feeling minnesota (is not always a bad thing)

these last few days have been classic minnesota-summer beautiful. i know some of my readership resides in cali, and maybe can't even imagine that minnesota is ever warm or beautiful, but i promise it is. in the thick of summer, if it's not monsooning or the evenings aren't infested with mosquitoes, it has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. the green trees, all in full leaf, the flowers blooming, the farmers' market on the weekends---

that reminds me. that's one of my favorite things to do with william on summer weekend mornings, though this summer we haven't gone as often. we get up in the morning, and walk to the farmers' market, pick out our produce for the week--and we always overbuy. cut flowers, potted flowers, herbs, veggies, maybe an egg roll or two. we have a really large hmong population (one of the largest in the nation), and they bring all their goods to the market--leafy greens, bright orange carrots, red radishes, and, if you're lucky, homemade egg rolls. mmmmm. farmers work so hard. i hope they realize when i come to their booth, i'm so excited to take home all the stuff they've worked to grow, and prayed the weather would hold out for them. thanks, farmers' market farmers. you make my happy week.

in any case, the problem with minnesota is that she's mercurial. weather can change in a literal instant. the weather does not care for your picnic or your plans; you cannot plan on a sunny june or a rainy june. same goes for the rest of the months. temps can swing nearly 100 degrees here in a matter of a couple of days. so we haul out the wool sweaters or the tank tops... not entirely surprised even if ti's the middle of january or the end of august. i think maybe we spend so much time rotating away from the sun, either preparing for our loss of summer or sleepwalking our way through winter, that when you get a super summer day.... you try to be outside for about fourteen hours and you see how beautiful this place really is.

i think i'm going on a bit because i missed the annual fourth of july family vacation at my parents cabin this year. it's one of the only weekends i usually get to go these days, since i've become a workin' girl. but this year it was too hard with the wednesday holiday and all the stuff going on in my life. it made me sad that i wasn't watching the pathetic fireworks from across the lake, that i didn't fish with my dad, that i didn't eat corn on the cob with my family, that my mom and i didn't giggle over a book we read. i hope to get up there, where it's so untouched, so raw, so naturally beautiful. every place is a scenic overlook. every drive is a safari of northwoods animals. when i was little, i had a hard time going to the cabin all summer and missing out on softball leagues or pool parties. but looking back now, it was all the education i needed for so many things i think are important, the most obvious being the environment. at my cabin, you can see the arms of the milky way. you can see venus and mars. sometimes you hear fish leaping out of the lake. i've seen otters, deer, foxes, geese, bears, snakes, in my front yard. i once saw a duck push her babies out of a duck house (high up in the boughs of a tree), to the ground. apparently, seriously, these ducks need a sharp blow to the head to function properly, so the moms nest in the trees, and then push them out when it's time to learn to swim. i've seen an eagle teach its baby to fly. come to think of it, i've seen an eagle flying with a snake in its talons (yessss! one less for me to worry about). i've seen spiders so large i didnt' know they existed in north america (also not good for my fears). wild ducks have eaten out of my hand. i have an almost-caught-it story.

so yes, i'm a beach girl. i can't wait to go to hawaii. when i was there, i wondered why we didn't live there. but i grew up on a different kind of beach. one where you might get sunburned on a cloudy, fifty-degree day. but where it smelled so fresh, clean, and wonderful, that if i think really hard, i can smell it. pine, grass, flowers, clean water, sand. that will always be the scent of my childhood.