Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Wild Boy and Sea Gulls

I was looking through some older photos
and found some of my son, from a number
of years ago, that I absolutely treasure.
These were taken in Canada on the shore
of Lake Ontario. My son was so
excited to have a chance to feed
the sea gulls. He was as
wild as they were on this day.



Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Pianist

This is the very last of any pictures
I'm going to share from my trip to
Mayo Clinic last August.
I think I've saved the best for last.

I'd finished all my appointments for
the day and the clinic was pretty empty
by that late in the afternoon.
I was walking back through the atrium
when I came across a young man
playing the piano.
I listened for awhile and was
absolutely stunned by his musical ability.
The music was very beautiful and just
what my ears and mind needed
at the end of a stressful day.

I briefly spoke with this young man.
He was a medical student training at
Mayo Clinic. He was taking advantage
of the beautiful piano to practice
music he'd be playing at a wedding the
following weekend.

I took several pictures of this young
man and the piano, but I found all I
really needed, and what was most beautiful,
was simply the man's hands on the piano keys.

This is my favorite.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Around the Town

 I'm finishing on my favorite pictures
taken in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.
The ones I'm posting today are all
photos from a sweet little church across
the street from Mayo.
It has ivy growing up the walls,
a gorgeous courtyard filled with flowers,
and a nice bell on top.
It was so very peaceful. 




















Wednesday, January 25, 2012

More of Mayo

I thought I'd continue with the
Mayo  Clinic theme until I got
through all the pictures I felt were
worth sharing. So here's more from
the city of Rochester and specifically
of Mayo Clinic.


This shows one of the buildings reflected
in a beautiful granite wall.



Being only a teenager, my son was
a bit embarrassed by all the statues
of naked bodies found on the Mayo campus.
Out for a walk one evening,
he was ahead of my husband
and myself and spotted yet again
another naked statue.
"Children," he joked,
as if on a school tour,
"avert your eyes." 



I loved this statue from this side,
although my son was horrified
when we came across it from the other end.
Remember: the person is naked.
This is one of those statues that just
might be better if the boy had on 
some clothing.
But it's a medical facility, they
deal with the human body, and 
Mayo certainly likes to share
the entire body with their visitors.
"Children, avert your eyes."



Very interesting glass in the main medical building.








The Mayo brothers founded the clinic.
Thankfully someone chose to portray
them fully clothed!


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rochester

As I was looking through my Mayo Clinic
photos I realized I still had some shots
from the business areas around Mayo
I really liked and wanted to share.













Monday, January 23, 2012

Fountain in Rochester


Between appointments and tests
 at Mayo Clinicin Rochester, Minnesota
last August, I spent a lot of time
wondering around with my camera.
This fountain is outside a shopping area
right near the clinic,
in front of the castle bookstore
I posted some pictures of previously.
There are a lot of nice things to photograph
within walking distance of Mayo Clinic.






Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Gray's Lake

I spent some time last October taking
photos at Gray Lake. The colors on the
bridge are so pretty at night.
The downtown Des Moines skyline
is beautiful reflected in the lake.
(Once it warms up again I might actually go out and
take new photos. Until then I'm relying on the
thousands of photos I took during warmer weather.)







Thursday, January 12, 2012

Rags

Rags is one of the sweetest cats I've ever known.
I went to an animal shelter and instantly
fell in love with this giant furball of a cat.
He was so sweet and loving,
a big teddy bear of a cat
who loved to crawl up in a warm lap
and have someone scratch his chin
or brush out his back.
We had Rags for about 5 years.
Just before Christmas last year
Rags became very sick.
There was nothing that could be done for him
It was very hard on our family
and we stayed with him until the end.
I came across some pictures of
this gorgeous cat and had to share
him with the world.


Rags loved to sit in baskets, boxes, trays--
anything he could wedge himself into.

Rags liked catnip.
Understatement.
Rags LOVED catnip.
In these pictures our cat
is enjoying rolling himself in
catnip as he licks it all.
I guess you could think of
catnip as recreational drugs for cats.
Rags did.



The most embarrassing shot of all--
Rags, fang hanging out and all,
in la-la land enjoying the catnip.

 No, we never tortured our beloved cat.
Rags loved this crazy ball toy and would
sit next to it until we opened it up
and he could crawl inside.
Then we'd let it slowly close.
He was very content,
although this photo shows him deciding
it's time to get out of the ball.

We now have two other cats, Lexi and Boomer,
both animal shelter cats.
I think those are the best kind.

RIP Rags
You were one of a kind.


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