Things That Make Me Smile: Design

Hello friends.  Just wanted to wish you a happy Monday, and show you some photos from my archives that simply make me smile.

While in Paris we just happened to walk a different direction from the Eiffel Tower and ran into this brilliant display of form and color sitting along the Seine.  This is the Musee du Quai Branly, in Paris, a museum which collects indigenous objects from African, Asian, Oceanian and American civilizations.

I love design, and this is why.  It makes you re-evaluate what is average and the norm, and turns them upside down.  Why do we do things a certain way?  Why can’t we do them differently?  Well, we can, and it will make you think, and smile and acknowledge that there is more than one way to build a building, or as you can see below, a garden.

This beautiful wall is also part of the same museum, and again turns what we assume to be ‘normal’ ninety degrees and onto an entirely different plane.  I love the surprise of it all.  Maybe next year my gardening will take a ninety degree turn.  If you want to read about the vertical garden of Patrick Blanc click here, or about the Musee du Quai Branly, click here.

Hope these made you smile too!

Laurie

{images: Laurie Ashbach}

Riding the Wind

I’m already wistfully thinking back about our summer adventures on the Harley and the miles and miles we wove across the countryside.  Dan, husband and chief navigator and planner found some great routes which I will share over the coming month.

Here’s just a couple of shots from one of our weekend jaunts.  I’m hoping these memories will keep me warm all winter.  Thank-full.

{images: Laurie Ashbach}

God Bless America

Happy Birthday America!  Can you think of a better way to celebrate than up at the lake?  Sunny days, family, ice cream, swimming on sandy beaches, friends, games, watching dragonflies emerge, sailing, boating, king of the raft, dock jumping and goofing off all day long, and all made even more exciting with a backdrop of our stars and stripes.

Tug-o-War and the Boat Parade.

Always a highlight for the entire lake, with more boats than spectators on their docks.  See the bald eagle on the front of this one?

All for now, but more Elbow Lake Lodge fun tomorrow.  God Bless America!

{images: Laurie Ashbach}

photos of Elbow Lake Lodge, Cook, MN