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Summer Sky Entertainment

By Andrea Winkjer Collin, Editor, North Dakota Horizons

One of the greatest pleasures I have traveling during the summer is the entertainment the skies provides.  It's like Mother Nature has placed us in a large amphitheater and puts on a unique show everytime we head down the highway. 

Don Such is a Fargo photographer who had several of his pictures published in some very early issues of North Dakota Horizons.  I know his type, he's the kind who always has a camera at his side. 

He did on July 16 when he was in Bismarck for  the Golden Wedding celebration for former Fargo neighbors, Tom and Diane Schmitz, at Holy Spirit Cathedral.  Following the evening's mass, Don relates, "when we came out we discovered this tremendous thunderhead developing over the city. I wasn't going to let this scene slip by, so I hotfooted it right over to the capitol to take this shot. I picked up the flag shot on the way over."

On their way back to Fargo, Don says, "we drove back to Fargo by back roads on Sunday and were dismayed at all the wet fields, late crops and number of acres that had not been touched since spring melt.  The high temperature and high humidity made for an interesting photo effect.  As I got out of the air-conditioned car to take a picture of an abandoned farmstead, the lens fogged over and gave me an ethereal effect I wasn't counting on!

"We drove through off-again, on-again low clouds and fog all the way to Fargo only to learn later that we were followed by large hail and at least one funnel touchdown."

Thanks, Don, for reminding us of the constant entertainment, and sometimes destruction, of summer weather on the Northern Plains.  I will be on the road this weekend, and will have my camera ready as well.  Unlike Don's, however, my photos never quite capture the magnificance of what my eyes are seeing.

It doesn't mean I can't keep on trying!

 

Bitten By The Gardening Bug

By Kylie Blanchard, Staff Writer

Despite my doubts this spring (when the snow was piled high in the backyard) of my pending success as a first time gardener, I have to say I have taken to the hobby. But more importantly, and still somewhat to my amazement, plants are actually growing in my garden! I have lost just one brussel sprout plant, which never really took from the get go, and now have a full garden that also includes potatoes, onions, carrots, beans, peas, squash, peppers and a pumpkin plant (which I think is going to take over the better part of the backyard before the summer is over).

I have really enjoyed "tootling in the garden," as I often refer to my one or two late evenings a week spent tending to the plants, pulling pesky weeds and watering the garden. And with great excitement I announced to almost everyone I talked to late last week that I actually had a pepper growing on one of the plants - the first official "fruit" of my efforts.  

But I have to admit, I have also become quite protective of my garden. I have called my Dad to water it when we were out of town and the temperatures were toasty. I have fretted when thunderstorm watches and warnings predicted hail (maybe I could build some sort of removable roof for my garden?). And recently, I faced my greatest gardening nemesis thus far, Mr. Rabbit.

Before I even planted, I put a small fence around the garden in the hopes that it would keep the rabbits at bay. I then added a garden gnome (affectionately called "Gnorman") and a small rotating windsock (which my son named "Windy") in the hopes of scaring the little buggers away from the plants. I thought all was well until I looked out our dining room window the other evening and, much to my shock and dismay, Mr. Rabbit was munching on the lettuce row! (Really, I am not making this up, he went right for the lettuce!)

Startling my husband and son, I exclaimed "No!" and quickly got up from the dinner table, shot out the front door, across the deck, around the house and across the backyard toward the garden, loudly shooing Mr. Rabbit away. I must have been intimidating enough because he bolted out of the garden, disclosing his sneaky hole under the fence and, thankfully, left minimal damage in the lettuce row. Relieved, I turned around to go back inside and finish my supper and caught my husband and son standing in the window, laughing at me.

I spent a good chunk of the rest of that evening "tootling in the garden," fixing the fence, weeding and checking out the additional vegetables that are beginning to make their appearance. I am looking forward to picking veggies in the next few weeks, but until then I'll be happy "tootling" and keeping a close eye on Mr. Rabbit.