Valentine Delight and Snowy Holiday

I am so proud of Rusty's accomplishments on the clarinet!  He practices for several hours twice a day and the sounds keep getting better and better.  He had four different performances in the first ten days of February.

Early this month Rusty played with the Nebraska Chamber Players.

They played pieces from Donizetti, D'Indy, Gounod, and Bizet.  Very beautiful!

After the final concert we enjoyed dinner with several of the musicians.

Bassoonist, Joyce, has a sweet daughter who sold Girl Scout cookies during intermission.

Having sold many, many boxes of GS cookies back in the day, I just couldn't resist taking this picture.

I'm still making my bike-themed notecards.  These were special for Valentine's Day.

Abendmusik put on a lovely event called My Funny Valentine.  The dining area was beautifully decorated with flowers and candles and hearts and rose-shaped napkins.

Tom Trenney played and Drew Duncan sang during dinner.

Dinner was prepared by Lincoln's premier caterer, Aaron Young of ChefauChef.

The main course was Beef Tenderloin and Salmon, Duchess Potatoes, White Asparagus, Black Truffle Demi-glaze Sauce and Kale Chips.

After dinner we relocated to the church sanctuary where Tom Trenney sat at the piano and sang songs from the Great American Songbook.

Our guests for the evening were Karen Griffin, David Wood, and Aimee Griffin.
Both women were students of mine back in the day.

I loved getting dressed up for this elegant evening!

Olivia operates her own medical business, Seastnan Medical, and it has grown enough that she now has her own office space in WeWorks.

Logo on the door!

I'm so proud of her and all of her hard work!

View of K.C. from Olivia's office.

Does this look like a phone booth?  It is!  It's where workers can go to have a private phone conversation.

We attended the Voces8 concert.  Voces8 is a British vocal ensemble currently on tour in the U.S.  Their singing was incredible!

Rusty and I love to spend time in the wilderness, no matter what the season.  We find it to be renewing of spirit--no cell phones, no politics, no news, not even people.  Just God's beautiful world!


“It is a commonplace of all religious thought, even the most primitive, that the man seeking visions and insight must go apart from his fellows and love for a time in the wilderness.” 
― Loren Eiseley


We stayed at a dry cabin on White Iron Lake, just a short distance from the Boundary Waters.  The lake is over 3,200 acres with a shoreline of over 35 miles.

This was our dry cabin for four days.  Very remote.

View from the front door.

View from the back door.

The first day we arrived there was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground, but nothing new.

Once the wood stove heated up the cabin, Rusty was ready to chill outside.

It started snowing the first morning and continued for our entire stay.

We spent a lot of time either snow-shoeing in the woods or skiing on the frozen lake.

Our breakfasts were our favorite:  pour-over coffee and oatmeal with all the fixings,
(raisins, almonds, cherries, brown sugar, and blueberries).

Gretchen loved running the trails, especially in her warm coat.

The cabin had 6 large windows, so when Gretchen wasn't outside, she was "on guard" for any possible wildlife.

Instead of FB or the internet, I chilled in front of the fire.  (Great socks--thanks Sam!)

Gretchen and me on one of our many wilderness walks.

Trips to the outhouse involved a rather treacherous downhill path.

Trips to the sauna were much easier.

Our cabin viewed from the sauna.

We had yummy meals like this pasta and salad.  (wine in the cup)

On Sunday we hiked to the First Church of the Snowbound Deer Stand and said a prayer.

It snowed almost constantly while we were at the cabin.  The snow was very dry and fluffy and light--it almost seemed like fake snow.  It was perfect for playing outside!

Our cabin owner reported we got 16 inches while we were there.

The Ely Winter Festival happens in early February.  We saw the many snow sculptures in the park, but by the time we were headed home, the sculptures were harder to recognize because of all the new snow.  These pictures came from the internet at the time of the competition.

I thought this one was very cool.

Awesome!