March 16, 2012

another pink tree

Posted by Jennifer under Lexington & KHP, miscellaneous | Tags: |
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As promised, here’s a photo of another tulip magnolia. I took this photo yesterday evening, on my way home from work, and it’s around the corner from the first one.

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Except for the masses of allergy-inducing pollen, I do love spring in the Bluegrass … all the wildflowers; the warm breezes; the flowering trees; the pastures, fields, and lawns that go from brown to GREEN overnight; all the returning flowers in our perennial garden; the sight of freshly plowed fields; seeing new foals buck and run and play and sleep … and even the KY Horse Park’s annual farm-equipement auction (I’ll have more on that on Sunday).

 

March 15, 2012

ahhh, spring

Posted by Jennifer under Lexington & KHP, miscellaneous | Tags: |
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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

it’s madness

Posted by Jennifer under Lexington & KHP, miscellaneous, the Bluegrass | Tags: |
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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 13, 2012

a new blacksmith’s apprentice

Posted by Jennifer under Colonial Williamsburg, history, people | Tags: |
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I learned this morning (through the Two Nerdy History Girls blog) that Colonial Williamsburg’s blacksmith has a new apprentice.*

Coincidentally (well, not really, given its location), I had visited the blacksmith’s shop during our CAA / CWF International Carriage Symposium in January and thought this would be a good time to share a few more photos of the shop.

First, a photo of the front of the Deane Shop, home of Williamsburg’s wheelwrights, which I took on the freak-snowstorm Saturday during our 2010 CAA / CWF International Carriage Symposium. The blacksmith’s shop is in the lean-to at the left.

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Next, the back door to the blacksmith’s shop (in the white building at the left), as seen from across the wheelwrights’ yard during our visit earlier this year:

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And several shots of the interior of the blacksmith’s shop, from our late-afternoon visit in January:

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* You can see more photos of Aislinn’s new outfit on the FB page of Williamsburg’s milliners’ shop.

 

March 12, 2012

horses on stamps

Posted by Jennifer under carriages / carriage types, history, miscellaneous | Tags: |
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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.

 

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