SUNSHINE

Such a happy happy kitty.

Nicollet Island

Nicollet Island is quite a quaint, Victorian area of Minneapolis. This was taken on a dreary fall day and while the quaintness is not there so much, I still think this railway bridge is kind of cool and atmospheric.

Not Ashamed

Though some of use do exhibit an amazing amount of "Minnesota Nice," other Minnesotans are not afraid to voice their views loud and clear...and all over their car. (This photo was taken pre-Obama. I wonder how the owners' car looks nowadays.)

Blooming

A lone red blossom amongst the not-quite-ready-to-open green. Anyone know what kind of flower this is? They look fuzzy, though I didn't actually touch them myself.

Book House

This is probably my most favoritest ever second-hand bookstore, Book House in the venerable Minneapolis neighborhood of Dinkytown. (My favorite in Saint Paul is Sixth Chamber Used Books, in case you wanted to know.) Used bookstores are endlessly charming to me, with their dusty, musty smell and their rows and rows of hastily shelved books with lovingly bent covers and well-thumbed, yellowing pages. And Book House epitomizes all the things I love about used bookstores.

Painting job

This house has been half-painted for months now. I think they must have given up over the winter. Maybe now that it's warmer, they'll finally finish the job...

Minnesota History Center

Honestly, I really don't like the Minnesota History Center building. I think it's a bit hideous from the outside, with blocks of what looks like giant brown air vents that should be hidden, not displayed. But I managed to snap a somewhat more aesthetically pleasing image of the building. The enormously tall windows overlap with each other in such a way that it almost looks like a Manhattan skyscraper.

Cathedral at night

I had the tremendous good fortune a few days ago to have a beautifully warm night, a gorgeous cloud-strewn sky, and a perfect high-up perch with a clear view of the Cathedral. I had to stand very still to get this shot to work since I'm not hardcore enough to carry around a tripod (I think this was my second of about fifteen shots--I should've just stopped when I got what I wanted!).

Turret

No doubt some Victorian damsel is quietly reading a book, a cat nuzzled on her knee, peering out the window of this beautiful painted turret. Oh wait, that's just what I'd like to be doing in that turret. One can dream.

Keep Minnesota Tidy

In the 1990s, the City of Saint Paul finally separated out the house sewage and the storm sewer systems so that the Mississippi River would stop being such a toxic, sludgy, dangerous mess. Schoolkids went around town spray-painting these little signs next to the storm sewers along the street. I've always found them quite charming.

Garage Sale

It's that time of year! Time to go garage sale-ing! This one is happening this weekend in my neighborhood, in case you're looking for something to do. I think a flyer I found pinned to a nearby tree said it's at 1011 Lincoln Ave.

Grandview

An excellent local movie theatre. One of only two left in Saint Paul. Support your local cinema! They have such charm and are so much more convenient than driving out to the 'burbs to see a film at a cineplex. (You can see that I took this picture about a couple years ago because of the movies that are advertised...still one of my favorite shots of one of my Saint Paul neighborhoods.)

Wedding!

My cousin's wedding was last weekend. Check out the amount of cupcakes they had! Yummy. I had to snap a quick picture before they were devoured.

Secret Garden #2

Another shot of the secret, locked-up garden along Summit Ave. See the rhino statue? Such an odd little garden. I must find out who it belongs to sometime...and how I can get in!

spring day

 Beautiful weather after a few weeks of rain and clouds. Celebrated a wedding and a birthday in the back garden yesterday and snapped this shot of bright blue sky and the tree in our yard. This is why Minnesota is so fantastic: each season is as wonderful and unexpected as the last.

The L

 The last picture from Chicago for the time being. I just needed to catch up on some Saint Paul photography now that the weather has been nicer. This is the L--don't remember where exactly.

Man in Red Jacket

One of my favorite shots from my recent trip to Chicago. A fortuitous mix of colors and light. This is in the courtyard of the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The World Through the Eyes of a Cat

You know it's spring when your cat spends every waking moment begging to be let outside. And your garden is full of helicopters from the tree next door.

Punk and Monet

So I might post a couple pictures from Chicago. Won't you forgive me? This is at the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm not very good at taking pictures of people I don't know because I feel like I should ask their permission first and I worry that would ruin the spontaneity of the moment. Luckily, this guy had his back turned... Nice to know even the punks like a little Monet.

Also, check out my new favorite blog: http://runningfromcamera.blogspot.com/. So whimsical. I wish I'd thought of it first.

The Bean

Spent the weekend in Chicago. My excuse for posting vacation photos on a Saint Paul photo blog (apparently against the rules--but rules are meant to be broken): whenever I go on vacation my photographic juices flow like no other and I always come home looking at my city with fresh eyes. So that is why I've decided to post at least one photo of my trip. I was mesmerized by the birds who perched on the Bean sculpture in Millennium Park and cast their silhouettes against the towering skyscrapers.

semblance of a whole

This is the side of the Walker Art Center. I'm not entirely sure why I like this quote or its placement, but it's always struck me as quite special.

Nathan Hale

I'm in Chicago right now and have figured out how to do automated posts so I can continue to regale you with photos of my hometown (although I'm slightly worried about running out of my back catalog!). This is a statue of Nathan Hale. I'm ashamed to say that, though I pass it regularly, I have never bothered to find out why he's so goshdarn important and how relates to our fair state of Minnesota. I guess he was a pretty important American spy during the Revolutionary War and must have had some enthusiastic fans in Minnesota at one point or another...

Old Fort Snelling

Historic Fort Snelling as seen from the banks of the Mississippi, peaking over the tops of trees that didn't exist when the fort was first built in 1819. This image seems to definitively say "summer" to me.

Horses

A leftover post from the days when the grand residents of Summit Ave went a-calling on horseback or in their fine carriages. I think it's rather quaint that this house decided to keep their post, which would have been used to tie up the horses (or maybe the residents built a new one in order to look quaint and fool passersby like myself--it's probably unlikely that the wood would have lasted since the late 19th century).

Spire on Summit

A lonely turret on Summit Ave. I need to branch out on my commute. I'm getting sick of shooting Summit Ave...

New York Eagle

The "New York Eagle" is in a little park that overlooks a view of downtown Saint Paul and the West Side. It was a cloudy day and it seemed particularly menacing or looming. I suppose the angle of the shot helps with that effect, too.

Secret Garden

Today was the windiest day I can remember in a long time. And yet, I still walked home along Summit and snapped this photo of the secret garden. That's what I like to call it, anyway. I'm not sure who it belongs to or who gets to wander around in it, but it's always very enticing behind that locked lion's head gate.

Sun after the rain

This is why my camera is woefully inadequate. There was a really cool sunset last night after a rainstorm with the sun just beaming through the dark, billowy clouds on the horizon but this photo doesn't nearly do it justice. I did what I could, but you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the gaps. This was taken from one of the balconies at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons

My cat woke me up at 1:30 this morning as he was chasing around a sewer rat that had gotten into my bedroom. Spent the next four and a half hours trying to get it out before a professional rat catcher finally managed it in ten minutes flat. If you ever need 24 hour pest control, call Falls Creek Animal and Pest Control. I was hugely impressed. Needless to say, I slept late and didn't have time to go "picturing" before my evening work shift started at 3, so I give you this picture that I took yesterday. I've always thought this house on Summit was one of the darkest and most austere of the lot--I think it's that deep red brick that is so hard to brighten up. But with the bright green spring foliage and a splash of afternoon sun through the clouds, it's actually quite romantic looking. Doncha think?

Cathedral and dandelions

I posted a picture of the Saint Paul Cathedral earlier but then took a much better photo on my walk home from work. So here ya go. Alas, on the way to work, there was a gorgeous blue sky with big fluffy clouds and I passed so many photo opps on my walk, but I was late to work so I figured I'd snap the pictures on my way home. By the time I got out of work, the sky had completely clouded over and all my set-ups had been ruined. That'll teach me to be late to work and thus miss valuable photographing time...

Theme Day for May 2010: Statues

From the city across the river, Minneapolis, here is an entry from the Walker Sculpture Garden. This photo is part of the May 2010 Theme Day "Statues" on City Daily Photo.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants