Had a fun and educational trip to Alexandria and the Glacial Ridge area. Really a facinating geological area. It was formed when the advancing gracier moving southward from N Dakoka and Canada plowed the earth, rocks, sand as it moved south tens of thousands of years ago and when the gracier retreated it lefts mound of rocks, sand imbedded in ice chunks. So in this area there are mounds and hils upon hills, upon hills with valleys from the flowing water when the ice melted and were large/huge chunks of ice that weighted down the earth when frozen became "kettles" or depressions in the earth and hence a lake or pond. All this exits in what is called the "Alexandria Moraine" . Jim and Lily had a great time running up and down the rolling and sometimes steep hills. All you could see of Lily was tip of her tail in the deep prarie grass. That's another thing part of this area is preserved "prarie" with bluestem and other grasses. The muted fall colors gave a warm glow. It was a cold, windy day with the temp in the 30's and windchill much higher on the higher elevations. When we got home about 11;45 pm the ole Aerostar began leaking cooling liquid just as I stopped in front of the garage and by the time I parked inside the garage is was flowing out. I can't believe our luck- no problem all day until we were safely home. Thank God and Saint Christopher.
The front gardens are in a blaze of color with the warm glow of rusts, golds and reds. Very pleased with the golden mums I planted last year. They are of medium height and give me the Minnesota maroon/gold colors. Next spring I need to divide them and make larger drifts. New orange mum fits perfectly in the "hot color" garden and plan to divide them and put some in back yard next spring.Last year I moved some monkshod to the pink/blue garden and looks grand this year with tall dark blue spines towering over the Pink and lavender mums, purple and lavender asters, gray artesmia, blue grasses.
I recently had Jim top off the apple tree in the front garden and then I painted the tree clarey sage purple. I had painted the front birdbath and fencepost the same color several years ago and really liked the color and the accent it gave to the garden. My purple tree gives a bit of wimsey and I view it as a "sculpure" addition.
On Sept 30 Jim. lily and I went up to Duluth. It was the anniversary of RJ's death and it seemed very appropriate destination as the North Shore was an annual family trip for us in the fall. The first stop we made was at Lake Milac at the source of the Rum River. Very scienic area with good fall color in the leaves, grasses and wild rice stalks. Lily enjoyed sniffing around. The Rum River flows for 145 miles to Anoka where it joins the Mississippi just a few blocks from our house. Stopped at some antique shops along the way and brought 2 Mc Coy and 1 Shawnee flower pots. In Duluth we visited the harbor, my favorite bridge and walked along the pathway. Also on this trip we went to Gooseberry Falls and spent several hours on the trails and spent more time at the upper falls this year. It had rained heavily the night befor our visit so the falls and creek were flowing fast and hard so couldn't do much rock jumping.