Chowen's Corner

Chowen's Corner
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Deephaven History: Chowen's Corner - pronounced 'Kowen'

If you live in Deephaven you probably drive by this corner everyday. When I am returning from work it is a welcome sight.

Chowen’s Corner is a landmark for Deephaven. There Pioneer Joseph Chowen (1831-1898) came from Pennsylvania at the age of 23 to homesteaded 160 acres of land that would become the north side of the city of Deephaven. He officially bought the land in 1855 for $1.25 an acre. He had squatted on the land since 1853 - until a legal purchase could be made from the U.S. Government.

Today, the somewhat non-descript corner of Minnetonka Boulevard stil bears his name.

The Color Gray

The Color Gray
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Saturday Morning on the Carsons Bay Annex

Saturday Mornng on Carsons annex
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

My Harrowing Thanksgiving Story - 1978

I had spent Thanksgiving day in Princeton, New Jersey with a fellow student, Kathleen. Her family owned a well appointed new England Cape Cod. We were both graduate students at Rutgers in the MFA program. Her father, a Princeton professor of god knows what I can't remember, was very cordial. The dinner was unmemorable, but I was very uninteresed in food at that time in my life. I think it was the classic Turkey with chestnut stuffing. Most notably they told me that the house next door had belonged to Albert Einstein. We walked out to the back yard to show me where he had carved his initials in their tree. Perhaps my gullibility was being tested. Probably. They also showed me the quarry where AE would row for excersise and contemplation. It was a pleasant evening and I was honored to celebrate Thanksgiving with the East Coast upper crust, a mere lad from South Saint Paul, Minnesota.
I took the train back to New Brunswick, a ride of about thirty miles north on highway 27. I arrived in town at about 9 or 10 in the evening and the streets were empty. I walked down French street and headed up the main drag, Commonweatlth Ave. ( I am not sure that this street still exists) All the students with family had gone home for the long weekend. The town was eerily quiet.

As I walked I was glaringly alone. At 24 weighing 125 lbs I wasn't very imposing. In the half lit streetlights along the narrow riverfront street a White Cadillac of not very recent vintage idled along side me. The passenger’s seat window rolled down. A heavy set black man leaned toward the window and said to me “Do you need a ride?”. I had noticed the car from over my shoulder and was already aware of its positioning. “ No thanks!’ I said cheerily, trying to throw him off with a lackidayzical attitude. The low rumble of the idle continued and he paralleled me. This time he was more firm “Get in” he said with a threatening hand gesture as if he had a gun. I did not look to make sure, it would mean looking into the car. Distance is safety. “Oh, no thanks I don’t have far to go” I replied with implied idiocy, to confuse him at my lack of understanding of his threat. He became visibly flustered. He continued to roll along side me for about 25 yards. One thing I knew, unless he had friends there was no way this guy could catch me, period. If he was going to shoot..... oh screw him I was walking on.

He pulled ahead of me and around the corner, where obscured by a building I could not see the Cady, but I could still see the glow of its tail lights. I came to the corner and never speeding up or slowing down, I walked by. He was sitting with the drivers door open legs outside the car, and just looked at me. - He stared consernately at me. I never ran.

I continued on home to my room at 17 Baldwin Street and had a brandy.

Three Old Men Reminisce

Three Old Men
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Explosion!

Explosion!

I awoke at midnight last Wednesday to the sound of pounding on my door and fire engines with twirling red lights. Three firemen (firepersons, one ws a woman) stood there stating that an explosion was reported in our neighborhood. I rubbed my eyes and said I had not heard anything, but told them to look around. They were most interested in our woods behind the house.
Nothing. They left as quickly as they had appeared.

The next day, in the afternoon I saw two fire vehicles stop outside two houses away.
They looked around and left again. Something odd is going on, or the fire department, located 1/2 mile down the road, is practicing.
My personal opinion... one of our neighbors , who seems to love weedwhackers, leaf blowers, chain saws and nail guns has found a new sound.
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Plymouth Rocks - rock music for Thanksgiving - sorry that they're pretty stale.

Say Grace with Spirit In the Sky - Leonard Greenbaum.

1. The Byrds

2. Bread

3. The Cranberries

4. Cream

novembermorning

novembermorning
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Thanks to all our Veterans.

New World Ala Carte

Upcoming soon - I will have a special Thanksgiving issue on New World Foods. Let us all pay homage to the New World Triad - Corn, Beans and Squash. We could pay homage to turkey, but it seems that it may not be as new world as I thought.

LATER: Photos of our own Thanksgiving cooking fiasco.

An old citrus

A new citrus
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

I bought one of these for 99 cents:

The pummelo is an exotic large citrus fruit that is an ancestor of the common grapefruit. It originated in Asia and is grown in many eastern countries including China, Japan, India, Fiji, Malaysia, and Thailand. It is also now grown in the Caribbean and in the United States, in California and Florida. Although it is most commonly known under the name of pummelo, depending on the region where it is grown, it is also called the pamplemousse, pomelo, Bali lemon, Limau besar, and shaddock.

Pummelos are produced from the pummelo tree, which is a tree that can grow to heights of up to 50 feet. Additionally, the pummelo tree produces very attractive, fragrant and large white colored flowers. These flowers are often used in Asia to make perfumes. Because the pummelo fruit is related to the grapefruit, it has a taste that is tangy. However, pummelo fruit is sweeter in taste than the grapefruit.

Is "actually" the new "like"?

I actually dont know. - but this actually happened to me yesterday ... it was a slow day.
I was sitting at the stable, in my wife's glamorous white mini-van, while she was indoors riding Rainy. I was attempting to write a witty little story, but got hung up on thinking about etymology. It happens to the best of us. A "souped up" 68 chevy with glass pack mufflers rumbled by. I wondered about the term "souped up". Where did it come from? I found out the answer today: 1921 race track slang for in injecting narcotics (soup) into a race horse to increase it's speed. Locational coincidence.

A November morning on Minnetonka

A November morning on Minnetonka
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Apple Day

Minnesota Apples - John Chapman Remembered

Excelsior celebrated “Apple Days” in September, and the photos I took at the event were of many things,mostly antiques, but not apples.
At the Apple Days Festival there is a taste testing by the Minnesota Arboretum to continue their study and development of new ways to dethrone the Honey Crisp, Minnesota’s and the Nation’s #1 apple. Most of you still remember and enjoy the Haralson, which was #1 until 1991when the Honey Crisp ( a national variety) made cider out of it (I think the ending of “Cheers, and Woody Haralson’s feature role, played a part).
Minnesotans cheer! A new, and apple contender is on its way - Snow Sweet. It will be introduced in Fall of 1996. It has very bright white interior (they call it flesh...), and is very sweet. Sadly lost in the fray is the Zesta apple. Just couldn’t make the cut.

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“Johnny Appleseed” - John Chapman was born in Leominister, Mass. On September 26, 1774. Nothing is known about his childhood. From 1797 until his death, he traveled alone from western Pennsylvania through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, planting orchards as the settlers moved westward. He eventually owned about 1,200 acres of orchards

The most famous story about Chapman tells of his giving apple seeds and saplings to everyone he met. He supposedly traveled hundreds of miles to tend one of his orchards. Some people said he wore a tin pot as a hat, a coffee sack as a shirt, and no shoes. Various tales describe him as a medicine man to the Indians.”
From the Pennsylvania Environmental Web Page

Comment: I like the hat, mine is made of Reynolds Aluminum, some prefer tinfoil.

Glove & Twins cap on back porch

Twins cap on back porch
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.

Pampass grass

pamapss grass
Originally uploaded by minnetonkafelix.