From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

Last week I reluctantly gave in. I turned on the furnace to warm the house and me. I was freezing, chilled by dampness and cold. Usually I wait until November, if I can stand the low temps, but this year the dampness was too much for this hardy Minnesotan. I need wool, flannels and HEAT! Today I remembered how our moms would freeze when they came to our home in the winter. We’re aging like Esther and Agnes: we feel the dampness and cold much more than we did when we were younger.  

My blooming red geraniums are still lovely on the deck facing the lake as well as our entrance, but it’s time for them to be cleaned up and come indoors. As the temperatures drop, my hardy geraniums are just fine outdoors until frost descends. To save them from wilting and dying, I clean up the dead leaves and dried blooms and bring them into my warm kitchen garden window and the ledge of the south facing window in our stairway. Happily they bloom all winter in their summy, warm locale. I water them weekly and keep the heat on low. Their red and pink blooms make me smile during our freezing, snowy white winters.

October is the month Dave and I take a fall trip. Usually we fly out east to my sister Barb’s home in upstate New York, but since she visited us in Minnesota in September, we decided to drive south for a few days to view the colorful maple leaves. In our neighborhood the leaves are spectacular; however, they’ve peaked already. Hopefully, leaves will still be brilliantly red and orange and the air crisp and sunny south of the Cities.  

We plan to drive to Winona to visit the Minnesota Marine Art Museum where we stopped several years ago. The museum exhibits art relating to water. We were very impressed with the art in the galleries where they exhibited works by Picasso and Monet. The global Fastenal Company, headquartered in Winona, has sponsored this museum with high quality art worth millions. The museum is not overpowering with size; it’s the perfect size of galleries for us as our attention and our feet tire after an hour. 

From Winona we’ll drive to Spring Green, Wisconsin, to visit Taliesin, the 800 acre estate of Frank Loyd Wright’s architectural studio, school and home. We booked an hour’s tour of the place to give us an overview of this famous architect’s work. Our home on the lake on Casco Point has many features of Wright’s designs: natural wood structure, flat roof, walls of windows and oak wood floors. It’ll be fun to check out the area’s homes built by Wright. I’ve heard the stiff wooden furniture is not comfortable but it adheres to his “natural” mode of design. I prefer the comfy cushions of my red leather chairs, which must be thirty years old.  

From Spring Green we’ll drive north to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, to visit college friends Mary and Greg. At Luther college, Mary and I were roommates at Sunnyside, a small gabled cottage housing seventeen girls located next to the college president’s home and fraternity row.  Mary and I spent the summer traveling in Europe on $5 a day after college graduation. Oh, the adventures we had trying to communicate with Europeans with our college French and German language lessons. Mideast expatriots and fending off frisky Italians! We Sunnyside gals stay in touch with each other. We still meet at some place in the states every other year; however, it’s getting harder to get together as several women and their families are experiencing health issues.

It’s time to organize another gathering of friends. While we’re still healthy, let’s make plans to go see folks we miss and places we’ve always wanted to visit. My dear friend, ninety-year-old Ruth, always reiterated, “I’m always been curious so I’ll never grow old.” Stay YOUNG! Get out and do those things you always think about doing and see friends you miss.

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.