56  bar steep fall 29.97 1mph NNW Spring

         Waning Crescent Moon of Winds

More trees survived.  Two White Pines planted near the road have made it through their first winter as well.  I love seeing plants grow, but there is something different with trees.  They alter the landscape and create memories.  I suppose grass does, too, but not in a way that I like much.  Yards have not made sense to me for many years and I hope this year or the next might be the time when we finally rid ourselves of the damned thing and put in something more attuned to the land and to possible benefits to us.

Forgot to mention during that during our business meeting we have tentatively decided to go ahead on the generator.  As  climate change acclerates and more and more housing gets built up out here, our exposure to significant periods of power loss grows.  We’re trying to sequester certain large cash expenditures in these last years of Kate’s employment, so they will be out of the way after she retires.  We also have a car fund that will have enough money to purchase a hybrid the year she retires.  These are, in many ways, peace of mind issues, but no less important for that.

We got the annual notice from the vet about the dog’s physicals.  Something to look forward to.

At 3PM I’ll leave for the University to attend a lecture on sprawl by Robert Bruggeman.  I bought his book at the Walker last week.  Since I live in sprawl by almost any definition, I’m interested in understanding it better.  He has a different drummer approach, taking a historical look that emphasizes sprawl as a natural occurrence related to urban development.  This makes sense to me since I know the Minneapolis story includes “sprawl” that is now the neighborhood surrounding the Minneapolis Art Institute, Kenwood, and several of the neighborhoods south of the city along Chicago, Portland, Nicollet, Lyndale and other streets.  His question is how to separate “good” sprawl from “bad” sprawl.  More on this later.