Building Bridges

I finally gave up today trying to find a parking space close to the door of the gym, and instead decided to go for a bike ride.

There are two reasons I have never faded away whilst on a manic fitness regime:

1. I get hungry afterwards, and although I will cheerfully nod a brief hello to the fruit-bowl, that's only because it's on the way to the crisps. The training mantra for the Olympic Team, alas, has never been "Train hard! Eat lard!"; and
2. I get knackered afterwards, so instead of expending every-day chore energy in addition to the exercise, I normally nip upstairs for a Nanna-Nap instead.

Powered up by a bacon-buttie, I went off on the bike trail down to the Midtown Corridor.

Minnesota has a bit of history when it comes to bridges and their rebuilding. There's very little about this particular set on the internet, and bridgjo got very James-James on me because of its proximity to Town. It was "beautified" recently in response to the fact that it was a disused train-track bordered by disused oil refineries and mills, which encouraged broken windows, gun-crime and general naughtiness.

There's a pretty good chance I won't go there again, and instead turn right to Lake Minnetonka instead, which after all has a cafe.

However, it's quite intriguing. In the early 1900s they decided there were far too many rail-road-crossing-related deaths (too many hyphens?), so they put up 37 bridges, each about 200 yrds apart, one for each tiny street which crosses it. With amazing foresight they removed the track whilst building work was in progress, and, for wont of supporting HTML to say otherwise, it seems they then failed to put it back. Problem solved.

All the bridges were poured in place, and there was a bit of a problem with quick-sand. And unfortunately that seems to be all there is to know.....one of those things you should see when you're here, a bit like the lawn-mower museum in the UK.

In spite of the two bike pants, and the Gel-tech seat, I am suffering from Biker's Bum though tonight, alas.

I have spoken to the Lawn Nazi across the way (OK - Jerry) (oh, just realized). I asked his advice about lawn-upkeep - he seems very nice, and does not seem too upset that the council did actually dig up his lawn last week (I hid).

And Brian came round to sort out the garden for summer - I now have about 50 bin-bags to dispose of. Luckily for $70 a year, Randy's will come and pick them up for me.

Go back to Canada!

I have been reviewing swimming in the lakes here, as I noticed in Switzerland there were lots of rats around (well, I guess "lots" as I actually saw two), and am a bit wary of disease. Plus the lakes here do seem to be full of boats during the summer, i.e. lots of oil and sewerage.

But, it seems that Minnesota takes this as least as seriously as I do, with slightly less righteous anger against vermin. Their aims are to:

• Fence swimming beaches to exclude geese
• Relocate adults and young out of state during the molting season
• Prohibit feeding of geese on swimming beaches
• Herding geese off of beaches with trained border collies
• Pick goose dropping off of beaches daily

Geese - slightly more endearing than rats, plus the added entertainment value of border collies.

I was speaking to a chap in the hot-tub today (very "Housewives") who told me that the best place for out-door swimming can be found in the lakes on the border with Canada. Obviously the geese must be trying to keep away from there...

Happy Easter!

It has been a beautiful weekend. About 52 degrees; a temperature at which you feel compelled to cast off the down, and maybe even don a light sweater.

Yesterday we went to the Lowry Center and had great fun in the feeble sun-shine doing a treasure hunt. There was a short course in the woods, which T hared around, searching for hidden bags filled with pebbles - once she had collected eight, she could trade them for a bag of cereal or an orange (very health conscious). They were extremely tricky to find, hidden as they were in tree trunks and under leaves. They also had a small petting-zoo (with some fat rabbits, extremely stunned chickens).

Today's event was at Linden Hills, where there was a snack for the kids, with a puppet show, followed by an Ester Egg Hunt. This was slightly more traditional in that there were (it seemed) hundreds of plastic eggs hidden around the play-ground by the Community Centre, which were filled with small sweets.

I have rarely seen T run quite so fast, and she used her elbows admirably. We are very proud.



She wanted to take the bunnies home.

Linden Hills is a great area; I'd be quite happy to live there. Nice vibe to it, and loads of restaurants. We ate at a French restaurant today, and I appreciated the real tuna steak in my Salade Niçoise (yesterday, when I had it too, it was still in a cylindrical shape, perched on top of a pile of wilted greens). Purple potatoes too.

And another thing

Whilst I was in T's class today, I had to take umbrage (silently; I am, after all, English) at her English teacher. To explain, she's quite lucky in that Wednesday is not a holiday, like most other French and Swiss schools, but is actually taught in English. I always make sure, pushy-mummy that I am, I glance at the walls to check the words they are working on this week. The list today, was "Words rhyming with 'all'":

All
Fall
Ball
Hall
Gall (running out of the alphabet at this point)
Stall
Doll

I shall have to have (well-enunciated) words...

Hair today...

Yes, it is indeed the time of year a young man's fancy turns to spring, and a girl's more prosaically to "Well, what can I spend his money on now?"

In my case I have decided yet again to go short (hair, obviously). It is all a contrived plot on my part to get fit. I've got the clothes (too much spent in REI), the hair style - now I just need to fan the hidden flame of the desire for aching bones so I can actually be bothered to use that membership at the health club. I cannot find it in myself to criticise Americans, but you know, it really bugs me when all the parking spaces have been taken up closest to the entrance at the gym....

A little bit wary when I got at the hair-dressers, where I was greeted with "Have you come to have your hair cut? We are sooooo excited!". I am assuming here that this mad person actually worked there. At least, she brought me a cup of coffee when I said "Er. Yes. Tea?"

I had my teeth checked on Tuesday. As bridgjo mentioned, it's a bit like waterboarding (which I am reliably informed is something harsher than water-skiing), as they no longer use the "public spittoon" but insert a vast array of hard-ware into your mouth for hosing out, and sucking up. Quite unpleasant. I now have sparkly teeth - although she told me I drank too much tea (as if).

I went to T's school today to sit in with the class. One of the songs they sung was Savez-vous plantez les choux?) (do you know how to plant cabbages - quite a serious French subject, and not to be mocked). As you can see from the link, the idea is that the children learn parts of the body, by tapping fingers, knees, elbows, feet etc on the ground as they pretend to plant the cabbages. Great hilarity (bearing in mind they are 5) ensued when the prof asked "What shall we plant with?", and they all suggested "Ventre! Fesses!". Not really one for the video library.

PS I am having geek-type fun with the labels on my posts - they are used to identify the adverts placed at the side. I am starting to enter words just to see what comes up. See it as evidence of my puckish sense of IT humour.

Minnesota Weather, Part 365

Well, this is the view this morning from our back-room. Yesterday spring, and a "quite warm for the time of year, fancy a cup of tea?" sort of day, and suddenly (can you use "suddenly" when it's happened twice in one week?) another 4" snow. I checked on my one solitary daffodil yesterday, and it was looking decidedly peaky.

I don't hold out for much in the way of success this year with my tomatoes etc. I have the front-room set up like a drugs farm (but no need for extractor fans) with little seedlings sitting over heat vents, and a paddling pool full of potted plants (incidentally, we don't use that wing of the house much). However, the other night I was working away in my study, when there was a huge commotion outside. Two raccoons sitting next to the French windows having a row (or something). What with them, and the day-shift of rabbits and squirrels, there is the possibility that it will not thrive.

T thinks that if we set up an actual cafe on the decking for them, they may be distracted enough. Except that the raccoons (or rats) have already started nibbling through that too.

This last picture was taken a few weeks ago when the lakes were still frozen. The ice has all melted now (well, at least yesterday it was). I am beginning to cultivate friendships with people who have boats, although I was told it gets completely rammed at the weekend on Lake Minnetonka.

Syrup from Sap

We decided in the end to go to the Arboretum yesterday. As it was the pancake breakfast, it meant we did not have to pay the entrance fee. We should really become Friends, we go there that often....but then again we can get free passes from the library.

The breakfast was very popular - as many as you could eat (about 3 as it turns out, as they were the thick, fluffy variety), chickens sausages and lashings of syrup. I was mentioning to a friend of mine (American) last week that it was a bit odd for us to see people pouring maple syrup over their bacon. "Urgh!" she agreed, "That's disgusting! It's not bad on sausages though....".

It was a nice bright, tingly sort of day, so it was actually getting quite warm by the time we decided to see the maple tapping. It's very intriguing - they put metal taps into the maples (about an inch in), and then link them all to one enormous central hose which then leads to the syrup house. So overhead, in this wood are all these reticulation hoses. Prime syrup-gathering times are when it's below freezing at night, and above during the day (so most of the year, then). This means the sap actually freezes in the pipes, as it is about 97% water, 3% sugar. It's then boiled down; 40 gallons (I think) gives about 1 gallon (or cup, I can't remember - I was getting a bit high on the fumes by this point) of syrup. Apparently up in Alaska (and, obviously, the Ukraine), they make syrup out of birch.

After that we had a nice amble about the grounds, and then went to the potato exhibition at the children's centre there. T potted the smallest potato I have ever see (pea-sized), made potato-print pictures, coloured in a potato, and made some potato snacks. There was a bit of a theme.

We have just been experiencing the famous "Minnesotan fake spring" as tomorrow it is forecast 6 inches of snow. My poor little daffodils are only just nervously peeking their little heads out, and now they'll get frost-bitten. I saw on the local Daffodil Club web-site that they are actually considered a summer flower here.