March 15, 2012
Several rather large and magnificent-looking tulip magnolia trees are blooming in various downtown locations at the moment. Yesterday, on my way home from work, I pulled over to the side of the road (Short Street, to be exact) to snap this photo. I’ll try to get some better photos of one or more of these lovely trees to show how pink they are, but this will have to do for now.
Happy Spring!
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March 14, 2012
Even though we’re well into the March Madness frenzy, I haven’t posted anything here lately about our beloved Univ. of Kentucky Wildcats. So I’ll be going a bit off-topic today to correct that lapse.
Here in Lexington today, it feels like “all basketball, all across the state.”
The 95th Boys’ Sweet Sixteen (our statewide high-school basketball championship) is being played out — day and night, from today through the weekend — in Rupp Arena.
And I just heard a report on NPR’s All Things Considered about last night’s NCAA-tournament play-in game between Western Kentucky University and Mississippi Valley State University. The WKU Hilltoppers came back from a sixteen-point deficit in the final five minutes to win the game. And with President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron in attendance, no less.
Now, the Hilltoppers will go on to play our Wildcats tomorrow evening, in Louisville. That’s right. In the tournament’s first round: two Kentucky teams playing in Kentucky. You can imagine how excited everyone here is, and how quickly those tickets sold out!
Go Cats!!
March 12, 2012
I was sticking loads of stamps on stacks of envelopes today, for a big mailing we’re doing, and I started thinking about horses and carriages / wagons on stamps.
After an Internet search, I found these interesting specimens: a 1958 stamp celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Butterfield’s Overland Mail service to California; a 1974 stamp honoring the hundredth anniversary of the Chautauqua tradition in rural America; a 1983 stamp honoring America’s first streetcar (1832); a 1983 stamp honoring a 1926-era style of streetcar; a 1989 stamp with a Stagecoach; and this 1996 stamp honoring the U.S. Post Office’s Rural Free Delivery service.
March 8, 2012
Last weekend, A.J. and I were browsing through a lovely antique store in Paris (Kentucky), and we found two old books that we just had to add to our collection.
The first is a little children’s book. (I’ll tell you about the other book in tomorrow’s post.)
I’m not kidding about it being little: it measures a mere three inches wide and four-and-a-half inches tall. It’s called The Pet Lamb, and is one of “The Rose Bud Stories for Young Children,” written by Harriet Myrtle. The other books in the series are Going to the Cottage, Eggs and Chickens, The Goat and Her Kid, Bertha and the Bird, The Duck House, May Day at the Cottage, Adventure of a Kite, A Day in the Woods, Two Dear Friends, Little May’s Birthday, and Christmas Eve at the Cottage.
The Pet Lamb was published in New York in 1869, and the copy we bought has an inscription in pencil on the last page that reads, “Presented to May Goff by Santa Claus, 1872.”
Here are the first two pages of the little book, and then a (rotated) close-up of the family in the carriage.
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The book actually contains two stories: “The Pet Lamb” and “Harry Heath and His Faithful Dog.” I’m thinking we’ll have story hour on Saturday with “The Pet Lamb,” so stay tuned.
March 6, 2012
Yesterday evening, A.J. and I took a quick walk in our neighborhood after we got home from work. It wasn’t a long walk, mind you, as there was still snow on the ground, and it was COLD out. (By contrast, today it’s nearly 60 degrees, and yesterday’s snow is completely gone.)
In front of a house around the corner from our own, we ran across this snowlady, who has clearly decided that it’s time to shed her winter hat, scarf, and mittens, in favor of beach-wear. She says, “Spring Break, not snow days!”
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The Slower Road 