birds

We are happy that our rose breasted grosbeaks have returned from their long journey from central and south America. We have quite a few of them coming to the feeders regularly. They often raise their families here and the young males gradually get the markings that their dads have and you see here. The hummingbirds are back too so we begin to feel it is spring although the nights continue to be cool. We are getting up into the high 60's in the daytime. We hope you are having good weather wherever you are.

Beaver Dam barbeque

The other photo is of Kirstin with Emma and Tanner. We had just come from watching Emma's dance class practicing for an upcoming show.

We had a fun week-end visiting daughter Mary and family. Here you see Tanner with great grandpa Wag waiting for the barbeque to do its work. We celebrated Emma's birthday belatedly(6 in April) and Tanner and his Mom on June 5 ahead of time. He will be three, she will be(oh well, I'll let her reveal that).

ice out

We are celebrating ice out this week. It is supposed to be a sign of spring, but it still isn't all that warm and the nights are really cold but it is always a joy to look out at the water. The opening of fishing season this week-end is struggling with the fact that some of the big lakes still have ice on parts of them, but our two bays are all clear and we don't plan to go fishing this week-end anyway. We are excited about a concert Sunday night where the Bemidji Chorale is going to sing John's song NORTHERN MINNESOTA in a 4 part choral arrangement that the director has done. They will also sing it at a big doings on Monday when Bemidji is designated capitol for the day. That will be outdoors so we hope it will warm up. You can see Wag's yellow wheelbarrow in this picture but his planting has been delayed waiting for the ground to get warm. Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms. Cheers from Alice and Wag