Little road trip

 This morning I met my very good friend Mary for breakfast. It is Mary's birthday today and we are the same age again.   Mary's husband Rick and brother-in-law Leroy were there too.  On the way North to Trego it rained and then snowed.  

Winter is having a hard time saying goodbye.

Back in RL, I took a tour of Lakeshore drive.  The ice is off the lake and there are an abundance of waterfowl.  I saw Grebes and Canda Geese, Loons & several varieties of ducks that I'll need help from Sibley to identify.

Along the way I admired the new art installations. These are stunning and tasteful.

Trusty Rusty, the draft horse

Looks like a map of Rice Lake on this pedestal.
This deserves a closer look on a nicer day.

Wooly the Mammoth

I'll go back on a sunny day and spend more time enjoying these works of art.

1997

 I got a fun bit of mail today. My friend DBryant sent me this old Coors Courier from 1997.  Attached was the original note he put on it back in '97. I must have thought I was clever to autograph as Tiger.  Seems silly now, but who knows what the context was back in '97.

Coors published this newspaper weekly. Most every employee was waiting to pick up the latest edition each week. Some wanted to read the corporate news, some wanted to read the buy & sell ads, and many would look for internal job openings.

It was fun to see this in the mail and read the articles.  It stirred up many memories. 

Cheers 🍻

Happy Easter Morning

 Barley and I saw the sunrise this Easter morning. 🐣 

It was a chilly morning, ice on the bird bath.

Spring is slow this year, the daffodils in the woods are finally up about 4 inches.  The chives are up about 2 inches and I saw a Bluebird sitting on top of the Bluebird box.

Happy Springtime 😊

Red Robin

 I was chatting about birds with my friend Mary the other day and she was saying she had some male Robins in her yard.  I replied that I did not think I knew the males from the females when it comes to Robins.  She reminded me that the males have a darker head.

Not long after, I had 2 perfect examples come and perch in front of the window, as if to finish my lesson in identifying male vs female in the Robin.

American Robin, Female

American Robin, Female

American Robin, Female

American Robin, Male

American Robin, Male

I love learning about birds, and I have been looking at Robins all my life and did really notice the difference.

1950

 The 1950 US Census results were recently released to the public.  I think the rule is 72 years after the census, the data is released.

I searched for Dad and found our neighborhood.  

Gosh, Mom & Dad were so young.  And there was no Wanda & no Laila, yet.

Otherwise,  nothing of note.

✅  ✅  ✅

Yesterday at the bridge table we were talking about names 

and one of my friends asked 'what is Wanda short for? '

Huh?  

He said, "I bet there is some Slavic princess or something".

And so I Googled.

The name Wanda is a girl's name of Slavic origin meaning "shepherdess; wanderer". Rarely heard, and when it is, usually attached to a witch. Historically, though, Wanda was a legendary eighth century queen of Poland, and in literature it is the central character of Ouida's eponymous novel Wanda.

👸

I had never even thought about it before so what a fun discovery.