Candycorn Flowering Vine

Remember the June pictures of the candy corn flowering vine I posted? I was so excited about the new plant-the flowers look like candy corn. Well, it is one plant that has done very well for me this summer. I had bought a special trellis for it and it has nearly climbed to the top and wrapped just like it was supposed to. COOL! It does like sunshine, but not all day sun.

Too bad it is an annual. I will definitely look for it next year.

Maybe it will winter in AZ??? Can I keep it alive that long??? Will we have room to haul it???

"Fall" Evening

It isn't fall or autumn according to the calendar, but the temperatures say otherwise. What a great way to spend an evening in the backyard; a glass of wine, a water fountain, a nice fire in a new fire pit and the Arrows football game on the radio.

Slugs, The Garden Variety

Yesterday when I was picking some ripe tomatoes, I realized every tomato close to the ground had holes in it. Upon some closer inspection I found slugs. Many, many slugs. Slimy, creepy, disgusting slugs. YUCK!

See the wet spot on the upper right? That is where this one was resting and where it moved for the photo op. My skin just crawls looking at it and writing about it.


I saw some slugs earlier this summer in the rhubarb plants. Silly me, I didn't do anything about it at that time. My thinking: So they eat the rhubarb. Big deal. This is a picture of the rhubarb this morning. The lazy creatures are still there! But now they have produced so many offspring, they have moved to the tomato plants!

I read online about the beer treatment, so last night (early evening) Curt and I went to the garden to set beer traps. We found so many slugs on the main stem of three tomato plants, I also used the salt box and sprinkled the base of the plants liberally. Curt caught many of the wet moving critters and I happily smashed them. Both of us just felt covered in slug slime and did many hand washings to remove the sticky mucus. YEW!

I checked the beer traps this morning. A few slugs have met their demise by drowning in the beer. I will have to buy some cheap beer today to continue the process. I looked at the base of the tomato plants and they are just covered in slug slime. I will buy more salt, too.

We have been fortunate to get timely rains this late in the summer. The down side of the precipitation is the garden is very moist; perfect slug conditions. But I have declared war on the creatures. First battle was last night. So far the slugs are ahead. But I am going to do all I can to save the tomatoes! The war is on.

New Gopher Stadium

Saturday was a really BIG DAY for some of the E family! The new TCF Gopher Stadium was opened to the public for the scrimmage game. We were there!

Maroon and gold lined the streets for the victory walk of coaches, players, band & cheerleaders. The stadium looks awesome from the street.

These stairs and there were lots of steps in the main entrance lead to the main level. There is a very cool two story souvenir shop at the entrance. There are continuous restrooms running the length of the stadium on the upper level, behind the food shops. Sooo many toilets and sinks, women should never have to wait in line before, during or after any Gopher football game.

We were three of about 15,000 fans in the 55,000 available seats.

See the city skyline in the background? It was a perfect afternoon for a football game in the new outdoor stadium. And the Gophers won!

Canasta at the Lake

Our Canasta Card group gathered at the lake yesterday to play and eat and laugh and eat and enjoy a beautiful summer day.

We now understand why Donna doesn't live in town in the summer! What a tranquil setting.

Some of the gals in the group have been together playing Canasta since the mid 70s. Pretty cool, huh? It was a great August afternoon. Thanks, Donna!

Happy BD Mom

Happy 80th Birthday, Mom.

August 15, 2009

Sawyer Brown Concert

Since 2004 the Redlin Family has sponsored a free concert for the people of Watertown and the surrounding area. This year Sawyer Brown was the headline entertainment. Cloudy skies, threats of rain and thunderstorms and even a tornado watch earlier in the day may have put a damper of the number of people attending.
Thousands of people come from all over for this day long event that culminates in a one hour evening concert by "big-name" entertainers.

Our first concert was with Mannheim Steamroller. In 2005 Lee Greenwood sang for us. We heard Ronnie Milsap in 2006 and then missed the next two concerts by Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers and last year's concert by the Oak Ridge Boys. There will be another concert next August but the entertainer(s) will not be announced until January 2010.

Wednesday Folklorama

The 6:00 PM show and appetizer started at the Belgium Cultural Center Wednesday evening. we were served a bowl of tasty leek soup and had our choice of 2 different Belgium beers (including Stella) or a Passion drink or a Belgium Slammer.

When we arrive at the pavilions or cultural centers, people are waiting in line to get into the buildings for either the show or the show and food. Because we are on the VIP bus trip, we are dropped off at the front door. A representative of the culture we are visiting comes aboard the bus and welcomes us and then leads us into the building for front row seating. Our food is brought to us as well as our drinks. We get "royal" service.

Sometimes we have time to visit the cultural displays or talk to the people or purchase some of their specialty items. We purchased some extra Belgium chocolate. Very Good!


After being at several of these cultural venues, I most appreciate the ones where young children are participating. One guy is playing the accordion for the Belgium dancers. Mostly girls are dancing, preschool age through high school. The costumes are authentic, but are most likely sewn by mom or grandma. (Not the professional atmosphere of the Israeli center the night before.) But the important part to me, is the culture is being shared with the next generation. The kids are learning the dances, the food and the language. They are keeping their heritage alive.

The bus traveled a short distance to the Caribbean Cultural Center in the St. Boniface part of Winnipeg, the French area. This was a huge building supported by a large population base. I was busy buying a CD so did not get a picture of our dinner; spicy chicken in gravy sauce served with (what else???) rice and a lettuce salad with again, a choice of beer or piná colada.

I was excited about the show when I saw the steel drums on stage. An inter-generational group played the drums and accompanied some dancers.

The young lady on the left did not smile at all until she was done playing the first piece. This musical group was so awesome.

The dancers, all young ladies, were part of a dance troupe similar to our own Johnny Cavell Dancers here at home, only they are learning their cultural dances.

Our final stop for Wednesday evening was the Celtic Cultural Center. This group had its own building meaning we were not in a school or curling club or a "borrowed building" from another cultural group. Keep in mind it is 9:00 PM. Some of these programs started at 5:00 and will perform five or six times an evening!

The apple crisp dessert was waiting for us at our table when we arrived. I had some Canadian money to spend, so I added a Bailey's to my dessert.

The Celtic/Irish venue was a wee bit different than others we attended. The emcee was an adult performer and they had a well-known recording artist from Winnipeg as part of their program. The junior dancers did two numbers. This one was Cotton-eyed Joe. These are girls who are part of a dance program and are elementary age.

Although the picture is of rather poor quality, it does give you an idea of the elaborate costumes and hair of the senior dancers.

The 14 year old young man and his sister, 15, (fourth from the right) just returned from a world's competition in Ireland. He, especially, was phenomenal. But even more impressive than the dancing ability of this group was the cost to be a part of this level of dancers. We leaned from our evening tour guide that the shoes for hard dancing might cost $300. The dresses are ordered from Ireland and are all hand-made and come at a price of as much as $3000. Then there are the wigs. She, the tour guide said, there are two sports in this cultural community: hockey or dancing.


I was very impressed with Folklorama and the concept of sharing culture with other cultural groups. The number of volunteers needed to pull-off such a huge event is to be commended as some of the venues have been doing it for 40 years. Some are new like the Mexican program we attended. Very impressive, Winnipeg!

Tuesday in Winnipeg

Last night at Folklorama we started the evening in the Israel Pavilion. It was their K-university age campus that requires a $12,000 tuition fee per child. The school gym we were in had an Olympic size pool with an indoor running track. We were not allowed to take pictures of the performers, who were accompanied by a 7 piece band and 9 singers. So the picture is of the appetizer, a baked noodle dish, served cold with strawberries and sour cream. It wasn't bad with the strawberries. It's name starts with a "k."

Then we traveled to another part of the city to get to the Russian Pavilion. Our waitress was in original costume and served our wine which accompanied dinner-

coleslaw, rice & vegetables, parogies, and meatloaf. It was very good. The performers were fun and the costuming authentic. A "light" performance after the "professionalism" of the Israeli group.


We finished the evening at the Mexican Pavilion. These performers had such beautiful, colorful costumes. The whole group was just wowed by their dancing. Dessert, however, was rice pudding/custard. Not what any of us was expecting. I came back to the room and ate my now stale Tom Horton doughnut.

One more day in Winnipeg.

Monday Evening

The focus of the SD Retired Teachers' trip to Winnipeg is the Folkorama. When Winnipeg was 100 years old in 1969, the city wanted to celebrate and honor the cultures which had become a major part of the history of the city. There were four at that time. Thus Folklorama was born. For three evenings we will visit three different cultural pavilions, showcasing the culture and food (sometimes drink) of the people.

Our first pavilion visit tonight (6:00 PM) was the Scandinavian Culture center. First, we toured the displays of the 5 Scandinavian countries (includes Iceland) and then were entertained with native dances in native costumes and a group called Almost ABBA. The age of the dancers ranged from 2 1/2 to older than me.

We were served appetizers at this pavilion. We had a thin slice of a cold meat (reindeer??) on rye bread, a red cabbage slaw, a slice of cheese on bread and two meat filled "pasties". We also were served Viking Power Punch made with akavit as a native drink. All was very good. The entertainment was exceptional.

Then we were bussed to the Serbian Pavilion. The dinner and show began at 7:30.


We were served a stuffed yellow pepper, cabbage slaw, dinner roll, cookie and strawberry crepes.
One of our dinner drink choices was the Fort Garry Dark Ale. It was very good, as was the stuffed pepper and the cookie.


Young people dressed in native Serbian costumes entertained us with dances from the Serbian region (north of Greece). It was phenomenal! Outstanding! Amazing! Very Impressive Show!

I was captivated by the shoes that all the dancers wore. Every shoe had the turned up toe. This young lady was also wearing woolen stockings, hand-made, as were all the costumes. This Pavilion was putting on six shows each night. Our tour guide said the dancers wore a clean, dry white shirt for each performance as the shirt was soaked when they got done dancing. They will dance six times for seven nights. WOW!

A nearly full moon could be seen as we ventured to the Indian Pavilion at 9:00 for dessert and a show. The final cultural experience for the evening.

Mango ice cream was served for dessert. In the future, I probably would not order it if it were on the menu. (I think it may have been a "special" just for us.) By now we were quite tired.

We were introduced to "bollywood" (Bombay & Hollywood) dancing and music for the program. Although the costumes were traditional Indian dress and some of the movements were traditional Indian dance movements, the program was Indian hip-hop. Again, the dancers were young people, probably high school age and a few younger. But it was just very hard to exceed the performances of the Serbian dancers.

We arrived at the hotel at 11:00 PM. Three different cultural experiences tomorrow night.

Winnipeg, Monday Morning

This morning we visited the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Center north of Winnipeg. This marsh habitat has been restored from farmland and "is dedicated to teaching people about wetlands and conservation." It is a joint effort of the Province of Manitoba and Ducks Unlimited Canada.
The marsh covers 19 square acres and is home to geese and other wildlife. I saw geese and huge mosquitoes. It was an overcast dreary morning. We were glad to have our rain coats.

After a breakfast of wild rice pancakes, bacon & sausage, we listened to an informative talk about the First Nation peoples of Manitoba and Canada. The talk focused on the tepee and the bison, essentials to the natives.

Then it was time for a canoe ride through one of the small marsh pond areas. Nine of us moved the voyageur-style canoe through the water, not well, by any means. It was my first and LAST canoe ride. (It was like hiking. You always had your eyes on the water and had to concentrate on moving the oars correctly. Hence, no observed wildlife.)

Then as I was about to take a picture of these "imitation sunflowers" I was approached by a camera crew, asking if I would be willing to do an interview for Manitoba Tourism. I said yes, and was a star for a few minutes. Maybe some of our Canadian friends will see me on TV!

This is the canola plant I mentioned in yesterday's posting. The flowerless "branches" on the lower part of the stem are the canola pods. I opened one of the pods and found it filled with little green seeds about the size of a mustard seed. Canola was developed (invented) in Manitoba and must be of the legume family.

Canola Fields

It was cloudy with some light sprinkles of rain on our drive from northeast SD through eastern ND and into Manitoba. I was surprised at the green fields. The small grain crops are still very green in this part of the country.

Once we passed the border in Canada, fields of yellow were along both sides of the road. No, it isn't clover or mustard. It is canola. The plants look a lot like flax or alfalfa, but the blooms/flowers are a sea of yellow. I had no idea what canola plants looked like or that it was a grain. I just knew it came in a bottle.

Winnipeg

This is where we ate dinner this evening. It was my first experience at Ichiban, but Curt had eaten at the one in Minneapolis years ago. It was just a few blocks from the hotel and was a welcome walk after the 7 hour bus ride.

Our chef fixed the appetizer at our table: chicken livers, onions and mushrooms with several sauces (soy, Saki, etc). It was very good, surprisingly. Our meal started with a vegetable soup, followed by a salad of marinated cucumber slices with crab meat. The chicken livers was course three.

Our group of retired teachers filled three tables at the Ichiban. Our table had the smallest group. The grill is in front of Dave & Jodi who are seated in the center of the photo.

The chef is "firing" the shrimp. My scallops with onions and mushrooms are resting on the side.
Steak accompanied the fish. It was followed with sauteed vegetables, course 5.

The waitresses wore traditional Japanese "dresses." Our meal was followed with a cup of green tea and a dish of ice cream or sherbert. Yes, we got enough to eat with the seven course meal. What a fun experience and a great way to start the Winnipeg excursion!