Categories
Out and About

Late Spring at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Today, my mom and I checked out the 40,000 blooming tulips and completed the Three-Mile Walk at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota.

Red, orange, and yellow tulips
Pink tulips
Red and white tulips
Idyllic path near the beginning of the Three-Mile Walk
Athyrium filix-femina, the lady fern
Fallen Quercus rubra, the red oak
Scenic view
Male red-winged blackbird on cattails by a pond
Mushy path in a bubbling bog
Signpost along the Three-Mile Walk
Categories
Out and About

Excelsior at the Golden Hour

For my first photos of 2022 taken with my professional camera, I visited Excelsior, Minnesota, at the golden hour—the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. I was there today for the sunset. These photos depict some of my favorite places as a child.

The Glow Lounge (I’m not sure what it is)
Excelsior Coin & Collectibles, a shop I used to visit as a child to add to my coin collection
Licks Unlimited, where my favorite ice cream flavor was Superman
Excelsior Dock Cinema, where they are showing the 2022 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel, Firestarter. I didn’t see that many movies here as a child, but I do remember seeing Twister at the theater.
Leipold’s, a store selling antiques and odds and ends. There was an article about this unique store in the Star Tribune, which one can read here.
An abandoned gas station in the heart of Excelsior. I wonder what they’re planning on doing with this building.
Trinity Episcopal Church, the church my family attended when I was a child
RentMyPartyBus.com was parked near Lake Minnetonka
Lady of the Lake, a three-deck charter boat on Lake Minnetonka
A tree in the foreground and the moon in the way, way background
Commons Ballpark
Bark on three similar trees near Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka two minutes before sunset
Categories
Pug Life

Carver Park Reserve Off-Leash Dog Park in Autumn

Today, my mom, puggles, and I made it to Carver Park Reserve Off-Leash Dog Park in Victoria, Minnesota. This dog park is actually the only dog park we knew about after getting Pugsley, and it wasn’t for quite some time that we found out about all the other dog parks in the area.

According to the Minnesota DNR’s Fall Color Finder, now is the perfect time for fall colors in Victoria. However, fall colors this year are not as spectacular as other years because of the drought we had this summer. Nevertheless, it was a nice day to visit a dog park and get some photos.

Missy and Pugsley by a fence
Pugsley deciding not to go in the woods
Pugsley by a fence and entrance to the area for small dogs. Ours were the biggest dogs there.
Missy and Pugsley take a break off the path to enjoy the smell of grass
Pugsley smelling more grass with my mom and Missy walking toward Lake Zumbra in the background
A nice portrait of Pugsley in the grass
Missy walking over some fallen leaves on the path
Categories
Out and About

Two Late July Days in ‘a Run for Hottest Day of the Year’

Today and tomorrow are in “a run for hottest day of the year,” according to the National Weather Service’s forecast office in the Twin Cities/Chanhassen, MN.

I took this photo at 7:23 a.m.

The morning sky on one of the hottest days of the year

Categories
Out and About

Road Trip to Tennessee

For Memorial Day, my parents and I traveled by car to visit the family of my brother’s fiancée. All but one of these photos were taken when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch in Missouri, though I do have more photos that were taken with my iPhone. Unfortunately, I can’t open the photos taken with my iPhone on this Linux computer because they are .heic files, which this computer does not recognize. That being said, I am grateful the weather cooperated when we were at the Gateway Arch, since these are some of the best photos I’ve taken with my Canon EOS R.

A portrait of my mom in front of the Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch next to the St. Louis skyline
My mom walks our dogs by the Gateway Arch. (Yes, the Hyatt is dog-friendly.)
Missy and Pugsley near the Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (in Tennessee)
Categories
Uncategorized

Jeers Is My New Blog

Jeers logo (July 2023–present)

I launched Jeers today. Jeers will become my new blog, though I will still use NicholasScribner.com for photography.

Categories
Uncategorized

First Snow

The first snow of the season came at 9 a.m. today in the Twin Cities.

Categories
Gear

Buy a Hummingbird Feeder, and the Hummingbirds Will Come

A couple months ago, I read a gear review on Wired.com about hummingbird feeders. Since my mom is a huge hummingbird fan and has tons of hummingbird decorations, I told her to read the review. We bought a hummingbird feeder—and, later, a second one—and ever since we have been frequented by hummingbirds. If you like hummingbirds, it makes so much sense to have a hummingbird feeder (or two) so you can enjoy hummingbirds every day rather than waiting for perhaps one the entire summer.

Even though the high was around 60 degrees today, and I’m guessing the hummingbirds are beginning to migrate south from Minnesota, I only had to wait about 30 minutes before I captured this hummingbird at one of our feeders this evening.

A hummingbird drinks sugar water out of a hummingbird feeder

The hummingbird feeders we use cost $30 on Amazon. We followed the instructions for the sugar water that were included with the feeders, and the hummingbirds seem to love it!

My mom has a view of the hummingbird feeders from her new home office, which I assembled

My mom had previously counted about 20 days in a row seeing hummingbirds.

And that is so much better than just one sighting for the entire summer.

Categories
Gear

Everyone Needs a Weather Radio

I bought my first Midland NOAA weather alert radio in 2016. It has informed me of weather hazards numerous times since then. Had I not owned the weather radio, I wouldn’t have bothered checking the weather report manually and wouldn’t have known that severe weather was approaching. The weather radios provide me with alerts in every season, warning me of everything from tornadoes to blizzards.

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in the Twin Cities/Chanhassen, Minnesota. Pictured is the Doppler radar.

I’ve only used Midland weather radios, which are apparently the most popular brand. I have three different models: the weather-only WR120EZ, the WR400 (new model), and the WR300 (old model). The latter two include AM/FM, and they are therefore my picks.

I wanted to make this post to inform everyone how important it is to own a NOAA weather radio. I also wanted a way to save the user manuals, which I often worry I won’t be able to find (in my house or online). Here are pictures of the aforementioned weather radios in addition to their user manuals (linked at the end of this post as PDFs).

Midland WR120EZ
Midland WR400
Midland WR300
Categories
Pug Life

My Dogs at the Golden Hour

In photography, the golden hour is defined as the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. Many photographers consider it the best time for photography, because of the pleasing, warm tones it gives. I used to go out a few times a week at the golden hour to take pictures. More recently, I haven’t been as interested in photography, but this website is sure to change that.

This evening, I went out with my dogs, beginning an hour before sunset. These are the results.

Pugsley and Missy in the grass
Missy stares pensively in the grass
Missy flashes a smile for the camera