Posted in Photography, Travel, tagged Bermuda, cocktails, Dark and Stormy, Fairmont Southampton, Photography, Travel on June 19, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
We’re in Bermuda for meetings, staying at the Fairmont Southampton. Bermuda is a quaint, charming island, surrounded by some beautiful water. We have a pretty view from our hotel room window, too.
We’ve been here before with this group, so our trip has a nice element of familiarity to it. Time for a Dark and Stormy! (For those of you who question whether it is cocktail hour, remember that Bermuda is an hour ahead of Eastern time.)
Posted in Humor, Photography, tagged Ducks, Humor, Photography, Swans, Waking Up on June 19, 2013 | 1 Comment »
The swan was the early bird when I walked by the pond over the weekend. The ducks were still snoozing and shaking away the cobwebs while the swan was grooming and getting ready for the day.
There’s always an early bird, and there’s always a slugabed.
Posted in Photography, tagged Asphalt, Heart, Maple, Photography, seeds on June 16, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Some of the maple tree seed pods have helicoptered to the ground. On my walk yesterday I noticed that this pair of seeds formed a pretty little heart against the dark, rough asphalt pathway.
Posted in Family, Photography, Work, tagged Cleaning, Drawers, Family, house and grounds, Housecleaning, Photography, Safety pins, Work on June 15, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Today Kish and I decided to tackle some deep cleaning projects: the drawers in our dressers, and the drawers in our upstairs bathrooms.
The dresser drawers were bursting. It’s easy to just shove stuff into a drawer, thinking you’ll get to it soon. Of course, that doesn’t happen. You end up, as we did, with dresser drawers jammed with stuff from days gone by, old birthday cards, crumpled receipts for God knows what, stray glasses cases, old laminated cards that show you how to dial into phone messaging systems that haven’t existed since the Bush Administration, and chargers for cell phones that have gone the way of the dodo.
The bathroom drawers are even worse. Tubes of medication that expired in 2005. Single shoelaces with no partners. Empty Band-aid wrappers. Combs with broken teeth. Cotton balls embedded with hair. Oh, yes . . . and safety pins. Lots of safety pins.
Most of the stuff went into the garbage bag with a toss. The safety pins — all of which came from our dry cleaner at some point– I decided to recycle. Dozens of safety pins, joined together and jangling, to be put into the dry cleaning bag.
It’s a beautiful day outside, but sometimes cleaning up inside is a beautiful thing, too. With our chores done and our drawers clean as a whistle, we can go out and enjoy the lovely weather with a deep sense of satisfaction.
Posted in Columbus, Photography, tagged Columbus, New Albany, Photography, Rose Run, Streams on June 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
A beautiful, crisp, clear morning today, where the sound of water rushing over shale is irresistible. It draws you like a magnet to the banks of a tiny stream, where the sense of peace and quiet is overwhelming.
Posted in Columbus, Food, Ohio, Photography, tagged Black Radish Creamery, Columbus, Food, Local Sourcing, New Albany, Ohio, Photography, Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery, Wine on June 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
It’s Friday night, and the Bahamians are coming over for cocktail hour.
So . . . what to nosh on? Some local sourcing sounds good. We’ve got the ridiculously addictive Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery goat cheese ranch curds, from Wauseon, Ohio. We’ve got a delicious strawberry-rhubarb preserve with vanilla bean and a beaujolais wine reduction, made by the Black Radish Creamery right here in New Albany, Ohio. And we’ve mixed them up with some unusual cheese options, two bottles of good wine, and cranberry and hazelnut crackers, recommended by the helpful cheese shop steward at the Hills Market in downtown Columbus.
Let the weekend begin!
Posted in Columbus, Photography, tagged Angels, Architecture, Cherubim, Columbus, Photography, religion, Seraphim on June 13, 2013 | 1 Comment »
This neat little architectural flourish is found on an otherwise unremarkable downtown Columbus office building. Seeing it raises the age-old question: which is cherubim, and which is seraphim? If I recall correctly, one of them is supposed to be a head with wings, and one is supposed to be a baby with wings. Which is which?
Whatever . . . I like the fact that someone saw fit to add a nifty bit of ornamentation to a blank wall.
Posted in America, Photography, Travel, tagged America, Exercise, Hotels, Obesity, Photography, Staircases, The Cincinnatian, Travel on June 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
I’m in Cincinnati for meetings, staying at the Cincinnatian. It’s a fine hotel, and I particularly like the fact that it has a fine staircase.
I hate the soulless modern hotels where the staircases are kept behind closed doors at the end of hallways, where you wonder whether you’re locking yourself in the stairwell if you try to get some exercise rather than using the elevator. The Cincinnatian, to my delight, has a broad, beautiful, public staircase that it keeps out in the open, ready for use by those of us who like to stretch our legs now and then.
If more hotels and public places had grand staircases, maybe more people would use them and we would have less morbid obesity in this pulpy, bloated, XXXL country of ours.
Posted in Art, Columbus, Photography, tagged Art, Circles, Columbus, Dinin' Hall, Photography, Scales on June 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
The Greek scholar Proclus is reputed to have said that “the circle is the first, the simplest and most perfect form.” I think he’s right. There is no doubt that circles are an extremely pleasing shape to the eye.
So when I saw this grand, circular scale at the loading dock adjacent to the Dinin’ Hall eating area — a scale that boldly promises to give “honest weight” while weighing items that tip the scales at up to 2000 pounds — I had to take a picture. The circle takes what would have been a humdrum piece of machinery and turns it into a work of industrial art.
Posted in Dogs, Family, Kasey, Penny, Photography, tagged Dogs, Family, Kasey, Penny, Photography on June 1, 2013 | 1 Comment »
It’s Saturday, and after a hard week of work Penny and Kasey feel the need to unwind. They’re right, of course: Saturday is a good day to curl up somewhere comfortable, relax, and let your mind wander a bit.
Posted in Columbus, Photography, tagged Columbus, Flowers, Goodale Park, Photography, Short North, The Pearl, Whit's Frozen Custard on May 28, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Tonight Kish and Richard and I had dinner at The Pearl, made a visit to Whit’s Frozen Custard, and then took a jaunt around the Short North. When I returned to my car at the corner of Park and West Russell Street, across from Goodale Park, I was treated to a spread of red flowers, glowing crimson and looking deep and velvety in the approaching twilight. It’s just one of many beautiful garden areas you find all around Goodale Park.
Posted in Photography, weather, tagged Grass, New Albany, Photography, Sunshine, weather on May 26, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
It is cold (again!) but bright this morning. As we walked along, the sun was low on the horizon. It cast its rays across a field of grass that has grown long and gone to seed, leaving the grass sun-dappled and golden in the chill morning air.
A beautiful morning — but cold!
Posted in Humor, Ohio, Photography, tagged Humor, Ohio, Photography on May 16, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Sometimes, when you’re driving, you see something that causes you to do a double-take. And sometimes you see things so weird that only a triple-take can do them justice.
So it was today, as I drove home from Cleveland, and the Speed Speaker pointed out this young driver who had her leg and foot hanging out the window, by the side view mirror, as she barreled down I-71. I couldn’t tell whether she was also talking on the phone.
My first thought was: how can you drive like that? My second thought was: how could you be so limber that you could have your left foot out the window and have your right foot on the gas? What, is the woman a contortionist or a yoga instructor (which actually are the same thing). My third thought was: why would you want to drive with your left foot hanging out the window? Maybe she was drying her freshly painted toenails? And my fourth thought was: how can you drive like that?
Posted in Family, Food, Photography, tagged Agnes Webner, Cookies, Family, Food, Mother's Day, Photography on May 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Mom asked for a new batch of cookies — just in time for Mother’s Day — and what dutiful son can refuse his mother? She had a hankering for some iced sugar cookies, and I tried to choose icing colors that looked like spring, with pastel blues, greens, and pinks. Of course, some chocolate-flavored icing made with Nestle’s Quik and some sprinkles can’t hurt, either.
Posted in Dogs, Humor, Kasey, Photography, tagged Dandelion Puffballs, Dogs, Humor, Kasey, Photography on May 7, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Sometimes you learn weird things about your dog. This week we learned that Kasey can’t resist dandelion puffballs — those round weed tops that kids pluck and blow on, scattering the grey fragments to the wind.
Kasey acts like they are lollipops, or maybe some kind of rodent. She snaps at them with gusto and would happily devour an entire field if we let her run amok. Why is this so? Beats me! Maybe Kasey was frightened by a puffball as a young pup. Or maybe puffballs have some kind of delicate flavor that renders them irresistible. Or, most likely, Kasey’s eyesight so bad that a waving grey puffball looks like easy prey.
