It’s so cold these frozen April nights in Minnesota that Woodstock even visits!

#MardiGras #LunarNewYear #SolarEclipse #Ramadan — all today, February 17, 2026. #NewMoon enters #Pisces bringing spiritual & philanthropic progress. Forget Presidents' Day. At least forget the current criminal POTUS! Today we all #MoveOn ! Llewellyn Worldwide

My #LittleFreeLibrary in #Minneapolis in January saw least turnover of books in years. Barely 1 every other day, typically 2 a day. #Neighbors really read & donate, but #Community so focused on #ICEout, everyday life has changed. See my books at Longfellow.LIfe

#Minneapolis Star Tribune Sports January 30th reports #ICEout story: (Hockey) Ice was a #sanctuary until ICE agents came to town. Vast majority of #Minnesota people do not feel safe. For real good reasons until #Trump is totally restrained.

“I have friends everywhere,” says Cassian Andor, the code phrase for rebels opposing Imperial Authoritarianism in Star Wars: Andor. “It’s a neighborly day in this beautywood … Please, won’t you be my neighbor?” sang Mister Rogers on TV. From Minnesota to America: I have Neighbors Everywhere #ICEout

Watch today’s #Minneapolis #ICEout #Rally live on YouTube via Mercado Media Mercado Media on YouTube

Minneapolis was a peaceful sleepy city come January 2026. With a frozen winter landscape, we hoped for fresh snow for skiing, shoeing, snow sculptures. This morning my own urban street is calm—however a vigil at 26th & Nicollet on dear Eat Street marks the site of a Federal murder. #ICEout

Junko #birds at our feeder are puffed up with extra downy feathers. Stylin' with their hip #Puffer look. Image by The Perfect Shot © CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Swear every bottle, each jar, all my sauces and secret ingredients are Not Expired—so back in the clean refrigerator they go for 2026! #NewYearsResolution

Minnesota Winter Roofcicles #Frost

Holiday season is a special time of year. Old myths are nice enough, or there’s always Krampus… #Solstice brings time for #Reflection. Family memories go back to the best of times, beyond the worst of times as may happen. Here’s my seven-year-old ornament selection from Frank’s Nursery and Crafts.

Menards has a #BlackFriday deal in honor of #Atwood & #HandmaidsTale. Whoda thunk any BigBox store would sell Red Cloaks to the #Woke demographic? Oversized Red Comfort Hoodie Blanket

After watching the first two #Pluribus episodes, seeing some odd little things differently. Not just social media memes & such. More low-level, like: *Yes, David there’s a GIF for that emotion you can view & transmit via the HIVE…

Northern Lights in Minnesota are wild. Sky overhead blanketed in red last night. Here’s from Ely tonight with dancing colors.Live YouTube of Northern Lights

Roasted red peppers and Roma tomatoes cooked down for a couple quarts of sauce to freeze.

When you got old bananas, you can could compost, or bake Banana-Nut Muffins. Yum the latter.

Someone visiting Panera for a cup of coffee did the math—exactly 74¢ for a 20% tip on a VISA credit charge. Cash is back baby & check the years on those pennies. And some people still have math, like drummers have time… #currency #economy #math

Skarjune brews last sun tea of season.

88° in Minneapolis, but it’s Autumn and time for Mums

Late summer Pesto Bruschetta on the patio. Followed by a sunset supper of Wisconsin brats & grilled corn ribs—new thing turned out cravable.

Farm Aid 40 streaming live from Minneapolis, as Minnesota farmers sit on 7 million acres of soybeans worth billions $ going nowhere due to Trump policies. More and more Americans need hope & help, not hate & hurt. Farm Aid 40 on YouTube

Zoomed photo, but does show that we have Goldfinches at our bird feeder & they do like the sunflower & safflower kernals.

Little Prairie on the Alley

Laughing Waters Bluegrass Festival kicks off for a day of music at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis by the Falls. Pete’s PoolHall picking & grinning.

Garden Basil 2nd planting of Sweet & Thai varieties coming along nicely towards a Pesto harvest.

This Wild Turkey spent a morning gleaning our yard.

Posting at local market in Minneapolis. Amongst the urban jungle of squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, racoons, alley cats, stray dogs, and that coyote — eye out for a big old turtle.

Here come the Purple Coneflowers.

WISHING DREAMING

Mazy at the door wishing and dreaming out there.

Waiting at auto repair shop. Spacing out on vehicles streaming by…

Jubilee Celebration at Soul of the Southside for #Juneteenth healing the community in Minneapolis where we remember unrest over George Floyd. Soul of the Southside

The baby bunnies believe they are hiding in our tall turf when they visit to harvest some clover. There you are little one.

No Kings Minnesota State Capitol

Micro-clover in our turf makes a beautiful carpet, all natural with just Corn Gluten for both anti-weed pre-emergent & slow-release fertilizer. You can have emerald green, I like clover green!

This little leaf branching out on our big ol' Red Maple on a rainy Spring day.

Once again, a public library book oddly dropped into our Little Free Library. Checked out from a St. Paul location, due May 27. Will return in person and inform Librarian. Coulda been lost—whatever—but mark over id tag, Really? Our little corner stand ain’t no big ol' Library! Read all the things…

Perennial columbine blooms brightly in our wildflower bed.

Our Norway Red Maple is turning from red to green, showing crimson from lessening burgundy in the sun while glowing yellow from underneath as leaves develop. Nature does such colors.

More than a hundred Latino dancers with fantastic moves & colors in the Minneapolis May Day Parade on the way to Powderhorn Park. A long-standing community celebration of People Power & Worker/Human Rights.

Southside Battletrain belches fire in the Minneapolis May Day Parade on the way to Powderhorn Park. A long-standing community celebration of People Power & Worker/Human Rights.

Our first Dandelion of Spring, so May Day is just around the corner.

Today’s MN Star Tribune newspaper headlines are mind-boggling! UnitedHealth Group stock dropped 22% due to the annual profit estimate lowered from over $27 billion to just $24 billion. Meanwhile, hospitals are failing due to staffing costs. Why pay doctors and nurses, instead of massive profits?

Gigging the Long Tail

Picked up a fave black tea at United Noodles in Minneapolis. Chinese Lichee adds a pleasant fruit flavor—almost as nice as the incredible Currant Black Tea from Grand Fete in Hudson, Wisconsin. Good alternatives to swigging my morning coffee.

Encountered this discarded sign outside a bus stop along Minnehaha & East Lake near our abandoned Minneapolis Police station. Didn’t pay off?

Spring Equinox Sunset over East Lake Street, Minneapolis looking straight West. A bit stratified on horizon — clearer years, I capture a Yellow Ball hitting the pavements

Nine inches of heavy snow atop freezing rain in Minneapolis makes for lots of icicles and snow shelves.

RIP Chloe circa 2008—2024 She was a shelter cat with history, but a fun companion with lotsa spunk. Let the hole in my heart fill with sweet memories. Chloe’s Adoption Note

Yea, voted early at a Popup in Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Making a day of it for a personal holiday! Democracy, Art, and ending with Jazz & small plates at Berlin club downtown listening to Brandon Wozniak and Bryan Nichols. Vote & Celebrate Peeps!!!

Was putting The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon in my Little Free Library, then noticed the back cover Promo: HE WANTED POWER. SHE WANTED REVENGE. Now I need to read this Presidential Campaign Thriller as it echoes current headlines.

So enjoyed visiting Sterling Vineyards up a gondola ride for gorgeous views of Napa Valley in Calistoga CA. Oh, excellent wines too.

Hibiscus flower is blooming. Short-lived gigantic flowers that look like satellite dishes to fetch the bees. To celebrate made a batch of Hibiscus sun tea for summer punch.

Here’s Berrien Public Beach near Union Pier, Michigan, on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, where the beach goes on forever…

Deconstructed Shrimp Kebab on the Barbi.

The common Minnesota Prairie Spiderwort can pop up anywhere, like my urban alleyway. Tradescantia Occidentalis

Nice Spring weather & blooms here in Minnesota. Our Red Maple has burst out over past 3 weeks. Leaves 5x6 inches, smooth as finest silk.

First Dandelion of Spring 🌼 in March?!

Been a year since Barber Bob closed the MGEX Barbershop 💈 and fun to see the Media blitz we got. But mothballing the site to the old WordPress morgue on anniversary tomorrow.

Vernal Equinox sunset over East Lake Street, Minneapolis.

Tulips sprouting almost a month early this year.

Michele’s Avocado Toast

Month old carnations in the window

All the Little Free Library books were taken overnight. Happens once a year somehow. My faith in humanity is dinged, while my hope for literacy carries on. Libraries forever!

1,000 Books served at our Longfellow Villa Little Free Library since 2002. Thanks to neighbors who share & read. Books logged with Library Thing displayed on site at Longfellow.Life

Cast iron skillet Cornbread, for some hot chili on a chill November eve.

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

Buttermilk biscuits and cinnamon crunch cookie from dough scraps. Now open the Apple Butter from Whistling Well Orchard.

MORNING DEW

Walk me out in the morning dew.

GLORIOUS MORNINGS

Wall of Morning Glories

GIANT JAMAICA BLOOMS

Giant Jamaica Flower blooms on Hibiscus plant

Thick honeysuckle bushes at Lake Independence in Baker Park Reserve.

Pasta Salad today, yesterday, and tomorrow. It’s really summer.

We have a robin nesting at our garage.

Maiden of Minehaha Falls

Baking biscuits for Brunch. To be topped with Asparagus & Avgolemono sauce.

Art in Bloom at Minneapolis Institute of Art has over 100 floral displays, each paired with an inspiring artwork.

Attended the Center for Photographic Studies on Main Street in Louisville a few blocks from the Old National Bank, site of a tragic mass shooting yesterday. Documented club & street life on the funky old West Main strip way back in 1975. So sad, we must change.

8-1/2 inches fresh snow this morning in Minneapolis.

Feels like Spring 🌼

BARBER BOB TRENDING WITH OUR WORD & IMAGE PRESS CAMPAIGN

Barber Bob trending on local news in Minneapolis, with our targeted press campaign by Word & Image. Got several TV news stories, a radio story, and several online news stories. Too bad it celebrates the closing of a 120-year-old historic institution. Grain Exchange Barbershop | Media | in the News

It looks kinda Secure with just a tiny lock (not really), but a big mail slot on the side allows an arm to reach in. March Photoblogging Challenge Day 1 #mbmar

Daily photo of Little Free Library box to update my LibraryThing collection for status of books available or gone. Some 600 titles logged for 2022. Tiny HTML/CSS/JS site embeds current LibraryThing shelf plus a local Tweet feed. Longfellow.Life

Ice in Bloom at Minneapolis Art Institute

Baked buttermilk biscuits & pinwheels for Saturday breakfast. Frosted too on a frosty Minnesota morning.

Fourth day waking to snow in Minnesota.

Cooking Tip Made biscuits and gravy for brunch this morning. The biscuits always bake perfectly fluffy and flaky with these four things in any recipe: Buttermilk Frozen Butter Fold don’t Knead Cast Iron I do use cast iron pots and pans for most cooking. Good buttermilk is a must for fluff. Just keep a stick of butter in the freezer to grate as called for in any recipe for flaky texture.

Visited a few Holiday Markets today. Finding beautiful, affordale Arts & Crafts meeting the makers and supporting the host organizations. Cards to send, art to hang or gift, household crafts to cherish, use, and pass to family and friends. 😷 Plus for our household, open-air atriums, taprooms, and church halls are a safe fun way to meet up with folks. 😊