Chanhassen  *  952-934-5659

Leuthner Well Company

Victoria * 952-443-2582

Laser and Electrolysis

Chanhassen  952-474-7474

Dine in Downtown Victoria * 952-443-2858

Victoria  *  952-443-2022

MACKENTHUN’S Gourmet Meats

Victoria  *  952-443-1841

St. Bonifacius  *  952-446-1338

Holy Family Catholic High School

Victoria * 952-443-4659

by Sue Orsen

It’s not a matter of worshiping Mother Nature or Planet Earth.  It’s a matter of recognizing the gift and respecting the life.  It’s a matter of noticing her beauty and listening to the voice of her Maker.  We sit on the lap of her luxury, especially here in Victoria, Minnesota, and sometimes take her generosity for granted.

So let us reach out to touch her grandeur once again.  Let us take a moment to ponder the spring things in her world -- our world, for it is a world given to us, temporarily, for safekeeping.  It is a world of order, with symmetry, balance, form, and function.  We inhale and breathe in the peace be with you.

Last week I visited the Lowry Nature Center here in Victoria and walked the trails with interpretive naturalist Mary Vanderford.  It was about 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 23rd, as I drove through the entrance gate at  County Road 11, just a mile or so north of the Dairy Queen.  I immediately saw an osprey nesting high on top of a platform pole near the gate.

A minute later I was strolling in the sunshine of a 75-degree morning, aware of wrens and redwinged blackbirds and yellow finches, all of them flitting within a few feet of me.  They know from whence comes their protected habitat, not to mention the feed in the nearby birdfeeders. 

As I took pictures, Mary Vanderford taught me more about Mother Nature on this beautiful spring day.  All of these pictures, plus several others that I took that beautiful morning, are located in natural living color on my website — in Sue’s Album.  Scroll to the bottom.  Want a shortcut?  Click here.  Shortcut to Mother Nature.

Island View Dining

Waconia.  952-442-2956

Hook

Line & Sinker

Letters

to the Editor

Calendar

of Events

The Scoop

at City Hall

Front Page

Feature Story

Headlines

and bylines

From the

Editor

Notes and

Quotes

Order

paper Gazette

Click here to

Advertise

Victoria

Moments

Return to

Home Page

Email

the Gazette

Addie’s

Drawing

Homeowners throughout the Midwest are, most likely, not terribly fond of boxelder bugs, especially when their armies swarm the south side of our homes and garages, basking in the sun and producing more of their kind.  Their most favorite fruit in the whole wide world, according to Mary Vanderford, pictured above, is the seed pods on female boxelder trees, a close cousin of maple trees.  Boxelder bugs are also fond of maple seeds, unfortunately.