Bethany and I walked together.  We’d missed a week or so before, but never more than that in the nearly two years we’ve been doing this.  We had been really busy with work, and we were already walking pretty sporadically. Then we were shorthanded, and election season kicked into high gear, and we started the new health section, “Here’s to You.”

We couldn’t keep up. So we just stopped. We talked today about how we should have tried to squeeze in a 10-minute walk now and then, even just around the office block, during the workday, but it’s hard. Our workdays don’t overlap much, for one thing, so we only have a couple of hours. But still, yeah. We could have found a little time here and there, and we could have written about something other than the day’s walk. It’s easy, though, to get out of a routine.

Election season ended a couple of weeks ago, but it took us this long to get back into things. This week, I was gone during the noon hour Monday and I was covering a Complete Streets workshop Tuesday, and Bethany was busy yesterday, but we settled on today as our return to the streets.

I didn’t even know snow had fallen in Bemidji Saturday until Monday. I left town Saturday around 6 p.m., when a few flakes of snow had turned into rain. Obviously, we got a little bit more after I left, but nothing close to what they got in the Twin Cities, where my niece happily made a snowman and a friend had a giant branch from a neighbor’s tree fall into her yard from the weight of the snow.

We were painfully aware today that we’d missed a beautiful, unseasonably warm fall, as we set out with our winter outerwear. Bethany wore her red sweats over her work slacks, but I worn mine without an extra layer and regretted it. It was cold! Our midsections were pretty toasty, though, as we wore our complementing Pioneer jackets (she the newer maroon one and I the older, warmer black one).

We ran across Pepsi, our favorite cat along the walk, and gave her a little petting.

Another cat owner is not so fortunate as to have their beloved pet safe at home:

This was on America Avenue. If you see a cat like this, please call the number above. I hope they find Buster. It’s heartbreaking to have a missing pet.

Well, it’s started. The Christmas decorations are coming out. I would prefer to see nothing but fall decorations until the leftover turkey is in the fridge, but that’s a losing battle, especially when the day after Thanksgiving is one of the biggest Christmas shopping days of the year. We are in the Christmas season whether we want to be or not, so what the heck. :)

Speaking of which, I’m already half done with Christmas shopping, and all of it has been off the cuff. Nice!

The mile’s walk from downtown was chilly but bearable, but we hit a bit of wind on the way back.

“Are you sure it’s not February?” I complained as we walked back in the other direction.

Yeah, we’re no hardier than we were before. :)

But it was nice to be back!

Anyone lose a cat?

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So, my family has apparently been adopted by this friendly girl.

Long story short, my husband and I were out raking Sunday afternoon when she came into our yard and wouldn’t leave. Then our 2-year-old woke up from her nap, saw the kitty and they became buddies.

She has since been semi-adopted by us, I guess.

But if she belongs to someone, please let me know!

She is dark gray, kind of smoky colored. She appears to be a kitten, but the majority said to call her a “half-grown cat” (whatever that means).

That’s all I’ve got.

Laurie and I will be walking later – check back this evening!  :)

Sweats? Already???

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This squirrel was kind enough to stop and pose for a picture before scampering away.

A few weeks ago, we could only dream of weather this cool. And a few months from now, weather this *warm* will feel like a dream.

I normally dress for our walks the night before, so in warm weather I go to bed in comfy shorts and a tank top, and in cold weather, it’s sweats. Last night, I donned my Pioneer sweats and a BSU hockey T-shirt. When Bethany called just before noon today, my bedroom felt  warm, so I happily changed into shorts. Then I went outside and changed my mind, but opted for worn-thin cotton drawstring pants, thinking it wasn’t cold enough for sweats quite yet. Then Bethany showed up.

“Sweats? And  a hoodie?”

I went back inside and threw on my Pioneer sweatshirt (I try not to wear both the sweats and sweatshirt together as I look like a walking advertisement).

Brrrr!

At the Bemidji Fire Hall, we ran into firefighter Kelly Skime, who took a couple of minutes away from whatever he was doing in those work clothes to chat with us a bit. Kelly is not into the blog thing, so we tried to explain it.

I like the landscaping in this corner of garden nestled against a house.

When I first heard of blogs in 2002 (back when some still called them weblogs), most of what was out there were like personal diaries, but now I would say they tend to be closer to essays (maybe similar to short newspaper columns?), that focus on myriad subjects, like health, the economy, politics, human rights, the outdoors, family, humor (as well as personal journals).  Bloggers even come from government offices.

And, of course, your friendly neighborhood walkers. :)

I’ve been writing this blog on and off for the past two hours. In between, I’ve been fielding IMs (instant messages on Windows Live Messenger) and formatting/editing stories from Bethany as she covers a complicated set of meetings at City Hall. She was able to just sneak in a final vote under the deadline as the Bemidji City Council voted to proceed with negotiations for sale of land on which a Holiday Inn Resort would be built that would be  connected to the Bemidji Regional Event Center. We’d never have been able to do any of that without laptops.

Creative planting of hostas!

As today’s walk progressed, we did warm up a little. Not so much that we noticed warmth, but more that we stopped noticing cold.

And as always, we saw beauty around Bemidji. It’s so impressive to see the interesting things people do with their surroundings.

Even nature finds a way to grow things creatively, like this mushroom growing in a hole in a tree:

Speaking of nature, we both found this really sweet:

This tree was planted in honor of little Keaton Rhys, who was born Aug. 29. He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 22 inches long. Congratulations to the happy parents!

We’re very familiar with this house, having walked by it over and over last year when they were working on it. The windows are fabulous.

Other assorted sightings:

Our favorite cat along our route

An interesting way to play basketball. At 5 feet 4 inches, I might even be able to dunk with this setup!

A view of my old apartment at 1225 Irvine Ave. N.W.

Leaves are already more red than green in this tree at the Bemidji Public Library.


If you look at the bottom corner of the tree above, you will see a bit of Bethany!

Even on the most innocuous of days, we always end up with more photos than we need. And since I have no will power to speak of, I end up using more photos than I should. I’d like to set us up with an online photo account, and I’m hoping to update our albums on the Facebook page. (www.facebook.com/bemidjitrailmix)

Here’s a toothbrush on the ground to go with the tube of toothpaste we saw not too long ago. It looks like it still has lots of life left, too!

I didn’t think to take a mystery photo, but we stocked up a couple of weeks ago, so we have extras.

Our last puzzler was bricks along the First National Bank building downtown:

The puzzler before that, I forgot to take a full version of, so here is a wider view of the scene of the butterfly cutout, which is part of the fence outside the playground at the Beltrami County

Such pretty decorations!

Cross your fingers …

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After getting shut out of our camera yesterday, we had it back today to catch this late-season pile of crabapples on the ground, although we’re not holding our breath. Monte tinkered with the camera, a Nikon D70, at the office, but he doesn’t think it’s a permanent fix.

The Tuesday quote of the day doesn’t even come from our walk. Bonnie and Mollie from the Pioneer Composing Department also walk together, taking walks near the Pioneer.  They told Bethany that today, someone approached them with a question.

“Are you the Trail Mix girls?”

“No, but we work with them.”

Funny! … And they even have the same color hair as we do — one blonde, one red.

We walked on sidewalks today and ended up on Beltrami Avenue instead of Minnesota or America, or sometimes Irvine, which is where we tend to gravitate toward when we’re not on the trail. This garden caught my eye as we turned onto Beltrami. Interesting usage of wood posts.

We had a little wind today, as you can see from the taller vegetation in this planter:

And we saw a cat that for a moment made me wonder if mine had gotten outside somehow (it wasn’t too far away from my house). It looks just like Max.

I love today’s mystery butterfly photo, but Bethany gets credit for the idea, which she tried to pull off yesterday with the malfunctioning camera:

Our last puzzler was the word “HOP” from the Economy Shop sign downtown.

Take care and we may or may not see you Wednesday! Stay tuned. :)

Mirror, Mirror on the Garage …

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We rarely get a chance to get a picture of ourselves together, so we couldn’t resist this full-length mirror propped up against a garage as we walked today for the first time since I took a week’s vacation to go to the Twin Cities for the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Last week was sweltering as I walked the streets of Minneapolis between theater venues. One day, I had to stop and use my shirt to wipe my eyes because sweat had run into my eyes and the salt hurt.

But it cooled down by Sunday, the day before I came home. And after yesterday’s torrential rains, it was chilly outside here with lots of puddles, but it was so nice to get back to walking with Bethany! Our work hours don’t overlap very much, so we do a lot of talking in that hour of walking, some of it about work, some of it about other stuff. It’s an enjoyable hour for me.

I realized how long it had been since we walked in the Mississippi-Park Avenue area. There were flowers that hadn’t been there before, but most notable was the progress on the Ours to Serve Village of Hope.

The homeless shelter is really taking shape. It’s a great building.

These bushes are flowering nicely. We saw a lot of nice color today. I guess the rain has been good for the grass, flowers and trees.

Today we have photos for both the dog and cat lovers.

First, the dog, who bayed at us twice today, along with a puppy that has grown massively since the last time we saw it:

Then the cat, who was interested in us only enough to watch us from its spot in the grass:

And then there was the Dog That Wasn’t There ..

Bethany pointed out this pretty bloom on a rose bush, and I started to try to lean over a fence to take the photo, but I kept hearing a dog barking, so I was cautious. But after a few really lousy photos, I looked up and saw that the dog was in a fenced-in yard next door, so no worries. :)

Today’s mystery photo (we both really like these green bricks, which we never noticed before):

Have a great week!

– Laurie

Working walk …

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"Casual Tuesday?"

Chris, the Bemidji firefighter manning the desk today, looked at our scruffy clothes, and then the big camera around my neck. We told him that we walk and blog about our walks, so as a newcomer to Trail Mix, he gets the top spot.

We had a bit of a working walk today, as Bethany was getting the fire and law enforcement reports, but not just that … we kept running into things that sparked work-related conversations.

Like this cat, who is collared and in a fenced yard:

That sparked a conversation about the new local law that prohibits cats running loose.

I still feel funny about that one. I understand that cats can be a nuisance, and that there are problems with feral cats, but it just feels weird to me to think of cats as indoor pets per se. Mine are, but they always want to be outside, so we have to go "psssst" when we walk inside. I worry about them getting outside and being considered cats running loose. Have you ever tried to catch a cat that just got out?

Actually, one of mine sometimes will just lay in the driveway and I can pick him up. But the other one is craftier. She knows her fun is over if I catch her.

 

We also saw a pair of little dogs. This pooch actually appears to be friendly in this shot, but he and his smaller companion were snarling as if they would like to have torn apart our ankes.

We finally got to see the 10th beaver from the Bemidji Sculpture Walk.

This is "Pagossenima" (Hope) by Gordon Van Wert. The sculpture was delayed because of deaths in the artist’s family.

The heart and tears were added after the protest over Deborah Davis’ "Gaea" beaver sculpture was removed from its spot downtown over concerns that the design on the front appeared to be symbolic of female genitalia. The City Council voted to put "Gaea" back  before Van Wert’s sculpture was installed.

The sculpture originally was planned to be black with beadwork going down the back.

"Where’s the beadwork?" Bethany wondered.

There is a painted design on the back, though, which perhaps is in place of the planned beadwork?

Isn’t this a cool garden? I’m not sure if they have room to sit out there!

In the side yard, there’s another very pretty garden:

And that’s just the view from the alley. I don’t know what the front of the house looks like!

Above and below are plantings along the sides of a sidewalk. I’m not sure what the purpose of the framework is, but I’m curious to see what continues to develop.

Bethany pointed out this pretty porch. We both like open front porches like this. I like the fence, too, which I didn’t really notice before but which matches the porch.

Oops, no mystery photo but we do have Stuff on the Ground:

I don’t think an injured person lost a crutch; it was garbage day today and it was sitting by some bins, so it must have fallen out.

This one was broken anyway, but I actually have a working pair of crutches that I saw propped against a Dumpster near my house. I can’t bear to throw away perfectly good things, or see them get thrown away, so I grabbed them, intending to bring them to Goodwill.

Well, instead they are still in my entry, stashed behind the big Lowry chord organ I also got free but realistically have no room for. So if anyone wants the crutches or the organ, let me know. They both work fine! :)

– Laurie

What a treat it is to be out and about in Bemidji

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We can’t resist a friendly cat or dog when we walk, but today we found a feline friend as excited to see  us.

This pretty kitty, who was having a grand old time chasing things and running around, made a beeline for us as soon as we came into view.

After just a bit of hesitation, the cat accepted Bethany’s petting and soon flopped on its back on the sidewalk and awaited petting:

Near the end of our walk, we also ran across one of our co-workers, Jerry Madson:

Jerry is the page design guru at the Pioneer, where he has worked for many years. Also an accomplished artist and avid bicyclist, Jerry is the friendly voice you hear when you call the paper after hours. He also knows so much about Bemidji’s physical history in the past few decades, having lived all over the city. It’s fascinating to me to hear how different the streets and neighborhoods used to be, and the many businesses and other facilities that have come and gone.

If Bethany and I live here for as many decades (well, she’s two decades younger, so she has more chances!), I suppose we could do the same, considering how much more we see walking than we ever do driving.

Today started out a little chilly, but warmed up within a few blocks. We’ve had some gorgeous weather lately, and it’s nice to have a specific reason to spend an hour outside in it (nearly) every workday.

Just look at what we get to see:

These vines are, to me, amazingly beautiful. Bethany apparently likes them, too, as it looks like she felt compelled to put our her hand and touch a stray vine that had reached out toward her

We decided that if we were to put together a big flower garden, we could guarantee blooms throughout the summer simply by referring to our own blog and seeing which flowers came up when.

 Daffodils, for example, started coming up a few weeks ago, I think, and are getting fuller and fuller, with lots of blooms still waiting to pop open.

The garden outside the Bemidji Public Library is looking super nice right now. I sure wish we could see beauty like this all year long.

Above is the poppy-lined walkway to the house that hosts my favorite garden, located along America Avenue Northwest, that we highlighted a while back. My mom loves poppies (and paintings of poppies), and she’s planning to visit for Art in the Park and/or the Beltrami County Fair and/or the Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival over the next three weekends, so I’d like to show her this garden.

Whatever the flower above is (some variation of daisy?), its vibrant color stood out amid some rather cluttered but quite natural surroundings.

 

I used my new little Kodak HD video camera today for photos. It does a nice job with stills. I love the brightness of today’s photos, like the red of the berries against the green of the leaves.

Oops — I forgot to take a mystery photo today. Yesterday’s picture of the moccasins was from Morrell’s Chippewa Trading Post on Beltrami Avenue across from the waterfront park.

Take care!

– Laurie

Wiiercise

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No boots, hats and gloves today! Bethany brought over her EA Sports Active game for the Wii; the equipment required is pictured above, along with curious cats. The spray bottle is for Little Kitty, who kept trying to attack Bethany’s legs for some reason.

But first, she walked up to me and gave me that look that says "I am going to jump up on you now and you are going to catch me and hold me." Which I did. It saves on scratches.

And no, that is not my natural hair color. It’s a bit much. And don’t ask about the eyebrows. (They are currently brown-penciled, as I write this.)

Today, I had fleece pants and a short tank top and Bethany wore a T-shirt and shorts. We declined to take pictures; maybe next time!

Above is an explanatory video that was part of the game, which comes with a strap in which you put the Wii’s nunchuck, which monitors your steps. You hold the Wii remote in your other hand. (For some activities, you hold both the nunchuck and the Wii.

I’m not very good at following along with things like this, so the game’s "trainer" scolded me a lot.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled early on.

Later, it was "Shut up." I would do horribly with a trainer.

There was one arm and shoulder exercise that had a pretty good burn to it.

"Ooh, this hurts," Bethany said. "Cool!"

She is obviously more dedicated than I am. She also would do much better with a trainer than I would.

Bethany and I both own Wii Fit, but she likes EA Active Sports much better. I was tempted to buy it, too, but I’m not so sure now. I’m not very disciplined, and I have a hard time doing these things just right. On my own, I tend to exercise by just dancing, bouncing and moving around to music. I don’t suppose that type of freestyle activity can be incorporated into a video game.

As for the headline "Wiiercise," I was trying to be witty ("wiitty?"). I tried "Wii stayed indoors" but that sounded lame. So I thought of "Wiiercise." It was perhaps silly to wonder if I was being original. Not only is it a term that is used by others, I also discovered there is a *dictionary* for Wii-related terms. It is called, I cringe to say, a Wiitionary. (Check it out at www.wiitionary.com.)

Tomorrow we’re going to try Zumba class at Fusion Dance & Fitness Center through our Passports for Fitness. The Web site says we can burn up to 1,000 calories.

I think that just might not apply to us, as beginners, but even if it did, our reaction doesn’t bode well for weight loss.

"We can eat twice as much!"

Bethany said it, but I was thinking it already.

Well, that and, how much am I going to hate this halfway through when I am ready to fall over and die?

I took this picture after we were done. I have no idea why Zelda is staring at Bethany so intently. Maybe she is bewildered by us jumping all around the living room.

Or maybe she was about to pounce on her.

We didn’t get around to taking a mystery photo today, but we’ll get one tomorrow as we get back to walking.

Our last puzzler was, as Jeff correctly guessed, the sash around Chief Bemidji’s (Shay-now-ish-Kung) waist.

I thought we had a pretty clever pick, but that Jeff is hard to stump.

Have a great evening and a great Wednesday! It sounds like it will be cold still, so be sure to bundle up. I talked to a cashier at Target last week who said she never wears a hat, that it messes her hair up, so she puts up with frozen ears.

Maybe I’m just a wimp, but I’ll take the messy hair.

– Laurie

Changing directions

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No, they’re not selling flocked Christmas trees yet.

Instead of walking on the trail, or walking north from downtown, we took the bike trail south toward the Pioneer. We didn’t make it quite that far, but we could see Lueken’s when we turned around.

A couple of the trees we encountered still had frost on them from last night. This may have a certain appeal in a photo, but in person, it’s just depressing.

Speaking of that tree planting along the route, this monument is tucked within the trees. We figured we’d spotlight it:

On the way back, we saw some footprints and wondered initially if they were ours, but then we noticed that they originated that led from a muddy/clayey area:

"We could be detectives," I said.

"Yeah, we would have totally cracked that case," Bethany retorted.

We have a hard time remembering our quotes. Heck, we have a hard time remembering what we were talking about five minutes earlier. As reporters, we have notebooks and recorders. We don’t have a notebook when we walk, but I usually carry my digital recorder and we’ll repeat quotes when we decide we want to remember them. But I must have not hit record properly, so I had to call Bethany to ask for help. Maybe we should give up and just record our whole conversation each day!

I always try to interact with cats I see, and this one was willing to be petted shortly after giving me this suspicious but curious glance:

I have tons of stuff to edit at work tonight, so this will be more of a pictoral history of today’s walk.

Here’s today’s How Well Do You Know Bemidji? photo:

Did you guess that yesterday’s photo was the bell at Central Elementary School?

Cross your fingers for warmer temps …

– Laurie