There's something in the air...

We were hanging out, drinking a Shell's Zommerfest and enjoying the season premiere of Fringe last Thursday night. Fringe is an awesomely strange and sometimes scary show very much like the X-files. But while we were watching the tube, Hana was watching the ceiling. It seems that some unknown entity was catching her eye. She was transfixed. And it went on all night. She would stand up on the arm rest and stretch as high as she could. This happened over and over until we finally went to get the camera. You know how it goes when you try to photograph your pets. They get distracted and stop doing the cute things you want to capture. But she kept it up. And when she wasn't on the arm rest she was pacing around and meowing. What the heck? Do we need ghost hunters? Or maybe just a fly swatter. Editors note: Any bugs were not detected by the human eye. Mysterious... Fringe worthy...

My art pick for the week is a small framed piece of cats watching a bird. (from my art fair days several years ago) And the poor bird is losing a few feathers at the thought of his feline onlookers. I wonder what the unseen entity thought of Hana while she watched (it) so intensely. Hmmmm. For more ghost busting cats visit http://www.gattinamycats.blogspot.com/

The Stone Barn

We made two visits to The Stone Barn this Summer. And there are only two more weekends to savor it's pizza goodness.

The Stone Barn serves it's wood fired pizzas inside the weathered old walls of a barn built in 1896 by the Olson family. If you begin your journey in Minneapolis like we do, the drive is part of the fun. First you curve alongside the Mississippi river enjoying the scenic beauty of rolling hills and rugged bluffs. Then you venture along the quiet back roads that lead to the pizza farm. Don't worry. Just park on the lawn and stroll in to place your order. Finally, enjoy some of the best pizza around. Life is good. But this story does not have a happy ending. On October 3 the flames go out. At least for hungry strangers! http://www.nelsonstonebarn.com/

Hawk Ridge. Part of the magical mushroom tour.

This Kestrel was captured as she passed through Duluth's, "Highway in the Sky" Each year 100,000 raptors are spotted from Hawk Ridge. Lake Superior creates the perfect flyway. It forces migrants reluctant to fly across large bodies of water to head Southwest along the scenic North Shore. The last photo was taken just before the bird was released to finish her journey South. http://www.hawkridge.org/

After watching the hawks (and the beautiful view of lake Superior) we started our own journey. 2010's magical mushroom tour. Check it out.

Let's climb a tree!

Last fall I won the Minnesota SCBWI's mentorship award. My prize was a year under the wing of award winning children's book illustrator Carrie Hartman. http://www.carriehartman.com/ My mentorship will come to an end this month. My final act as the official mentee will be to hand over my sparkly tiara at this year's conference. Or maybe I have that confused with something else. But one thing is certain. I illustrated the theme for this year's conference, Confessions of a Children's Book Lover. I envisioned a young boy climbing a tree to hide out and read his favorite book. I had a little fun with the book that the boy is reading. My friend Nina illustrated her first published book this year. To find out more about the real book, Cedric and the Dragon visit http://www.ninacrittenden.blogspot.com/

For more info on this year's conference visit: http://www.minnesotascbwi.org/

Now for the fun part of this post. I added 3 videos of me and the hubb's tree climbing adventure at Hacienda Baru in Costa Rica. http://www.haciendabaru.com/ Some people manage to climb 120 feet to the top of a massive tree. But we weren't one of them! In the end we climbed around 50 feet. Dangled awhile and gave up with our tail between our legs. Turn up the volume to hear the loud jungle sounds. My sky diving blogging pal DJan will probably laugh at us. Right DJan?