Come on, ‘lil guy, you can do it!

And there he goes.

Scraped & scuffed, but ready to go, the rental kayaks await you at Lake Calhoun.

The closest I’ve ever gotten to  eagle. It’s ok, he was on a leash, at the Minnesota Raptor Center release event. By using a long lens and large aperture, I was able to focus on the eye and throw the beak out of focus.

Spring is here at last, and the birds are returning! And while some of our long-lost feathered friends come, we are letting some others go today. University of Minnesota Raptor Center is having their annual Raptor Release. All the hawks, eagles and other raptors that have been injured and taken care of by the University over the winter are released today at the Hyland Lake Park Reserve, 10145 Bush Lake Road, Bloomington, MN. The event starts at 11am and the Raptors are released at 1:00pm. I’ve never been there before, but I’m going to go check it out today with Werner and Dusty.

The sun just caught the side of this palm at the Conservatory and it lit up so nicely. I love little events like this.

From Sunday’s Camera and Artist Event at Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, St. Paul Minnesota

Hundreds of kites filled the crisp winter air as little kids and big kids alike enjoyed this winter kite festival held on Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis.  Winter in Minnesota is an interesting thing. While many would elect to stay inside where it’s warm; true Minnesotans have so many things to choose from: kite festivals on  frozen lakes, winter carnivals, ice carving contests, cross-country ski races and pond hockey tournaments!

Check back for more kite and snow photos this week.

The little lamp quietly stands guard, watching over the river. His best friend, the manhole cover, interrupts himself a moment to talk about the photographer on the bridge above.

The lamp, unable to look up, takes the cover’s word for it, he gave up arguing about the bridge long ago.

“A stone road in the sky?”, once said the lamp, “the road is right down there by you.”

“Why would I make that up?”, asked the manhole cover.

“You make up a lot of things, in fact, you could take a breath between stories once in a while.”

The lamp was a recent arrival to the West bank neighborhood and wished he could talk to someone else besides the chatty manhole cover, but lamps lead a quite and solitary life, never getting to talk to their own kind, the victims of civil engineers’ even spacing.

Tragically, what the lamp did not know, was that the manhole cover used to be quiet and thoughtful as well, but a few days before the lamp moved in, one sunny day in June, a mounted policeman walked over the manhole cover and the horse did something truly horrible. Ever since then, the manhole cover talked nervously all the time, telling the lamp story after story, but never discussed horses.

Someday he’ll tell the lamp the story that really matters, but until then, the lamp his dejected head hanging, longs for a fellow lamp’s enlightened voice, listens to rambling stories of roads in the sky.

Click on the photo for an enlargement!