December

December was a quiet month in my garden. Things had been frozen and flattened by the frigid weather in November, so there wasn’t opportunity for much to change in December. In December there were some fairly warm days (including Christmas) when the cats all came out to sun themselves, and there was a day with a dusting of snow in the week leading up to Christmas. There was an incredible sunset on Christmas Eve and a colorful sunrise on Christmas Day. I’ve also had some indoor blooms from my orchids and Christmas cactus.

John and I continued our tradition of heading out to the reclaimed strip mine land to find a good cedar tree to turn into a Christmas tree. We know our spot after having gone there with a group for years and years. Now we’re the only ones who go and we no longer get permits and permission, so we keep our search quick and leave before anyone knows we were there. As usual, we ended up with a pretty tree.

With the colder weather, I’ve been spending more time indoors and the indoor cats are ever-present. Perry is particularly noteworthy. We can’t explain it, but his behavior has been extremely improved as of late. We have been able to sit in his part of the house for extended periods of time without paying 100% attention to him and he does not bite us. It’s difficult to convey how violent he has been previously and how much he has previously not been willing to let us focus on anything but him. Often in the last month or two I have been able to work at the computer with him tapping me periodically for treats. Lately, that’s all he’s needed to be a good boy.

Hopefully 2020 will bring more good things for Percivale. Hopefully it will also bring more good things for my garden. I anticipate some new challenges in the coming year, but I need to remain hopeful that the good will overshadow the bad.

A Little of This and a Little of That

It’s mid-December, and I’ve been to a variety of places in the past several weeks. At home, my garden has slowly been going further and further into dormancy. The previously frozen flowers and leaves are drying, their color fading further to brown.

I got my final harvest mid-November. I’d attempted some fall greens and a few came up. I needed the space to plant my garlic, though, so I picked the greens and some small garlic shoots that had been growing all summer from discarded garlic cloves. The greens and garlic leaves made a delicious fried rice. The garlic that I planted in the space they vacated will grow all winter and spring and will be ready to harvest sometime around next June.

 

The day after Thanksgiving, I ended up in my hometown of Archbold, Ohio for their 20th annual Festival of Lights Parade. In case you have never seen a parade in a small Midwestern town, they usually include a wide array of farm implements plus fire, rescue, and police vehicles from as many surrounding areas as possible. Archbold puts a twist on it by holding their parade after dark and requiring everything to be coated in lights.

The last time I saw a Festival of Lights Parade, someone had even covered the village’s septic sucker in lights. I was disappointed that there was only a minimally lighted garbage truck this year, but the Archbold Fire Department did go all out by installing a smoking chimney on the back of their big ladder truck. Of course, there was also the Sterlina the Cow with a nicely lit wreath around her neck.

It was good to be back for the parade after many years. Nothing rings in the Holidays like some lighted farm implements.

 

After Thanksgiving with my family, I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to do an arts residency. I’ll write more about that on my art blog, but here I’ll say that I need to remember to schedule residencies only when the days are longer. By the time I was finished teaching at the school every day, I only had about an hour of daylight left, so I didn’t get to see much of the city.

I did fit in a visit to the Franklin Part Conservatory, however. Their interior had some special plants and lighting for the holidays and they had special light displays in their exterior gardens. I could appreciate some of the exterior lights, but the display I most wanted to see was not turned on yet. It was in the Japanese garden, and the printed descriptions made it sound like there would be projections on the white fabric banners I saw suspended in the space. They were still interesting to look at, though. I was sad that I was just a couple days too early for the Conservatory’s evening hours.

 

After I got home from my art residency, John and I made sure to go out and get a Christmas tree. As is the tradition at Patchwork Central, we drove out to some reclaimed strip mine land and cut an Eastern red cedar. In the past, someone from our group would get the proper permits and training, but now it’s just John and I getting a tree, so we simply dash in and grab one before anyone notices.

The scarred land is beautiful with scattered cedars everywhere, brown grasses, and small ponds. Over the years, John and I have learned that trees look a lot smaller while growing in a field than they do when indoors. In the past we’ve come home with some giants that needed every inch of our 12′ ceiling heights.

The first tree John found looked great…until I realized that it was at least twice his height. We kept searching and found another very pretty specimen that wasn’t much taller than John. Perfect!

Once home, we soon had it decorated. It’s the first time the Ladies have been around a Christmas tree, so we weren’t sure what to expect. The only time they showed any interest was when I first brought out the lights. Once Lady Ygraine completed her lighting investigation, both Ladies went back to pretty much ignoring the tree.

I was a little puzzled by some hanging clumps among the branches. At first, I thought they were insect related, but I couldn’t pull them off so I thought they were part of the tree. They looked great as part of the decorations, but I decided I’d better do a little Googling. Turns out they are cocoons for moth larva. Ick. They’re gone now.

 

And speaking of the cats, they are all enjoying their warm and cozy life indoors and they are repaying us in cuteness. The outdoor interloper who John and I have nicknamed McBalls continues to stir things up for our three indoors. Lady Morgaine continues to love her heated cat bed. And, Perry is still a huggy, bitey mess.

 

 

Tree Tours and a German Castle

In addition to having great time with our families, John and I saw some great sights this summer in Germany and England.

One place that we went with my sister’s family was called Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald, which was located in a forest about an hour northwest of Nuremberg, Germany. Baumwipfelpfad translates to “treetop path,” and there are several similar places located across Germany.

Once you enter the gates, you begin walking on a wooden path that quickly rises into the treetops. It’s meant to give you an appreciation of the forest from a unique viewpoint within the tree canopy. The wooden walkway reaches a maximum height of about 85 feet above the forest floor.

After walking through the treetops for a while, we reached the central tower that spirals upward for about 140 feet. It circles a relatively young tree and there’s a platform partway up where you can rest. From the top, you can see a very long way.

The day we went was warm but not oppressive, and the air was clear for optimum views. It was a wonderful place to visit. If you’re interested in knowing more, the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald website is here.

Another of our stops was at a castle in Cadolzburg, a town near where my sister lives in Germany. The structure itself was interesting with lots of rooms and spaces to explore. What made it even better were the interesting and interactive exhibits inside the castle.

You could smell the smells in the castle’s kitchen. You could try on the clothing that would have designated you as a Codolzburg ruler. You could try out dance steps from the Late Middle Ages. You could try on pieces of armor that knights would have worn. You could sleep in the bed of a medieval royal or a pauper. You could aim canons to beat back approaching siege weapons. And you could challenge a friend at a tournament of clubs.

The castle was destroyed during World War II in a battle nearby between the Americans and the Germans. The castle caught fire and burned for days. It was long left as a ruin, but very recently it was stabilized and reconstructed. It reopened as a museum in 2016.

The castle also had a beautiful garden, but, sadly, my camera battery ran out just before we got to it.

You can find out more about the castle on its website here.

St Louis Road Trip

A little over a week ago, John and I took a long weekend and traveled to St. Louis. It’s the kind of trip that we always say we should take more often. It’s always so good to make ourselves take a break from work and get away for some time together. Then we come home, get sucked into work, and another year passes without a simple weekend away.

This time we went to St. Louis. On Friday, we met up with our friends Ruth and Jesse who live in Kansas City. For years we’ve all said we should meet halfway and see each other in St. Louis. Finally we did it!

It’s very good to spend time with old friends. We met for lunch, then went to Citygarden. It’s a great little sculpture park in the center of the city. From there we walked to the arch and soaked up some sun.

Then Ruth decided she felt like ice cream. A Google search resulted in an intriguing ice cream shop: Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery. The ice cream there was amazing. The “naughty” part was the section of the ice cream case devoted to flavors that incorporated alcoholic beverages. The two flavors I chose were “Cup of Sunshine” with turmeric, ginger, and tea flavoring (among others) and “Lion’s Tooth” with Dandelion Liqueur. The ice cream was so good John and I went back the next day to try different flavors.

John and I also checked out the St. Louis Graffiti Wall. It’s a flood wall against the Mississippi River, it’s more than a mile long, and it’s covered in graffiti. It was fun to see, and it managed to make our new little car look cool. It didn’t really make me look any cooler, though.

I also had the fun of being a guerrilla photographer for an engagement that happened in a park near the ice cream shop. John and I were walking around, and a group of people asked me if I planned to be in the park for a little while.

I cautiously said that, yes, I was, and they explained that they were hiding in the bushes because a man they knew was about to propose to his girlfriend. [I realized that that explained why they were lurking in the same spot next to some bushes.] They were hoping that I would take one of their cell phones and photograph the proposal as it happened. If I did it, they could remain hidden in the bushes and the girlfriend would suspect nothing.

It sounded fun, as long as I didn’t spend all night waiting for the guy to arrive, so I agreed. They fussed way too much about which phone to give me. The guy’s mom was afraid the girlfriend would recognize the phone case. She didn’t believe me when I said I was a totally random person and the girlfriend would never connect “my” phone to anyone she knew.

Then they got a text from the man in question that said he and his girlfriend were about five minutes away. The family gave me a description–the couple was walking a golden retriever and the guy was balding and wearing a pink shirt. John and I got in position by the gazebo where the magical moment would occur, and we waited.

John spotted the couple first. They rounded a building and headed our way. I held up the phone. We were no one. We didn’t matter, and that was perfect. The guy got down on one knee, the woman said yes, they kissed, and the dog did jumping jacks behind them because he was so excited. The family cheered and jumped out of the bushes, and I passed the phone off to them before disappearing into the park. The guy and his new fiancee never knew I was there. As John and I headed off, we heard champagne corks pop.

As an added bonus, the guy’s family handed me $10 in tips as I handed off the cell phone. Later, I considered starting a new business of secret wedding proposal photography as I sipped a $10 cocktail.

The next day, John and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time for a visit. The trees were all in full bloom as were the majority of the spring bulbs. The weather was warm but not too hot, and the sky was blue.

We wandered through several of the gardens before arriving in the formal Victorian garden with studding tulips surrounding a sculpture of Juno. It was clearly the spot to get your picture taken! Actually, the botanical garden was understandably packed with guests. It was a fun challenge to get photos that highlighted the plants and landscapes and not the random people walking through them.

We also stopped in the Climatron on the way to the restroom. The Chihuly glass in one of the ponds was definitely some garden art goals to which I could aspire!

 

In the middle of taking photos of all the tulips, daffodils, fritillaries, flowering trees, and Persian buttercups, John and I ran across the iris display garden. I began to photograph my favorite blooms. Then we started reading the names of each variety and it got really fun. I overheard a garden staff member telling another visitor that the people developing the different varieties of iris had weird senses of humor.

There were quite a few of the irises that weren’t blooming yet, and their names really made me curious what they might look like. Some of the names that struck me included:

• Troublemaker
• Fission Chips
• Gag Gift
• Gnuz Spread
• Force Field
• It’s Amazing
• Honey Money
• Outspoken
• Enoch
• Cat’s Eye
• Cliche
• Exotic Blend
• Done Me Wrong
• Cuddle Up
• Lady Friend
• Devoted
• Photon
• Honey Cat
• Naughty Nights
• Sammie’s Jammies
• Dusky He-Man
• Spiderman
• Grindelwald
• Ninja Turtles
• Somewhat Quirky
• Quite Quirky

Later in the morning, we made our way through a woodland area to arrive at the Japanese garden. The views all along the way were spectacular, but it was in the Japanese garden that the variations in color in the trees and bushes were absolutely stunning. There could not have been a better day to visit!

2016 Christmas Tree Procurement

I’ve struggled to be in the Christmas spirit, so it was tempting to skip a Christmas tree and any other kind of decorations. This year has been tough and next year promises to be more so. However, there have been one or two other Christmas tree-less years, and those years I’ve felt regret after the holidays were over. So a few weeks ago John and I went on a tree poaching expedition.

Our friends at Patchwork used to organize tree gathering, get permits, form a convoy. As everyone grew older, John and I were the only ones who still went. Now he and I still go to “The Spot,” but it’s spur-of-the-moment, permit-less, and just the two of us. The red truck with a bright evergreen bouncing along in its bed is the same as always, though.

We were committed to avoiding the usual tree gathering mistake: choosing something that requires every inch of our 12′ ceilings. The trees always look so much smaller outdoors!

We drove by several and stopped at one that was right on the road and a perfect size. Unfortunately, it was composed of 4-6 trunks all bound together into one tree.

We moved on, not seeing anything sufficiently small.

We stopped again. On closer inspection, that tree was not very attractive.

We stopped again. John walked over to a possible option and stood next to it for reference. He thought it looked good. I thought it was too tall.

Finally, we sighted something up and over a rise.

Maybe?

Up a bank filled with tall thorns and suddenly we beheld: the land of the little trees.

We found one we liked and John stood next to it to confirm that our eyes weren’t playing tricks on us. We cut it, hopped in the truck (Hooray! It actually fit all the way into the truck bed this time!), and drove away before anyone knew we were there (though I doubt that anyone cared).

We set the tree up, and it looks lovely, as usual. Out cat helped John assemble the new tree stand (I’m not sure why. He’s getting a little weird in his old age). Then the decorations. I’m starting to get a great collection of handmade raccoon ornaments. John put one at the back of the tree so it looks like it’s being sneaky. This year I added a squirrel, too. On the tree, the squirrel has an owl watching him from behind.

Moving Ever Onward while Staying in One Place

Every year it is the truth: April through June are kind to my garden. The colors are never brighter. The leaves never fresher or fuller. Plants bloom one after another. Everything is new and energetic.

The last of the daffodils have finally faded, their dying greenery now covered by the expanding mounds of hostas, heucheras, and tiarellas. There are wonderful little vignettes happening across my garden–wonderful color and textural combinations.

There’s the section of orange and yellow heucheras mixed with white hostas and pink tiarella flower spikes. It’s the section of my garden that was included in the book The Perennial Matchmaker by garden blogger Nancy Ondra (Yay! It was super cool to have one of my photos included in a gardening book! With a photo credit!).

Then there’s the woodland vignette of Solomon’s seal, sweet woodruff, wild ginger, and astrilbe at the base of the maple tree. And the cluster of iris, astrilbe, coral bells, tiarella, and alums only halfway through its blooms.

Mix in some heart-shaped redbud leaves, blazing azaleas, dewdrops, and awesome garden markers by the kids at Patchwork, and I’m a happy gardener.

We almost got through the month of April without a tornado warning, but then last week a severe storm hit. A tornado touched down in the north part of Evansville and there were 60 mile an hour winds all around. It was too much for the frontmost of our two apple trees. I came home from work to find its branches very definitely in the wrong place.

We called the tree removal people right away and they were out to take care of it a day and a half later. Since the tree was resting on our house, they brought a truck with a crane on it so they could lift straight up. It was very interesting watching them work.

Here’s the before photo of the side yard as they assessed the situation:

And then the guy way up in the tree connecting straps to use for lifting:

And then before my eyes, the entire tree being hoisted over my house. It was a very impressive sight:

I asked them to cut down the second apple tree, as well. In the time we’ve lived here, the second tree’s apples have never been large and it was equally old, so it was a good time to remove it. Maybe now that we won’t have heaps of apples on the ground our house will be less attractive to raccoons and other critters. Maybe.

Here’s the final piece of trunk being readied to be lifted away:

And the empty space left behind:

There are plenty of new possibilities here now. It’s sunny, so I’m hoping to build a raised bed to expand my vegetable gardening space. I had the tree guys leave stumps so I can transform them into garden art. Happily, the house seems to be OK.

I’ll miss these trees. They were yellow transparent apples. Their shade was wonderful, and I’d discovered years ago that that they were the secret to making deliciously tart, green applesauce that was just like mom used to make. Luckily, a few years ago I discovered a local source for applesauce apples.

They were old trees, planted almost 40 years ago in an effort by the early folks involved at Patchwork Central to be modern day Johnny Appleseeds. Trying to bring healthy, local food to the residents of inner-city Evansville, everyone planted fruit trees and berries in their yards. These trees thrived where apricots and blueberries failed.

Calvin and Nelia, previous residents of our house who are two of the founders of Patchwork and the trees’ planters, had this tribute to the trees: “They produced lots of apples! We would pick as many as we could & then take bags of them up & down the street asking our neighbors to ‘adopt’ some apples. We made lots & lots of applesauce, fried apples & other inspired concoctions. I still remember the sound of the overly ripe fruit crashing down for the too high top branches with a great ‘splash’. The bees loved the squishy, sweet nectar of these rotten apples! We give thanks for the faithful produce of these determined trees.”

Here’s a photo from Calvin and Nelia that shows the trees just after they were planted:

In the last 2-3 years, the trees have been too tall for me to pick any apples, so I just let the apples fall to the ground. They were so fragile that they would turn brown and shatter with the smallest impact, so the ones that fell never tempted me. I thought they had a horrible, sour flavor when raw, anyway. It always astounded me that many, many people passing by would stop and pick one up to eat. From time to time, I’d hear the clink of the gate latch dropping as someone quietly let themself into the yard to get a particularly large and (relatively) unblemished apple.

So the apple trees really have provided local fruit to hundreds of neighbors for decades. They were a wonderful thing.

Of Landscapes Natural and Constructed

John and I recently spent the weekend at the beautiful Goff House B&B in Cobden, IL.

It’s situated in a landscape that features hills strewn with huge boulders, sharp canyons, and enormous rock formations carved from limestone. (Click on any photo below for a slideshow of larger images–and try to find John in two of the photos!)

The outdoors comes inside at the Goff House to make for wonderful, earthy architecture. (Again, click any photo for a slideshow of larger images.)

It was great to actually live in the space, if only for two nights. I would love to live there longer in order to watch the seasons change incrementally around the structure and to see the structure be changed by the seasons. The rocky house in the spare winter landscape with the bare trees silhouetted against the sunsets and sunrises was beautiful. With relatively early sunsets and frigid temperatures, John and I also enjoyed plenty of time reading by the fire. Breakfasts were good and hearty. There was also a lovely dog named Postal.

The house was designed by architect Bruce Goff for Hugh Duncan, a sociology and English professor at Southern Illinois University in nearby Carbondale, IL. It was designed in 1965 and built (from what I can tell) over the next few years. According to the Goff House website, it was Duncan’s intention to create a house that would achieve “an inside outside environmental delight to compare with Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘falling over brook’ structure in Pennsylvania”.

Duncan’s concept for the house was that “The House should therefore assume a natural place in the rocky Hillside site; It should provide a comfortable retreat for reading and writing in the midst of his thousand of books; it should make and appropriate setting for the social life the Duncans enjoyed, And it should include some Louis Sullivan artifacts as symbolic reminders of the sociological principles of architecture which Professor Duncan discerned in Sullivan’s works and writings.”

Duncan chose Bruce Goff to design this house. Of his work, Goff said, “We desire to enter into and inhabit any great and original work of art – to possess it and allow it possess us, be it literature, painting, music or architecture.  This is why architecture is such a powerful art: we can inhabit it physically as well as spiritually in time and space.  Someday perhaps it will, like music, become less earth-bound, more flexible and athletic, more ever-changing and free.” From – Bruce Goff  Toward Absolute Architecture , David G. DeLong 1988

Here’s the blueprint as artwork. You can see the layout is in essence three interconnected cylinders. A hallway runs along the center to connect the living areas. On one end is the library, the bedrooms are in the middle, and the living area is at the other end.

You, too, can reserve a night at the Goff House. Visit the website to learn how. It’s an indoor/outdoor architectural adventure, so don’t expect a perfectly heated jacuzzi room, antiseptically clean spaces, or the latest in construction.

While John and I were out and about visiting state parks in the area, we drove by an art-full garden. It turns out that it was the back yard of shop in the town of Mankanda, IL. There was a serious burnt-out hippie vibe in the entire town, but the garden was pretty neat. When we mentioned it later to the owner of the Goff House, he said the artists who created the art garden had visited the Goff House for some of their inspiration. I think it shows.

 

A Lightly Poached Christmas Tree and Hoar Frost

It was the morning after Thanksgiving. Rain was forecast for the entire weekend but was holding off for the time being. John and I skipped breakfast, grabbed the Patchwork pickup truck and drove out to the old strip mine land for a Christmas tree. We don’t normally set up our tree on the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we knew that between work schedules and rainy weather, if we didn’t collect a tree at that moment we wouldn’t do it at all this year.

It has been a longstanding Patchwork tradition for a group to drive out to the countryside for trees for our homes and one for Patchwork. But this year, no one else was interested. Normally, our friend Alan goes to the mining company’s offices to listen to a safety lesson before being issued a permit. Normally, we bring the permit with us when we collect the trees and remark, “Hmmm. We’ve never, ever run into anyone asking to see this.” But we carry it just in case.

So this year, John and I were rebels and went without a permit. We were confident we could do a drive-by tree poaching and find a good one right next to the road without risking private property, hunters, or trap lines.

We got to our spot, and sure enough, there were several great candidates. Trying to make it really quick, we pointed out a couple that looked good from the truck. Then another one caught my eye. It was particularly lacy
looking–quite elegant.

“How about that one? It looks nice,” I said.

John agreed, so we jumped out of the truck and covered the short distance to the tree. It really was quite beautiful. There wasn’t much time. John started sawing at the base. He cut through. He hefted the tree up to carry it to the truck.

“Oh no,” I thought. “It’s enormous.”

It’s always so hard to judge height out in the field.

“Don’t worry. It actually fit in the truck this time,” said John.

Yeah. Diagonally.

It’s good that the feathery top branches curve so elegantly just below our 12 foot ceiling. It’s one of the larger red cedar trees we’ve come home with over the years. It just barely fits into the space, but it is a pretty tree. We’ve got it decorated and now have all of December to enjoy it and the fresh cedar scent it spreads through the house.

The top is too delicate for the angel I grew up with, so (as with previous red cedar Christmas trees) I added a little fake goldfinch to play the part of a star on this tree from the wild.

And following along with the theme of the wilds of Southern Indiana, the tree hunting weekend was followed by a beautiful hoar frost this weekend. I was glad to be able to get out and take some photos. I happened upon a good spot near Newburgh, but I couldn’t tell you where I was or get back there if I wanted to. It was a fun morning.

Here’s a collection of photos (click on any one for a larger view):

Happy Trails to Me

I’m recently back home after a two week art residency spent working with seniors in Granville, Ohio with funding from the Ohio Arts Council and its Artful Aging Ohio program. You can see more about it on my artist website.

On most days, I was finished teaching by mid afternoon. What to do then? I challenged myself to find interesting places to visit and to explore the area. I found lots of nice places to walk outdoors, and that’s what I enjoyed most. It was a beautiful part of the country, and it was a beautiful time of year to be visiting (though the weather was a little too warm for me).

Granville, itself, was a beautiful town. There was so much beautiful landscaping everywhere. One nice spot was the Robbins Hunter Museum. I particularly liked the plant shown flowering below. It’s taken me a while, but I finally identified it: a calycanthus.

I spent one afternoon walking around Inniswood Metro Park and enjoyed the gardens there. (Remember, you can click on any of the photos in the following galleries to get a bigger image.)

On a couple other afternoons/evenings I walked around the Dawes Arboretum. I didn’t discover it until my second week or I would have spent even more time there. Of course there were some amazing trees, but there were also plenty of wonderful paths through a variety of gardens and ecosystems. The following photo gallery gives a hint at it all, but there was so much more. There were so many birds singing and flitting around that I wished I had my binoculars. I also discovered how much insects love common milkweed and how sweetly it smells.

I was near my alma mater, Kenyon College, so I also spent one afternoon/evening visiting it. Again, I wished I hadn’t waited until the second week to do so. Even though it was a 45 minute drive, I would have gone back a second time.

I began my visit in one of my favorite places: the Kokosing Gap Trail. I love the old railway bridge across the river and the views of the countryside. At the bridge, I was surprised to find that there is now a whole system of hiking trails around the campus and I had a great time exploring some of them. I could have easily spent another evening or two exploring more.

After enjoying the wooded River Trail, I went up to campus and did a quick walk around to see the old buildings and new construction. Unfortunately, since it was an evening in the summer everything was closed and no one was around. Before I left, I stopped at the Brown Family Environmental Center to see the gardens there and to try a few more trails. I’m glad the late-setting sun allowed me extra time to explore.

I’d never realized how many Native American earthworks were in the area. There are a large number in Newark, near Granville. I drove by them often as I traveled from place to place for my residency. They were interesting to explore.

My lodging for the two weeks was at the beautiful Orchard House Bed and Breakfast. I enjoyed my stay and appreciated the scenic, rural location. I enjoyed going to sleep while watching lightning bugs glitter in the treetops outside my window. I enjoyed watching the swallows, wrens, chickadees, cardinals, chipmunks, and pet cat every morning from the breakfast room. The new owners Dean and Jody are committed to local foods, so my breakfasts ranged from deliciously simple (as in: eggs from the owners’ chickens, local sausage from free range hogs, herbs from the owners’ garden, locally baked bread, and locally roasted coffee purchased directly from Central American farmers by the coffee shop owner) to berry-filled bread pudding, quiche, sausage and sweet potato scramble, and cinnamon roll pancakes. I even got to watch the sun set on the summer solstice while sitting next to a campfire near grazing goats, sheep, a llama, chickens, and peacocks.

 

Winter Postscript

This week, the first week of March, it snowed again. We got 8.5 inches, the #5 one-day snowfall total of all time for Evansville. It began with heavy rain on Wednesday morning, followed by a little sleet, and then thick snow. It was beautiful.

And it created some interesting snow sculptures in my back yard.

It snowed all night. The next morning the city was quiet under its blanket of snow. Here’s what 8.5 inches looks like:

I shoveled walks and then went skiing along the levee.

I’ve been grateful to have access to a 4-wheel drive vehicle, which greatly expands my potential skiing sites. It was bitterly cold after the snow, which meant that I got another nice day of skiing on Friday. I decided to try a short stretch of a levee close to the neighboring town of Newburgh. It was also very pleasant, and I saw the tracks of one other cross country skier.