Minnesota

On April 12th, 2012, GIANT CRAB APPLE…

giant crab apple

…looms over the house, only for a few days every spring it becomes a blossomy pink giant, reminding us of what it is.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 12, 2012 | landscape
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On April 11th, 2012, SPRING GREEN…

spring green tree

…is busting out of the trees around the towns of St Paul and Minneapolis – all the more welcome and special and anticipated in a climate where most of the year is getting ready for winter, winter, or the dregs of winter – but lately the winters have been wimpy global-warming versions that don’t come close to the extreme sub-zeroes, it-hurts-to-inhale-through-your-nose kind of winters I remember as a kid.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 11, 2012 | landscape
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On April 10th, 2012, LEAVING NYC AND LANDING IN MSP…

sunset between leaving NYC and landing in MSP

…today brought a busy day running around the city, an evening flight, and a sunset on the way to Minnesota where I’ll be for a few days visiting family and having meetings and hoping for spring.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 10, 2012 | travel
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On October 27th, 2011, A MINNESOTA URBAN WOODLAND TEEPEE…

kids in the woods moving into teepee

…is just what every little kid around here needs to escape to – out the back door during those cabin fever winter days – and today I helped assemble one for the little nieces and nephews – just in time for the cold and snow where this white tarp covered construction will disappear into the landscape of flaky drifts to come.

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On October 26th, 2011, BREUER AND POTTERY AT SAINT JOHN’S…

Saint John's University Abbey Church by Marcel Breuer and Richard Bresnahan's pottery studio

…today started with a visit to the studio of Richard Bresnahan, where we drank delicious green tea out of his earthy sumptuous cups and teapot (similar to the one I have at home in LA, which I discussed in this New York Times story a few years ago) around a warm wood hearth-like square filled with a zen garden expanse of sand (that I was happy to be able to rake with a little wood tool on hand), before he took us for a short walk down the hill near the lake for a visit to the massive walk-in wood burning kiln which he only fires up every two years or so (when it is tended 24 hours a day for ten days, next time will be October 2012 when I plan to return to fire something of my own!), then to the center of campus to one of favorite buildings anywhere, Marcel Breuer‘s masterpiece Abbey Church (which I grew up visiting regularly and mentioned in another New York Times story by Susan Morgan), and finally downstairs for a special tour from Richard of the 32 chapels under the Abbey, whose ceilings are lined with warm dark umber colored Swedish cork (whose vivid early childhood memories inspired the dark cork lined den of the Bernardi Residence from 2006) which I was surprised to discover still aromatic with it’s smokey scent after 50 years.

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On October 2nd, 2011, TWIN CITIES MARATHON…

autumnal backdrop to mile 25 on Summit avenue, and fall color flyover on my way to Amsterdam

…noises of people shouting words of encouragement to early morning 10 mile Summit Avenue runners, in advance of the marathoners hitting mile 25 out our door, woke me up this morning…so I shuffled down the stairs, grabbed a mug of coffee, and headed to out to watch the rest of them breeze, speed, jog, amble, walk, and eventually shuffle by, making me tired just watching and preparing me for some urgent napping on an eight hour afternoon flight to Amsterdam.

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On September 27th, 2011, A GREEN BUILDING…

ivy walls

…discovered around the corner here in Saint Paul is a five story apartment building with a west-facing ground-to-roof wall of ivy – cool.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 27, 2011 | architecture
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On September 26th, 2011, CHANGING COLORS…

changing colors on Summit Avenue

…are an occasional sign of looming autumn here on Summit Avenue in the Ramsey Hill neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 26, 2011 | landscape
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On September 25th, 2011, PICKING APPLES…

picking apples on the bluffs above the Mississippi River

…is a tradition for the family this time of year on our Minnesota apple orchard up on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River just south of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and this is the first year I am able to join in the fun, with little kids alternating between putting apples in bags and eating as many apples as they can (or bites out of as many apples as they can).

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On August 11th, 2011, LITTLE FREE LIBRARY…

Saint Paul's 'Free Little Library'

…is the name of this diminutive wood structure on a post which I happened upon this afternoon gracing the front yard of the cutest house on our St. Paul street – with faux thatch roof, a favorite local domestic feature since childhood – where you can take a book or leave a book. (website)

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On August 9th, 2011, LAKE OF THE ISLES…

Lake of the Isles

…is but one of many gorgeous urban lakes circling the city of Minneapolis – it’s greatest gift and constituting part of it’s “green necklace” of parks and parkways – where robust Minneapolitans can be found jogging, and canoeing, and swimming, and strolling, and roller-blading, and dog-walking, and even fishing and skating in the winter – but this is probably the most picturesque, and how amazing to discover an up-north-like-lake in the middle of the city.

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On August 7th, 2011, LAKE SUNSET BEHIND PINES…

Bay Lake sunset through pines

…is my biggest news headline of the day up here.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 7, 2011 | Minnesota
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On August 6th, 2011, OLD FAMILY CABIN…

old family Bay Lake cabin

…brown, modest, hidden, built in the 1920′s, and located the next bay over from us here on Bay Lake was the location of today’s boat pilgrimage with mother and uncle to see their childhood cabin from over 45 years ago.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 6, 2011 | Minnesota
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On August 5th, 2011, BEDROOM LAKE SUNRISE…

sunrise over lake viewed from bed

…is what’s going on out the window as eyes open this morning – sure to be one of many sunrise sunset stories from up north, since it seems to be the main news on lazy days up here.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 5, 2011 | Minnesota
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On August 2nd, 2011, LOONS AND EAGLES…

in trees and lakes

…everywhere you look and making lots of noise.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 2, 2011 | animals
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On August 1st, 2011, BOATHOUSE ON BAY LAKE…

view from Bay Lake boathouse

…is where I have come home to retreat for the week, but continuing on a hybrid continental schedule involving going to bed with the sun at 9pm and then up at the uncontrollable crazy hour of 3am to read, work, write, and wait for the sun to show itself for what turned out to be about 15 minutes of glorious lavender sunrise before disappearing for the day behind welcome rain clouds providing a perfect guilt-free excuse to stay cozy in the porch and on the laptop for the better part of the morning before heading to the kitchen to prepare a soup of bounty from The Wedge and St. Paul’s Farmer’s Market – tomato/zucchini/onion/cauliflower/bean/kale/potatoes/spelt/parsley/carrot/lentil – that is smelling the place up in a good way and making the cozy cabin cozier.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 1, 2011 | Minnesota
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On July 31st, 2011, NEATEST STUFF IN MINNEAPOLIS…

downtown Minneapolis framed by the new and old Walker Art Center

…(the city where I grew up but never lived as an adult, though with frequent trips back I am slowly discovering what’s here) is becoming clear this afternoon as I realize that my recent regular treasured hang-outs which I would have been super delighted to find in Rome, or Los Angeles, or New York City – Yoga One (the welcoming non-corporate, non-profit community yoga center that even has plants and skylights in the studio), Ecopolitan (super raw cleansing vegan food served in the warm woody parlor of a typical old Lyndale Avenue house), Tao Foods (featuring an olden-timey screen door and bar where I hang out drinking chai with little nephews), The Wedge Community Coop, (where you go into food paralysis when you enter because you just want everything, everything, everything, and where my friend Gaby has a good story about stopping on a coast to coast road trip dying for a decent meal after so much highway junk, gathering up a cart full of favorite things like hummus and carrots, getting to the cash register only to have her credit card rejected, at which point the ‘Minnesota Nice‘ Wedge employee just pushed the bags her way, and told her to go on with her trip, but she went back to the car to make a mixed c.d. for him – which actually brought him to tears when she returned to present him with it), Yoga One (the welcoming non-corporate, non-profit community yoga center that even has plants and skylights in the studio), Ecopolitan (super raw cleansing vegan food served in the warm woody parlor of a typical old Lyndale Avenue house), Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (one of my favorite places in city for anything picnic-y, opened in 1992 and later featuring a Meg Webster sculpture that made an early impression on me, consisting of a terraced inverted garden cone full of flowering plants you could enter through cor-ten steel panels through berms of earth and lose yourself in), and The Walker Art Center (my cultural mecca where I was turned on to new art and architecture at an early age) – are all contained within a golden triangle where I would probably live most of my life were I to live here, mostly contained by Lyndale, Hennepin, and W. 22nd Street – plus since I was last here I see everyone riding around on these pretty bright lime green bikes – ‘NEAT’, as we say.

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On July 30th, 2011, THE SAINT PAUL FARMERS MARKET…

zucchini and onions at the very neat & organized St. Paul Farmers Market

was founded in 1853 back when streets where dirt in these parts and has since been relocated a few times before landing at it’s current downtown location which we visited early this morning in preparation for a week ‘up north’ at the lake cabin – and my first impression is that in comparison to the slightly wild, loose and casual presentations at the Italian and Roman farmer’s markets – these displays were super neat and organized with bowls of prearranged produce displayed in perfect grids – thanks to that Germanic love of order which I happen to grudgingly share.

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On July 29th, 2011, EMILY LACY AT THE WALKER WITH MACHINE…

Emily Lacy performing in the Walker's glass corridor facing Hennepin Avenue

…was the happy surprise of the day – as I caught my folk-singing friend‘s last performance (involving layers of gorgeous vocals live and delayed echoing through the cold cavernous corridor of the 2005 Herzog & de Meuron designed addition, accompanied by a painted steamer trunk full of costumes such as pioneer bonnets and equipment like cassette recorders from the 1980′s) in a series of daily appearances throughout the public spaces of the museum as a part of the summer series of projects and events organized by my long-lost favorite community cultural center: L.A.’s Machine Project.

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On September 5th, 2010, IN MINNESOTA…

Saint Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis

…and spending time with family for a last day before my Italian departure in the morning.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 5, 2010 | travel
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On July 20th, 2010, FIREWORKS…

fireworks on Bay Lake

…have been going off every night over the lake, neighbors on a boat with Fourth of July leftovers to use up.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 20, 2010 | travel
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On July 18th, LULU AND ALMA…

Lulu Haeg and Alma Saunders, cousins from Minneapolis, on the dock at Bay Lake

…city dog relatives from Minneapolis, enjoy a weekend up north on the lake.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 18, 2010 | animals
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On July 17th, 2010, SUNRISE ON BAY LAKE…

Bay Lake, Minnesota

…in Minnesota on the first morning of a week up at the cabin.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 17, 2010 | travel
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