Posts Tagged ‘Lindsey Fenner’
City Songs for Loving the Earth: Growing Darkness
Photomicrograph of Stellar Snowflake, No. 304, circa 1890. Photo: Wilson Bentley, Smithsonian Institution Archives By LINDSEY FENNER We are traveling now through the darkest time of the year. This time can be a struggle for me. Winter makes those small dear moments of being outdoors more difficult to find. Everything is colder, slipperier, darker. I’m learning I need to be more intentional in how I interact with nature during these dark months. My plan this winter: Morning measuring routines: This past spring, I started doing daily precipitation measurements for CoCoRaHS- the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. Every morning at 7AM, I wander outside in my pajamas to see how much precipitation fell in the previous 24 hours. During this summer of drought, there was usually no rain to measure. But I found those few minutes gave me the gift of a scheduled moment every morning to notice– the rain yes, but also the early morning birdsong and the way the sun shifts ever so subtly every morning. I’m learning that measuring snow is MUCH more complicated than measuring rain– but within the time I spend taking averages of depth measurements and snow cores and melting snowfall to find the “snow water equivalent,” I’m learning how to understand snow– it’s beauty and complexity. All while still in my pajamas. Combining science and art: I don’t really consider myself an artist OR a scientist, but I am always intrigued and inspired when art and science are are brought together (See Anna Atkins and her botanical cyanotype photographs from the 1840s, Wilson’s Bentley’s snowflake photography, or Margaret Nazon’s contemporary astronomical beadwork.) I’m starting a winter project that combines climate data with fiber art. You start by creating a color scale for temperature ranges out of yarn. My scale has a different color for every 10 degrees. Every day, you knit, crochet, or weave a row that corresponds to [...]
Random Alley News: November 22
By LINDSEY FENNER Quatrefoil Library Now Has Free Ebooks and Audiobooks for Checkout:The community library at 1220 East Lake Street has a growing digital collection of new and classic LGBTQ+ books available to checkout with a free Quatrefoil library card using the Libby app. You can apply for a library card in person at Quatrefoil library or apply online. Visit www.qlibrary.org SEIU Mental Health workers on the picket line at Abbott Northwestern Hospital on October 5. Photo: SEIU Healthcare MN & IA Mental Health Workers at Abbott Northwestern Hospital Go on Three-Day Strike:About 160 workers represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa went on a three-day Unfair Labor Practices strike at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Phillips and Unity Hospital in Fridley October 3rd through 5th. Mental health workers at Allina and M Health Fairview unionized with SEIU last year and have been negotiating their first contract. M Health Fairview workers were also going to strike, but reached a last-minute tentative agreement. Workplace concerns include safety issues and short-staffing. Queen of Norway Visits Phillips:Queen Sonja came for the grand opening of the Norway House cultural center on October 15. Norway House, at 913 East Franklin Avenue, is wrapping up an $18 million renovation and expansion. Queen Sonja also paid a visit to Mindekirken, the Norwegian Lutheran Church located on the same block as Norway House, attending the church service on October 16. Norway is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The first all-female firefighter crew in Minneapolis. Photo: City of Minneapolis Minneapolis Honors 30th Anniversary of First All-Woman Firefighters Crew:The historic first four-woman crew was Engine 5 at Fire Station 5 at 2700 Bloomington Avenue South in Phillips. The four firefighters were honored with a ceremony on September 23 at Fire Station 5 and the installation of a commemorative plaque at the station. According to the City of [...]
City Songs for Loving the Earth: “Wherever we protest we will go planting”*
Late blooming aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is an important late season food source for bumblebees and other insects. The name “aster” comes from the Greek word for “star.” Photo: Ben Heath By LINDSEY FENNER As I write this in the middle of October, I am surrounded by the last blazing russet leaves of the wild plum and the rich burgundy leaves of the serviceberry. Most of the goldenrod and aster blossoms have turned into fluffy seedheads, all but the aromatic aster, which remains a spangled purple cloud even after snow and a hard freeze. Winter hasn’t quite begun yet, but I am already planning for spring in my garden because I have applied for a Lawns to Legumes grant. Lawns to Legumes is a program of the State of Minnesota’s Board of Water and Soil Resources that provides folks with up to $350 to create pollinator habitat in their yards. Most specifically, these grants are to help provide pollinator habitat for endangered insects like the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis). Why does it matter what you plant in your yard? Surely there are more pressing neighborhood concerns? Because it is still the little things. I cannot singlehandedly solve the homelessness crisis or the opioid epidemic, or stop climate change, or any of the other million big things we struggle with and worry about. But I can take care of this little patch of earth, which also means taking care of everyone who might be passing through it - whether that’s migrating birds or butterflies, nesting bumblebees, or yes, humans too. There are lots of reasons to plant native and pollinator friendly plants. You might want to help save a specific endangered insect, or just love the diversity of insects and birds that these plants attract for nesting, food, and overwintering. Native plants are beautiful in all seasons, and they are usually the most climate resilient plants in your garden. Deep-rooted native plants help reduce runoff and soil erosion, and [...]
City songs for loving the Earth
Mushrooms growing in a potted plant on an East Phillips porch / photo: Ben Heath By Lindsey Fenner As a new master naturalist, I have started to study Minnesota’s major biomes or biological communities, especially the native grasslands that I love. But as I’ve studied, I’ve wondered when I would start reading about places like Phillips. I realized that the way Minnesota is divided up into the three major biomes: prairies, hardwood forests, and conifer forests, ignores one major distinct landscape: cities. Most people in Minnesota live in cities, in urban or suburban areas. This sprawling human development, after all, is why we are facing the painful loss of so many species. But people are a natural part of landscapes and ecosystems. And we have been living in cities for more than five thousand years. We have shaped our ecosystems, and have been shaped by them in return, whether we have lived close together in cities and villages or spread out in the prairies and forests. Right here in Phillips, we have our own ecology in an ecosystem that has its own fierce beauty. We are surrounded daily with trauma and violence. It can be hard through those eyes to see the beauty in the volunteer trees in our fence lines, the weeds in our alleys, our soil laced with heavy metals and our air laden with pollution. But those scraggly trees are likely box elders, native trees that provide shade and shelter and cooling. Many of the weeds are actually wildflowers, like the fall abundance of glowing goldenrod that is an essential late season food source for insects threatened with extinction. The polluted soil still has the potential to help store greenhouse gasses, and all of this filters the air. The creatures we share this place with have made their own homes among ours, adapting to city life just like we have for thousands of years. We live in an urban ecology that is resilient and exquisite, a natural community that we can nurture through reciprocal relationships [...]
Random alley news September ’22
Location of community air sensors in and around the Southside Green ZoneMap credit: Rob Hendrickson Representative Aisha Gomez - MN House of Representatives Senator Omar Fateh - MN Senate By LINDSEY FENNER GREEN GRANTS GALORE Hennepin County Receives $12 million for Lake Street Improvements: The Federal award is from the Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, which received an increase in funding from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021. The funding will pay for “turn lanes, bus only lanes, removing a lane, providing ADA upgrades (pedestrian ramps and APS push button stations), and paving new surfaces along the Lake Street corridor in Minneapolis.” Learn more about the planned Lake Street Improvement project, which includes the Lake Street Bus Rapid Transit Line, here: https://www.hennepin.us/lake-street-improvements Resilient Minneapolis Microgrid Project Receives Public Utilities Commission Approval: The $9 million Xcel Energy project in three Minneapolis neighborhoods will pilot community electric microgrids in the face of climate uncertainty. If the power goes out during a heatwave, the community centers can provide cooling, shelter and electricity. Hosting organizations are the Minneapolis American Indian Center, Sabathani Community Center, and Renewable Energy Partners in coordination with three schools in North Minneapolis. The hosting organizations will pay for the solar arrays, while Xcel Energy will pay for and own the storage battery. As part of their $30 million renovation project, the Minneapolis American Indian Center will install a 200-kilowatt solar array with 1MW of battery storage. As a pilot, the project is not without criticism. The MN Department of Commerce raised concerns about the lack of detail from Xcel on the goals and benefits of the program and how those goals and benefits would be measured. Hennepin County [...]
Random alley news August ’22
By Lindsey Fenner pictures by Ben Heath MN State Senator Omar Fateh’s Ethics Hearing Continued Through July: Sen. Fateh represents Senate District 62, which includes all of Phillips. The ethics investigation, led by the Republican-controlled Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct, has raised questions about whether Fateh sought $500,000 in state funding for Somali TV of Minnesota after Somali TV ran campaign ads for Fateh for free. As a non-profit, Somali TV cannot endorse candidates. The other ethics concern involves Fateh’s connection to Muse Mohamed Mohamed. Mohamed, who is Fateh’s brother-in-law and volunteered with Fateh’s campaign and was convicted of lying to a grand jury during an investigation of voter fraud in the 2020 DFL primary race between Fateh and longtime incumbent Jeff Hayden. Fateh is now facing a DFL primary challenge in the August 9 Primary election from Shaun Laden, a Minneapolis Public Schools Education Support Specialist and union leader. According to reporting by Deena Winter in the MN Reformer, two witnesses called to a July 7 hearing didn’t show up. They are expected to be subpoenaed for a hearing scheduled for July 27, after the alley goes to press. Check the MN Reformer https://minnesotareformer.com/ for updated coverage. Little Earth Urban Farm Proposes Greenhouse on Empty Lot: The Little Earth Residents Association (LERA), which runs the Little Earth Urban Farm, is proposing to build a 20,000 square foot greenhouse on the vacant lot LERA owns at the northwest of Hiawatha Avenue and E 26th Street. According to LERA, the greenhouse “will host indoor vertical farming using nutrient-rich water circulated from a yellow perch aquaculture system.” The greenhouse project will expand existing gardening and farming programming and food accessibility. Southside Green Zone Signs Going Up: The 120 signs, designed by Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre founder Sandy Spieler, are intended to [...]
