More Mall Imagery

Before turning to posting about flowers and the soggy state of affairs on this dairy farm, please bear with one more round of the Mall of America!

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Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Nordstrom's are a bit pricey for my shopping sensibilities, but I was mesmerized by the artsy displays and decor in those big stores which occupy three of the four corners of the Mall. (Sears anchors the remaining corner.......its more in my league.)

These were adorning the tops of shelves in Nordstrom's:

I think these next two display windows were at the 3rd level entrance to Nordstrom's:

Yes.......would that my destiny be in the deep end.......whyever not......! (I just realized: wherever, whatever, whoever, whenever are legitimate words......so why not whyever??)

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And, I'd be remiss not to mention all the restaurants in the Mall. Back in August of 2001, my mom, my daughter, and I were patrons here at the Rain Forest Cafe right before taking my daughter to the airport across I-494 to board her flight to Amsterdam to spend a semester studying in The Netherlands. (9/11 occcurred just a few weeks later.)

The atmosphere is rain forest throughout the restaurant.......jungle vines hung everywhere.......mist arose here and there. Also, occasionally, there was a rumbly vibration sound.......we thought maybe it was supposed to signify an elephant walking by, or a volcano erupting.......we just weren't sure, and we didn't think to ask.

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I'm guessing the climate inside Kokomo's is tropical Caribbean......and their neon sign was cool!

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Meet Mat the doormat!

I wish my name could be put to such clever use! Can yours??

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Going up the down escalator, or down the up escalator..........totally improper!!

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I wonder if this weirdo Holstein cow design is proof of our mandatory dairy promotion donation dollars at work!!?? Yeah, out of our monthly milk earnings, a percentage is scooped out for national and state dairy promotion organizations.

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George W.G. Ferris might do a double take to see his invention being put to use INDOORS!!!

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And finally, on our way home, we saw this old crane, snappily repainted in bright red, on display along highway 42 near Rosemount........"Vic's Crane & Heavy Haul", it says:

Proof of Three Facts

This photo is being posted tonight as proof of these three facts:

1. The corn is growing!

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2. The fields are wet!

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3. The sky was amazing this evening!

(Click on the picture to enlarge it, and then you'll see the rows of corn and the water in parts of the field.)

Mall of America

I'm thrilled to be able to guide you through a brief tour of that enormous retail cathedral known as:

Evidently, due to the sad fact that the upper Midwest boasts no ocean or mountains or world wonders, someone had the very bright idea to erect a gargantuan mall full of stores to serve as a mecca for shoppers. And who doesn't like to shop......right??!!

This trip was planned by my art teacher daughter as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. When she phoned last weekend to ask her younger sister to go along, my first response was, "What! With these high fuel prices, you're going to drive way up to the Twin Cities just to go shopping??? When you have plenty of stores right there near you in Des Moines??". She sighed and simply answered, "Yes". Somehow, right then, the rusty gears started turning squeakily in my brain and I managed to ask, "Can I go along, too!!??"

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Mall of America is located in the northeast corner of Bloomington, Minnesota-----a large suburb on the south side of Minneapolis------and across I-494 from the Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport. From home, we motored north on 63, then caught 52 at Rochester and angled northwest toward "The Cities". At Rosemount, we turned west on 42 (a route we used many times in the past when the kids were little, on our way to the Valleyfair Amusement Park) and we intended to catch 77 north to the mall, but missed it somehow, and ended up on I-35W (leads to the infamous collapsed bridge) and I-494, eastbound to the Mall. A roundabout way is was, but it worked.

Surrounding the Mall are parking ramps, which are convenient, but you must be able to remember the location of your parking spot. We were in P3-Hawaii-West (info I scribbled onto a notepad) and we entered the 2nd floor level of the Mall between Eddie Bauer and Napa Valley Grille. I concentrated to burn these names into my brain so I'd have a reference point to use before plunging into the Mall's interior jungle.

My daughters and I had decided we'd split up and go our separate ways, so everyone would be happy. With cell phones, its no problem keeping in contact with each other.

Mall of America is on three main levels, a huge square surrounding an amusement park in the interior, which was where I headed first.......not to ride the rides, of course, but to take some pictures!!

As I roamed around amongst the boisterous groups of schoolkids on end-of-year class trips, and young parents pushing strollers, I suddenly saw this on the floor:

By golly, I've been to the big Mall several times, but had never wasted much time in the amusement park area, so I'd never before seen the plaque embedded in floor, denoting this significant spot! Yes, the brain gears were slowly moving......now, I vaguely remembered.......the Mall of America had been built on the site of the old Minnesota Twins baseball stadium!! Oh, my.......I realized with awe that Harmon Killebrew had stood right here in batting stance many times, and I gazed off into the distance, hearing the crack of a bat meeting a ball, with a home run hit soaring high beyond centerfield.......going, going.......gone.......into.........Hooters!!!

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Following my dreamy reverie, I wandered further amid the colorful rides.........why, look, those trees look almost real!! (I don't think they were, but I could be wrong.)

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Don't worry about doing stairs, here.......the Mall boasts escalator after escalator after escalator!! This set-up looked pretty cool all dressed up in shiny chrome! I'm guessing the distance around each Mall walkway is 3/4-mile or so, and there are three levels, and I went around each one a couple times.......oh-h, my feet hurt, from walking on all that concrete all day.

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My goal was to traverse each walkway on every level, and gaze at the colorful contents of the shop windows. Al's Toy Store had the "Cow Parade" collection on display........I have a hodge-podge cow collection at home, mostly gifts from relatives and friends over the years. I own two "Cow Parade" cows, #7703 - Tropicow! and #9131 - Daisy's Dream, only because my sister was kind enough to give them to me for birthday gifts. It looks like I'd go broke trying to acquire the rest of the collection!

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Whee-hee! Here's the newest ride, currently under construction........"Barnyard Party Animals".........wow, a farm theme........who thinks this stuff up!!?

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Now Showing......Old Navy!! Its an overgrown version, sprawled out on two levels, with its very own set of escalators in the middle of the store.

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What the name of this store is is a mystery to me........sorry........I really liked the pretty design, that's all.

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I became totally immersed in browsing, not at all aware of my location, meaning the strategically-placed mall directories were very helpful! My daughters and I would meet every two hours or so, eating lunch in the Food Court, and later sipping Caribou coffee while we rested our weary feet (well......MY nearly fifty-year-old feet got tired, anyway, even if my daughters' didn't!).

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An excursion to the Mall of America wouldn't be complete without a visit to "Legoland". My sons used to love this place!! Have you ever laid your eyes on dinosaurs made of Legos before?! Well, now you have!! Exciting, huh!!?

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Have I mentioned how tired the old feet got?? The cushy slippers in this "Happy Feet" display looked mighty tempting!!

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There were several stores of Minnesota-related merchandise.......this one, plus "Minnesota Bound", "Love From Minnesota", and several shops selling only Mall of America tee-shirts and miscellaneous tourist souvenirs.

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Occasionally, my browsing morphed into buying things........a couple pairs of shoes at DSW, and some shirts and clip earrings at Nordstrom Rack, a store containing all CLEARANCE items.......my kind of place!! The four corners of the Mall are anchored by Nordstrom's, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and good old Sears. In between are over 500 other stores and restaurants!!

Well, let's see........we arrived at the Mall around 11:30 a.m., and shopped until 8:00 in the evening! This actually is the first time I've ever done this trip in one day, as in past years we would stay overnight after enduring a day at Valleyfair, and then hitting the Science Museum of St. Paul, or the Minnesota Zoo at Apple Valley, before stopping at the Mall for a couple hours. Ah, yes, those were the good old days of strollers, diaper bags, etc.! I would take our four kids, and pick up a farmwife friend in southern Minnesota who had five, and off we'd go to the Cities.....two mothers with nine kids in tow!! It usually worked out surprisingly well. But.......I'm digressing......or digesting, or depressing, or something......

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This time around, a much older mother with her two grown daughters exited the big Mall and headed south on 77, which travels through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, so named because of the Minnesota River which meanders through it. This photo, which was snapped hurriedly when I suddenly noticed the lovely scene, is probably as we crossed the bridge over Long Meadow Lake. I wish I'd gotten more of the railroad bridge shadow in the picture.

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Then it was a three-and-a-half hour drive to home again, with a stop in Rochester for a sandwich and ice cream, and to stretch......goodness, I could hardly move by then. My older daughter, bless her, felt like driving the whole way home, leaving me to doze and nod. I was awake enough to notice, though, that she was constantly changing the stations on the radio........just like her dad, who has the annoying habit of constantly changing the TV channels! We arrived home, safe and sound, around midnight.

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Our shopping junket to the Mall of America was great fun!! If you ever find yourself in the Twin Cities area and have a hankering to get away from nature and indulge in materialism, then do visit the gigantic Mall! You can zone out and explore another world for awhile!

Commandments Window

A minor word to the wise: Think twice before praising your own internet service provider. Friday evening, the last thing I did at the computer was post a comment on someone else's blog, to her post about recent bad luck with her internet provider. I glibly mentioned that my provider is very dependable! Well.......I paid for that boast the next day!! For all of Saturday, we were unable to connect to the internet!! For what reason, I have no idea; there had been no storms during the night. I called my neighbor across the road and he said his connection was working fine. I tried to call the phone company, but they don't have office hours on Saturday. Now today, the connection is working normally again!!

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Here's the stained-glass window from my church for today.......The Ten Commandmants........major Words to the wise:

As you can see, the left tablet contains the first three Commandments, while the remaining seven are on the other tablet. Do you wonder why? I did, and the answer may lie in the way Martin Luther divided the Commandments up in his Catechism.

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The first three Commandments deal with man's relationship to God:

1. You shall have no other gods.

2. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

3. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

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The other seven Commandments are concerned with peoples' relationships with each other:

4. Honor you father and your mother.

5. You shall not murder.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his man-servant or maid-servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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When I joined the Lutheran church, I was a bit taken aback by the changes Martin Luther made in the Ten Commandments. Who gave him the authority to do such a thing? He gave it to himself, evidently.

He seems to leave out the Commandment against making graven images, although Lutherans would say it is part of the first Commandment. Luther was a Catholic, and they use lots of images.

As for "Thou shall not covet", Luther gave the concept of 'coveting thy neighbor's house' its own single Commandment........I'm a bit stumped by that. Why split up the coveting Commandment? Maybe it was so he could regain the command he lost when he dropped the graven image one.

Caution.....Close!

"Caution" is on the right track with guessing where these photos were taken........wrong city, though!

Once again, a couple hints.......I was 3-1/2 hours from home, and the players on this diamond now include these critters shown below:

(Cool cat!)

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(Could that be one of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.......and, Harvey, from one of my favorite movies??? I should have glanced around to see if Elwood P. Dowd was standing nearby!!)

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Possibly some folks reading this post are sitting right there in the state this carousel revolves in!

What is this place, and where is it?

Commotion & Adjusting

Not much time for blogging........lots of COMMOTION, plus, my son is out of school now, and uses the computer off and on during the day, in between helping his dad, so I'll be ADJUSTING my time at the keyboard to his time there!

Yesterday, my daughters had a wild idea for a day away, and after lodging an initial protest, I went along with them!

Can you guess where? Here's a hint:

Homeplate is now guarded by the likes of these characters:

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Today, before my older daughter headed back home to Ankeny, she wanted to see some of the storm damage, so we took a drive.

Below is the condition of the woods along the Wapsipinicon River near the C-57 bridge in northeast Black Hawk County, Iowa. It appears Paul Bunyan came through, clipping shrubbery, and left a terrible mess.

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My daughter noticed this scene below along one of the gravel roads near where the tornado went through (You can breathe.......its just a doll's head.):

We saw the macabre sight near the spot shown below. We've had so much rain the past few days that many fields are flooded again in the low areas, as you can see in the photo.

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My sister who lives out of the area is coming here this afternoon in order to see the damage to our old neighborhood, so I'll be touring around again in a little while. Its very warm and humid here today; hopefully, no storms are developing.

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Remember........take a guess at the whereabouts of yesterday's day away!! Its about 3-1/2 hours from here.

Goat's Beard

Mid-morning yesterday found the dogs and I sulking in the ditch across from the neighbor's old barn.

Why were we sulking? Well, we had just finished "helping" Husband load a steer onto the trailer, and at times it seemed we were NOT much help.......the dogs by being IN the wrong place at the wrong time, and me by being a chicken and not staying in the right place at the right time! The problem is that when a 1000 pound+ steer is galloping towards me, I tend to jump out of the way, meaning, of course, that the steer is then not steered in the right direction, and we have to start all over again! Anyway, poor Husband just shakes his head and glares. I've told him many times that he married the wrong woman........he should have looked around for a stronger, BRAVER wife than I am! But, who thinks of that at age 16 while preoccupied with flirting in high school study hall!

Actually, the inspiration for this blog's name came to me when I was "helping" Husband out in the steer lot one day. Isn't that a charming thought?!

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So, there we were in the ditch amongst the newly-blooming "Yellow Goat's Beard". Quite a strange name for a plant. Its scientific name is even worse....... trapopogon pratensis! This plant has personality quirks.......its flowers always face to the EAST, for one thing! (Here's lookin' at you, blog readers........obviously, this photo was taken looking to the west.)

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"You don't ride on Superman's cape,

You don't spit into the wind,

You don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger,

And, you don't mess around with Slim (or is it Jim?)"

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HOWEVER, it is okay to go right ahead and wrestle with the Goat's Beard! That's what I was attempting to do in the next photo.......trying to get the stubborn flower head to face SOUTH in order to "pose" with the fencepost in the background! I had little success.......this bloomin' blossom definitely has a mind of its own!

If you found yourself disoriented on the prairie, perhaps these east-pointing flowers could help you regain your bearings!

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Below, on the left, is a closed-up Goat's Beard. The flowers are open in the mornings, if the sun is shining. They then close up shop by early afternoon, or if the day turns cloudy.

And, here below, we catch a Goat's Beard fraternizing with a flock of phlox.......and, by golly, a lone little white wild strawberry blossom down below, too!

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(Hey........who sang the song which includes the verse quoted above?? The tune and words came to mind as I was taking these Goat's Beard photos, but it took my aging brain a day to recall the singer's name. Who is it?)

Evening Walk

Just the thing to clear one's head of the day's haze-----an evening walk----- and this one I enjoyed just a couple days ago, after the calf chores were done.

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First of all, this enchanting dappling of shadows caught my eye, prompting a quick dash to the house to get the camera. That goldish stuff in the tree branches is bunches of those helicopter-like maple seeds; there seems to be an overabundance of them this year.

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Evening light turned out to be the best for catching a clear photo of this columbine in the flower bed. I usually save plant tags and after a bit of rummaging, this one's was found, showing its variety name to be "Aquilegia", the color being "clementine red".

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I walked along our gravel road for a ways, scanning the ditch for the latest blooming wildflowers, one of which is Prairie Phlox, shown below. Their color varies from white to light pink to deep pink to lavendar. This one seems to be a mixture, and has some interesting companion plants alongside. On the right, in front of the phlox.......what is that?? Can anyone tell me? We have scads of them around here.......we call it "snake grass", but I've never yet found its official name in a plant book.

In a prairie wildflower book I have, the entry for "Prairie Phlox" includes this info: "The Meskwaki made a tea of the leaves and used it as a wash for treating eczema. Also, the root was used with several other unspecified plants as part of a love potion!...........Several garden varieties have been adapted from these native phlox species."

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Oh, my......getting way down in the ditch was required to capture this "Solomon's Seal" from this particular angle, with the end-of-day sunlight glowing in the background. The dogs had to join me there in the ditch, excitedly sniffing around.......they must have thought I'd found a critter they could chase! The consequence of my foray into the undergrowth was itchy arms for the rest of the evening!

The dangling Solomon's Seal blooms are just beginning to form. Last year, I took a look inside one of the flowers and found out where the name of the plant evidently comes from........the innards of the flower forms a very tiny Star of David or Solomon's Seal - like design! I would need a better camera with a macro-lens to be able to photograph it clearly, however.

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Well, I managed to climb out of the weedy ditch, dust myself off, and glance around in time to be amazed by this very colorful sunset! I didn't retouch the colors in this photo at all. (And, a bird flew into the scene just in time to be included in the top left corner of the picture........I could've cropped him out, but lacked ambition to do so.)

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I hope you, too, get the chance to indulge in an evening walk sometime very soon!!

World's Smallest Church

This post was originally written for Tuesday, May 27, but the tornado barged in and took over for awhile:

P.S. - Judy, in British Columbia, at her My Front Porch blog, is collecting travel post links this week. Visit there to enjoy some armchair sightseeing!!!

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On Friday, May 23, it rained all morning, and as a result, over the lunch table, Husband stated that his plan for the afternoon was make the hour-long drive to Fort Atkinson to buy netwrap for the round baler. He kindly asked if I would like to ride along. I kindly replied, "No", glancing at the clutter on the kitchen island, knowing I should stay home and take care of that; plus, the idea of sitting two hours in the pickup didn't sound fun for some reason. Then a light bulb flickered ON in my mind, and hoping to strike a deal, I said to Husband, "I'll go along if you'd be willing to stop at the little church so I can take some pictures." He nodded his agreement to that proposal, so I threw the camera in my purse and off we went.

The "World's Smallest Church", as it is referred to on Iowa maps (although, it probably isn't really the world's smallest church), is situated on a gravel road amidst tree-covered hills and farms, west of Festina, Iowa. We approached it from the west, as we headed south out of Fort Atkinson. We were a bit lost for awhile----- the roads go every which way in that area-----and drove by several large dairy set-ups, which Husband enjoyed looking at. Finally, we reached our destination, where this sign at the front gate explains the small church building's origin.

What a lovely afternoon for taking pictures.......a clear sky and lots of sun, providing plenty of contrasting shadows.

Inside the silent church are four pews, and a serene altar surmounted by a statue of St. Anthony of Padua, about whom I know very little.

Behind the limestone church building is a tiny cemetery, adorned with flower beds.

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The statue below stands in the yard behind; the pedestal is engraved with her title, "Our Lady of the Seven Dolors", as this chapel was a mission of the parish by that name in the nearby town of Festina. Her photo needed some touching up; the poor Lady appeared to have a beard on one side of her face due to dark lichen patches. So, I fiddled with the contrast and darkening buttons until she looked a tad bit better.

The dictionary definition of dolor is "sorrow", so evidently, she is "Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows". Notice she has seven little swords piercing into her heart. Very moving symbolism, in my opinion, for a mother or father to ponder, or any person who has ever loved another. I'm not Catholic, and thus not familiar with this particular personification of Mary, but presumably her sorrow is related to seeing her Son, Jesus, suffer and die on the Cross.

I love the look of old limestone buildings, and the accompanying brickwork. These stained glass windows were quite lovely, too, although I didn't take any photos of them from inside the church.

Husband and I wandered around the peaceful churchyard and gawked for maybe a half-hour, giving us a brief, but pleasant interlude in a normal workday. Down the road from is a sand or gravel pit, and dump trucks roared by several times, the drivers giving us a friendly wave. There are two farmsteads quite close, also.

Upon leaving, we headed south and soon encountered this unique bridge over the Turkey River.

Soon the road wound us back to county road W14 just north of St. Lucas, where I snapped a quick photo of the twin church steeples as we drove through town. Several years ago-----Husband had sent me to Ft. Atkinson for netwrap-----I drove up the hill to this church in St. Lucas, to see the name of it (which I now cannot recall). I knew it must be a Catholic church, because this is a heavily Catholic area, just like our home area is mainly Lutheran, because that's who settled there. I know there's lots of people of Czech-Bohemian, and German, ancestry in this area of Iowa, although a few of the names on the gravestones at the little church looked French.

That day several years ago, I had driven our old Dodge Ram van to pick up the netwrap roll in. It was in the fall, and the day was very chilly. At the implement dealership where I got the netwrap, I had rolled down my window to tell the guy thank-you for loading it, and when I pushed the button to roll the window up, it WOULDN'T work. So, the window was wide open all the way home......an hour's drive! Luckily, I had brought along a scarf and gloves, but it was still a cold ride!

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What this post is trying to say is: If you ever find yourself in northeast Iowa, be sure to consider visiting the World's Smallest Church!!

Kitties in Trances

Oh, my........its late Sunday afternoon and I have absolutely had enough church for one day. Besides our regular service this morning, we just finished up with an afternoon installation service for our new pastor. He was "installed" amidst much ceremony, with a dozen or so solemn, white-robed pastors taking part in the proceedings. I've had enough.........I feel like these kitties look in the following photos........rather in a daze or a trance!

Rock on, Ollie, and what good posture you have, too!!
Here, below, is Cal the cat, concentrating hard to tune-in to the correct frequency with his dandelion antennae, to catch the "Dandy Cat" broadcast of the day.

"Kitty to shooting star, kitty to shooting star................come in, please.......use the local wire service if necessary!"

And, finally, the Hypnotized Kitty Trio are in rehearsal for their upcoming stage show tour, "We Are Getting Ve-r-r-y Sleepy!"

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I hope your Sunday's been pleasantly dazing, too!

Agnus Dei Window

From my rural church to you: the stained-glass window for today depicts the Lamb of God, "Agnus Dei". Click to read the Wikipedia entry for "Agnus Dei" . This window seemed the appropriate choice for this Sunday's post, considering the Red Cross has been busy helping storm victims in our area. Obviously, the idea of portraying a red cross on a white background to signify salving aid did not originate with that organization.

In our Communion liturgy we sing the "Agnus Dei" right before the distribution of the bread and wine:

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"Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world;

Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world;

Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world;

Grant us your peace."

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Peace to you this day!!

P P P P P P

P.S. - Oh, there's always something to add to a pre-published post, you know.........In church this morning, the Gospel reading was Matthew 7:15-29, which includes Jesus' parable comparing the house built on the rock with one built on sand.....verses 25 & 27 contain these words: "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house......".

The pastor didn't plan the timing of this reading; its simply the traditional one for today, the Second Sunday after Pentecost. Ironic it is, though, considering the storm damage of the previous week.