Hot - Cold - Open Air

Hot weather has been dominating the summer. Even some mornings were already humid and getting hot. A new project of mine is to create a Lakeside-Lester Park newsletter. This neighborhood newsletter will have short articles pertaining to my neighborhood, calendar, and a place for photos that people submit. I do want people to submit photos of wildlife and their pets to show the non-humans that live here, too. I'll publish it every two months. I rounded up some advertisers and the first issue will go to the printer the end of this week. Maybe I will write a little about dulcimers in a future issue since over 30 dulcimers live at my house. Some are my own and some are for sale. My last banmo (banjo dulcimer) has a new home. It's in Virginia - about an hour north of Duluth.
I've been taking more photos over the last couple weeks to add to the newsletter (space permitting) or I'll add it to my website that will have more links about Lakeside. Yesterday at 8 a.m. I went to Brighton Beach just a couple miles away. It's a beautiful beach just past the Lester River. One of the churches in Lester Park holds morning services there during the summer. I wanted to check it out. A group of about 25 people gathered under the pavilion. It was a gorgeous morning and a special place being next to expansive Lake Superior. The service started with singing. There weren't any instruments but the singing sounded nice in the open air. I recorded it a bit and may put it up on my website. A photo will go into the newsletter. The services will be held on Sundays through Labor Day. Likely the temps will go down. I know I've had to wear gloves one time playing my dulcimer for an event at the Marine Museum in Canal Park in late August. With the Lake, you never know. I also listened to outdoor music on the lawn of beautiful Glensheen Mansion. It's about a mile from my house the other way. On Wednesday nights in July a brass band plays music from earlier times. That evening it happened to be chilly so we brought our blankets. The wind made the difference but at least kept the bugs away. We walked around their gardens. The vegetable garden is fairly large and ha a section of lettuces. Some years they have had assorted quilt patterns using the different lettuce colors. This year it was a big G for Glensheen. Duluth has it all - hot and cold.
Yesterday was the final day of our 10-day chicken-sitting for our neighbor. A new neighbor moved in late this spring and has chickens. We can hear and see them from our house. It's a pleasant sound. Between the five of them they have laid an average of 3 eggs per day. I am putting a little snippet of chickens in the newsletter, too. I had called the city of Duluth and asked how many people in Lakeside have chickens and they said 5. It's a new trend and people can have up to five hens (no roosters). Our cats noticed the chickens right away when they arrived but everyone stays their distance apart.
We were out looking for our cat Elmo one night this week. It was getting dark and he hadn't gotten home yet. We don't let the cats out over night. We called and called and went with our flashlights. I was standing in our street and saw the motion detector go off by the front door and I thought good he has come back. It wasn't Elmo. It was a skunk. We wonder if the skunk is living under our front porch. We did find Elmo over on the golf course. First I heard his bell and then two glowing eyes floating in the air. Bad Elmo for not coming sooner. We kept him inside a couple days and then let him out yesterday. Now he came back "naked" - without his collar. The collars are quick-release and this is actually about the 6th time he's lost one. It adds up to get another one. We have found some old ones on the golf course at night. Maybe we need an invention of a cat collar that would start playing a tune - how about Whiskey Before Breakfast - when we push a button. It would be a mix of a cell phone call and a car door alarm but would be music. Then we could find the cat more quickly AND find the collar.

Happy summer.