It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I found this toaster in a thrift shop last week. Looking at it brought back so many memories of burnt toast. I can not look at the picture without smelling burnt toast. The toaster isn’t hard to use and it is possible to perfectly toast bread with it. The trick is to watch and check on the bread. I wasn’t very good at that as a child or teenager.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I keep a birdhouse on the back porch. It is just outside the window when I am in my office. Every year house finches build a nest in it. They are fun to watch and they sing beautifully. They are busy little birds. When their young hatch they will be even busier gathering food and bringing it back to the house. I bought a new birdhouse this year. It is empty. The birds either don’t like the house or the neighborhood.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. It isn’t unusual to see a turkey walking down the street in St. Paul but lately, they have gotten pretty brazen. Sometimes they stand in the street and stop traffic. They can and do fly when properly motivated. As for other traffic hazards, most are lime scooters.
The Tom in the picture strolled through the neighborhood about a month ago with his seven wives or girlfriends. Turkeys walking down the street or blocking traffic are more common in the spring and the late fall. I didn’t quite get the face on this one but you can see the pretty feathers.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Gardening is a favorite hobby of mine. In general, I like plants more than I like some people.
Real estate is the busiest in the spring. Even in the years when home sales slow, spring is still busier than any other time of the year. A significant portion of our business happens in May and that is also when the vegetable and flower gardens need to be prepared and planted.
Most years I don’t think that I will have time for a garden but I always find a way. Here in the bold cold North starting a garden in June works too. The tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers don’t grow much until the daily low temperatures are above 50 degrees. My yard is on a limestone river bluff which means the soil is warmer and we have excellent drainage.
This is the first year that I don’t have a firm plan for my garden but I am sure I will come up with something.
Gardening is worth the work. A longer growing season would be nice.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Spring should start up again early next week. Expect tulips and crabapple blossoms. The spring flowering season is short, don’t miss it.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Every spring I walk to 90 Plato blvd to drop off my payment for the first half of our Ramsey County Property taxes*. Yes, I am well aware that I can pay them online and that is usually how I pay the second half.
I walk over the high bridge and down the hill to Plato and drop off the payment and then walk along plato to Wabasha street and then over the Wabasha street bridge to Kellogg Blvd. and then to West 7th and then home again. It is a lovely walk on a spring day and it is a reminder to me that I am privileged to have the time and energy to make the 3 mile walk and am fortunate to have the resources to pay those exorbitant and ever rising property taxes.
I took my property tax walk yesterday. I enjoyed the views of the river along the way.
*If you live in Minnesota your property taxes are not due until May 15, 2024.