My Minnesota

Minnesota celebrates 150 years of statehood this year. The spring issue of the Minnesota Historical Society's magazine Minnesota History had a section on why various people loved Minnesota. One can add their thoughts on www.mnhs.org/myminnesota

This made me think, what do I love about "my state."

I think mostly of the beauty of Minnesota and the change of seasons. Like today, as I sit at my computer and look out the bedroom window, the day is slightly overcast with the sun casting a shadow behind the three evergreen sentinels in our front yard. We had about an inch and a half of much need rain this past week, so the air has a touch of surface evaporation. It will be humid and warm, about 80 today. My flowers on the deck are lush and the wheat in our fields have never looked so good.

From the computer in the office, I look out on our back yard where a large lauel leaf willow glistens gold and green as a the sunlight dabbles with the moving leaves. The birds flit from tree to tree and fill the air with their songs. In the spring and fall, it is a joy to watch the canadian honkers fly in their V formation over our farm, or listen to the melodious sand hill cranes sing in a nearby field where I can stop to watch them.

My memories of growing up on the Iron Range fill me with the visions of water and trees and open pit mines. Summer time spent at the lake with our children from early morning until late afternoon, basking in the sun on the Colby Lake beach or riding our bikes out to Fisherman's Point to feed the ducks or the Partridge River to skip rocks. Golfing at the Hoyt Lakes Golf Course early in the morning on warm summer day, when the dew had just evaported and the birds were singing and one could come across a deer grasing at the edge of the course. Hamburgers at lunch in the golf course cafe after a round of golf. Visiting with neighbors while working at the cafe in the evenings.

I have so much more to say, that I will need to finish later.