Writerly inspiration comes from different sources for me. It’s intriguing how it occurs without strict format or outline, but instead ignites spontaneously once exposed to light. Composing a weekly Wannaskan Almanac article is a good exercise of the imagination and requires some effort on my part to string words together to draw an image, in not only my mind, but a reader’s as well. Hmmm, what to do, what to do? Just start.... I google: “June 7 in Minnesota history,” all the while knowing that June 7th is my nephew Stewart’s birthday, and I had surprisingly seen his mother, of all people, ‘way up here in Thief River Falls, Minnesota on June 2, at a funeral for one of our first cousins. I didn’t know she and her husband were driving the five hundred miles trip north from Iowa. It was such a surprise. Next week, June 12, is Stewart’s oldest sister’s birthday. I know these things because these two are my oldest nephew and my oldest niece, only six and eight years younger