Join me for a little lunch. Or something. Sometimes.
Collinwood, home to the Collins family, features gothic architecture and many candles in Dark Shadows Blue.
French poet, writer, and imp Apollinaire invented the calligramme. Minnesota’s famous shapes would make good calligrammes.
We creatures of the earth shouldn’t eat each other’s lips. That’s my firm view.
Red Wing, Minnesota is one of few places in the United States where you can train to repair and care for brass band instruments.
You’d be crazy to cross Mr Smith’s garden. But one night I had to.
Things were being moved. Things were being eaten.
When I left Stearns County to live in New Zealand, one of the things lost to me was cherry pie.
How is it that I never knew about fairy crosses, even though you can find them on the banks of the Blanchard Dam?
Stearns County and the whole of Minnesota are a hunting ground for vintage items and antiques.
Clothing for all weathers is essential in Minnesota. Parkas, mittens, sweaters, boots. Plus boogers in the shoulder seasons.
Lena and Mina were my grandmothers – Stearns County, Minnesota women who grew up and raised families in small towns around the Lake Wobegon Trail. Born in the USA, they spoke German and had German accents. As did my parents, who spoke only German until they went to school. As do some of my cousins, who have never lived anywhere but Stearns County. We’re quirky folks, like those in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Stearns town of Lake Wobegon. I’m Laurie Hilsgen, and if you’re reading this, you might be Wobegonian, too. Let’s celebrate our loony ways. Oh ja!
