The Little Falls Arts & Crafts Fair, which is held annually during the weekend following Labor Day, is celebrating its 40th anniversary on September 8 and 9, 2012. (Little Falls is located 30 miles south of Brainerd, Minnesota.) Over time, the festival has grown to 650 exhibitors, 40 food vendors, and many musicians. With the upcoming weekend's sweater-cozy…

I returned home from running errands today to find Dick putting the finishing touches on an inukshuk he built for me as a surprise… as a remembrance of our recent journey across Ontario. What is an inukshuk, you say? Inukshuk, which is also spelled inuksuk, is the singular form of inuksuit and means "in the likeness of…

In yesterday's post, I shared Dick's and my outing to the two hamlets (two additional hamlets are in the planning stages) in the community of Serenbe 35 miles southwest of Atlanta. There was so much to see at every bend, so this is part two of our adventure which covers our two-night stay in the Inn at Serenbe. L – We…

Thirty-five miles southwest of Atlanta, a quiet little 900-acre community named Serenbe came to be through much forsight and planning. It was where Dick and I spent two peaceful days and nights on Monday and Tuesday, November 7 and 8. Aptly named from the melding of two words, serenity and be, it is most certainly a…

Even though implementation of the draft forced men into active duty, Vietnam antiwar protesters directed their misguided bitterness toward those soldiers and labeled them as traitors. Our government did not have transition programs in place for the soldiers returning home after experiencing the trauma of war zones. Vietnam War soldiers were not welcomed home and thanked for their service upon their return from deployment as…

We so enjoy the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion (WMSTR) in Rollag, Minnesota near Fargo held every Labor Day Weekend. The sounds of bustling activity coming from the 1800s era town's mainstreet, a train filled to capacity with the show's attendees chugging around the perimeter of the property, the melodic clunk and swoosh of steam engines running huge machinery…

Years ago, when my daughters were young, I attended a women's retreat at the Presbyterian Clearwater Forest Camp in Deerwood, Minnesota just 20 miles from Brainerd. It had such an impact… a happy memory just as children take with them after attending summer camp. Our days were spent listening to encouraging motivational speakers, singing, praying, crafting,…

Plain and simple… I am drawn to food co-ops. The Seward Co-op on East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis and the surrounding Seward neighborhood are especially fun. The free-spiritedness flowing through the area is evident in the oversized wall art that spans the Seward Co-op's interior front wall…    and in the native and wildflower plantings that have replaced traditional…

A yearly field trip my students and I would take each spring was to Lindbergh State Park in Little Falls (Minnesota) to tour Charles Lindbergh's childhood home. Dick had never been there, so I suggested that it would be a perfect little outing for this afternoon… until we remembered that all state-run operations are shut down until the…

To be transported back in time for just one evening… joy, pure joy. Last night, our daughter Jessie accompanied Dick and I to the Polk Theatre in downtown Lakeland, Florida for a two hour Smokey Robinson concert. Smokey Robinson… imagine!      In the 1,400 seat Mediterranean-looking village theatre, that was built in 1928 when Lakeland…