Avon Hills

Today a sibling and I went to a day long conference at St. John's University in Collegeville. The topic was "Living in the Avon Hills."  Our keynote speaker was Jim Brandenburg - the famous photographer whose work has been featured in National Geographic.  He has written quite a few books as well.  There was a contest recently where photograph experts voted on the forty best nature photographs.  Brandenburg had 4 selected to be in that group.  He talked about the four prize winning photographs.  He spoke for 90 minutes and he showed us slides of his work.  He is a very entertaining speaker.  He comes across as humble as any other recluse from the Ely area.  I could tell he is an artist because artists often speak about qualities we cannot measure.  And he is very funny with a wry sense of humor.  One of his last photos is a famous one of a wolf half hidden behind a tree.  Even though we were seated near the back of the auditorium, I physically backed away from the photo.  That wolf was menacing; it's stare intense.  If you get a chance, I highly recommend you listen to Brandenburg speak. After that we had chances to go to classes on a variety of topics such as saw-whet owls, bears, loons, building loon platforms, geothermal heating, forest stewardship, carving cottonwood bark, fret work, paper making, agates, beer and wine making, conservation easements, turtles of Stearns County, herb gardening, natural shorelines, songbirds, and photography.  I went to a class on incorporating stone work.  Since the stones in the Avon Hills are the rounded glacial stones, that is the kind they were talking about.  I love stone walls and gates.  I don't think I'll be making any but I sure enjoy them.  After lunch I went to a session on cottonwood bark carving, making maple syrup, and winter gardening.   I might carve some bark but I don't think I'll be building a greenhouse.  I plan to try to make maple syrup this spring.  We had a great lunch and a fun day. We saw many master naturalists there as well.