Tag Archives: downtown

Amazing January

Posted on by
Reply

I stepped outside on Thursday, Jan. 5, and walked into October.

Bethany was on her way to my house to go walking, and I hadn’t put my jacket on yet.  I went outside for a moment in my hoodie and was stunned by the immediate realization that my hoodie keep me plenty warm.

Wow.

We don’t get as many chances to walk as we used to, but this was the best day to do so in a long lines of unseasonably warm days.  The temp was 46 degrees when I got back home, but I later saw in a Pioneer photo that a bank thermometer had read 50 degrees. In January.

What’s really odd for me is that this is my most hated month of the year.  I normally find January to be cold, cruel and depressing.  December is cold, too, but it’s the month of  Christmas.  There are lights and music and business open houses with coffee and cider and cookies, not to mention the family and friends with whom we share the holiday season. January is when it all stops and it just becomes winter.

But this January, it’s been more like fall so far. Granted, we did get some snow Friday, but I still didn’t wear a hat or gloves. In January.

While the snow that started just after Christmas was still on the ground for our walk Thursday, a lot of it was melting, as you can see by this watery sidewalk. You can’t see it in the photo, but the melting snow was glistening all over the house; I thought at first it was the Christmas decorations shining in the sun.

The penguins look happy they finally got snow. I suppose they looked out of place at Christmas!

Bethany not only happily wore her hoodie, too, she also pushed up the sleeves. Here, we were just a few blocks from home.

Not only was it warm, it was a sunny day with blue skies and a bright sun.  It was just a great day to be outside.

Happy January! :)

Sweet snowscape

Posted on by
Reply

Someone was in for a sweet snowy surprise Friday when he or she went out to brush the snow off the car windows.  That pretty red rose produced a nice “awww” moment that briefly made the falling snow feel a little less annoying. I can imagine there was another “awww” from the recipient later. That was sure a sweet gesture!

The scenes looked pretty much the same on Friday’s walk — snowy sidewalks along snowy roads. We reminisced about the trail we won’t see again until next spring, and Bethany complained that being pelted in the face with snowflakes was was like when bugs fly into your mouth — although, obviously, not nearly as unpleasant.

We didn’t *just* complain about the snow …

Downtown, we ran across a couple of fun window scenes. First, there was the skeleton at Headwaters Science Center, still hanging onto summer fun. Then there was the “purse” at Twice But Nice that comes with a hidden electrical cord. As far as we could tell, it’s a lamp or a night night.

If you’ll notice the “I Gave 10″ sign in the Science Center’s window near the skeleton, it refers to the HSC’s fundraising campaign that goes from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15. The Science Center is trying to motivate 4,000 people to give $10 each to secure a matching $40,000 from an anonymous donor. The ultimate goal is to raise $100,000.

See http://www.hscbemidji.org/fundraising.htm for more.

Getting back to the snow, a quick look at the forecast leads me to believe there won’t be much of it for Thanksgiving travel. The temps don’t look too bad, too, with some highs in the low 40s.  We may manage to get a walk or two in this week.

Happy Thanksgiving week. :)

 

 

 

Happy trail to us

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a long time, trail. It was really great to see you today. Sorry we missed your big show this fall with all the changing colors. I bet it was beautiful. It always is …

This has been a really challenging year in terms of getting out on the trail. We were majorly short-handed at work , we were working in a warehouse during a remodeling project, Bethany gave birth to her second child and I was spending much of my free time helping my elderly parents, who live an hour away.

But I don’t think we ever thought we’d miss so many days. The summer flew by, and fall got busy, and it became easy to skip walking. When we did manage to get together, we stuck to the sidewalks, usually because we didn’t have a lot of time.

It was great to get back on the dirt trail along the lake today, and a lovely day for being outside.

We even saw some green:

And here:

But what really struck me was the pink:

I’ve never seen pink berries. I told Bethany they were as pink as one of her daughter Lola’s princess dresses.

I love pockets of color where we walk, little things you never see in cars. We miss so much when we don’t stop to smell the pink berries and such.

I suppose that would mean more if I actually had stopped to smell the berries. I just don’t think berries have much of a smell. :)

 

No jackets today — we wore our red sweat pants and hoodies. Bethany got warm and took her hoodie off.

Doesn’t this look like a welcoming set of steps to go jump in the lake?

It seemed that while we’d been gone, others had trampled the earth down in the spots that were challenging for us after the bike trail was constructed. In one spot, we used to traverse the trail by a sort of “surfing” method involving some sliding and gripping trees, but that area is more accessible now. We were able to walk all the way through to the end of the trail where it comes out on the back side of the Bemidji State University campus:

We had a beautiful blue sky today, and beautiful blue water on Lake Bemidji:

The days are getting shorter and, usually, cooler. The seagulls and the Canada geese are hanging out in separate corners, probably thinking about getting out of here soon. We wish we could go, too!

But this is the taste of what we have coming, that bit of snow that is finally almost done melting.

We can’t complain too much that it’s snowing in mid-November (we’ve had at least a dusting of snow in October most years), but the longer it waits, the shorter the winter feels.

“Today reminded me just how much I miss walking every day… I totally have to do better. Just leave work.”

Bethany’s words say it all. You have to make time for things like this. When we started walking, in February 2009, it was almost a given that we would walk every day — and that was in weather where it was understandable that we might want to skip a day here and there.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to hit the trail a few more times before the snow comes back to stay.

Have a happy weekend and enjoy what is left of the fall. There’s still green grass out there!

Fall goes back to beautiful

Posted on by
Reply

Our introduction to fall in this area was pretty cold, even before it was officially fall. But now that autumn has officially arrived, the weather has been beautiful, with pretty blue skies above us.

The colors are changing, too. I really didn’t notice this until Saturday, when I was driving to Thief River Falls for my granddaughter’s birthday at the water park at Seven Clans Casino. I took state Highway 92 to U.S. Highway 59 instead of going down U.S. 2 to 59, and it was a nice scenic route with lots of golden leaves and some orange ones as well.

Today, we meandered a bit again, going down this trail:

and then ending up on the paved trail that once led us to getting not quite lost, but too far away to walk back in a reasonable time. This time, when we reached the highway, we turned right instead of left and got back to Fifth Street:

Sorry that my directions aren’t any better or I didn’t take more pictures of the route, but along the way, we did see some pretty wetlands:

and …

And again, you can see the fall colors surfacing.

This appears to be the scene of the demise of a bird.

All we found were feathers, but lots and lots of them, so we figure the bird was carried off for dinner by some animal.

There were more feathers here than you can really capture in a photo. It makes me sort of wish we were a planet of all non-carnivores!

Now here’s something you don’t see every day:

Apparently someone really wanted to tell Sarah they found her car!

This is apparently done with that marker-like product meant for writing on glass. It never occurred to me to use them for sending messages. :)

Here’s a curious “Stuff on the Ground” item:

I have lost a few gas caps in my lifetime, but never along a sidewalk near downtown.

Did it dangle from the car until it finally fell off? Did someone run out of things to fling at someone they were angry at? Or did someone drop a gas cap they had just purchased?

These things we find laying on the ground often make us curious …

I thought this was a nice fall touch!

Happy Monday! Enjoy the week. It sounds like it will be a mostly pleasant one, at least weather-wise.

On the Road Again …

Posted on by
Reply

Trail Mix hit the sidewalks again today, finally.

Our schedules didn’t really mesh while Bethany was on maternity leave, so the occasional walking we’d hoped for fell by the wayside. Bethany returned to work Monday, but even then it took a few days. I was out of town until late Monday afternoon, Bethany had an appointment Tuesday, I was gone Wednesday and Bethany did not have time Thursday.

So Friday it was.

We weren’t sure if it was OK to walk across the road work, but it was easily passable, especially for a pair of hikers who normally walk along a dirt trail. :)

We do hope to get back on the trail for a while before the snow falls.

Today, I discovered Bethany’s love of old things. I think maybe she did, too. …

She pointed out the fence above, then later said she didn’t really like old things. But not long after that, she pointed out another fence:

Then she caught sight of this garage, remarking that she liked the contrast of the blue with the red of the window propped against it:

“I guess I like old things,” she said, laughing, “as long as they’re not mine.”

Fences in particular.

I like the blue-and-red mix, too, although my favorite combination would involve a darker, richer blue, perhaps like this house that I also liked:

As for old things, I think I agree to some extent, especially when talking about old dilapidated things that have a certain character.  These are fun things to discover while out and about, and sometimes familiar things you’d miss if you no longer walked past it, but the owners might think, “Huh? This old thing? I can’t wait to replace it.”

Remember this dog? The dog that always barks ferociously at us (but who I’m guessing is actually quite friendly — I just don’t want to test it because he has big teeth)?

Well, this is what he looks like when I make kissy noises and wake him up for a nap. He had no interest at all in barking, or even getting up!

I meant to take some flower pictures today, but there aren’t a lot of flowers left, and I forgot to keep looking. But I did find this lovely planter, with a nice crop of rhubarb in the back corner.

When I lived in Crookston, I had an apartment where rhubarb grew right outside my door. It was really cool to be able to pick a couple of stalks and make rhubarb whatever. (I wonder if there’s an actual recipe for that.)

We capped off our walk with lunch at Cantabria, where we split a Barcelona sandwich, which was grilled ham and cheese with red peppers, lettuce and tomatoes and mayo. We also each had a smoothie; I had mango and she had the Red Monkey (strawberry banana).

It was a nice way to cap off the noon hour, and it’s a really pretty place to be as well.

I suppose it would have been too easy to pick out the sun in the above picture as a puzzler …

I’ll close with another old thing we both liked. :)

Have a great weekend!

Laurie

 

 

 

 

Spring: Nature’s amazing style show

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had beautiful weather for walking lately, and today was no exception, as the green keeps filling in and standing out more and more against an awesome blue sky.

Vibrant blues and greens are pretty much my favorite color combination, especially involving water, and I love both blue-green and green-blue and assorted similar hues. Last year, I wrote a vague Christmas list that went something like this: “I collect giraffes. Socks. Always socks. I like green, blue, green-blue and blue-green.”

So as these colors take over the season more and more, I keep finding these breathtaking, indescribable moments of passion for my surroundings — not unlike the thrill of biting into a delicious fudgy brownie or sinking into a nice warm bath. It’s just so beautiful outside, everywhere I look. It’s amazing. I wish I could feel like this all year round.

Of course, there are other beautiful colors that make me feel like that besides blue and green. Another joy of spring is watching the flowers come out at different rates in different yards. I think the pink flowers above are alyssum. I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, which is very possible. But I think I’m safe in referring to the flowers below as tulips.

And, of course, the lovely dandelion sticks around for both spring and summer!

No idea what the little blue thing is.

I love how the gazing ball in the photo below acts as a mirror. I didn’t notice that until I saw the photo at full size on my computer.

Random photo  caught Bethany and a group of children out for a walk or field trip:

These Topsy Turvy (or whatever brand they are) planters made me feel guilty. I have one of the upside-down strawberry planters and two of the tomato planters but have not planted them yet or even bought any plants for them. But look how these are already growing! I’m wondering if the red ones are strawberry planters, because I know the green ones are tomato planters.

I think a clothesline is a great place to hang these things. I am planning to hang a tomato plant and a strawberry plant from either side of the bottom of the fire escape outside my apartment building. By the looks of this, I should really get going!

I got a kick out of this stair rail. I don’t think the two sides could be much different. I kind of like them both. I like to think of them as his and hers, with hers the slim, pretty-patterned metal railing and his the burly. handsome wooden one. :)

I hope you all have fun plans for the Memorial Day weekend and that the blue skies and comfortable temps continue.

A beautiful day for a walk around Bemidji …

Posted on by
Reply

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!

What the melting snow reveals …

Posted on by
3

Not only did the dire predictions for a winter storm not amount to much in Bemidji beyond some wind and a little snow, we spent the noon hour Wednesday taking note of things that had been unearthed lately by the melting snow.

Such as the sandal above, which still had some ice adhered to it. Then we found a remnant of Halloween:

We have no guess as to story behind these pants:

And I have a feeling that this bunny is around for Easter and was merely forgotten outside. But doesn’t he look lonely???

Speaking of bunnies, I don’t suppose these tracks belong to *that* bunny:

We saw the rabbit tracks just after these really cute ones of a big and little kitty (yes, we know, they’re not supposed to be running loose, but maybe the big kitty had the little kitty on a leash ;) :

Can you guess whose tracks these are? :

While it was a very sunny day, it was also cold walking north, but once we turned around it felt pretty decent. In fact we were hot by the end of our walk.

We’re pretty excited for the rest of the snow to melt and the temps to keep rising. When we walked past the library and saw the grass exposed by the melting snow near the bushes, Bethany said her nearly 3-year-old daughter, Lola, had been thrilled to see grass for the first time. She even wanted to play in it!

Here’s the library bushes, and below is a view of the lovely mush that marks the beginning of spring:

Not a very long post today — heavy on the photos, though — as I had to go out of town and was busy until just now.

Happy spring! :)

We did see a little color today, but although Bethany’s tulips are already coming up, we were dubious of these flowers, which turned out to be of the faux variety:

Two years of walking — Happy Anniversary to us!

Posted on by
2

The dirtier the snow, the closer we are to spring.

Today marks two years of walking for the Bemidji Trail Mix duo, and our third February.

Of course, there was no actual Trail Mix on Feb. 11, 2009, because we started walking with no intention to blog. We were asked to start a blog in June through Area Voices (which is looking for local bloggers — more on that later), but before then, we were just walking because we thought it would be a good way to lose weight and because it wasn’t running (we both hate running).

Starting in February really set the table for our dedication to walking in all sorts of weather. If we had started in June, we might have thought it made sense to take the winter off (which I guess would have made sense!), but a February start made that moot.  We were winter walkers from the start.

Sorry, not the best pictures today. I was trying out my new mini video camera and the stills aren't too good.

Neither of us started out as a winter walker, though. I don’t think either of us would have imagined that you could bundle up well enough to make December through February tolerable for an hour. Sometimes when I walk to my car to go to work, I think of how little it would take to freeze to death.  It gives me a bit of respect for winter, albeit the kind of respect you give a wild animal that would kill you.

But when I go to work, I’m not dressed the same as when we walk. We bundle up well — enough that we stand out from other people who are just walking a block or two.  On some cold, windy days, we just have eyes peeking out and we have to turn to find each other because our peripheral vision is caught up in hoods and scarves and face warmers. On some days, I feel like a kid stuffed into a snowsuit who has to waddle around outside.

The result is that we not only tolerate cold weather, we sometimes (at least when there’s little to no wind) get hot and have to take off layers.  I’m not talking about 30-below here — in that kind of weather, we can never bundle up enough to be in any way comfortable, but we can make a dent.

We haven’t avoided walking because of bad weather (if we can walk in 30 below temps, we can take anything this year dishes us out), but our outings have been sporadic this winter for various reasons. However, we have done four days this week, so it looks like we’re back on track!

Today was a very nice day and it sounds like the weekend will be good, too. We were talking today about people who hate the messy, slushy spring weather.  I say bring it on!

P.S. If you’re interested in an Area Voices blog (which utilizes WordPress),  visit the website at www.areavoices.com and check it out to see if you’d like to sign up. They are looking for bloggers in general, but are specifically interested in the topics of health, family, food, travel and money.

Deep in the Snow of Minnesota

Posted on by
Reply

Bemidji has had so much snow, even the snowmen are getting buried. :)

We didn’t complain much today at all — we were just happy to not have the wind — and we had some spring in our steps. In fact, I took off my right glove after a while to take photos and never bothered to put it back on. We actually found it pretty nice, even though it was around 2 below. It just illustrates how frigid the wind chill has been lately!

This is one way to keep your iced tea cold.

This isn’t the greatest picture, but I took it quickly as we walked past. This guy made it down from the house in no time.  I guess he was cleaning snow off his roof, which is a pretty good idea. My parents had an old garage roof collapse last month and the building is now totaled.

I’m not sure how well this fits into the Stuff on the Ground category, but it looks like someone is losing something from under the hood of their vehicle.

(Been there, done that, don’t want to do it again.)

We didn’t take a mystery photo today, but our last one was a bit of the railing from the top of the Remax building on Beltrami Avenue Northwest. This historic building, which is just as beautiful inside as it is on the outside, was once  Bemidji’s post office.

Tomorrow is a special day for the Bemidji Trail Mix duo — it’s our second anniversary of walking. Hopefully it will be a nice day and we’ll have a a really nice walk. This makes it our third February! I wonder if we would have kept it up if we’d started *January* 11. :)