Friday, April 20, 2007

The real Prairie Home Companion


Call us selfish (just don't call us shell fish!), but around here, we don't just have birthdays as much as we have entire birth weekends. So for Earth Day (this Sunday, April 21), we thought it'd only be fitting and human to extend our annual celebration of ourselves to the lovely universe that bore us.

First, we planned to begin the gratitude party by whispering affirmations and apologies to our enchanting, giant, water-filled friend: "Hey, Earth! I just love that mix of high- and low-brow art you made in my yard in the form of a scraggly rhododendron hybrid!" And also: "Yo, whatup, Earf!? Sorry I was all down on you the other week for the April snowstorm. It wasn't you I was mad at, but your behavior. And my therapist says I have to learn I cannot control how anyone behaves, you know?"

We thought about leaving the earth tiny baskets of strawberries, too, but that would totally be re-gifting. So instead we're planning on honoring sweet Ms. Universe by gathering with other lovers of the globe and two-wheels at 8:30 am on Saturday, near Lake Calhoun, to clean up the Midtown Greenway--a lovely bike path of glory that cuts through the Cities and connects everything beautiful about them, including hidden treasures like the Dirtiest and Largest Graffiti in the World. (Hint: It's near Cedar Lake.)

Then on Sunday morning we're off to Schaefer Prairie, a protected, 160-acre preserve only 45 minutes outside of the Cities. With more than 245 native plant species and wildlife and wildflowers that are continually threatened, the preserve is in need of volunteers to aid in seed collection and distribution. We're looking forward to checking out the bucolic beauty in its annual humble beginnings. And in May, we're going to return to the giant, outdoor lesson in love and nature for the rainbows of blooming wildflowers like aster, primrose, and goldenrod. Hooray for spring, and Earth Day, and every sunny day in between!

Midtown Greenway: http://www.midtowngreenway.org/index.html
Schaefer Prairie: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/minnesota/preserves/art7151.html

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