“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost
Showing posts with label minnesota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minnesota. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Visiting Noerenberg Gardens

As promised, here is my post on the lovely Noerenberg Gardens.  I visited a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of those perfect evenings, just a whisper of a breeze, warm but low humidity. It's one of those days where I'm so happy to live here in Minnesota and it makes the winters easier to get through!

This was an impromptu visit, so all I had with me was my Galaxy phone.  Some photos were cropped down, but others I left as is because they show the true beauty of the garden design.



The garden starts with winding paved paths that take you around a circular garden.  The center is grass with beautiful flowers and shrubs surrounding it.  The large white flowering shrub is a variety of PG hydrangea. Unlike the southern hydrangeas, it doesn't die back to the ground in the winter and still blooms in our northern climate.








Noerenberg Memorial Gardens is known for its tranquility and spectacular beauty. Situated along the shore of Crystal Bay on Lake Minnetonka, Noerenberg is widely regarded as one of the finest formal gardens in Minnesota. Among its blend of perennials, annuals, trees, shrubs, and vines the garden features ornamental shade trees and a stand of conifers, an extensive day lily collection, and "Northern Lights" azaleas.


 A close-up of some purple coneflowers...



Cultivated and native plants grow together in several of the flower beds.  The bright pink flower in the photo above is called Swamp Smartweed and is growing next to our lake shore at home. It actually can have its feet in water for a considerable amount of time. This makes it an ideal plant for a rain garden.


 Some lovely Russian Sage in front of a PG Hyrdrangea shrub...


I thought this was an especially pretty combination, white cone-flowers, pale pink nicotiana and some unknown grasses and bright pink flowers...



 Blue Love in a Mist...









A lovely trellis/pergola with gorgeous flowers planted on each side. 



And now for a bit of history...
Grain Belt Brewery founder Frederick Noerenberg and his family built their estate on the shore of Lake Minnetonka in 1890. Influenced by English Landscape Style, the property featured tiered rose beds and impeccably manicured lawns. As world travelers with an appreciation for natural artifacts, the family accumulated an assortment of natural specimens that appeared in the garden, including a collection of trees, plant materials and rocks.




On the opposite side of the garden you can see the gazebo 
which sits right on the edge of Lake Minnetonka.





 The columns mark the site where the original home stood.






 My husband and brother in-law relax and take in the view from the gazebo.


The gazebo has a somewhat Asian flair.  The design was 
influenced by the owners extensive travel abroad. 






 A few lake views from the gazebo...






















Lora Noerenberg Hoppe, one of the five Noerenberg children, acted as chief horticulturist on the gardens for a number of years. She bequeathed the estate to the Park District when she passed away in 1972. At her direction, the home was razed and the estate was transformed to a garden for the public’s enjoyment. 

This has to be one of the most spectacular public gardens I have ever visited.
I hope you enjoyed your tour!  

Next time I think we need to get back to some cute vintage. 
I'll be seeing you all soon!
~~~Diane~~~




history source 


Friday, April 22, 2016

It was Raining...

It was raining when I heard the news.  Another iconic musician had died. This time it wasn't an artist from a distant far-away place, it was a hometown boy, it was Prince Rogers Nelson. Not a stage name but his real name, given to him by his mother.



This morning when I picked out clothes to wear, I unconsciously pulled out a purple shirt.  It must be because for the last 24 hours there has been an onslaught of that color everywhere I turn.

I was not an immediate fan of Prince.  Of course, I knew who he was and was aware of his music.  I still wouldn't really call myself a fan in the true sense, but I do appreciate the immense talent of this man.  There are other famous people from Minnesota, the other huge musical talent still with us is Bob Dylan.  Bob has a somewhat contentious relationship with Minnesota.  Prince on the other hand, loved Minnesota and loved his dedicated fans here.  He often had impromptu dance parties at his studio/residence in Chanhassen Minnesota.  He invited his neighbors and loyal fans to these events and would often make pancakes for them in the wee hours of the morning. 

I have lived in Minnesota for the past 18 some years, but until I moved here, didn't know much about Prince. We often drove by his large studio without even realizing what it was, it just looked like a large office building of some kind.  Over the years living just a few miles from his home/studio the stories about how much he loved his fans and how much he contributed to the local community are amazing. I'd heard some of his interviews and got the sense that within was a very deep thoughtful soul.  Around 2001 he became a Jehovah's Witness and was examining the spiritual side of his life. He stopped performing some of his earlier works because he felt they no longer represented who he had become.

He was an intriguing mystery man and after reading that he was a self taught musician, that he played most of the instruments on his albums himself and that he brought himself up from virtually nothing into super stardom, I was quite impressed.

Speculation is still going on about his death, he had medical issues for the past several years (hip replacement, ankle surgeries) and that may explain the alleged opiate use. Such a sad turn of events, he had opened Paisley Park to about 200 neighbors and fans just last Saturday. He did that sort of thing throughout his career. Tuesday he was at a local jazz club listening to music.  He burned the candle at both ends, he was small in stature, but really a giant talent...

I think this hits people of my age very hard, it's hard to see people similar in age die, just a reminder that our time is limited here.  So we make the most of the gift of time.  Many of the lyrics in his songs have been saying this for years and seem even more profound now.

I saw this split image of David Bowie and Prince on Instagram
... amazing how similar their facial structure is... like yin and yang...


A photo posted by Katie Eleanor Grand (@kegrand) on


"Dearly Beloved, 
We are gathered here today 
to get through this thing called life..."
Prince


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Most Beautiful Time of the Year



I hope you enjoy a few of my photos from my recent visit to our Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The air was filled with the sweet perfume of daffodils and hyacinths, but the stars of the show were the tulips.
















































I've been very busy these days, but I just had to steal away the other morning to visit one of my favorite places and take some photos. I hope you all enjoy the upcoming Mother's Day weekend and I will be visiting your blogs soon. 

Thank you all for visiting me today! 
~ Diane ~


Friday, October 17, 2014

Up North

It was just a month ago that my husband and I decided to take a trip to what is fondly called "Up North" around here.  We drove away on a sunny morning from the Twin Cities and headed towards the city of Duluth.

As we progressed north, the clouds started to build and by the time we entered the overlook and tourist information center just before you head down the hills to Duluth, it was as if the Apocalypse was near. The lady behind the information both was explaining to some other travels that it had been beautiful up to about an hour before our arrival. Well of course it was!!

Looking down at the almost obscured city of Duluth, I was ready to get into the car and turn around! Even my husband, a seasoned traveler and frequent visitor to the area was taken aback! But we persevered!



We arrived in late afternoon and checked into the hotel. Afterward we went out to check out the marina so that my dear one can gaze at the boats and dream of his retirement! The wind was gusting and we were freezing despite wearing gloves and fleece hats and scarves... and after a few minutes we abandoned that little outing. We headed over to a local restaurant and had a wonderful relaxing meal. And planned the next days adventures. 

Duluth is really a lovely little town and I just wish I had some good photos, but it was so dark and gloomy that most didn't turn out well! The photo above shows how choppy the water was, those are hard core sailors in their foul weather gear.





The next day the weather was much calmer and we headed north on what is commonly known as North Shore Drive. Duluth sits on Lake Superior and we took that path north all the way to Grand Marais. One of the first areas we stopped was at Two Harbors, it was pretty chilly so I cheated and took photos out of the car window. We saw a wood figure holding what I think looks like a giant spoon.  I took that as a sign that he had been at Betty's Pies
and was ready for a return trip.


Mountain Ash Tree



Just outside of Two Harbors is Betty's Pies which is famous around here and has an enormous selection of delicious pies. We tried the Lemon Angel pie and the Berry pies. The photo further below is of a slice of raisin sour cream that we ordered and picked up on our way home. Yes, we ordered an entire pie to go. Having pie for breakfast is really nice by the way!









Sour Cream Raisin Pie Oh My!



We also saw the Red Two Harbors Lighthouse! It looked rather spooky with the lighting and the fence surrounding it. As I said it was cold and we had a lot of other stops to make, so this was an out the window photo!









Next we went through the Silver Creek Tunnel. They had to blast through the cliff to make the road. It was quite the sight.  After that we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State park and checked out the trails and waterfalls. No sign of goose berries, but I did find some wild viburnum cranberries. The falls were partially created from a lava flow.  The rock has a high amount of iron, thus the reddish color in the rocks and water.  Northern Minnesota is still a large iron mining area.


























American Viburnum Cranberries




They say the twisted bark and roots are from the 
rushing high water and the winds.













One of the tugboats used to maneuver the large ships that haul iron ore.








We then visited Split Rock Lighthouse State Park and got a few nice photos. It is a retired lighthouse and is no longer in use. It is probably one of the most photographed lighthouses in Minnesota if not in the world.










These are the homes that were built for the three lighthouse keepers and their families.








We passed a home built in the traditional Scandinavian style.
It is called a Stave house.








Still on our mission to visit yet one more stop before arriving at Grand Marais, we drove through the area of Lutsen and stopped in to get some photos of the Lutsen mountains and the ski lifts.  The weather conditions were closing in and the fog was settling on the tops of the mountains.

We headed north again and of course ran into road construction with only one lane part of the time.  It took us twice as long to get to Grand Marais as we thought it would.






I can see Canada from my car.
Well maybe. 
On the horizon we thought we could see Canada only about forty miles away. 
So close but yet so far, maybe some day I will get to visit Canada.



By the time we got through all the road construction is was too late to do much sight seeing. Our first night in Grand Marais we decided to treat ourselves to a gourmet meal.



This was my meal that evening in Grand Marais at the Angry Trout Cafe. The top half of the plate was a locally Smoked Lake Trout and Spinach Fettuccine and the lower half was an incredible salad!  I don't have any photos of the exterior, because it looked like a fishing shack.  I was asking my husband why we were going into this crummy building and he explained that it was the restaurant.  I was shocked when we went inside and it was fabulous! The food top notch!







The sailboat belongs to the North House Folk School.



Lovely flowers in front of the North House Folk School main building. The school teaches courses in traditional northern crafts such as timber framing, wood carving, boat building, outdoor skills, music, painting, photography, fiber arts, clothing, foods, jewelry, story telling, and much more.













We stopped when the clouds thinned a bit to check out this view across Lake Superior.  It's not hard to understand why it is called an inland sea.












The cutest house in Grand Marais! I love everything about this cute little house. The color the simple style, the white picket fence with the lovely flowers all around! They had a huge yard and off to the left you can just make out their little Barn painted in the same colors!









This was on our drive back down towards Duluth. The Temperance River State Park was just starting to show some fall color. We walked through the trails and headed up the steep rock walkway to check out the scene.








The water has driven deep gorges into the rock. We climbed up some fairly steep hills to get to this spot.










The round areas are pot holes that the water has worn through the rock, they are often called 'Devil Pits or Devil Holes'.  I was kind of freaking out a bit because I do not like heights and I even though there was a large rock wall, that is as long as my arms would reach. There was no way I was leaning over the edge!


The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful other than we had to stop back at Betty's pie for our lunch and of course had to pick up our pie to go!

Now that I have had a taste of the Up North experience, I know I would love to go back, maybe in summer when it's not so cold. There will be a return trip someday. 

Here are a few more facts about Lake Superior.   Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes in surface area and volume. Lake Superior could contain all the other Great Lakes plus three more lakes the size of Lake Erie. The lake is 350 miles in length and 160 miles across, average depth is 483 ft, but some areas are as deep as 1,322 ft. 

Next time I'll be sharing some more photos of autumn leaves and some scarecrows that I saw at my recent visit to our arboretum!

See you all soon! ~~ Diane