What She Left Behind

 A year and a half ago I read a book by Ellen Marie Wiseman called The Orphan Collector. That book was about the Spanish Flu pandemic in Pennsylvania. I enjoyed that book and now I enjoyed What She Left Behind. This story has two strong women in it. Clara lives in New York City. Her parents are cold, snobby and overbearing. Clara and her girlfriends sneak out, put on flapper dresses, and go dancing in Harlem. When she brings home an Italian suitor her parents arrange a marriage for her with one of the business associates of her father. Clara refuses the arranged marriage. Her angry father calls the police and has her taken to an asylum claiming she is mentally ill. Eventually he loses his fortune in the Depression and she is transferred to a state asylum where she is punished for disobeying with ice baths, seclusion, and insulin treatments. The other strong woman is 17 year old Izzy who is in foster care because her mother murdered her father. Izzy was 8 when that happened. For four years she lived with her Grandmother. When the Grandmother died Izzy went into foster care. Now she is living with a nice foster family who work at a local museum. The foster parents ask her to help them document the belongings of the patients who lived at a local asylum. Izzy finds the trunk that Clara brought with her including the flapper dresses, her journal, and the letters she sent to her Italian boyfriend. Izzy is determined to know the whole story of Clara. As historical fiction novels go, this one was good. Treatment of mental illness before medications were available were not always kind nor helpful. I enjoyed reading about these two strong women and I thought the ending was delightful.

The Nurses

 Alexandra Robbins is the author of the non-fiction book Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles With The Heroes Of The Hospitals. The book describes the careers of four different female nurses. All the nurses worked in hospitals. Some of the stuff they had to put up with was eye opening. Some nurses bully other nurses. I have seen some back stabbing moves in my day but I wouldn't have thought nurses would do that in a hospital setting. One of the nurses became addicted to drugs. She reported herself and got treatment and then went back to work. She loved her job so much she put herself back in a situation where she could obtain more drugs but managed to resist the temptation. The author followed four nurses for a year. I thought the book was very interesting.

Moon Over Lester River

I attended a pot luck at that building just west of the Lester River this evening. Hawk Ridge had an event for us to start the season. As I walked back to my car I saw a day taking a picture of the moon over the water so I decided she had a good idea.

 

Station Eleven

 A Canadian writer named Emily St. John Mandel wrote Station Eleven. This is a dystopian look at people in the Great Lakes region after the "Georgia Flu" killed 90% of the population. Now there is no more U.S. nor Canada. There is no electricity. There is no internet. The few people who are left are just trying to survive. The story starts out during a production of King Lear at a theater. A child actress, 8 years old, is on stage when the actor who played King Lear fell dead from a heart attack. She is one of the few people who survive the flu. She is traveling with a group of entertainers. One night they do a Shakespeare play and the next night the orchestra plays. They travel around Lake Michigan performing at places where survivors have gathered to live. By now all the stores and homes have been ransacked so they are living on fish, foraged food, rabbits and deer. Station Eleven is the name of a comic book that the child actress had and kept with her for the past twenty years. The topic is dark. The author has a way of telling the story in an understated fashion that was a pleasure to read. I understand HBO made this into a mini-series. I think I would rather keep the pictures and scenes I imagined while reading the book that watch the mini-series.

Folk Dancing

 Tonight a dozen folk dancers gathered in the park to dance. We danced to songs from Bulgaria, Africa, Israel, Scotland and Norway. Dozens of dragonflies flew over our heads catching mosquitoes. Several people walking by joined in our dancing. Most of us have gray hair but several people are in their 20's or 30's.

It Ends With Us

 Colleen Hoover is the author of It Ends With Us. This was a silly romance book but the characters were well developed and the story was believable. Lily is the main character. She grew up in Maine with a physically abusive father and a mother who would not leave him. Lily is not allowed to have friends over to her house and she grows up a lonely girl. Eventually Lily comes to resent both of her parents. As an adult she gets into a relationship with Ryle, an attractive neurosurgeon. To her dismay she ends up in the same situation as her mother. Lily is married to an abuser. At the hospital getting stitches in her head after an incident she finds out she is pregnant. This story is based on the lives of the author's parents and must have been difficult to write. The story has been developed into a screen play. The movie should be released in February of 2024.

Weekends At Bellwvue

 I read a book called Weekends At Bellevue. This is a psychiatrist's memoir of her weekends spent working at the psychiatric unit in New York City. The author is Julie Holland. The author has problems. She tries to be a good doctor but sometimes she is impulsive and rude and comes across as uncaring. Doctors see much tragedy in their work and must compartmentalize some things so they don't get "crispy" (burned out). Sometimes homeless people, eager for a night of rest and three hot meals, will claim to be suicidal just to get off the streets for a day. Police bring in prisoners to be assessed before heading to jail. Any prisoner who takes a psychiatric med has to come to Bellevue first. The story was interesting. Being a psychiatrist is not a job I would ever want.

Picnic at Glensheen

Today Senior U had a picnic at the Glensheen mansion. A 30 piece band was playing some big band songs and some Chicago and some Louie Armstrong. The music was great.

This is Clark the shark. I am not sure why they have a shark sculpture here.

Here is a view from the formal gardens. At one time the Congdon family owned all the shore between here and Two Harbors.

The wealth of this family is just incredible. I could have gone for the tour. Somehow I get the feeling this family maybe took advantage of others to get this wealthy and so I don't want to go in and admire all the stuff they had.

 

Get The Lead Out

 Yesterday I got a letter from the city indicating the presence of lead water pipes in my area. I was given a form to fill out to obtain a water filter that will remove the lead. I drove over to get my water pitcher today. Each filter lasts six months. I got one extra filter. The lady at the desk said the city will continue to provide filters in the future. I am glad to get the water filter.

The Covenant Of Water

 I listened to A Covenant Of Water by Abraham Verghese. The book was read by the author and it was almost 32 hours long. Most of the story is set in Kerala, a region of India very close to the southern tip of the country. The story starts with an 11 year old girl who lives with her mother. Since her father died, her father's brother inherits his house. Her uncle has arranged for a marriage for the girl, Maryama, to an man several hours away via river boat. Maryama is one of the main characters in this story. The story starts out in 1905. Maryama arrives at her new home. Her husband's sister arranged the marriage. Her husband is still mourning the death of his first wife and he is much older than her. Maryama takes care of his son. Eventually she has children and grandchildren. The story ends in 1975 with Maryama's granddaughter, also named Maryama, who is a doctor studying neurofibromatosis. Generation after generation, people in her husband's family have been affected with hearing loss, headaches, and loss of balance when in the water. The granddaughter, after having her father's brain autopsied, figured out what the condition was. As the story goes on I learned about the caste system in India, the treatment of lepers in the society, that the Japanese once bombed India from the sky, and the corruption of the police. This was a lovely story about a large family. The story was well written. The descriptions of the food made me hungry.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

I read a delightful book called Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Some of the story happens in northern California but most of it happens in a small town south of Seattle, Washington. Each chapter is told by a different character. One character is Tova who is 70, widowed, and working at an aquarium after hours doing the cleaning. She likes to keep busy so as not to think of the night her 18 year old son, Erik, went missing and presumably drowned. Cameron is a young man living in California. He didn't tell his girlfriend that he lost another job so she kicked him out of their apartment. Cameron borrows money from his aunt to buy an old RV. He drives to Seattle to talk to a man he thinks might be his father. When Tova breaks her ankle he takes over her job at the aquarium. The third character is Marcellus. Marcelles is a giant Pacific octopus on display at the aquarium. Marcellus and Tova form a close bond. Marcellus has figured out things in Tova's life and he is desperate to communicate with her. He climbs out of his tank at night to eat other sea creatures but also to find things that will help Tova understand. The story had a great ending. I like stories where animals add to the lives of humans. 

Pulling Pigweed

Today a dozen of us gathered to pull winged pigweed on Wisconsin Point. We were helping the piping plover project. Piping plovers are critically endangered. At one point, in the 1980's, we were down to only 13 piping plovers. Last year we had 75. This year we have 80. Piping plovers used to inhabit this area and also on Minnesota point. The project is improving the beach hoping the plovers will return. The piping plovers visited in May but they didn't stay. We spent two hours pulling pigweed.

The area is fenced off to keep predators at bay. Occasionally deer swim over. Beaver and otter visit too. A couple bald eagles live in the pine tree across the bay. Most of the driftwood is removed or burned so as to deprive the eagles of a place to perch while hunting.

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Last year when I was here the planted plugs of dune grass were new. This year the dune grass looks great and some of it has even produced seed heads. You can see the fencing in the background.

Piping plovers nest on Long Island which is one of the Apostle Islands. There they line their nest with tiny white pebbles. Pebbles and cobblestones have been trucked over to this beach. In Green Bay piping plovers have adapted to the lack of stones by using the shells of zebra mussels. The plovers prefer to nest in the same area year after year. Once an area gets filled up they might consider moving. When a plover is nesting boxes are put over the nest to protect it from predators yet allow the plovers to come and go as they please.

Unlike Minnesota point, there are no houses on Wisconsin point. The area is wild and beautiful. The road is narrow and curves between large pines.

 

Helping Herbarium

This  is a dried up pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant growing in the Sax Zim bog which is about an hour drive north and slightly west of my place.

This is the new education building which is very nice. The outside is covered in aspen. Normally aspen is not suitable for buildings because it rots quickly but with help from the NRRI (National Resource Research Institute) the aspen was treated with heat. The inside is paneled in locally sources tamarack which is also not often used in building but is very nice looking.

We were collecting plants for the herbarium at UMD. The plants they currently have in their herbarium are all over 40 years old. Students need to have herbarium samples to complete their studies. This group of native plant explorers is helping them out. We did it last year too. That was when my left foot punched a hole in the bog and I had to get pulled out. This year the bog is much drier. We stayed at the bog nearest to the visitor center this year.

I really enjoyed spending a couple of hours walking on the bog with people who know their stuff. The visitor center has a new pollinator garden.

Pollinators were busy at work today. After collecting the plants we labeled them and pressed them between newspapers and blotting paper.

 

Gooseberry Falls

Today I drove north into Lake County which had better air quality than my own St. Louis County. I parked at Gooseberry Falls visitor center and hiked up stream on the south side of the Gooseberry River and hiked back down on the north side. I found a peaceful grove of white cedar trees.

On the way back I passed the old Gooseberry State Park visitor center. I came here many times in the 1970's and this building brings back fond memories. I have to admit that parking is much easier at the new Visitor center than it was at this old one.

This Franklin ground squirrel was looking for treats in the parking lot.

The air smelled so sweet on this hike.

 

Better Living Through Birding

 Christian Cooper is a birder living in New York City. During warbler season he gets up early to visit Central Park and find the warblers. Some warblers nest on the ground and Christian Cooper does not like it when dog owners let their dogs run off leash in Central Park. He wrote a book called Better Living Through Birding: Notes From A Black Man In The Natural World. He doesn't mention his encounter with an angry woman who threatened to call the police on him for filming her as she held her dog aloft by the dog's collar. Most of the book  is a memoir about his life with his family and his interest in birds that started when he was ten years old. At one point in his life he worked for Marvel Comics where he introduced the first gay superhero. I especially enjoyed the chapters about studying at Harvard.

Fish Heads

Tonight at the park by my house the Fish Heads were playing. This is a folk/rock/country band and they were really good. I enjoyed the music and the people watching. Some folks sit on blankets or in chairs. Parents with kids can play on the swings or the playground while listening to music. I saw one family exploring the stream during the concert.

 

Dancing

This spring semester I took a folk dancing class. This summer we met a few times in June at a local middle school. Today the group met at Leif Erickson park from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. We had between 10 and 15 people. One family who was picnicking at the park with their children joined us. At one point the young/strong mother had a two year old on one leg and a four year old on the other leg. We gathered a bit of attention from strangers. Some people were filming us. Today we had a nice evening in the park dancing folk songs from Israel, Scotland, Canada, Greece and Norway.

 

Yellow Plum Tomato

 I planted a yellow plum tomato plant. Today the first one was ripe. There is nothing finer that the taste of the first home grown tomato. I could have taken a picture but I was in too much of a hurry to taste it.

Outlawed

 I was attracted to Outlawed, a novel by Anna North because of it's colorful cover. This is a story about Ada. As the story begins Ada is 17 and about to be happily married. The year is 1894. She assists her mother, a respected midwife, with her duties and Ada is good at the job. After a year of marriage and Ada is not pregnant, her husband's family turns her out of the house. Afraid of being branded as a witch because of her infertility the Sheriff suggests she go to a convent and become a nun. All the nuns at this convent were formerly infertile wives. Ada's other option is to join an outlaw gang in South Dakota and that is what she does. Ada is a no-nonsense heroine in the wild, wild west. I enjoyed her story very much.

Flash Escapes Again!

In June, 2020 Flash ran away from home. Eventually he was found near my house and returned to the owners. Now Flash has escaped again! How ironic that a slow moving tortoise can escape custody. On the other hand, I am glad Flash gets to live outside at least some of the time.

 

Flat Broke With Two Goats

 I read the memoir Flat Broke With Two Goats by Jennifer MaGaha. She writes about her life as a mother of three and a wife. When the story starts the two eldest children are in college and the youngest is in high school. The author's husband is an accountant so naturally she left the money matters to him. For some reason the accountant husband messed up. He failed to file taxes. He hid their debts. Despite not being able to pay their daily debts they continued to send their youngest to an expensive private school. Eventually their house was foreclosed. They moved to a rustic cabin in the country of North Carolina and decided to raise goats. The author worked as a professor on English but never was able to get a full time position. Most people in their financial position would get a steady job but that is not the way this couple did things. They invested their money (some of which was being garnished by the IRS) into buying more goats. Some chapters have recipes at the end such as goat cheese and soap made with goat milk. This was an interesting story but some of the decisions that were made had me shaking my head. I could not feel comfortable living like she chose to live.

Brewer's Loop

Today I hiked Brewer's Loop section of the Superior Hiking Trail with ten other people who attend the University for Seniors at UMD. Here was my view from a rocky outcropping on the south side of the hill.

The weather was perfect for hiking. Aside from a few gnats we had no bugs. Some other people on the trail got stung by hornets but we were safe.

Here is another view from the south east side of the hill. The Duluth lift bridge is on the left. The trucks on Highway 35 look like tiny toys. The trail was dusty. Birches are not drought tolerant and some are turning yellow.

 

Snowball In A Blizzard

 For a change of pace I decided to read a medical non-fiction book. Snowball In A Blizzard: A Physician's Notes On Uncertainty In Medicine by Steven C. Hatch. The snowball he is talking about is a breast tumor. Reading mammograms is like finding a snowball in a blizzard. Annual mammograms from age 40 on up do not help women and may expose them to more danger. Yet every year I and other women go to get a mammogram thinking we are doing the right thing. The general public's perception of mammograms is favorable despite the medical evidence. If a woman feels a lump THEN is the time to get a mammogram.  Perception can be very important. Not all radiologists are good at reading mammogram results. Women have had painful surgery, chemo and radiation when they had no cancer at all.  He says PSA tests do not increase the life spans of men with prostate cancer. He says long term use of antibiotics does not help with Lyme disease. He talks about numbers and percentages and frankly some of that I had to skim through. He talks about James Lind who did an experiment in 1747. He was a doctor on a ship that had 12 men with scurvy. Scurvy is an unique disease because it can lead to death if untreated. Also, when scurvy is treated the positive results show within a day or so. He had 12 sailors with scurvy. Two drank water with vinegar. Two drank water with nettles. Two drank water with barley and raisins. Two drank water with oranges. The other pairs of sailors drank water with other foods. The two sailors who drank water with oranges recovered and the rest died. James Lind did not know why oranges worked. He didn't know about vitamin C. He luckily chose food and drink as a method to run his study. The author also talks about the benefits/risks of blood pressure medication and whether it should be prescribed at which blood pressure reading. Physicians and researchers are divided on the blood pressure issue. The practice of medicine is murky rather than clear. This author says we should recognize that and use it to our benefits. This was a very interesting book except for a few sections about math.

Motorized Vehicles

 Today I hiked Pike Island which is at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers at Fort Snelling State Park. The 3 mile hike around the island was very pleasant and the company was superb. I was with my offspring, daughter-in-law, grand girls, and two dogs. We saw bald eagles and red breasted nuthatches and great blue herons and great egrets and cardinals and sparrows. A boat went by on the Mississippi and the waves from the wake of the boat crashed upon the shore. We walked down the sandy bank so the dogs could drink. The water was warm. On the way back I was walking Clover and the grand girls were "helping" by holding onto the leash. We passed a group of people including a man seated in this chair. I told him it took 3 of us to control this beast. Like a lot of men, he wanted to stroke a fox hound so we let him do it. Later, as we ate our picnic lunch, we watched as his family returned this wheelchair with tank wheels to the visitor center where it could be recharged. I think it's really great that at least some state parks have these available for use.

Mister Malcolm's List

 I read a silly little book called Mister Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain. Set in England, Count Malcolm has a list of things he wants in a wife. He meets his friend's cousin, Julia, who is conniving and manipulative and two faced. After one trip to the opera with her he knows she is not the one for him. Julia is outraged beyond measure and because she is emotionally immature and highly dramatic she invites her former classmate, Selina, to come and visit. Julia wants Selina to capture the Count's fancy and then tell him he doesn't qualify because she has a list of her own. Selina, the daughter of a vicar and his wife, does not have the means to mix in high society like Julia. Selina just finished a job as a companion to an older, lonely woman so she agrees to visit Julia. Selina is not interested in embarrassing the count. They met at a ball and they both seemed to like each other. Julia continues to manipulate everyone to get what she wants. This silly book was fun to read but full of fluff.

Orange World And Other Storie

I saw this book on a shelf of books to borrow and was drawn to it by the color and the title. Orange World And Other Stories is a book of eight short stories by Karen Russell. I loved her debut novel Swamplandia. Some of the short stories are horror and some are comedic and all involved magic or fantasy. I liked the one about the bog girl although it was a little grisly. The final story about the orange world is about a pregnant woman who is worried about her baby. That story is so weird yet relatable as all pregnant women have fears about their baby and their ability to be a good mother. Fantasy and horror are not my favorite genre but I did enjoy this book of short stories.

 

The Rosie Result

 I borrowed and listened to The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion before I knew it was the third in a series about a guy named Don Tillman. I think I will borrow the other two as well but read them in order. In this book Don is married to Rosie and the father of a ten year old boy named Hudson. They were living in New York but moved to Melbourne, Australis for job opportunities. Rosie is a psychologist and a researcher. Don is a professor of genetic research. Their son, Hudson, has some troubles adjusting to his new school. The teacher, principal, and counselor are laughably inept. Don has a emotional support group of men who help him with his decisions. The book is humorous. Don quirky communication style leads to hilarious misunderstandings. Don and Rosie's efforts to help their son are loveable but ineffective. In the end they learn more from Hudson than he does from them.

Rooftop Garden

 My neighbors have a one story flat top roofed house on a narrow yet long lot. I have always admired their yard. The front yard has native plants and a raised bed for kale and peppers and herbs. The back yard has flower beds, a round garden with poles tied together at the top for beans, a small grassy area, and a wooden platform for their picnic table and chairs. Their back yard ends on a steep cliff that goes down to Chester Creek. My neighbor is a good gardener and now I see she has started a rooftop garden. She is really taking advantage of the sun that shines on her roof.

A Very Typical Family

Sierra Godfrey is the author of A Very Typical Family, a light, summertime read to take your mind off your troubles. The main character is Natalie Walker who lives in Boston with her best friend, is going out with her best friend's brother, and just lost the promotion she thought she deserved to her best friend's brother. She gets a letter from a lawyer stating her mother had died. Her mother left the family mansion in Santa Cruz, California to her three children on the condition they all gather at the house before 3 months is up. Now that she is out of a job and she is unhappy with her significant other for taking her job away from her, she decides to grab her cat and drive across the country to California to see the siblings she hasn't seen in ten years. Ten years earlier, while their unreliable mother was away from home, Natalie called the police while her older siblings were having a party because her sister hit her head really hard. The party was busted and her older siblings were sentenced to jail for providing drugs to other kids. Natalie feels guilt about that and assumes her siblings hate her. The story was entertaining and emotional and funny in spots. The only thing that didn't ring true for me was Natalie's boyfriend, the brother of her best friend, insisted on marrying her after she said no, after he took her job, after he complained about her habits and her cat and her personality. Why would he want to marry someone who annoys him that much? Natalie dodged a bullet there. 

Afterlives

 Time Magazine listed Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gumah as one of the 100 best books written in 2022. The Washington Post put it among the ten best books of 2022. I enjoyed this story set in Tanzania when it was run by the Germans in the first half of the 1900's. The Germans did not rule with kindness. The story  is told by four characters and covers several generations. One of the main characters is Ilya who joins the German army. The search for Ilya is a major theme in the story. Ilya's younger sister searches for him and eventually names her son after her missing brother. This is an excellent book. The author won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature with his writing about colonialism in Africa.

Back to Volunteering

I was gone from home from July 2nd until July 30th. Now I am catching up on volunteer work that I usually do weekly. I saw this cute chipmunk as I finished my recording on "Nature's Notebook" of my observations of specific spruces, dogwoods, ash, birch and mountain ash trees. One of the ash trees I study was cut down but I found the stump.

Here is a picture of the stream in Grand Lake Township.

Here is the Saint Louis River near Fredenberg.