Fall Underneath

It's thin layer of snow now. The remnants of Autumn mix with the approaching Winter.

Leftover wishes

According to legend, the Etruscans began the tradition of "making a wish while 2 person pulled a wishbone" thousands of years BC. The Etruscan Civilization occupied a section of Norther Italy 2600 years ago, and among many beliefs, felt that poultry contained magic properties. They would fight for the chicken or poultry collar bone (which reminds me of a diving rod) and pull it apart for luck.
The Romans noted this tradition, and they like it. More things they could do with bones! After reducing the Etruscan Civilization to miscellaneous rubble, pottery and crypts, they carried on with the tradition.
Over the years phrases like "never getting a lucky break", or "having a bone to pick" have survived this Etruscan tradition.

Hippo-thermia in Chanhassen

The Hippopotamus (blues)

Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.

Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.

Ogden Nash
Minnetonkascenes:

"We chuckle because we know
The river horse
of Greek de tail
partakes the yellow snow"

Run!

Lake Susan with a sleeping duck flotilla

This Mound MN report Taken from "Ducks Unlimited"
"Time: Early morning
Comments:
Numbers are starting to rise on Lake Minnetonka for divers and geese. This last week of hunting for ducks looks to be great. I have heard that just 50 miles north of the cities there are tens of thousands of divers up there."

Saturday's Storm

A Roll of the Dice

The grass along the Luce Line Trail was tall enough to form a soft cushion. I was riding my Trek touring bicycle when I hit a patch of sand at the bottom of a hill and tumbled into the high grass sideways, landing on it like a cushion. I laughed and thought to myself; this was my first fall in 20 years, and I landed on a bed of grass.
I sat down to take a drink of water at this unplanned rest stop.
There, deep in the grass along the Luce Line Trail, -(once the Luce Line railroad line) I saw a pair of dice. A pair. Not just one, which might make it seem random, but 2 laying next to each other. They were yellowed from age, and they were made of ivory.

First Snow

Lake Minnetonka is where we live and breath all four seasons. This (November) is that tenuous time when the waters border on white caps and 32 degrees. The snow pelts and covers my eyes, my camera lens. Just a few day ago I saw sailboats on the lake.

A Holiday on Wayzata Boulevard

Yacht Club In the distance

November last

Today the temperature will hit the mid 60s. I borrowed the following from the American Meteoroligical Society:

"An early American writer described Indian Summer well when he wrote, "The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest." - John Bradbury

Indian Summer Definition
The American Meteorological Society's Glossary of Weather and Climate defines Indian summer as:'A time interval, in mid- or late autumn, of unseasonably warm weather, generally with clear skies, sunny but hazy days, and cool nights'."
In New England, at least one killing frost and preferably a substantial period of normally cool weather must precede this warm spell in order for it to be considered a true "Indian summer." It does not occur every year; and in some years two or three Indian summers may occur."

Carson's Bay November 6

A voting reversal (:-)

In a complete reversal of the popular trend, I plan on going over to the University and voting on campus as a student, and then going home and voting again. My choice: Harold Stassen.