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Cousin Audrey’s youngest daughter, Terri, is the lure that will always bring me back to MInnesota…even if Robert and Marsha permanently decamp to Florida some day. Terri seems to be a center around which the extended family of Hahns, Nesets, Tacks and more can revolve. Audrey is nearby in a nursing home but no longer able to be active physically or very present mentally. The eldest son Randy died some years ago,… Read More
An important rite of summer is cousin-visiting: Audrey in Minnesota and Vivian in South Dakota. Up on the Canadian border with Audrey I indulge in piece after piece of walleye. Down in Sioux Falls with Vivian I eat dumpling after dumpling—perfect dumplings: solid and chewy like mom used to make–none of those fluffy Bisquick kind of fake-dumplings. Vivian’s my cousin on mom’s side and, since she’s a little older, I’ve known… Read More
Terri and Brian’s land is probably about 2/3 open field and 1/3 fairly dense woods. Brian is with Polaris so he gets a new vehicle or two to drive and evaluate every year. This year it’s a large ATV Ranger, first time I’ve ever seen one of those noisy toys I liked! Terri took us for a ride in their woods and I wanted one…to go the three blocks to the grocery… Read More
One should only eat walleye in Minnesota at a cousin’s house. Oh sure, some number of restaurants serve walleye but, even though good-enough, it won’t taste like it does at Terri and Brian’s. Truth About Walleye And Their Taste (deepwaterfishery.com) The walleye has white flesh. It has a less murky taste than bass. Fish fillets which are fine and flaked have a sweet, thick, succulent and mild flavour. These terms basically describe… Read More
What better way to end the holidays than with those wild California kids. They made the Thanksgiving holiday so much fun, so full of pleasure and joy. Today it’s a rainy (seventeen snowflakes around noon) wintery day; Friday actual snow is projected but this is Albuquerque so what are the odds! Enjoy….
There was that most pleasurable rainy ride from Stavanger shared in all of those raindrop photos—leading up to the best possible time in Kristiansand. My family here includes Tone, Simon, Oda and Erland. Tone is the daughter of my second-cousin, Gurine, whom I first met in 1985. I liked her so much; she and I agreed back then that if only we lived closer to each other we would become such good… Read More
Having family in Norway and Sweden is possibly the nicest thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve now visited often enough so that the country of Norway and my Norwegian cousins feel like they must have been part of my life always. With my newly discovered Swedish cousins it just gets even better. I’ve mentioned before pondering all of the reasons this extended family pleases me so very much and there are… Read More
The excitement surrounding the meeting of the Swedish cousins is based, in no small part, on my mysterious grandmothers, one Norwegian, one more Swedish than we knew. The grandfathers have been more easily knowable. In the case of Grandpa Neset—I lived next door to him as a child and I was able to find my Norwegian Neset cousins fairly easily. Getting to know them over the years has been enormously interesting and… Read More
Scandinavians used to live out their cold dark winters in Long Houses, the animals at one end, the humans at the other. It seems to have worked rather well since we do continue in great friendship with our furred and feathered companions. This is a wrap of the South Dakota visit, a warmly reassuring trip to a familiar family place. A few photos…mostly animals…although a few humans crept in. Cousins all. And… Read More
So here’s the thing about abnbs. When you’re in a ‘foreign’ country don’t you always wonder how the natives live? I mean on a daily basis, personally, in their most private of spaces and moments. Do they use duvets or sheets and blankets? What sort of knickknacks do they put on corner tables? What do they eat just before going to bed? Well, turns out that in the kind of abnb that’s… Read More