The Pre-Raphaelite Women Paintings

Sunflowers are blooming in our backyard

Sunflowers grow near Fargo North Dakoda (The border between Minnesota and North Dakoda) - Last week, on the way to Case Lake Minnesota, we drove through Fargo, I quickly took this picture, How I wish I could stop and walked in the Sunflower fileld to take more pictures.

Sunflowers we planted in our backyard a month ago, now it is blomming

Sunflowers in our backyard - I bought the seed from Homedepot

Old Pictures

Daddy's Cousin

Aunt Shuhui and her son

Aunt Shu Hui at the age of 18 - Married to a wealthy family's son . They lost everything during the Communist Tu Gai yundong and the Culture Revolution.

Aunt Shu Hui and her friend in 1945 .

Sunset

喜欢中西部的日落，红霞满天。。。

The Sky of March

The sky of March is quite and beautiful. The beginning of new life.

The joy of Being

The Joy of Being
If you embrace your shadows
Your light will begin to shine
If you embrace your doubts
Wisdom will shine
If you embrace your fears
Love will fill your life
If you embrace your mirror
Your fellow men and women will join you
If you embrace your body
The Spirit of the Eternal Will manifest itself in Matter
If you embrace your resistances
Suffering will vanish
If you embrace your world
Happiness will rule in the Universe
For your embrace is the energy
That holds all the powerto change,
with a wave of your hand,
The whole of human kind- Mabel Iam

Friendship

A real friend is the person who can enter your heart and touch the highest point of happiness in you, using as tools: her affection, her patience and her passion.
----Mabel Iam

Stormsburg Swedish Midsommar Festival - Taste of Sweden

The downtown area of Stromsburg has a town square in its center. This square forms a park, with lawns and mature trees, where festivals and events are held.

In the center of the square is a two story Swedish style building made of brick with decorative toll painting and the phrase "Valkommen" (Swedish for "Welcome").

The performance

It took us one and half hour driving to Stormsburg, a small town close to Omaha.

Stromsburg is a city in Polk County, Nebraska, located 100 miles west of Omaha, 20 miles north of Interstate 80 on the Pan-American Highway, Highway 81. Fertile farm ground producing corn, milo, and soybeans surrounds this rural city of 1,232 residents. Stromsburg is the largest of four towns in Polk County, with a population of 5,639. The population was 1,232 at the 2000 census.


Stromsburg was settled early in Nebraska history. In 1856, 155 people from Ockelbo, Sweden, sailed aboard the vessel 'Carolina' to a new life in America. After several years in Illinois, some of the people decided to move on to the state of Nebraska, with Swedish real estate agent Lewis Headstrom as their leader. Delighted that the landscape resembled their homeland, they chose to name their new town after Stromsborg, a section of Ockelbo, Sweden. By 1882, two brickyards were furnishing bricks for business buildings, churches, and homes.

In 1966 the Nebraska Governor came to Stromsburg for the Swedish Festival proclaiming it the "Swede Capital of Nebraska", a title that the community still claims.

The downtown area of Stromsburg has a town square in its center. This square forms a park, with lawns and mature trees, where festivals and events are held.

My Garden-Peonies ，Roses, Bunny。。。

野兔总在后院出末。

Poison Ivy- Leaves of Three, Let It Be

这是有毒的爬藤，特征是三个叶子，去年在后院除草时，只是从这植物身旁经过，竟不小心被这植物毒了一下，苦不堪言，现在一看到他就闪，就象美国人有句俗语说: Leaves of Three, Let It Be.

黄玫瑰也开花了

无意中把那车轮拍进来，咋一看与鲜花也还算成对称。

昨晚的一场雨使得这牡丹花开得有点懒散

这粉红色的牡丹花总是比那紫红色的开得早。

门口的牡丹花开了

邻居家的牡丹花开了

Memory Day

对面这房子据说以前是所小学，老公的母亲小时候曾在这上过学。
但现在这房子住的是一户人家，据说这家人买下这房子。美国人住在公墓附近一点都不忌讳，他们认为人死后就归入尘土了，死人是伤不了人的，所以有些公墓都建在市中心，附近都住有人家。。

小鸟很自在地停在墓碑上休息

曾曾祖父和祖母的墓碑

Valley Cemetery

Valley Cemetery建于1881年

前往Valley公墓的路上

陣亡將士紀念日是美國聯邦假期的最後一個星期一5月（ 5月25日在2009年） 。前身為裝飾日，紀念在服兵役中死亡的军人。后来也延伸为美国人纪念死去亲人的日子，有点象亚洲的清明节。
每年这时候美国人都带着鲜花到亲人的墓地去，墓地上都能看到些小国旗插在士兵的墓前。
今年我们与往年一样带着鲜花去Valley向死去的亲人致敬，老公是第五代移民，他的祖先分别从德国和瑞典移民到美国来，母亲的祖先从瑞典移民美国，后来在valley定居下来，父亲的祖先从德国移民到美国来，后来在Nebraska的一小镇定居下来。母亲的祖先都安葬在Valley的公墓里，这里的一个个墓碑都能认出所有祖先的名字。老公说他从三岁就随父母来这里，目的是提醒自己不要忘记自己的祖先是从哪里来.

In loving memory of La Vern

It has been three years since La Vern passed away. We saw him in the winter of 2005 in Oregon during our trip to Hearst Castle California. Before we left, he hug both of us, I could see tears in his eyes. He passed away in the Summer of 2006.

He wrote this before he left this world, to share his view of life to all of us.

The most two important things are:
1. One word: "Cherish" everything and everyone close to you. For all can be gone in the blink of an eye.
2. "The Best Things in Life are Free." Love, understanding, caring. I believe one gets wrapped up in the material things in life and doesn't mean to, but forgets the real thngs. Like the sun, moon, stars, a blade of grass. One must cherish the simple things also; talking, seeing, feeling, taking a bath, even combing one's hair. The routine things. There is an old saying, I believe, "One doesn't know what they have'til they lose it."

- LaVern Rice

教堂外的春天