Peg Kerr's Journal

Last Monday, I had another Year of Adventure outing: kaytecat and I drove to Northfield, the city of both our alma maters (I went to St. Olaf, and she went to Carleton). Just outside of Northfield is a state park we were interested in exploring. kaytecat had a state park pass on her car, which made things easy.

The weather was splendid, with a brilliantly blue, cloudless sky. We took things slowly, as both kaytecat and I have some impairment to our walking, but we greatly enjoyed exploring the looping hiking paths as we talked. We've known each other for years in our common sf community, but this was probably the longest conversation we've had for years, and it was nice to learn more about the life of a long-time acquaintance.

After a couple of hours on the paths, we went into Northfield and had lunch at a tea shop I've dined at before. The food was good, and I bought a pair of earrings shaped like a teacup and saucer. After eating some delicious quiche, we spent a little time poking around Northfield, exploring a couple of antique shops and kaytecat bought several small samples of different kinds of balsamic vinegar.

It was a day well-spent.

Image description: Lower third: two women (Peg and kaytecat) in winter coats wearing sunglasses in bright sunshine smile at the camera. Between them a waterfall flows (Hidden Falls in Nerstrand State Park). Upper two-thirds: a view looking straight up of a vividly blue sky, with bare tree tops ringing the view. In the center of the blue sky is a pair of earrings shaped as a china cup and saucer.

Nerstrand



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This past week included another Year of Adventure event: I took a day trip with my friends Eleanor Arnason and her partner Patrick Wood to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

It was a splendid day for a drive--crystal clear, and a comfortable temperature. We had hoped for fall colors, but the warm weather in September meant that the trees were rather muted in tone. Fortunately, we could still take pleasure in the sepia browns of the corn fields, the languidly blowing grasses, and the water sparkling brilliantly from the surface of Lake Pepin. Eleanor and Patrick told stories of road trips taken in the past as I drove.

We stopped at Lark Toys for lunch, where the carved carousel was duly admired and delicious fudge was purchased to savor later. From there, we went to the National Eagle Center and listened to the interpreter's explanations about the eagles, their habits and life cycle. The eagles they had on site had permanent injuries that prevented their rehabilitation into the wild, but as eagles spend almost 90% of their time in the wild simply perching, watching the world around themselves, they were apparently content.

The second floor had exhibits examining the importance of eagles as symbols in both Native American and United States culture.

We resisted buying any of the adorable toy eagles in the gift shop, but it was a near thing.

Then, to my astonishment, Eleanor and Patrick directed me to a side road not far away where they happened to know of a hidden buffalo reserve that had a herd of about 150 bison. It didn't take us long to find a herd, and I got some pictures from the road.

A successful day, we decided as I drove us home. We will take more road trips together in the future.

Image description: Background: A buffalo skin mounted on a wall, painted by a Native American artist with eagle symbology. Center: Eleanor Arnason and Patrick Wood. Lower center: several buffalo, seen from the side. Overlaid over the buffalo: an injured bald eagle sits on a perch.

Eagles



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

This week, as another Year of Adventure event, Pat Wrede and I (at Pat's suggestion) took a road trip to Kellogg, Minnesota to visit Lark Toys. I'd never heard of the place before, but it was an enjoyable jaunt indeed. It was started by a man who was interested in creating a market for his carved wooden toys, and over the years it has grown to be a remarkable place. Besides being a toy store, it is a toy museum. It was great fun to wander down the corridor of "Memory Lane" and identify old toys that I had as a child, that I haven't thought of for years: Spirograph, the game of Life, Chinese Checkers, Operation, spin tops, etc. There was an impressive little bookstore, too, with thoughtfully curated books for adults as well as children.

The centerpiece is a truly extraordinary carved carousel, created by the original owner. There was a cafe, and a fudge emporium, and had we been inclined, a miniature golf course.

It was a lovely drive, and Lark Toys was great fun and well worth the trip. Highly recommended I came home with a wee giftie for M, which I look forward to seeing her enjoy.

Image description: Background: a corridor of Lark Toys, lined with display cases. Top: a sign with the words "Memory Lane." Upper left: the logo for Lark Toys, the silhouette of a bird with a wind-up toy key on its back. Below the silhouette: the words "Long Ago." Below the "Memory Lane" sign, another sign which reads: "As once the wing'd energy of delight carried you over childhood's dark abyss, now beyond your own life buid the great arch of unimagined bridges. -Rainer Marie Rilke." Below this sign: a stylized tree, over a pillowed reading nook. Right: a lamp past with directional signs jutting out of the post. Left: a wooden stand filled with lollipops. Lower half: a rabbit and a swan each wearing a saddle (figures from a carousel). Bottom: a family of toy bunnies and a group of Matryoshka Russian nesting dolls.

Lark Toys



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Eric and took a one-day road trip to New Ulm this past weekend, a little Year of Adventure event. We ate lunch at a friendly bistro, Lola's and then spent an absorbing hour touring the childhood home of Wanda Gág, the owner of Millions of Cats. The two docents seemed absolutely delighted to have visitors and almost talked our ears off about the Gág family.

There were a couple of other stops, to poke around an antique store or two, and to take pictures at the statue of Hermann the Cheruscan ("Hermann the German"), the statue of Wanda Gág in front of the public library, and the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. A very pleasant getaway.

Image Description: A Victorian Queen Anne home, overlaid with a black and white picture of a young woman holding an easel and paintbrush. Left: A guitar in the shape of the Prince Love symbol, made of musical instruments (the instrument's neck is a keyboard). Right: an iron lamppost. Center: the statue of Herman the German, sword raised, overlaid with a statue of Wanda Gág reading to a cat. Right corner: a black cat with an arched back. Upper right: logo for Lola Bistro.

New Ulm



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

This past week's Year of Adventure outing was a visit to the Minneapolis State Capitol to view the renovations that were finished in 2019.



I went with a friend of mine, and we had planned to take the tour when the legislative session was over, but as they had not been able to finish a budget, the House and Senate were in special session. We listened for an hour to the debate in the House about the GOP proposal to strip immigrants of the ability to access Minnesotacare, the state's health care. Then, we took the tour. I'm ashamed to say it, but I had never visited the Capitol before. I was rather stunned by the beauty of the place. There was a display of battlefield flags from the Civil War in the rotunda. There were also a series of huge paintings of various battles during the Civil War in the Governor's Reception Room (a beautifully ornate room, modeled after a room in Venice).

This placard particularly struck me, given the events in Los Angeles:

EMPIRES PLACE THEIR RELIANCE UPON SWORD AND CANNON: REPUBLICS PUT THEIR TRUST IN THE CITIZENS' RESPECT FOR LAW. IF LAW BE NOT SACRED, A FREE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT ENDURE --IRELAND.

This collage is pulled from some of the beautiful elements of architecture we saw during the tour.

One of the representatives I was listening to on Monday was just assassinated. I am beyond pissed. I am heading out the door to join today’s protests. I wasn’t going to go because of some family stuff going on, but I am so livid.

Capitol



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

As I posted last Saturday, I have been working to assemble an anthology to submit to a contest with the Minnesota Authors Project (among others). I hadn't assembled as many authors as I had hoped, but we put together a nice little ebook, and I was proud of it and excited to enter the contest. We finished pulling it all together by 6 pm the day before the final deadline, and I went to the contest portal to submit it.

And at the last minute, after I had spent a good 40 minutes working my way through the portal and was just about to push the 'Submit' button, a Terms and Agreement page popped up that turned all my hopes to ashes.

The book had to be already published.

Now, I had inquired about that. The person I'd gotten the flyer from wasn't sure, and the website didn't mention anything about that requirement.

I had arranged with a letter of agreement with my authors specifically stating my understanding that this WASN'T a promise of publication, but that if we won the contest, we could make decisions about publishing at that time.

So, extremely mortified, I had to go back to the authors and explain. I'd done my due diligence, I had wondered about that very question, checked the website and the flyer, and I'd still gotten it wrong.

Some of the contributors wondered whether we could quickly self-publish, throwing it up on Amazon, of course the very reasonable expectation requested was that I would then promote and distribute it. I had very little time to make the decision, and I never heard back from one of my contributors, and I was badly rattled by making such a mistake. Maybe it was a lack of courage, but I just couldn't make the promise. I don't have my own website or any kind of mailing list. I didn't think I could (after letting my contributors down so badly) volunteer to do something that would let them down even further.

So we missed the contest deadline.

I am going to try to find more contributors and figure out a way to publish it. And hope that we can enter it in the contest next year.

I feel so very mortified and foolish. At least two of the contributors wrote new material for this project, and I feel keenly that I let them down. Professional embarrassment is the WORST.

But! This is the year of adventure, and that means trying new things. And sometimes, when you try new things, you fail. And that (I am telling myself firmly) is okay.

Here is the beautiful cover that Bruce Bethke designed for the book we had planned, and I hope eventually it will come to fruition.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. I had significant events on both Friday and Saturday, and I was rather torn over which should be the subject of my collage. I decided to not decide, because both events had a common theme (if you squint): they were both first-time events.

On Friday, I had my first big event for my Year of Adventure: my friends Dăna and Scott took me turkey hunting! Here is Dăna's report:

Peg accomplished her first Birthday adventure with Scott and me today - at her request, we took her wild turkey hunting! 🦃 We met her at the Cannon Falls exit around 4:30 am, and she followed us to our friend Keith’s farm and to just inside the edge of the woods to our parking spot.

Peg donned the camouflage clothing we brought for her and off we went, hiking across the bottomlands fields and up to the top of the bluff, with gear in hand. We climbed into Keith’s turkey blind and Scott set up our Tom and Hen decoys about 25 yards into the corn field. It was too warm for gobbles unfortunately and no turkeys showed up. The winds were ridiculous (sustained winds of 26 mph with gusts up to 46 mph!!) and blew our Tom over a couple times so we put him away and left just our hen out. A beautiful coyote cut across the field and disappeared into the woods on the other side - that was super fun! Our highlight came when Peg pointed out a Peregrine Falcon that stooped on our hen decoy, pulling up just inches away!! We wonder what would have happened if it carried our and decoy off with it. We do not know anyone who has had an experience like that! A once in several lifetime experience! Strong winds had torn a roof section out of Keith's nylon blind last night so we had a skylight to watch that falcon through. Perfect! The barred owls were calling boisterously. A red-tailed hawk flew overhead. But no turkeys. We moved down to the bottomlands again mid-morning. The songbirds calls were beautiful and some wildflowers and ferns were blooming and were magnificent! We showed Peg a new bird ID app called Merlin (Cornell Lab of Ornithology - it's free and very fun - check it out!) Peg was delighted with it!

We moved back up top and sat under a big cedar tree next to Keith's wildlife food plot. Unfortunately we spooked a turkey while getting in there, but at least Peg saw a wild turkey, albeit running away!!

At 10 am it was time for Peg to go and prep food for tomorrow's baby shower for Fiona and Alona.

We had a fun morning even though the turkeys didn't cooperate! Peg was a trooper and was interested in everything. She even tried her hand at using a slate turkey call to call to the turkeys!!

What a fun way to celebrate Peg's birthday! We all had a great time! And Peg tried something totally new! Great job!

As Dăna said, I had to leave the hunt early because of the other big weekend event: a baby shower for Fiona and Alona's baby (my first grandchild). Alona's dad and stepmom hosted, and her mom and stepdad were there, too. Alona's sister Mary is also pregnant, and so it was a double shower, with many beautiful gifts for both couples. The sweater that Alona is holding in the collage was handmade by her mother Nancy. There was also a gorgeous handmade quilt (a bookcase with a cat) and several beautifully crocheted blankets. We served brunch for everyone, and I think a wonderful time was had by all.

Image description: The collage is divided into two triangular portions. On the left side, a woman (Peg) smiles at the camera, dressed in camo in the dawn light. A pair of binoculars is slung around her neck. Overlaid over her is a peregrine falcon making a dive, talons outstretched. Lower right corner: a Tom turkey decoy. On the right side, two women (Alona, seated, and Fiona standing behind her) smile at the camera. Alona is holding a hand-knit red baby sweater with intricate cabling detail.

First Time



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

I celebrated a Very Significant Birthday this past weekend.

My last Very Significant Birthday took place during the height of the Covid epidemic, and I spent it alone, which sucked. I did a lot of thinking about how I wanted this birthday to be different.

This will be a significant year in several ways: I will be welcoming my first grandchild in June and will probably retire sometime within the next year.

I had a great example from my own parents on how to live a fulfilling life in retirement and beyond. My mom played her cello up until the age of 95. When my dad was in his 80s, he raised $45,000 with Rotary and used the money to go to the Dominican Republic and install biosand water filters to give people clean drinking water.

They showed me how important it is to have strong relationships as you age, to keep reaching out to people. And they showed me how important it is to keep learning, stretching, and trying new things.

With this in mind, I issued a challenge to my family, friends, and some acquaintances I would like to know better. I sent this message out in an email to about sixty people, and posted it on Facebook, and I am posting it here, too.

Let's have an adventure together sometime this year.

I am inviting you to think of something we can do, maybe that you already enjoy and think I might like to try that we can do together. Or maybe you would like to try it together for the first time with me. What can you come up with? Have you always wanted to take blacksmithing lessons? Do you want to spend an afternoon teaching me to play the banjo? Salsa dancing? Go rock climbing or make the apricot-torte that your great aunt learned how to make in Austria?

Possible questions:

Do you mean just me or is it okay to do something with me and my partner? Sure, include your partner, or better yet other friends, too. (Maybe I didn't have your partner's email address) Let's make it a party. Part of the point of this is that I want to make new friends.

But I don't live in the same city as you / I'm not going out because of health reasons. Use your imagination! Perhaps we can travel to a mutual point? Perhaps we could take a cooking class together on Zoom?

Peg, this is weird. I don't feel comfortable with this. Well, yes, it is little weird and frankly, I feel nervous about sending this challenge out, but I'm trying to stretch myself a bit! Maybe you might enjoy doing this, too? But if you are really not interested, no hard feelings or shame and I won't be offended if I don't hear back from you on this. But on the other hand, I am excited to see what ideas people might have.

Sorry, I'm busy this month. I'm looking forward to spreading adventures out over the coming year.

We're just passing acquaintances. Why are you asking me? Because I'd like to come to know you better and I think it might be fun to spend time with you.

What's the budget? Who pays for whatever I come up with? My budget is limited, but as I said, I am willing to stretch myself. I want to have a wonderful year. Let's talk.

You're like, old. Would you be up for what I have in mind? Are you up for doing a class of pole dancing/circus silks? I am in reasonable health and try to keep fit. I have a little arthritis in one hand, but that's about it.

What sorts of things do you do already? I like to read and study languages. I do digital collage. I like theater and concerts. I like most kinds of foods. I tend to find something I like and keep doing them over and over again. Help me get out of my rut! Will consider your proposal, but I reserve to right to reject ideas I consider too dangerous. I am not going to learn how to ride a motorcycle standing on my head.

The response to this message so far has been great. I've been invited to go turkey hunting, tour the state capitol, do a volunteer stint planting trees, learn how to make pysanky eggs, spend an afternoon at a farm baling hay, do tabletop D&D gaming, learn how to cook an Indian dish, go out dancing, and more. Other plans are also in the works. If you're interested in joining the challenge, too, drop me a comment.

Image description: Background: inflated balloons in various colors. Center: Peg, smiling. Lower center: Peg's family, gathered around a table for her birthday luncheon, with a decorated birthday cake. Upper center: a vase full of tulips, with a wooden disk superimposed over it with the words "Oh the places you'll go."

Year of Adventure



Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.