Wannaskan Almanac

Hello and welcome to a post-May Day Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is May 2nd. Last week, I took part in an organized tourist trip with The European Rhapsody Tours to Prague. This was a first for me in that A) I've never been on an organized tourist trip, and B) This trip's emphasis was on seeing all the sights that could be seen in 9 days. It's worth noting that, despite 25 years of marriage to a Czech, I haven't seen or visited Prague properly in probably 20 years. This tour was the perfect opportunity. Here are some photos of my favorite places. I'm currently reading The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown, which added an extra layer of delight and significance to this trip. If you've read, or are reading the book, you might notice some familiar locations. Enjoy!

   The two country mice left their home on a cool sunny Sunday and drove north to the border. Teresa told the border guard we were going to Winnipeg for a Mozart concert and the guard said, "Why didn't I know about this?" He was a Mozart fan and had just been in Austria. We chatted a few minutes until a car pulled up behind us. We promised to tell him about the concert the next time we saw him.    We drove northwest through the aspen woodlands and by the dull brown fields, past the onion domed Orthodox churches and the churches of the Mennonites, cousins of the Amish without the buggies. Through Grunthal and Sainte Agathe, over the Red River where water from the Roseau River flows too. And finally past the Daliesque football stadium and onto the campus of the University of Manitoba.    Parking was free on weekends and we walked to the concert hall along streets still gritty from a long winter on the edge of the prairie. The river is only a couple of hundred...

  Picture of the northern lights over the deer shack by Gene Palm.    On April 5, 2026 Easter morning, my cousin Gene Palm 'walked on,' with relief from all the suffering he had been enduring for six long months, and a smile on his face knowing he had provided his wife and children and grandchildren with the very best of everything he had to give of his love and respect. I spent three of his last days in his home talking and joking about the past; his memory coming and going between his silent gasps of pain, his ever-present smile fading then slowly coming back.    Gene was always a guy with a smile on his face and a cigarette, Diet Coke, coffee, or sometimes beer in hand. He made time to listen when necessary; withheld advice until asked, and always admitted when he was wrong. He seemed genuinely buoyed by a life of charity which he bestowed on his friends and family throughout Minnesota; one example being that he periodically visited the city dump in Aurora ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for April 29, 2026, the seventeenth Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of spring, the fifth Wednesday of April, and the one-hundred-nineteenth day of the year, with two-hundred forty-six days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for April 29, 2026 Squeaky Peepers One of our favorite signs of spring, Pseudacris crucifer — omakakii, in Anishinaabe — announced their emergence in a full-throated chorus on Monday, but their songs have become more singular and squeaky with the cooler weather the last couple of days. The ponds melt more slowly here in the forest, and it is always a treat to hear this Vårsång. Climate plays a major role in the timing of spring peeper breeding: studies have shown a correlation between temperature and the date of first call (when spring peepers start to breed). The males sing, and the females choose their mates based on the frequency and volume. Satellite males, who do not make any calls, strategical...

You ever look at an online marketplace and ask yourself...why?  For example: Why would I buy something that is hard to find?  That just doesn't make sense. Why sell only one of these?  And which one is for sale says I, wringing hands evily.   Why buy tulips when you can buy two lips?   Why would I want a giant kazoo? Why risk get marooned on your next three hour tour without one of these?   I would need to see a picture of Heather first. One wonders why they only made one of these... Why would I want a refrigerator that doesn't cool? And now, Contemplative Wit--With Hot Coco: It seems that even the snootiest "world revolves around me" lady can be quite approachable when her daughter has girl scout cookies for sale. My boss always has my back.  Yeah, there is usually a knife in her hand, but she means uh... Amazon makes ordering easy and regret even easier. If you’re ever feeling crushed by the weight of the world, remember that diam...

  THIRD MOVEMENT  REMEMBERING SONG THIRTEEN A MIND UNDARKENED   I   “The sea smells of sharks,” says an old woman staring from shore. “They know when you’re coming. They scent your blood   and they live to slash and scatter you red in the blue flood.”   “I have been at sea,” I say to the crone “I know the deep waves, the sharks’ hunger for bone.   Sometimes there is simply nowhere else to be   but wind-bellying the sails against the sea.”   “But you search for True North?” she asks with a squint “A place spun of dream that cannot be found   that leads you to doldrums and running aground.”   “It is true what you say.  Just now, I’ve come here as I tried to tack North   but instead, the wind on my nose   forced a long run for this broad-flung bay  against the tide as the ice-moon rose   pushing against the flow  riding the current out wide.”   We stand staring out f...