Turkeys, Before and After

Turkeys are incredibly ugly and terribly fascinating at the same time. These birds are residents at the Coyote Creek Farm in Florence, Indiana, where we spent an afternoon in mid-October. A number of them roamed the property much to the delight of city-slickers like us, who think a turkey look more like this ... which we enjoyed yesterday afternoon at the homestead in Liberty Twp.

I hope you enjoyed fellowship with family and friends yesterday, and were fortunate to have a wonderful meal, as we did. We have so very much to be thankful for ... "My God, How Great Thou Art!"

Saturday in the Park

Since the weather has finally cooled down and the blistering heat of the summer is a fading memory, we've been able to take the dogs to the park again. We went last Saturday morning and again this morning, all of us enjoying the crisp fall air and the peace of our favorite trail. The dogs just run and run like fools, racing through the underbrush and the woods, taking off ahead of us down the path. Tandie moves more slowly than Tango and Tyson, taking her time sniffing every interesting spot along the way. Once in a while she'll break into a trot, but not often.

The fall colors this year have been a little disappointing, but every so often there's a bit of a display that catches my eye. Many trees have just turned brown and dropped their leaves - and boom! it was over with. Then again, I'm noticing a lot of trees that are still mostly green - not sure what they're waiting for. As we walked through the woods most of the leaves we were swishing through were brown and gold, but there were the occassional rust and red colored leaves peeking out.

Though we're really not looking forward to the bleak winter months, we are looking forward to the crisp morning walks in the park. (The dogs agree!)

Natural Bridge State Park

Since it was such a gorgeous fall weekend, we continued with the outdoor theme on Sunday, driving south and east into Kentucky, eventually finding our way to Natural Bridge State Park in Slade, Ky. I had had the crazy idea that we should drive the 2.5 hours just to hike up to the Natural Bridge, enjoy the view, hike some more, climb down, then drive back home (another 2.5 hours or so). (So much for our efforts at conserving gas these days.) So I threw together a picnic lunch, filled up our water bottles and packed our cameras and off we went. On the way I got us slightly misplaced (that is to say, we missed an exit even though I had the map in my hands...unhappy moment) and almost ran out of gas when exits became few and far between (said prayers for gas stations to appear) .... but we got there sometime shortly after noon.

We commenced hiking, or should I say walking (or plodding?) slowly up "The Original Trail" which the trail guide describes as "the shortest and easiest trail for hiking to the Natural Bridge." (Humor.) The trail is only .75 miles but feels twice as long, especially for those who are very out-of-shape. Some kind soul thought to place benches and little trail shelters periodically along the way, and I took advantage of most of them. The trail is really a series of stone steps, wooden steps and rocks to climb - and it goes uphill at a decent grade all the way. Note: going downhill on all these steps and hills is even worse. Far worse! My leg muscles were a mess by the time we got back to the bottom a couple of hours later.

Good thing I knew that the hike was worth it, from previous visits. Once at the top, you first see the underside of the arch, then climb up (yes) more steps through a natural fracture in the rock, finally getting to the top. The actual stone span is pretty narrow and completely wide open. Nothing to stop anyone from going over the edge, either by accident or on purpose. Very scary. But did I mention the view? You can see half of Kentucky from that ridge! (Well, maybe not quite that much. But what a way to see the Red River Gorge area!)

We didn't linger too long on the top of the arch since both of us get to feeling pretty nervous after just a few minutes. We took another hour or so to walk around the trails at the top of the gorge, stopping at Lovers Leap and Lookout Point, where we ate our lunch. (Oh, yes, there is a ski lift that we could have used to get to the top.) Now on that 3rd picture below, ignore the old people, but notice the Natural Bridge behind us, across the gorge. That's how it looks from afar.

We relaxed and cooled down in the lodge for a while once we finished hiking, then took a look at the map to find an alternative backroads way to drive home. No highway for us, oh no, we wanted the scenic route. That's where we always get in trouble. More on that later.

Mt. Adams

Last weekend we took advantage of a pleasant fall evening to trek up to Mt. Adams, which overlooks downtown Cincinnati. The streets of Mt. Adams are steep and narrow, many really only wide enough for one car. One must creep slowly and carefully to avoid parked cars and night-life-loving pedestrians. It's a fun place at night - colorful lights, throngs of people having fun, and great views at every turn. We parked near the old Rookwood restaurant (now named Porkopolis Tavern, which does it no justice) and found our way to a wonderful overlook that gave a panoramic view of downtown Cincinnati, the river, and on across to the Kentucky side.

Chris used his tripod and got some great pictures ~ however, my little Fuji doesn't nearly do the job in showing how colorful the view was. I need to get him to start a blog to share his pictures and his perspective - it can be quite different than mine.

We left the overlook and hiked up many many steps to (what we thought was) the Church of the Immaculata. Well, it turns out we were just climbing up to the Monastery apartments, high atop one of the many hills...so we kept on going until we came to the bar area, near the "Monk Whose Cup Runneth Over" statue at the corner of Pavilion and St. Gregory Sts. Evidently this bronze statue was created to honor the wine-making heritage of Mt. Adams (which I knew nothing about until I looked it up)... for a brief period in the early 1800's, Mt. Adams was well known for its wines. Go figure.

We continued on, making our way downhill past old rowhouses, most now renovated and beautiful, occupied by those who love the lifestyle in Mt. Adams. This particular group of homes had an almost haunted feel to them .....

We finally found our way to Holy Cross - Immaculata Church on Guido St. and of course that involved climbing yet another set of steps (huff, puff, pause, gasp, continue on to the next set ...). It sits atop one of the highest points in Cincinnati, overlooking the river. There was a misty full moon, and the view was wonderful.

We worked our way back to the car, making a false turn or two ... should have left a trail of crumbs to follow. It was a great to be out walking around, enjoying the scene in Mt. Adams, but I must say I loved getting home to a nice soft bed! Little did I know that that evening was just a warm-up for our adventure in Kentucky the next day...

Homecoming 2007

Senior year, the last Homecoming Dance of her high school career .... she looked soooo tall in her fancy shoes, and plum colored dress! We allowed her to drive, picking up 3 girlfriends, and they met up with 4 others for dinner at LaRosa's before going to school for the dance. (One boy, 7 girls!) Then more food afterwards ... a late night, and (according to her) the dance was "sort of boring."

At this time next year she'll have flown the coop - where is time going?

I Think It Just Rained...

After a summer of relentless heat and virtually no rain for months, it has just ... rained. Only for about 10 minutes, but it rained! And there was lightning! But now as I glance out the window, just a few moments later, the sun is out again and that's the end of it.

Unfortunately any amount of rain at this point is "too little, too late." The leaves are dropping from the trees all over town - dead, crunchy brown leaves everywhere underfoot. It looks like we'll have very few colorful trees to enjoy in October. This is one summer that needs to be OVER!

Happiness Is....

A new baby kitten in the house! Introducing Pepper, 1 lb. 15 ounces of pure furry fun. Dr. Jeff has declared her a healthy 8 week-old, and she already had her first shot.

We went to a family birthday party last Sunday, and my sister let us know that we weren't allowed to leave without a kitten. Seems some low-life (call 'em as you see 'em) dumped 5 little kittens in a drainage ditch, barely 6 weeks old, and my sister was good enough to take them in. After one week in our household, Pepper is getting to know her way around and she's decided that the dogs mean nothing to her ... NO FEAR!

Each of the dogs is reacting differently to her, as expected. Tango could care less about her as long as she still gets some love and affection; Tyson is mildly interested in her but has figured out that she's not edible, so he leaves her alone for the most part; and Tandie - well Tandie has always been an idiot when she sees a cat she doesn't recognize. So we have to keep an eye on her because she can get a little rough as she "inspects" the poor thing.

Beanie has quickly become friends with the kitten, I think remembering how things were when Baby Kitty was still here. They play (well, Beanie lays in one spot while Pepper jumps, flails around and generally does kitten-activities in circles around him.) and nap together, and Beanie gives her a good washing when he's feeling motherly. They're going to be BFF.

Petunias

As the sun drops low in the sky tonight ...

More Reasons To Love Spring ...

Goldfinches, At Last!

We got rid of our old thistle feeder - it wasn't attracting the finches, and it was getting all clogged up - and it appears that our new model is doing the job! I actually saw 3 finches hanging on at one time, having a snack. Hurray! Now if the dogs would just quit scaring them away ....

Awards Banquet

One of the many items on my calendar for the month of May - the annual high school Awards Banquet. We arrived promptly at 5:30 when the doors opened, secured some seats at a table that was not too far from the speakers, and not too far from the buffet line. We shared a table with Kelly's good friend RJ and her mom, and another family.

They got through the meal, awards and recognition in record time - we actually left the Convention Center while it was still daylight!

A Special Day

My niece was beautiful in her First Communion dress this past Sunday. She was running around barefoot when we arrived at her house, greeting the visitors and playing with the dogs. The girl does know how to ham it up for the camera!

When I asked "What kind of shoes did you wear?" she ran down to the front door and picked up one of her shoes to show me. Pretty!