Since the T-Wolves crossed into the tundra, they have been frozen out. Again green with envy over Green Bay.
Around the mid-time they were melting down the Nuggets, there was a ground-swell on the grounds here in western Wisconsin that was just swell for a while. It continued to swell until Dallas came around, then has been merely swollen. Light-years difference in what the deal and/or final scores were versus Denver rather than now Dallas.
Tuesday night’s Game Four, which may prove to be the finale, could bring the experiment on fandom to a conclusion. How many here will view it? If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees it … But hear this: Everyone is partied out from a three-day-weekend that saw some shops typically not doing holiday business having their Memorial Day doors swung open, and thus having to be back at work on Tuesday morning, will they be recovered in time to show at sports bars come evening?

— Apple’s 100 top albums are (hard) rock heavy? Like another major music awards meme that majorly cited Metallica. About time, as we have moved past just Jethro Tull, although he’s great too. Also noteworthy in the top 10 are Nirvana’s Nevermind and Prince’s Purple Rain. Number one might not be as well known, at least in some circles: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Is there a need to raise revenue through such a rapper, by chance? Just wondering. As Apple is facing a new involving-millions, potentially in both claimants and dollars, class action suit. —

(But whoa, the Woofies did not whiff or wimper in Game Four, and avoided being swept in four games for what woulda, coulda been perhaps the first time in their playoff history, after starting things off by posting their own sweep of a postseason series in this, 2024. Not that hardly anyone locally saw the latest outcome.)
Where it had started with a dozen-or-so, the start-of-playoffs patrons of the paint in Hudson-area sports bars, taking in the Wolves wonders, soon grew to near hundred. Or even hundreds. But now with the fourth contest beckoning, we could soon be back to barely single-digit, now-solemn faithful.
For Games One or Two, at Hudson Tap, the full patronage was first seen, but after blowouts all quickly left the bar rather than trying to make like Towns or Edwards on the slot and pinball and video game machines and win that game. Quaff the rest of your drink ordered in the third quarter and go. As the bartender announced to me, Minnesotans soon chased their way back to their homes, as they are a fickle breed when the wins don’t come.
But there is always tomorrow, like the endless Pack is Back mantra of those dreary 1970s, and as Game Three rolled around, Timberwolves flags started popping up outside local taverns — my new bro did not question my intent when snapping a photo of one — and not just the also Minnesotan-monickered Smilin’ Moose. Ziggy’s for example, the place on the other end that first greets those from The Gopher State, now has an above-door flag that scrolls away from Skol, as this is the closest thing Hudson has to a Viking bar, (they are now forelorn). The flag shows, when the fickle and flapping winds allow, a single (North)star, but would that one be Towns or Edwards?
Game Three also found the Wild Badger in New Richmond, one more sub-level of suburbia removed from St. Paul, three-quarters full of largely people from that region. One pair — with the younger bearded man looking like Towns moreso than Harden or James — left right after a last Maverick shot killed off a near-to-a-win opp, and the focused stayed for at least a while, not going to the car and hitting an app.
Those two who took a break from the noise-then-fade-to-solemn have also hit the home with big screen of their friend, who is new to New Richmond and his own in-house TV offering, for virtually every game of the playoffs. All say they can be prone to depression, and we all know Minnesota sports can bring that.
But prior to debacles in Dallas, people on both sides of the St. Croix River got on the Timberwolves bandwagon, and metro papers noted that those who are not normally Twin-Cities- based basketball buffs joined the fold — temporarily.
Even on this side of the big river, and south of the Interstate 94 part of the divide, County Market had a sign setting ahead of the Minneapolis-based Star-Tribune newspaper itself on its stand, proclaiming that circa May 22, there was a special commemorative edition coming out, for just an added three bucks to analyze three-point buckets. This despite the fact that there are no Bucks, the Badger version of the NBA, left in the playoffs. Long(er) gone. And as the firm fan footing long-held-here in Hudson by the Minnesota Wild had gone by the wayside even before then.
That Bucks contingency also did not keep the Hudson version of Buffalo Wild Wings from calling itself the playoff headquarters for watching games, with that contingent’s key beer on special being Mich, not a Milwaukee standard fan fare.

It isn’t often that a foursome of this caliber, individually, hits the musical stage along the St. Croix River. Led by a true trooper who is no stranger to the water; at one point, her most popular song was viewed tens of millions of times per month, the world over, including overseas.
FIT Real Estate invites all comers to the 3rd annual Memorial Day Music in the Park in downtown Hudson. On May 27, there will be live music including longtime local and regional successes Josh Lassi, Hailey James, Chris Kroeze and of course, Sailor Jerri. There are lots of country-leaning licks to be found. The show is family-friendly and also features kids games, food trucks and more. It’s hosted and organized by FIT Real Estate and Workhorse Land Development, to raise money for the VFW Post 2115 in Hudson, and many tens of thousands have been raised, as the company shows the value of having respect for veterans and also just having a good time and holiday. The free event on Monday is from noon to 6 p.m. in the band shell at Lakefront Park, which generally is completely filled for the event.
It is fitting that a Navy sailor would return to the waters for this local gig, singing songs from near the dock of the bay. And as far as one of the introductory acts, and one of his songs, you want to listen and don’t want to leave this long-haired country boy alone. Or someone I know, also from Minnesota, a singer of similar styles going by the name of Geri.

— Sailor Jerry, spelled the earlier common way, also is an actual brand of booze, and they have their own summer festival, several states away. But you can get a bottle, showing a curvy sailorette decked out in colorful dress, at local liquor stores.
For more drinks this early summer, the downtown Dunn Brothers coffee shop now features a just-unveiled orangesickle (not slice) Red Bull infused drink. Try it out over their Memorial Day hours, as they are open, though shortened.
Other are other, more bad food additions being hawked, even though it might not eat them. For ice cream, you can now get it flavored with things like mac and cheese or ranch or even bacon — and I think for that last one, the annual Bacon Bash in River Falls had them beat to the punch (of the self-serve button?)
Upright flags on poles late in May, were accompanied by a now unpotted plant, namely dirt. Other newly-placed potted ones could be seen planted around the downtown, such as at the Smilin’ Moose doorstep, where two of them filled a space, one closer to the street than the other.
Earlier in the week, you might have run into the grand opening of the local rideshare taxi service run by Running Inc. So they hit the ground running. Much cheaper than Nike shoes, or to run your own auto. They were planning on running into some big numbers of attendees at the City Hall event, so they kept a running tally. (The meet-and-greet could have become a marathon.) With few if any run-on puns told. My main cabbie said that he was working all this three-day-weekend, but has plans to take off on the Fourth of July holiday. But with The Fourth on a Thursday, it will be — at the least — the same number of days off, and there again is the Friday fudge factor, that means all of the three main summer holidays have the potential of a four-day weekend. But the phone number for the ride service, with across-town-fares for as little as $2.50, is (715) 961-4707. —

All four musicians in the park both sing and play the guitar, and write a lot of their own songs, occasionally breaking off into solo acoustic interludes. Lassi has a rich and soulfully deep voice, James is popular in the farther reaches of St. Croix County that are part of the project’s overall scope, and Kroeze is just coming off another much-sought-after area gig.
The overall concert’s featured logo shows an eagle clutching a RWB patriotic object, with both feathers and claws prominent on the bottom of the image.
It was not a long time for the headliner to rise from the flight deck to a stage — and onto the CMAs. Sailor Jerri is a Navy veteran and country music artist from the plains of central Minnesota, moreso than the Minnesota River, as the water would wait. She worked as an aviation mechanic on F/A 18s with the VFA 83 Rampagers; good fodder for lyrics.
Jerri started playing guitar and singing for those in longterm care at the VA, and in veteran support groups. She is a quick study. Then less than a year later, in April 2017, she wrote and posted “Hallelujah Veterans Version.” In just a year it was viewed over 150 million times, and downloaded in 22 countries. We do still have many allies.
She has been busy writing and recording in the studio ever since. “Screen Doors and Steel Guitars” as her sophomore album, was released two years later, and has been shared and played all over the world. It is widely available.
​Jerri started 2020 when she took off for Florida to begin that year’s tour, which would entail many dozens of shows in most of the states in the US. Including were performances with George Strait, Randy Hauser, Jamey Johnson and many others. She joined one lumenary, Reba McIntyre, on the stage at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, to introduce two others, Dierks Bentley and Sheryl Crow. She was featured on the CMAs and they aired a clip of Jerri and her band performing her song “Won’t Be For Nothing.” More songwriting has followed in her short career that was temporarily made even more brief by the pandemic. You gotta love a song that has much mushroomed by being named Morals and Sorrels.
Jerri is playing her tunes to not only entertain, but to inspire and help her fellow veterans. She recently partnered with Crown Royal and Thomas Rhett to announce the Purple Bag Project, where they pledge to pack and ship 1 million Crown Royal bags filled with essential supplies to the military serving overseas. However, there won’t be a dropoff by Navy “Seal” R&B. Simply Cold Country.
Music like humor can be therapy, and Jerri said there was pressure to replicate her writing, until she realized that so many people from all walks of life, and all types of members of military families, benefit from her songs. So it’s not swimming upstream. Although she’s always loved to sing, Jerri didn’t start learning the guitar until August 2016, although she does post those early and “messy,” raw and unedited videos for her fans and followers.

When you venture into the newest deli-and-more in Hudson, called simply Hudco To Go, you can likely be in and out with your order faster than you can actually munch on it. In part because its so affordable, and thus pulling only those few needed bucks out of your wallet takes just moments.
The cooler compartments are aplenty, full of well over a dozen sandwiches featuring many meats at only $5 a shot, and also salads and such, and the meal deal gives you also three sides for a total of only $15. Counter shelves also show more than a dozen different kinds of salsa-type sauces, (shown at left), and many other toppings that you can apply in your own kitchen, as well, to give an idea of the options presented. Such take-out is only the start, being supplemented by fresh-made daily items from across-town gourmet Buddy’s Bakery, and it shows full platters of various foods covered with foil, including pizza and there are loads of pot pies of various types.
And back to that originally mentioned fare, you can use as a guide for choosing options a literal decorative sandwich board that’s positioned as a poster on the wall, and other pieces of informative art.

At Hudco To Go, they offer a wide range of chef-inspired, house-made food items that are perfect for those whipping in on the run. From their main items, to soups to desserts, the menu features a variety of options to suit every taste. Whether you’re looking for a quick lunch, a grab-and-go dinner, or a tasty treat, they say they’ve got you covered with a menu designed for those who are short on time but still want to enjoy a delicious meal. “With our grab-and-go options, you can quickly pick up your favorite dishes without any hassle,” they say. The shop is just a couple of steps off the sidewalk on Locust Street, a stone’s throw from the main drag.
For those who prefer to cook at home, Hudco To Go offers a range of take-and-bake meals, convenient options that allow you to enjoy a restaurant-quality meal in the comfort of your own kitchen.
As a locally owned business, they are proud to support the community, such as the aforemtioned Buddy’s Bakery and more. By choosing Hudco To Go, you are supporting local producers, reducing food miles, and contributing to a sustainable food system, as they strive to eliminate food waste along with the use of compostable containers, tableware, packaging and cutlery that are made from plant-based or recycled materials.
You can check out their approach, and the offerings by almost 20 other area restaurants and some drink partners too, at the Taste of the Valley, that being the St. Croix, down by the riverside at Lakefront Park for most of the evening on May 23.

— It’s Thursday night, come 7 p.m., and the Taste of the Valley is still rolling. And even rocking.
Sweet Home Alabama was being strummed, but not from the band shell. Rather a block south in Lakefront Park, as in the south land. But come 8:04 p.m., it was time for the music to die, until 2025. “See you again next year,” shouted the lead singer. There was no apparent encore, and no more Orbison.
A block or two up, people were criss-crossing the streets and their side streets, coming and going. Patrons at Pier 500 and Smilin’ Moose, per their outdoor patios, also had it hopping, although that at the Moose trickled off on their near side toward the end. But venue trucks were amovin’ on.
Were some of the two-dozen participating businesses now shut down, at their actual home venues, across those blocks and further.
However, an eve earlier, curds carried the day. As in cheese, from Ellsworth. A friend noticed that right off the bat in a smaller fest, in the County Market, featuring such nuggets, and funnel cakes too. But going back the other direction, we’d just noticed the same for only $1.99, although not fried, but not double the price or more when making your stand at a stand. Coincidence? —

Look at the range Hudco To Go offered, as an example of the special items, only between April 23 and May 4 when they truly got rolling, with more such options to come. These were a big part of a two-week take and bake extravanganza:
Lasagna with sausage or without meat at a single serving of a pound for $8, with the atypical and great option of prize breaks for volume, up to the family size of six pounds.
Spaghetti was sold as plain or with meatballs (with vegan and gluten free options), and for example with two meatballs is $8.
Italian meatballs with housemade pasta sauce are $20 for $25 to feed the family, with smaller options available. Spaghetti with housemade pasta sauce (no meat) also comes in a range of sizes, and it will only run you $10 a pound. The single cuts it to $5, and gluten-free options are also available.
The fried rice also can be gluten-free and can have added Smokey Treats BBQ and more local business options of pork, or chicken, at just a bit more.
Bread pudding and brown apple betty and single-slice pot pie are $6 apiece. The BBQ pulled pork and its beef sloppy Joe’s are each $10 a pound, and blueberry pies $25 each.
Roasted vegetables, corn and peas, are sold in three sizes from $4 to $10. Cinnamon rice pudding is also $4. Dinner rolls are 50 cents a shot.
Chicken or turkey pot pies go for $15, with the gluten-free chicken variety being $20. Try what’s offered by the nine-inch pie crust filled with Chef Ben’s housemade creamy chicken (or turkey) pot pie filling. The beef pot pie is also $20. Cooking instructions for the signature dishes that include pork are, if fresh, at 350 degrees for just one hour, and frozen only 20 minutes more.
Housemade soups (with new soups daily) sell for a bowl at $6 and cup at $4.
The goal is to get you in the door, get your food, then allow you to exit within a matter of just a few minutes. Dozens of the selections are premade, deli-style, to the degree that keeping freshness allows, and you can just point them out and be done.

The selection of sauces, as said earlier, is without peer.
Chef Ben Jung has taken where he’s been and made it into a place that’s being different than others where you’ve been. His one-stop-shop, Hudco To Go, is so aforementioned quick, it won’t stop you from finding time for the other places you need to be, and just be. Soccer game? Check. Dance recital? Also check. And squeeze in that business meeting? Can do that too.
One look, or two at the maximum needed, at the options inside the newest store to hit Hudson and feed it, and you will see it’s different.
Take that look, as they are right off the main drag on Locust Street, just a few doors up.
Take it from them, as written here. This is their mission statement: Hudco To Go is a chef driven-deli featuring housemade products and local market items. Hudco To Go will provide quick, high-quality meal options for the residents and guests of Hudson, along with the St. Croix Valley, so visit the store. It uses a co-op concept, and will partner with both Hudson and the surrounding area businesses, bringing a fast and one-stop-shop for some of your favorites from around the St. Croix Valley, along with of course, their own chefmade options.
Hudco To Go features: Hot and cold grab ‘n go, single-serve heat-and-eat meals, family-size take and bake entrées and sides, dry grocery, frozen foods, local items and deli foods. It again, is a family-based company and realizes how hard it is to find healthier options when you have work, kids activities, sports and such to go to. They want to give fellow Hudsonites another option that is quick and of better quality than other choices.
Their blended family and Chef Ben moved into a home in downtown Hudson, which they call beautiful incidentally, more than 10 years ago. He grew up in the Randolph, Wis. area. Spouse and co-owner Hannah (HAW-nuh if you talk to her) grew up in the Cloquet, Minn. area and moved to the region to attend college at UW-River Falls.
Chef Ben most recently worked at YMCA Camp St. Croix as the kitchen manager and chef by feeding campers. He was one of the founders of Pizza Market nights at Camp St. Croix, and also has past experiences attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary arts, working for Bon Appétit Management Company at Macalester College and Medtronic, Cafe Tango, Sysco Foods, Woodville’s Cubby Hole also in the region and more.

As they restate, Hudco To Go began with a simple desire: To provide chef-inspired, house-made food that is convenient and delicious, taking great pride in creating mouthwatering dishes using only the freshest ingredients. Their commitment to quality and flavor is what sets them apart, they say, and believe that good food is meant to be savored and shared, whether you find time to dine in the cozy cafe with tables by the up-front windows with view of a scenic historic streetscape, or need to grab a quick bite and trek quickly through the front doors that feature cool decorative knobs of a bull head and a — safely presented by burying the “blade” into the wood — piece of meat cleaver inspired art.

When a backyard party is based on BBQ, you need the whole crew to enjoy the who do.
So when I had such a gathering, I featured a full slathering of the grub from Old Southern BBQ on Hudson’s south side. Adhering to that, but also adding some of my own flavorings, for full effect for getting the full compliment of my guests full.
When you go to this BBQ joint, in the truest fashion, you will get several — I want to say seven — kinds of sauce to slather onto all kinds of meat, and even their tacos. You can of course select the combo and use bottles at the tables, that are almost like wooden crates in their design to give an old country feel, to squeeze on whichever one you want, or team up more than one onto beef or pork or chicken, and more. Even try some on the corn cobs, and I recommend going sideways against the grain for best taste. So when you pick out the actual entree all this goes onto, you again have about seven ways to go. And the names on the menu board are funky, especially for the few really heated up versions, invoking eveything from Memphis to mutton — OK the meat doesn’t really go that far afield. But there might be some Motown appeal. And the names either, do not include Red Hot Devil’s Spit Into A Cauldron, although they get fairly close to that.
All that said, this is perfect for mom on her day, whether you dine in, or take out and do what I did. Add to it and let her really dig in.
So to back up, and maybe back this up, be careful what you wish for, or what you agree too.

— You might wish for this. At a new venue, for breakfast and more and thus original in the downtown, called Main Plate, on a recent Saturday late morning — get brunch after a night filled with nearby music? — people were gathered in front of the hostess shelf all the way to the nearby door. Then, on a walk back past this area about 20 minutes later, it was again thus full. How many restaurants these days see that kind of fill factor at work. And later, traffic in this now-construction-season from two blocks away was backed up almost to their door. Theme here? —

Hence the rest of this piece is about that latter approach. I started by lathering up some beef that already had on a sauce that was favorful but bound to be a fan favorite of everyone, and applying some of the trademark dry rub that they strongly advised I make use of. Tangy and a little salty with just the right amount of grit. It was easy to rub on, and a little melted butter and such poured on first brought the taste and the ease.
This was a fave with my guests, with some going back more than once, and some just picking and grinning, with a bit of everything taken.
The rest of the bucket of BBQ’d meat was the takeout version from the restaurant. But here is where Joe comes in with his special touch on things, to round out the offerings to be given to residents of the apartment building I have lived at for just over a year, so this was a first annual affair — even though I know that is substandard journalistic use, like saying entitle when, and not where, the right term is merely title, one that I find even many TV news anchors get wrong. That would not do if reviewing my restaurant take.
The first brainstorm at such was a different take on cheddar cheese and broccoli soup. The ones, plural, that I had packages of offered a base of either rice or small pasta, so I thought why not boil it as a half and half? And also place into the mix some cauliflower, and a bit of carrot and a few green peas? With a little extra cheese, of both cheddar and other sorts, grated and then melted in the pot. This way, much more taste is provided then in the standard version. This would prove like a few of the other dishes, to be for the more adventuresome.
I had more than moral support, also, for my signature dish of “salmon” that’s got edges covered with various “Indian cheeses” and sprinkled with many different veggies. I wrote about this last Mother’s Day, offered in an earlier year to other people, if you want to scroll down that far. (I gave you search suggestions, but watch the plural form.)
So I’ll close with a summary of the other stuff, from the more recent time:
— Green beans with not only almond slivers, but bacon bits, slices of bell pepper (different colors) and onions, and a very small bit of crumbled feta cheese.
— Breakfast potato cubes topped with a variety of quasi-spicy seasonings and rubbed in an oiled pan over medium heat, with pepper jack sprinkled over.
— Pasta shells, medium and small, filled with sour cream and bell peppers, onions, ham and cheese, in a way that the sour cream conforms to the shell and holds the other pieces.
— Horseradish sauce and cranberry, jellied or with berries or both, mandarin orange slices and juice, and apple bits over the top. Great if your ham or turkey was a bit dry, like from this amateur cook.
— Various crackers with all varieties of mustard, globbed two inches apart.
These were comments for the cook, all in all:
“Thank you. Again.”
“I love the meat, the chicken and the pork.”
And then there was the salmon.

To follow this theme, and add to it homage to the just passed Cinco De Mayo, mom’s day does not have to be things (slightly bland) like souffles. For example, Green Mill in their brunch on Sunday includes some spicy pizza and pasta. The latter is a dessert fire kind with noodles, and the pie is the three-meat variety, and we hope for spicy sausage and pepperoni. There also are a choice of Buffalo Wings, and we know what kind of firey sauces you can team with those.
And you might want to buy her some as named Mom Water, which is fruit and vodka infused — maybe one more than the other. It has zero carbs, sugar and sodium, and only 90 calories (not the proof of the alcohol, mind you.) And possibly get your very mother one can of all four of the very fruity flavors, so she can be very unladylike and dance on the brunch table?
Lastly, Mother’s Day appeared to hit early at the Smilin’ Moose, as you could see foursomes of women of a certain age dining and adorning their early evening front tables on Wednesday.

One look, or two at max, at the options inside the newest store to hit Hudson and feed it, and you will see it’s different.
An example is maxing out the ways to sauce your Mexican dish. But they have more, too, and their stock in trade while serving you is keeping pace with you, and keeping you on the go.
Take that look, as Hudco To Go is right off the main drag on Locust Street. Their grand opening is most of the day (take that into account you roosters crowing and nightowls, although you might crow or hoot about their food) on Saturday, May 4.

— Two nights later, now in the spring, men’s hearts turn to … Wolves bountiful blowout basketball, and with the draft in the books and the now season of inking contracts here, though the NFL’s even training camp event is still two months away …
To wit: At Hudson Tap, on the wall above the bathroom stall, the old ad was still up for NFL Sunday Ticket and accompanying drink specials of $4 and $5. But hey, there still is that new alternate league, and do they still play Canadian pro football? Not to mention that other futbal and if needed to round out the 12 months, maybe bring back the old Lingerie Football League, with throwers with really, truly great arms and … never mind. But that could make it mongo midriff marketable, especially these days.
No mainstream pro games right now, of course, but that marquee was also hawking for another kind of stream, fishing rain suits and Chill brand summer swimsuits for men, for the only getting hotter hostile weather.
Meanwhile, in two great big clumps of patrons, and the vocal guy at the slots — who could be making comments on those in slot position — they were really getting behind their across-the-river-farther-than-the-Wild basketball domineers over the mountainers. This Minnesota team, the T-Wolves, has been feeding on all their opponents, with nary a loss in the NBA playoffs, flirting frequently with a 30-points lead over the defending chamnps, the Denver Nuggets. There was a “lets get going” chant, lighting up a usually solemn Monday, with every whirling dunk and hands-all-over defensive stop. —

Back to other feasting, take it from them, as written here. This is their mission statement: Hudco To Go is a chef driven-deli featuring housemade products and local market items. Hudco To Go will provide quick, high-quality meal options for the residents and guests of Hudson, along with the St. Croix Valley, so visit the store. It uses a co-op concept, and will partner with both Hudson and the surrounding area businesses, bringing a fast and one-stop-shop for some of your favorites from around the St. Croix Valley, along with our own chefmade options.
A more in-depth look at this business in a post coming soon.

Here’s another good place to go and take in. So go big before you go home, resort to going for a ride and dance at a resort the weekend of Aug. 18-20. Sign-up you or your dancer to get luxury coach bus transport to Sugar Lake Lodge, and once there enjoy various amenities including water activities, big swimming pool in a bigfoot shape, pickleball on a new and old courts, bonfire, a variety of games and of course … up to 10 dance lessons. While spaces last, you can signup until June 14. Check out more on their website, in case you missed theirm Kentucky Derby Party and a chance to dress in your favorite themed big, floppy hat, like that wore by Shakin’ Dave, profiled in a post below. Dance and Entertainment Studios was named Stillwater’s 2023 small business of the year.

Over at Walmart, spring was all in the air, and in the aisles. Over by the kiddie shoes, waslls and walls of them with just the pink, there was that age-old bastion of childhood in summer — the big and fat, blue plastic bat and ball, all for just $2.50. Extra innings will require an add-on of a few cents, unless you have them on retainer, (OK just kidding.) And outside, there were more than two dozen kayaks in a row, of at least five floatable types, with five being the number of the most prevalent. And back inside, close to a hundred bottles of their proprietary brand of sun screen, in a standalone breakout.
Just a bit earlier, at the Triple C church based in the downtown, they weren’t yet having the heavy on kinda contemporary music, summer Sunday services in the Lakefront Park band shell. That would come later. Summer global warming has not kicked in its heat enough yet.

With May Day on a Wednesday, not a weekend, a crowning of a May Queen in church was not going to happen, until days or more later as believers have the whole month to use, and there were no Pagan rituals to be found locally, so I would have to find a metamorphical coronation. Such as a “crown” on a beautiful cardinal. But looking for it would require a walk-about, and also appreciating the beauty, if minimalistic, of small natural enclaves in the heart of a city of parks, a designation so many strive for. Find gardening-type beauty where it exists — and it can be seen at particular spades this time of the annual cycle.
One year ago as of April 1, I moved to an apartment building in downtown Hudson. I would no longer be able to view my big yard with wild island and the beauty supplied by dozens of oak trees, forming a ring around the house and leading back into the woods, a large spiritual loss. My new experience would be much different. Would it be fertile?
Yes, in very many small ways that added up, to a bigger sum, and revived me physically with the newfound vigor from this stroll I have now made several times — and also emotionally and spiritually.
All you need to do, I found, is take the time to look.
I did, and noticed things I had not before. Even that usually routine, although entertaining, squirrel who just now first perched on the only arch of a root sticking out of the lawn. Newly found and showing opportunity, and that is the theme of this post.

As is recognized by religious traditions, May Day is the epitome of a coming-of-spring fertility rite, and as such is fertile also with the prospect of opportunity and redemption, as well as regrowth, both spiritual and natural. So all of the holiday is set around the importance of the environment.
If you steer toward being Catholic, Mother Mary, the seen as the original May Queen, is a perfect choice for a representation of fertility, although technically virgin, as you’d have to have such attributes to be the bearer of the Son of God. But they’re goddesses all. These varied themes tie together.
And various religious traditions over such holidays can borrow from each other, over the passing of years and centuries, as was shown when a professor at the besieged Columbia University celebrated a Seder dinner with protestors, and some were probably from both sides of the religious aisle.
They also will meld when, dare I say it, all the beautiful women hit the beach of the national scenic riverway, in bikinis and maillots, just two blocks away from my apartment building, and also a couple of blocks away on the main streets, boasting non-stripped down versions of the same and sporty spring dresses, (after Easter but now moreso), though all bearing natural and enhanced beauty. Downtown businesses cater to these themes, from art galleries to salons, spas to fitness clubs, as the month’s past bearers of the season give way from ropes and boughs of greenery to big potted plants that already show some flowers, all demonstrating again, opportunities newly arising. That doesn’t even mention the flower shop of 50-plus years, and what they provide to the eye, and if outside.
The colors of such flowers, and the pots they were in, could be as many as four and even seemingly on the same plant.
Religious types will also notice in this outdoor decor the ebbing of Christmas and the start of the Easter season, although the continued prominence of birch logs tends to lend a segue, with Easter lilies — also on a door just down from mine — extending the motif. Other religious people, Pagans will note the importance given to the Maypole, that has overtly spiritual graces, but you can’t help but notice what it looks like. Even when positioned in the form of a carousel in the adjacent park. A nursery rhyme brings this back to being more innocent, and includes the richness of nature: “Ring around the rosey, pocket full of poseys …”

Was it chance that on the night of May Day, I saw a TV documentary on how to live 100 percent sustainably. As in totally. Trees all through the house, and beyond. So add such an earthship, and live within it, in more ways then one.
In my new climes, I first noticed that in an uncommon twist, there is beautiful architectural at 360 degrees, upper outdoor library beams, more than one big mural, well-designed office buildings, classic brick facades, and a sculpture that looks like a great big bush, as us humans create using the skills given to them by the original Creator. But also everywhere you walk are large expanses of concrete. Streets, alleys, curbs, sidewalks, parking lots, walkways and traffic bumpouts. But there is natural beauty here and there. Outside my windows, both of them, are trees framing every bit of the glass space you see through, forming golden arches that are not McDonalds. These big bows, such as they are formed, are three in number and and as I only noticed on May Day — heightened awareness? — there are three more smaller ones filling the framework and also the view through the picture window, with also just-acknowledged another three tiered up and down, small but nearer my window, so good for that. I am more and more aware about the way they take up that whole five-by-five space, almost like it is intentional, as in a painting of a planting that makes most efficient use of dirt. And I now saw that especially as there’s new growth greening out, the edges of the-window view are being filled in with beauty.
You could even invoke the little sprigs, that show new progress, that are sticking out of a few edges where sidewalk meets wall. (There always seem to be three of them, like a trinity-ish clover.) Again, the beauty of nature meets concrete.
There was an even bigger arch, of about 20 feet, that stretched between two oak treees back at the house, and gave a spiritual lift just to look at in its near perfection. I toward the end of my stay had placed a bench below, hoping that someone, other than myself, eventually could make just as uplifting use of it.
So these arches a good place to start, as the buds are just now beginning to grow.

I am reminded of an old autumn ritual of mine, and really you can practice it in any season, where I’d find a beautiful tree, any one really although the multiplicity effect of a big park is a draw, and pick out a leaf or two and rumple them in my fingers, while gazing at the color of others and listening to a faint rumble, all while praying or meditating. And those oaks at home and also at 360, that drop their leaves in phases over 12 months, although its only right now that we see the buds of various species taking their crowns at several-day intervals. Thus comes to bear a longtime question of mine, which is more profoundly spiritual, in what it represents as a ritual of choice, the mighty strength of an oak, or the frail beauty of a maple.
Spaced among my current concrete — viewed off the bottom edge of those windows — are a number of tiny mini-gardens, or just stretches of still valuable dirt that could be enhanced, with a few hostas, or other small forms of greenery. Thinking of this, those who have their gardens in their small urban yards must experience a burst of joy. Like those in my building who, also, who take full advantage of a four-by-two-foot shelf of a patio that’s also a garden. If there are April showers, you can always go inside and view, or maybe even finger the leaves, of a bunch of big potted plants, as flowers ahead of most of May. Even the scenes of somewhat-varied green are fantastic if viewed in the right way, before the numerous colors of actual flowers arrive. This again invokes the current time as a season of opportunity, and this hit home with me when viewing, out my window, and being moved by it, an empty planter with a bit of brown plant residue (that’s not an earth-friendly term considering the nature of this article) and more dirt, as there is much more beauty to be found if I just wait a month or so.
There are two other big patios aside the building at the south and west, where people can have a tree or two providing shade but, alas, their time and branches were cut short by a windstorm last year around this time, but if you look there still is more to be seen. Off in the distance is the high rise of bluffline trees that help form Birkmose Park, held sacred by indigenous peoples. To get a closer look, you have to walk several blocks. That’s the rub, a reverse of Not In My Back Yard scenario, where homeowners want what they want as far as nature, and they don’t want to have to travel a few miles or more to get it. We have a planet full of very crowded cities but also expanses of hundreds of miles of houseless forest or mountains or dessert. One thinks of such bounty or the lack of it, when crumpling a maple or oak leaf, or aspen or ash too.
So I walked on down. For the first time I noticed that the big pieces of mesh, meant to hold back any falling rock, were almost like terracing for the flora, which I could now see in three different tiers.
Even though summer is a month or so away.
For now, the Pagan version, especially, celebrates the return of youth, growth, and the warm weather that triumphs over the cold and dreary and dark. They ask the May Queen spare their life for yet another day, as the Pagan and Catholic traditions and their similar themes of redemption intersect. The former embrace the belief of her battling an evil diety to gain such, through the growing of spring.
So at their core, Mary as queen and nature are as one, and can be experienced that way.

So St. Patrick Catholic Church marked the May Crowning, days later on May 3, with a morning all-school Mass and feast on hope, as Mary did. So poignant these days. on May Day itself, there were a bunch of first communicants in attendance, but they were not crowned. But coming up shortly, though again not on May’s first morning, was a devotion to Joseph the Worker.
May Crowning is most widely observed as a traditional Catholic ritual held as a solemn procession, and at its closing a statue of the Blessed Virgin is crowned with a garland or crown of flowers, and here I go again on the nature tie-in, honoring her as “the Queen of May.” There is a special honor attached to being to crown the statue. That this year it was St. Patrick eighth-grader Megan as the lucky girl, and her two attendants.
The being honored maid of Nazareth, a term I find creative, is also called queen of heaven.
The faithful saw Mary’s attributes in the herbs and flowers growing around them. Many flowers and herbs are symbolically associated with Mary’s life and many people create varied Mary gardens. Such gardens can be seen as a spring clean for the May Queen, to borrow a term from Led Zeppelin, and can be a small sacred ones enclosed with a statue or shrine of the Virgin. Select flowers, shrubs and trees associated with Mary (and I think and now saw they are many) are planted in the garden.
“Who doesn’t love to sing a song to Mary,” a commentator asked. But there indeed are such people, and my Lutheran family would abhore such a practice. But there are many Marian hymns often sung at a May Crowning, including Hail Holy Queen, Immaculate Mary (Ave Maria), or Hail Mary (Gentle Woman). My family, in particular, was never a fan of Ave Maria, but despite my upbringing I do find some of the operatic versions impressive.
The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision that the church celebrate her role as “Mother of the Church” every year on the Monday after Pentecost. So again, have to wait. He added the memorial to the Roman Calendar after carefully considering how the promotion of devotion to Mary under this title might encourage growth in “the maternal sense of the Church.” So be it. This year it will fall on May 21. Three weeks away.