spring | Minnesota Prairie Roots

Lilacs May 28, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:59 AM
Tags: flowers, life, lilacs, love, nature, spring, thoughts

EACH MAY HE GIFTS me with the intoxicating scent of spring. A bouquet of lilacs, gathered from a bush in the park up the hill.

Typically my husband stops on his way home from work, pulls a jacknife from the pocket of his greasy work pants, sometimes stands on the tips of his Red Wing work shoes to saw tough, determined stems clinging to a gnarly bush.

But this year, on the eve he drove down the gravel road into the park, he found the lilacs still tight-closed, not yet ready to unfurl in the chill of a late spring.

A few days later, en route home from dinner out, I noticed lilacs in full bloom. Instead of turning into our driveway, Randy aimed uphill toward the park, entering past a group of teens playing Frisbee golf.

I can only imagine their chatter as they witnessed us, in our white mini van, parked beside the lilac bush, Randy cutting lilac stems, me shooting photos.

They do not understand yet—what it means to see your hardworking husband walk through the door each May with an armful of lilacs, the spring blooms filling your home with the heady scent of love.

Comments (24)

Hope unfurls May 4, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:08 PM
Tags: daffodils, day lilies, Minnesota, nature, photos, raspberries, spring, tulips, weather, winter

LAST WEEKEND, MY DAFFODILS bloomed, bright and brilliant in the first blush of spring.

Photographed Saturday afternoon, the seven inches of snow have mostly melted off my daffodils.

My daffodils, photographed Saturday afternoon, emerging from seven inches of disappearing snow.

Today they lie in a pathetic heap, heads bowed, even buried, in a veil of snow.

A tulip bud, bent to the snow.

Nearby, tulip buds droop, leaves splayed, vulnerable to the frigid air and the rough crystals of melting snow in this endless winter.

Determined day lilies.

In my backyard, determined day lilies soldier up through the snow.

Bendy raspberry branches in bud.

A stone’s throw away, wild raspberries defy the weather, arcing branches, buds unfurling into the promise of spring.

A raspberry bud unfurling.

Hope. I saw hope today that this longest of all winters may finally exit Minnesota.

Comments (15)

Chalking poetry April 29, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 10:00 PM
Tags: chalk, National Poetry Month, poems, poetry, Roadside Poetry Project, sidewalk poetry, spring

FOR WEEKS I’VE WANTED to chalk poetry onto the sidewalk past my house in celebration of National Poetry Month in April.

But not until today, April 29, did sunny and dry weather finally allow for chalking.

A week ago six inches of snow fell, for gosh sakes. Rain fell early yesterday evening.

The first two parts of my illustrated poem.

The first three lines of my illustrated poem.

After sweeping winter sand from several sections of sidewalk, I scouted for the box of chalk in the garage then proceeded to print my poem:

Cold earth warmed
by budding sun
sprouts the seeds
of vernal equinox

Two springs ago, this poem published on four billboards as part of the Roadside Poetry Project in Fergus Falls.

I thought my poem particularly fitting for re-publication this morning on my sidewalk.

The entire poem, plus “In celebration of National Poetry Month” tacked onto the end.

So if you are walking past my house, take note, read and enjoy.

Before the rain, or snow, washes away my poetry. And, yes, snow is apparently in the forecast for later this week, so two friends tell me.

Comments (24)

How I spent my first weekend of spring

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:02 AM
Tags: cigarette smoke, Frankoma pottery, furniture refinishing, garage sale, life, Minnesota, outdoors, perennials, spring, teapot, winter

Perennials are finally popping through the earth in my yard.

SPRING OFFICIALLY SPRANG in southern Minnesota this weekend.

Yes, readers. No snow. Temps in the 70s, maybe even 80s. I should know, but I was too busy to check.

Flip flop weather, for sure.

Sunshine and windows thrown wide open to vent the stale winter air from the house.

Most of my weekend I labored outside, trying to make up for lost time, for all those weekends when snow and cold prohibited any sort of outdoor work.

I raked these leaves from backyard flower beds. Look at that lawn and the hillside. No snow. Anywhere.

I raked leaves from perennial flower beds.

And when I wasn’t raking, I was sanding a table for our son who moves into a Rochester apartment a week after my husband and I retrieve him from college in Fargo. He’s interning with IBM. The oak table, purchased at a thrift store for a song, needed refinishing.

Compare the two table halves, the left side stripped and sanded, the right side top, not.

Smokers owned the table. Do not ever, I repeat, ever, purchase a table owned by anyone who smoked cigarettes. Do you know how difficult it is to remove cigarette smoke odor and tar and nicotine build-up from wood? Nearly impossible.

I sanded the skin right off tiny sections of two fingers from the hours, and I do mean hours, I sanded. Take that times two, because Randy worked side-by-side with me. All the while I was thinking, if this cigarette-exposed wood looks like this, imagine a smoker’s body inside and out.

Lecture finished for today.

The Frankoma teapot I purchased. There’ s a slight chip in the lid handle.

On the way to the paint store to purchase supplies for that table refinishing project, I stopped at a garage sale and picked up a beautiful Frankoma teapot. I seldom drink tea, but I loved the artful shape and simple style of this collectible.

As a bonus, Mike, the guy having the garage sale, told me about all the old Mason and other fruit jars he buys and rents out for weddings and/or sells after I noticed an oversized blue jar for sale.. Since my eldest daughter is getting married this fall and mentioned perhaps using fruit jars for flowers, I was interested. So Mike took me inside his old stone house and showed me his boxes upon boxes of jars.

Although the jars initially drew me inside, they were not the find of the day. In the corner of Mike’s living room stood a deer. Yes, readers, a deer. Dead, of course, and mounted. An entire deer, not just the head, although several deer heads are suspended from walls, too.

Totally creeped me out and I told Mike that. He may have laughed. I so regret leaving my camera at home.

BONUS PHOTO:

My husband grills year round, so there’s nothing unusual about him grilling this weekend. But focus on that landscape. No snow. Anywhere.

Comments (25)

Hardy, defiant or ? April 24, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:59 AM
Tags: Faribault, Minnesota, motorcycle, spring, thoughts, weather, winter

Scene on Willow Street, Faribault, Minnesota, 6:09 p.m., Tuesday, April 23.

TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, and I’ve just finished supper when I spy a motorcycle on the street.

Any other spring, and I would not give this mode of transportation a second thought nor grab my camera.

But this is no ordinary April in Minnesota. The six inches of snow which fell Monday into early Tuesday morning in Faribault have mostly melted, but plenty still blankets the landscape.

Forty degrees. Snow on the ground. And a biker hits the road.

As crazy as this appears, I recall seeing a motorcyclist riding in 30 degree temps a few months ago.

Thoughts?

Comments (18)

Yes, Minnesota, there really is a spring April 23, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:44 AM
Tags: Donahue's Greenhouse, Faribault, flowers, greenhouse, Minnesota, nature, photo essay, photography, photos, spring, weather, winter

ALLOW ME TO WEAVE a magical photo essay today, to sprinkle fairy dust into your eyes, to transport you from the snowy Minnesota landscape into a place of wondrous beauty and warmth.

If you truly believe, just as Virginia believed in Santa Claus, you will see spring.

Ready? Let’s go.

A little fairy dust in the eyes

and we enter the magical world of spring inside Donahue’s Greenhouse in Faribault.

Here a spell is cast upon winter weary Minnesotans, some of whom load their carts with plants, unable to resist the overpowering pull of flowers in bloom.

Blossoms unfurl, fooled into spring by the warmth of the greenhouse, the rare sunshine which graces this April day.

Gazing into the future, gardeners envision spring

with nesting birds

and soil warm enough to embrace seeds.

They imagine delicate buds unfurling into graceful blossoms,

defying winter in bursts of vibrant hues.

Everywhere, in this magical place, the sweet promise of spring prevails,

except on a shelf where fantasy vanishes in the face of truth.

Spring, my dear Minnesotans, exists only in our dreams.

THIS MORNING WE AWOKE to “a bunch of snow” (my husband’s measurement) here in Faribault, snow which began falling around 4 p.m. Monday and was still coming down when I went to bed around 11 p.m. Snowfall guesstimate would be around six inches. The landscape looks similar to this scene (click here) from last Thursday, except with even more snow. Power lines and trees are frosted with the heavy, wet snow. And for awhile last night, probably less than 15 minutes, the power was off in my neighborhood.

The scene outside my office this morning, dear readers, looks nothing like spring and exactly like winter.

Comments (29)

Be gone with thee, Winter, to Georgia (or somewhere like that) April 10, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 PM
Tags: humor, Minnesota, snow, spring, weather, winter

I VOWED THAT I would not write about the weather today.

High schoolers jog past my house this afternoon in temps hovering around freezing and with a fresh layer of snow on the ground.

But then runners jogged past my house around 3:30 p.m., which prompted me to grab my camera. One shot led to another and soon I was slipping on my shoes, treading across the icy patio with my camera tucked inside my sweatshirt (so as not to get rain on my camera) to stand under the roof overhang (so as not to get rain on my camera) to photograph my backyard.

Why?

Because my backyard landscape is white and I cannot stand this anymore, this undefeatable Winter who keeps sneaking through the door of Spring.

I awoke this morning to snow covering the landscape, as shown in this scene of my backyard and the woods adjoining it.

“Get Thee out of my yard, out of my city, out of my state!” I want to stomp and scream at Winter. I never use exclamation points, which emphasizes just how adamant I am.

I do not want to hear of sleet or freezing rain or snow accumulations. I want to slam the door on Winter.

I do not want to read another text message from my second-born who awakened to no power this morning due to a severe ice storm in northeastern Wisconsin which left 23,000 Appleton area customers without power.

I do not want to hear about air traffic issues like those experienced by my eldest and her fiancė whose flight from Denver to Minneapolis was delayed last night by snowy/icy weather and then rocked by severe turbulence over Nebraska and South Dakota.

And I do not want to read a “glad it’s you and not me” message tagged “Time for planting” and emailed this morning by reader Brad, who grew up in Minnesota and worked for the National Weather Service for 33 years.

Brad writes:

Don’t want to rub it in, BUT….

82 degrees today in Georgia and we are going out to buy a few tomatoes and pepper plants.

Be safe with your spring blizzard!

Uh, yeah, Brad, maybe I’ll plant snow peas and iceberg lettuce.

Comments (24)

Finding spring in Minnesota in the midst of winter March 9, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:49 AM
Tags: antiques, flowers, Minnesota, nature, Pottery Place, Red Wing, seasons, spring, vintage glasses, vintage glassware, winter

WINTER GETTING TOO long for you?

Uh, huh. I hear you. I’m feeling winter weary, too, my spirits quelled by the recent 10-inch snowfall in Faribault.

I long for warmth and sunshine, for bursts of color and blooming flowers. Just give me spring, will you?

Well, readers, I quite unexpectedly walked into spring, in Red Wing, Minnesota, of all places. Who would have thought? Certainly not me.

But look, spring…

Tulips, among the first flowers of spring.

More tulips in bloom.

This colorful scene simply makes me happy, just like spring.

So many flowers in bloom.

The pretty pastels of Easter and of spring.

Pretty, pretty florals.

Exactly what I needed to see on a winter day: jolts of color and flowers in bloom.

Pottery Place Historic Center in Red Wing, site of antique and specialty shops, eateries and the Red Wing Pottery Museum.

…inside two antique shops at Pottery Place Historic Center, 2000 West Main Street, Red Wing.

Comments (26)

The gifts of the daffodil March 21, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:05 AM
Tags: daffodils, flowers, nature, spring, thoughts

The clutch of daffodils now blooming in my front yard flower bed.

NOTHING COMPARES to the daffodil. Bright. Cheery. A burst of brilliance in a dreary landscape of muted browns and grays.

Like an island in the vast sea or an oasis in the desolate desert, the daffodil provides a welcome respite for the winter weary sojourner’s eyes.

She holds the promise of spring unfurling in her petals, of sunshine-filled days ahead, of the earth erupting in new growth.

She causes me to smile and think of May baskets woven from construction paper and jumping rope and leg-kicking toward the sky upon a weathered board swing.

Simply put, the daffodil makes me happy.

Comments (12)