Northern Word: November 2008 Archives

The Northern Word California Redwoods Travel Guide: Intro

By Susan on November 27, 2008 2:45 PM | 1 Comment

Ever wanted to see the redwoods? Those impossibly tall trees you've heard about? The big trees everyone tried to save all those years - do you want to know if they did? Save them, that is? Well, you've come to the right place. Raised in the redwoods of Northern California - two different regions of the redwoods, in fact - I am often asked for advice on where to go, when to go, where to stay, what drives to take, what towns to visit, where the biggest trees are, and lots more. On at least two occasions I've mapped out full itineraries for people visiting the big trees, and gotten rather nice feedback on the results. So now that I've settled the Northern Word blog into what I hope will be its permanent home, I'm going to put together a series of travel articles - with pictures, where I have them - of some of America's least-traveled treasures. You'll see them interspersed with other posts here over the next few weeks, and a new category has been created on the right to gather them all. When done, this should be a comprehensive travel guide to the California redwoods. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Why see the redwoods? Because you haven't seen a real tree till you've seen one. And because the regions in which these trees thrive are some of the most culturally vibrant and interesting in the United States. And because finding them can take you on long drives through the gorgeous, unpopulated parts of California you didn't know existed. Like the fairy-tale green Carson mansion in Eureka, California, pictured below. If the witch from Wicked were to move to redwood country, this is where she'd live. Ironically, it's a private men's club. Made of solid 19th-century old-growth redwood.

Golden Horses atop the Capitol

By Susan on November 24, 2008 9:11 PM | No Comments

In Minnesota we are privileged to have one of the most expensive state capitols ever built, a structure created in the 1890's with more marble than I have seen in numerous Roman palaces (this is not an exaggeration). As I need something to push the ugly technical post below down the page, in order to reassure my literary and photography-minded readers, here are the golden horses atop the capitol. Yes, they are gold-plated. Yes, you can go see them by taking the Capitol tour. No, I don't advise going on top of the Capitol roof in January in Minnesota.

Golden Horses at Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul, MN

Tech Bit: How to Change a Movable Type Banner

By Susan on November 24, 2008 8:25 PM | 3 Comments

Update: This post has become a bit popular due to, as I say below, the lack of a clear set of brain-dead simple instructions for updating your MT banner. I will point out - as the Blog Herald did - there is now a plugin for this. As one of my commenters also pointed out, however, that plugin doesn't work for everybody. So for many folks who have just a simple blog, and aren't building the next Obama campaign web site (that was Movable Type, believe it or not) my instructions will probably still work best.

Ok, literary types and photography fans. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room for a minute. This post is a public service to the poor souls who, like me, use Movable Type as their blog software, and who, like me, have found that relatively simple tasks can sometimes be nearly impossible to figure out due to the lack of a "for dummies" style guide to the software.

This blog uses software called Movable Type 4.23, which departs significantly from the Movable Type 3.x and prior versions on the simple issue of how to customize your banner (that pretty picture at the top of the page). Movable Type bloggers have torn their hair out over just how exactly to do this very simple task, because nobody seems to bother to write the relatively straightforward steps down for anyone to read. Or worse yet, the instructions provided are unnecessarily complex, advising the user how to make a banner that will cry out in the morning like a Turkish minaret and toast bread and wash clothes and then tuck the blogger into bed in the evening time. Most of us desire far less. Here, therefore, are the brain-dead simple instructions for those in need. Please note: this is only one way to do this. It is a simple way to do it. It has limitations. It only gets you so far. You may have to re-do this if you update your templates (this is less likely than I prevoiously thought, but still, fair warning). There is probably a way to avoid that. But it works to get up a simple banner image that is more than ugly default text. Movable Type Geniuses (who live on an island called Movable Land and wear fancy mumus) will surely scowl at the crude nature of these instructions. These people can kiss my ass. Click the link below for the full steps.

Continue reading Tech Bit: How to Change a Movable Type Banner.

The View From Up There

By Susan on November 23, 2008 6:25 PM | No Comments

In early October I found my way to Decorah, Iowa, an idyllic little town right on the Mississippi River. The town has a secret tourist spot that isn't well marked, but can be seen from a distance when approaching over the river from Wisconsin - a viewpoint perched on one of the upper Mississippi's many high hills. Once I crossed into Iowa via an impressive steel bridge I set about finding the spot. Taking a left from the bridge and then an immediate right, I found a sign to a city park. I followed the sign up a steep hill behind the town and sure enough, we emerged on the viewpoint along with a number of other gawkers.

The Mississippi spreads out in marshes, island, and a thousand channels, surely a mystery to navigate but a beauty to behold from high above.

Decorah is extremely small but has a quaint main street and impressive scenery. Might be a nice spot for a writer.

Crex Meadows, Wisconsin

By Susan on November 21, 2008 8:34 PM | No Comments

To bide the time while I figure out how to customize this terribly ugly blog software - and that looks to be quite a challenge, with little in the way of useful "for dummies" resources on the net - here's some views of Crex Meadows, a bird sanctuary in Northwestern Wisconsin, near Grantsburg. This is the sanctuary where several Whooping Cranes are being rehabilitated with ultralight planes to guide them on their migration. We didn't see the Whooping Cranes, but we did see thousands of Sandhill Cranes getting ready to migrate south.

New home for Northern Word

By Susan on November 19, 2008 9:20 PM | No Comments

Here at the Northern Word blog I was the victim of some kind of hacking attack this week, and the Wordpress version was completely wiped out. Apparently some people have not enough to do. So we're back to Movable Type, which is more cryptic to use but more secure. Hopefully I will be able to recover some of my previous content in the next few weeks. In the meantime, Northern Word will rebuild from this location.

Our usual content is lots of photography, travel essays, nature writing, literary comment, etc. Stay tuned. Estimated time of recovery: 2 weeks. And yes, the template WILL look more attractive when I'm done...