In my humble opinion - by Deb Bently

MARVELING - This is one of the thunderstorm pictures Deb Bently has taken this summer. Pioneer photo by Deb Bently

Transfixed by thunderstorms

I am transfixed by thunderstorms. That means that this stormy summer, I have spent a fair amount of time marveling at the sky. I acknowledge they are dangerous and that the strongest of them can do horrendous damage, but since they are an unremovable feature of nature, I am doing no...

Adventures at Six Flags: Wrath of Rakshasa

After my very enjoyable ride on an Amtrak passenger train a week ago, it wasn’t long before I was taking the ride I had been looking forward to all summer. A roller coaster named “Wrath of Rakshasa” opened at the Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee, Ill., in June: I had been...

TRAIN VIEWS - A view of the Mississippi River taken from a railroad bridge during a recent train ride.

Amtrak train and rollercoasters

Last weekend, I rode an Amtrak train from Winona to a suburb north of Chicago. A major objective of the trip was to meet up with my sister-in-law so that we could go ride rollercoasters at Six Flags Great America. The rollercoasters were exciting, of course, but here I want to tell about my...

CAPTURED BEAUTY - A moment of illumination during a Waseca County sunset. Pioneer photo by Deb Bently

Illuminating photos

This afternoon I was driving westward toward a sun that could only just be blocked by my vehicle’s visor. I topped a hill and found myself doing a doubletake because the two-mile line of sight ahead of me appeared to be decorated with a lacy lit garland which scalloped up and down more neatly and...

Speculations surrounding feathers, fins, and fantasy

This afternoon I watched some large birds, probably vultures, riding an updraft above a four-lane highway. They were probably at least 100 feet in the air, their wings apparently motionless as they made lazy circles in the sky. Since it was not windy, I was led to speculate about the nature...

A glimpse at how things have changed

Along a gravel road not far from where I live, a field of contracted sweet corn has been growing gradually taller all summer. The field has had a tough go of it, especially the low-lying part which is right along Boot Creek. Somehow the crop managed to keep growing despite being repeatedly...

Each creature is specially engineered

I found a blue jay tail feather on the ground today. Its color and size identified what bird it came from. The white tip made it clear it was a tailfeather. Ever since I interviewed Waseca artist Dean Dykema, who paints on turkey feathers, I have had an increased appreciation for the...

Take notice and keep thinking

This past week has been one of “extremes” for me. Overnight into Thursday, my area seems to have gotten somewhere between four and six inches of rain, depending on whose rain gauge is regarded as the most reliable. I know I heard pounding rain on the roof through much of the night, and in...

Tadpoles are charming, interesting

My husband is working on an outdoor project for which he covered some of his materials with waterproof tarps. All this year’s rain has gradually been deposited on the tarps, bit by bit causing the fabric to form to the shape of what’s underneath it, creating some unintended pools of water....

Kudos to the county commissioners

I wish to take a moment—well, a column, really—to commend the leaders of our county government. I could joke that I am practically a member of the county board, since I spend about as much time at their meetings as the commissioners do. The one or two times in the past two years that I have...