'Catch the heart off guard and blow it open'

The world lost a great poet today, and one who's words touched my life.

I was a 19-year-old student studying abroad in the United Kingdom. It was a cloudy, misty day in Ireland, and we stopped the bus by the sea. Professor Becknell read us a poem from Seamus Heaney that has echoed in my head all these years...

Postscript

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park and capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

(from The Spirit Level)


Find videos of Seamus Heaney reading aloud 11 of his poems here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/videos-of-seamus-heaney-reading-his-poems-aloud

Used Car Part Site

When your transmission goes out, you're going to want to get your car up and running fast. Yesterday I spent hours searching individual car part sites for the part I need.

Today, I discovered

http://car-part.com/

and I search them all at the same time. Plus I price-compared across the country. AWESOME!

#4 Visit Mill City

Mill City is a wonderful place to bring kids.

There is so much historical information at Mill City - and SO MUCH that is hands-on. It's simply tons of fun. Learn about rivers and waterways by getting wet and moving parts around on a big table. Learn about what Minneapolis used to look like when the flour mills were dusting the city by putting together the blocks of a large floor puzzle. Watch a fast-moving 17 minute film about the city and its history. Take the elevator up and down from scene to scene and learn about what the mills were like. Then gaze at Minneapolis from the top of the building.

We'll be back.

It was just so much fun.

http://www.millcitymuseum.org/

Putting this puzzle together was great fun.

Then...

And now...

Water fun!

Online resources for homeschooling

Here's a great page that lists tons of helpful online resources for homeschooling (mostly free). As we gear up for preschool homeschooling, we plan to use some of the items on this list.

http://peregrinhouse.blogspot.com/p/resources.html

Really great preschool/k curriculum (also free). Three 12 week units that flow with the seasons.
http://weefolkart.com/content/homeschool-companion-guides

Deals on Books at Central Library

$22 for 18 books and one set of stories on cd. 
Central Library book store. 

What a deal!

I almost paid $10 for one of the books this morning on Amazon! (I love the field guides by Stan Tekiela that Adventure Publications in Cambridge publishes.) Sure glad I waited...

This find actually included 2 bird field guides, a field guide on reptiles and amphibians (Stan Tekiela's again) and a DK guide to fish (my other favorite book publisher). I also got 7 books on Christmas, Jewish holidays and other bible stories. The Adventures in Odyessy radio stories on CD. The book on Central Library itself for just $1!! And 3 other historic books on Swedes and Nordeast Minneapolis (I'm a sucker for all Minnesota history books). Plus Josey required a hard book in Spanish and another children's book in Arabic. 

So if you're looking for books for homeschooling or just because you love books, check out the bookstore at Central Library in downtown Minneapolis. Plus, the library building is just cool.

Learn more about the book store here: http://www.supporthclib.org/bookstore/ 

The Bookstore at the Minneapolis Central Library offers the best bargains in town for book lovers. Our store sells a combination of books weeded from the Library collection and books donated by Library patrons. In addition, the store features new merchandise, including iconic t-shirts, gifts, notepads, flash drives, book bags, and umbrellas. 

#39 - St. Urho statue

Up north the other weekend, we dropped in at the Menaga historical society grounds to say "Hi" to the giant statue of St. Urho. I love any saint associated with vineyards.

The statue sits just off the main road in Menaga, Minn. The historical society is behind it. It was closed by the time we pulled through town, so I'm not sure what's inside.

The Legend of St. Urho

 

One of the lesser known, but extraordinary legends of ages past is the legend of St. Urho – patron saint of the Finnish Vineyard workers.

 

Before the last glacial period wild grapes grew with abundance in the area now known as Finland.  Archeologists have uncovered evidence of this scratched on the thigh bones of the giant bears that once roamed northern Europe.  The wild grapes were threatened by a plague of grasshoppers until St. Urho banished the lot of them with a few selected Finnish words.

In memory of this impressive demonstration of the Finnish language, Finnish people celebrate on March 16, the day before St. Patrick’s Day.  It tends to serve as a reminder that St. Pat’s Day is just around the corner and is thus celebrated by squares.  At sunrise on March 16, Finnish women and children dressed in royal purple and nile green gather around the shores of the many lakes in Finland and chant what St. Urho chanted many years ago.

“Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiteen.”  (Translated: “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go away!)

Adult male, (people, not grasshoppers) dressed in green costumes gather on the hills overlooking the lakes, listen to the chant and then kicking out like grasshoppers, they slowly disappear to change costumes from green to purple.  The celebration ends with singing and dancing polkas and schottisches and drinking grape juice, though these activities may occur in varying sequences.

#5 - Northwest Company Fur Post in Pine City, Minn.

We visited the Northwest Company Fur Post in Pine City on a surprisingly chilly summer day, and it started to rain when we arrived. The place was pretty dead. I'm not sure if we would have had a better time had the situation been different or whether it just wasn't the place for a 4-year-old and a 14-month-old...

I heard the time to visit is on Family Fun Day in September. Then there are over 200 re-enactors spread out over the grounds.

On a normal weekend, there are just a few that rotate giving 40-minute tours. There was very little that was hands-on. If you have a kid that enjoys listening to stories, they'll like the site. Otherwise, wait a few years.

We started the 40-minute tour inside the museum, talking about beavers. The high value places on beaver hats in Europe drove the fur trade here in America and Canada.

One of the first "building" to view is an Ojibwe tepee.

The fort sits on the Snake River.

I thought it was interesting that unlike the Hudson Bay Company, the Northwest Company encouraged its employees to have families. They saw value in marrying with the folks they traded with, recognizing that it created stronger bonds.

The highest point in the post. These posts were built only to last a few years.

After the tour, we finally did something hands-on. They had materials for kids to sew together small birchbark canoes.

Inside the small museum, folks could "try-on" hats from the time period.

#18 - Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls

We hit upon the Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls on their family day. That meant the 4-year-old got to spend over an hour on painting and craft projects while the baby slept. Daddy put up his feet, and mamma toured the Lindbergh home. That's a perfect outing!

I'm not sure if it is always like this, but the tour of the home contained lots of information about Charles as a boy and included hands-on activities. I didn't bring my 4-year-old on it because she was so bored during the 40-minute tour at the Northwest Fur Post in Pine City a few weeks earlier. But I think she would have really liked the tour at the Lindbergh House.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds before heading over to the museum. You can see the state park across the road. I'd like to return and check out their cart-in campsites.

Isn't this a  great building? This is the view of the museum from the Mississippi River.

The museum is cut into the hill, and one moves downward as you go through it.

Although he didn't live in Minnesota again after leaving for flight school, he recalled it fondly.

A hands-on flight simulator

Charles and his wife, Anne. She was the daughter of an ambassador. The two were both well-educated, and from important families.

Charles and Anne in later years

I've always been haunted by this kidnapping. Apparently, kidnappings for ransom during this time period were very common. The kids was rarely killed.

How exciting to see a photo of Charles in his later years with Elmer Anderson. In addition to being a former Minnesota governor, Elmer Anderson was the owner of ECM Publishers, a newspaper group I have written for that includes the Isanti County News.

The state park is located across the road and is on part of the former Lindbergh farm. The Lindbergh family donated the property to the state a few years after he crossed the Atlantic, knowing they would never be able to live there again because of the publicity. Treasure-seekers destroyed much of the house and grounds looking. It has been a historic site since the 1970s.

As man of the house, Charles at age 5 was carrying around huge blocks of ice like this. He arranged a pulley system

The place started off as a summer home. When Charles and his mother left in the fall to rejoin his father in Washington, D.C., Charles needed a place to hide his special stuff, including his two rifles. He pulled out a few of the wainscoting boards and had the perfect hiding space. Another fun thing of note in the kitchen is the bullet hole in the door to the hallway, left there by Charles. He was embarrassed because of where the bullet ended up; he was aiming for lower!