Contemplating.

Contemplating.
Wayzata, Minnesota

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

The Gate

Posting for City Daily Photo.



So, I ask you, what lies behind this ornamental gate?





One Yellow Brick House.
Two small porches.
Six lovely pillars.
 and from the rear balcony, 
an amazing view of downtown Minneapolis.

Private residence in Lowry Hills Neighborhood, Minneapolis.

"Now and then, I go where I can hear a wooden screen door, 
slam shut. It brings back fond childhood memories of visiting relatives."


There's no place like home.

"I don't care if we have our house, or a cliff ledge, or a cardboard box. Home is wherever we all are, together." James Patterson

Thanks for visiting!
Take good care of you.








 


Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Raindrops Kept Falling on My Head

 Posting for City Daily Photo. 

My photos this last Saturday are limited since the rain wouldn't let up.

"Let's just sit quietly and listen to the secrets the rain wants to tell us."

John Mark Green

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are known as the twin cities, after its two largest cities, but they are not identical. Minneapolis still remains as the most populous city in the state over Saint Paul its neighbor to the east.  


Rush out in the rain to be soaked with the sky. Rumi




The Landmark Center built 1892 Saint Paul's own castle if you will.

"Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with half a mind, with a faint of heart, and with a lame endeavor." Isaac Barrow



Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies
 in the emotional universe which he inhabits. Fulton J. Sheen




"All the diversity, all the charm, and the beauty of life
 are made up of light and shade."
Leo Tolstoy




Just say yes to the world inside of an idea.
Aha Phrodite, Muse



A Black and White photo of The Landmark Center and my youngest grandson had this quote when he saw my color photo.
"Whoa, looks like a big London Castle!"







We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we're too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams. Herb Brooks



All that you think is rain is not.
Behind the veil angels sometimes weep.
Rumi

Thanks for visiting!
Take good care of you.





 


Saturday, March 27, 2021

Critters and Beverly


I can't complain we had an easy winter, but I'm thrilled to welcome spring and so gloriously happy to see and hear the arrival of our returning birds! 

Welcome to



SATURDAY'S CRITTERS



The ever great protecting eagle won't escape storms as they fear nothing. 

"Many times it happens we live our life in chains and we never even know we have the key."

The Eagles

Be a desperado and take those risks you fear. 

As an author for children I believe Beverly was their eagle, and her stories will continue on endlessly. For those that read.

In honor of Beverly Cleary, a children's writer, imaginative and clearly she wrote for the enjoyment and betterment of all children. Born in McMinnville, Oregon on April 12, 1916 and died March 25, 2021. She lived a wondrous 104 years.


The next few photos are from a parade (before COVID) in McMinnville, Beverly's birthplace.


Hello from the Tickle Monster, totally friendly critters.

She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.


Honestly, this character of sorts has a wee bit of eagle blood don't you think?


"Words were so puzzling. Present should mean a present, just as attack should mean to stick tacks in people."

Beverly Cleary from Ramona the Pest



 If you don't see the book you want on the shelf, write it. 

Beverly Cleary




This is probably my most favorite as well as inspiring quote by Beverly.

"I don't necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with the part of the story that's most vivid in my imagination and work forward and backward from there."




Don't grumble don't! Don't stew!

Some critters are much, much, oh, ever so much-much 

So muchly, much-much more unlucky than you! Dr. Seuss


When you've got critters, than life is better than great!

You get what everybody gets. You get a lifetime. Neil Gaiman

Thanks for your visit. Stay safe and take good care of you.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

The Value of Time

 I took a roundabout way after work today, which brought me by these old friends. You're right, they're statues playing their instruments in theory right in the middle of the city.



"Minutes are worth more than money. Spend them wisely."

Thomas P.Murphy

 

I'm posting to City Daily Photo




"The soul is like a violin string: it makes music only when it is stretched."

Neal A. Maxwell




"You are a valuable instrument in the orchestration of your own world, and the overall harmony of the universe."

Suzy Kassem



Sing it from the rooftops! 

"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel."
Hunter S. Thompson



"Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can't."
Johnny Depp, Robert Rushton-Taylor


Music moves you to feel. It causes you to remember. It moves you to places you've always desired to be.
 It takes you where you belong.




"Music is the language of spirit, It opens the secret of life
bringing peace, abolishing strife."
Kahlil Gibran




I believe music is much like this quote about trees from Kahlil Gibran

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.
Just as music are words of poetry floating upon the clouds.
 We fell them down and turned them into paper.
That we may record our emptiness.

Stay safe, and take good care of you.



Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Twin Cities Fest





No matter what city

there's something waiting for everybody.






Have bike will travel.

If you're not desiring a stroll 

There's biking or running!


Monday doesn't need to be just a work day. You can close it with a little play.

and when those city lights come on, even better.


Every single day of our lives we should involve some time for work and time for play. When you do, regrets are few, if any, and your life becomes an enthusiastic success.



You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret is to press play.

Jay Asher



Window shopping,

It's where dreams are made.


Eyes wide open now.


What do you do at a long light?

Snap a shot.

You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours. Italo Calvino



What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need to do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters. Charles Baudelaire




Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something.
 Climb a tree. Get dirty. Just, have some fun. 




There's something about arriving in new cities, (or your old familiar) wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I'm born to leave." Charlotte Eriksson



Cities are much like people, showing us their varying personalities hence some may be more favorable than others depending on our own likes and desires. 



For those that are lost, there will always be cities that feel like home. 

 Simon Van Booy


Thanks for stopping by and know that your comments make my day!

Stay safe. Take good care of you. 

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Awaken the Artist


Posting today for City Daily Photo.

A few thoughts on waking the artist within us.

 Make visible what,

without you, might perhaps

never have been seen.

Robert Bresson


No matter how manty times I visit the

Minneapolis Art Museum

and many items remain still

there's always something new that refreshes my soul. 


"There is a magic and mystery in art that you know nothing of."

 Bernard Shaw




"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." Pablo Picasso



"Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life." 

Pablo Picasso 



"You use a glass mirror to see your face;
you use works of art to see your soul."
George Bernard Shaw

Thank you for your visit.
Take good care of you.



Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Frank Lloyd Wright House on Burnham Blvd

A Frank Lloyd Wright House a gem within the city of Minneapolis.

Posting for City Daily Photo 



Since my childhood I've always preferred to hop on my bike or go by foot and explore beyond my usual surroundings. Always in search of that hidden forest and water. But also, houses and other structures that urged me to learn more. My perceptions weren't always accurate but as humans our first understanding arrives from what we already know until, we discover more.

These photos are of a house and surroundings located in Minneapolis designed by Frank Lloyd Wright now on the market and Saturday I uncovered so much more about this location. A well worn foot path behind it leads between it and Cedar Lake. Trust me the feel is like that familiar hidden forest from my childhood.


Henry and Frieda Neils House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

1951



Delay not to seize the hour.

Aeschylus




To learn is to be young, however old.
Aeschylus


Pablo Picasso said, "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist."

 and I believe Wright used that practice when designing structures. He desired out of the ordinary over a typical floor plan.

Another trait was simplicity. If you notice his designs offered less need for furnishings.



 
Rosenbaum House in Florence, Alabama

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo da Vinci





Excuse me, but where is the front entrance?

"Doors are for people with no imagination." 
Derek Landy From, Skulduggery Pleasant 




This is an entrance to the foot trail that leads behind the house, located on the east side of the property. 




From inside the house this photo and the one below you're able to view the side entrance to the foot trail.



For me, these ever powerful and sometimes strange wood beings rooted firmly in the ground before us, testify to the power, strength and magic they inherited and openly display before us.
Karen Sather




I like trees because they seem more resigned
 to the way they have to live than other things do. 
Willa Cather




Life is just a series of moments one linked after another,
 so always give thanks for another new day and the easel before you.
Karen Sather

Be ever thankful it arrives without directions, the choices are yours.

What I see.
Two stumps eager to oblige.


The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, 
to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.
Cyril Connolly




This path leads to the Cedar Lake Canal, the Wright house is just to the left up a hill.


Welcome to the Cedar Lake Canal




Keep breathing and your eyes open.


Reflect.



A way out to reach Burnham Road. Of course if you continue onward you can join the Kenilworth Trail seen here.


 A bit more detail about the Wright house with detailing links if you're interested in discovering more.


2801 Burnham Blvd in Minneapolis, located in the Lake of the Isles area, with Cedar Lake directly behind it, is one of two houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and as supremely gifted as Wright was he benefited greatly with close collaboration with his clients, Frieda and Henry J. Neils,  on this house built in 1951. It happens to be on the market at this time so if you're looking to move to Minneapolis it's a rare although expensive buy. You can view the unbelievably gorgeous and unique design here.

Two features that standout most to me is the enclosed galley like kitchen with windows looking into the house and a gallery leading to a hidden main entrance. I'm sure many trick-or-treaters were mystified as to where is the front door?


Below photos of a house designed by Wright in Madison, Wisconsin having similarities to Wright's house on Burnham Blvd in Minneapolis.







Thanks for stopping in and your know that your comments are very special to me.

Take good care of you 

and stay safe.