Enjoying

Sunday Afternoon In The Sculpture Park

/ Ally Bean / 27 Comments

[Even though I said that I was only going to post to my blog once a week this summer, I’m going to disregard my plan and turn this adventure into two parts.  Today – the SCULPTURE part of the park.  Tomorrow – the PARK part of the park.]

Last weekend we went to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.  We’ve been there at other times of year, but we’ve never managed to see it in the summer.  Misplaced priorities, I do believe.

If you’ve never been to an outdoor art museum with oversized sculptures juxtaposed against nature, it is a fascinating way to spend an afternoon.  Even more so when nature is putting on a perfect summertime show of green hills, blue skies & white cumulus clouds.  Very unique.

We walked part of the park & drove our car around to see even more of it.  There were three trails for hiking through the woods on the edge of the park, but we didn’t have the time to do any of them.  Something to do on our next visit, eh?  And I’ll take photos, of course.

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10 Search Terms That Brought You To Me

/ Ally Bean / 13 Comments

I’m ashamed to say that in the year and a half that I’ve written this blog I’ve never looked through the complete list of search terms that people use to find this blog.  I knew that WordPress provided such a list for me, but I’d never had the inclination or the time to check it out.

Well, all that has changed, people.  All. That. Has. Changed.

The other day I decided to look at the list & I’m smitten.  Absolutely enthralled by: 1) what people are searching for;  & 2) what I have written about that somehow or other brings them here to my sweet little bloggy.

So, without further ado, I give you 10 Search Terms That Brought You To Me in order of “makes perfect sense” to “huh?”.

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1.  Satin nickel door knobs on white door

  • Definitely wrote about that.

2.  Gas furnace heat exchanger crack

  • Definitely had that happen.

3.  Pepe Le Pew & Penelope Pussycat

  • Yes, I did talk about this iconic couple.

4.  Honey colored paint

  • Yes, I posted about what colors to paint your home’s interior.

5.  Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay meaning

  • Yes, I suppose you could say that I defined that phrase.

6.  Poems about horsing around

  • Well, there was no poem, but there were photos of horses.

7.  “When the moment is right” old coffee commercial

  • Granted I made reference to the phrase, but I knew that coffee had nothing to do with it.

8.  Why is Twitter eating my punctuation?

  • Oddly this one kind of makes sense if you read what I wrote & the comments afterward.

9.  Hither yon unicorn

  • No way did I hither any unicorns… but I might have used the words “hither” & “yon” in one post.

10.  Why do my eyeballs look like flowers?

  • No, I did not provide the answer to this question, nor do I understand why anyone was asking it.  Do you?

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The Tale Of The Potted Pothos In The Pretty Pot On The Porch

/ Ally Bean / 17 Comments

ONCE UPON A TIME ON A FINE SPRING DAY… the lady of the house went to the store and bought a small pothos.  She brought it home and planted the pothos in a beautiful terra-cotta pot that featured smiles & dots on its rim.

The lady of the house was very happy with how her new pothos looked in her favorite pot, so she put the potted pothos in the screened-in porch of her home.  There, the lady of the house was certain, the potted pothos would thrive.

 And it did.

WHEN SUMMER CAME UPON THE LAND… the lady of the house decided to take her early morning mug of coffee onto the screened-in porch, sit in her favorite wicker chair, sip her java and gaze upon her potted pothos in the pretty pot on the porch.

And all was well in the land.

UNTIL ONE MORNING… the lady of the house realized that there was something new & different about her pothos.  That during the previous hot, humid night the potted pothos had changed in a very weird way.

At first the lady of the house did not like this transformation.  In fact, the man of the house suggested that she get a paper towel and immediately remove the strangeness from her favorite potted pothos.  [Please note that the man of the house was not put out enough by the strangeness of the potted pothos transformation to do anything about it.  He merely suggested to the lady of the house that she should do this.]

But the lady of the house ignored the man of the house’s advice and decided to look very carefully at the mushrooms that had formed on her favorite potted pothos.  As she did this she realized that the mushrooms were a pretty shade of yellow that just happened to match the tiny yellow stripe on the pillows in the screened-in porch.  Such attention to detail delighted the lady of the house.  Yes, the mushrooms were an interesting development to be sure.

And suddenly the lady of the house had an idea.

FEELING THAT THERE MUST BE AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS TURN OF EVENTS… the lady of the house found a link to a webpage that explained exactly what was going on with her potted pothos in the pretty pot on the porch.  She discovered that her beloved potted pothos had a fungus called Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, aka Lepiota lutea, the yellow houseplant mushroom.  Further she learned that this fungus, which had created these yellow mushrooms, was harmless as long as it was not ingested.

And there was learning in the land.

AS YOU MIGHT IMAGINE… the lady of the house had absolutely no intention of eating these mushrooms.  Or of letting her precious morning mug of coffee come in contact with them.  The lady of the house had common sense– and then some.

So she let the yellow mushrooms be & allowed them to go through their 48 hour [more or less] life cycle.  During which time she enjoyed the unexpected, color-coordinated bit of beauty that they added to her potted pothos in the pretty pot on the porch.

And once again there was peace in the land.

THE END


Bourbon, Bourbon, Who’s Got The Bourbon?

/ Ally Bean / 14 Comments

{A Weekend Getaway – Part 2 of 2.  Part 1 here.}  

[I know, I know.  I said that I’d post once a week during the summer… but this adventure was two parts.  My blog, my rules to break at will.]

After taking time to enjoy Shaker simplicity, we hit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  Yes, there is such a thing.  You didn’t know that?!!

•  First we went to Woodford Reserve.  It was the only distillery to charge admission.  This might be in part because it was a very commercialized, modern place.  There were tickets & lines & audio headsets & a short bus ride & a long-winded presentation.

Our one small taste of Woodford bourbon was smooth & delicious, but the tour was not what we expected.  The whole experience had a “keep it moving” vibe to it.

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•  Next we went to Four Roses.  This distillery was about as mellow as the product they were selling.  Our tour guide was a young & friendly guy with an amazing knowledge of how the bourbon was made, the buildings in which the bourbon was made– and the charming family history that underscores the brand.

At the end of the tour our complimentary tasting included three different types of bourbon with suggestions of which ones to use in mixed drinks & which one to drink straight.  This tour was more of the experience that we had expected.

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•  Our third and final tour was at Maker’s Mark.  This distillery was by far the most personable and well-organized of the three that we visited.  The tour started in the refurbished home of the company’s founder, walked us through the distillery grounds, showed us the fermenting vats, the oak barrel storage facility & the bottling line where the bottles are hand-dipped in the famous bright red wax.

This tour ended in a laboratory-type setting where we each had four generous tastes of bourbon.  Our tour guide talked us through each glass telling us how the different Bourbons might taste to us– and why.  This was the experience we had hoped for along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

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[Hello FTC!  As you may recall I do not take any money or other compensation for my opinions about any products that I discuss on my sweet little bloggy.  I tell you this again in case you’ve forgotten that fact.  We good, my friend?]