First off I’d like to say how much I like the header on my blog. It looks like the sunsets at our farm we saw growing up. We lived on a hill east of Hudson and had just fabulous sunsets. If we got out of the barn early enough to see them that is!
Awesome sunsets are something that all my family seems to enjoy, perhaps because it signified another day of farm chores being done. After the sun had set, we could see the lights come on across the horizon. Back then you could pick out who was home and who was still in the barn. There were so few houses then; Aldro Larson, Wells’, Rohl’s, Ellertson’s, Hayes’, Kelly’s and the JR Ranch. We could also see a few lights from the city of Hudson and a bit of a glow from the twin cities. Eventually we had the NSP tower lights to look at and still use that as a wind gauge!
On a really clear night we were able to see the weather ball on First National Bank in St. Paul. We were also able to watch fireworks from Cottage Grove all the way to White Bear Lake. They weren’t spectacular, but it was fun to scan the horizon to point out a new display.
Now when I stop by the farm to watch a sunset, we can see the lights of Woodbury creeping over the horizon, and it looks like a firefly convention across the land with all the lights.
We also had beautiful sunrises at the farm. If we were up early to go out to the field to get the cows, it was a peaceful time of day. Fresh dew on the grass, interesting things to see on the way out to the field, peacefully quiet as the cows would amble back to the barn, me slowly waking up. Looking back, I sometimes kind of long for those days, and then I wake up in my comfy bed and go, naaaah, I’m good right here.
Another advantage of big skies & sunsets was big skies and incoming weather. I still like being able to actually see the incoming weather from afar and not depend on a weather man or accuweather. Watching a big thunder storm rolling in is really impressive. Or better yet a big snow storm!
I was in northern California with my sisters and we traipsed to the Trinidad beach to watch yet another fabulous sunset over the ocean. No sunrise though.
