I love fall sunrises. The colors are just amazing!
Posts Tagged ‘Kentucky’
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Nature, Photography, tagged Kentucky, Nature, Photography, Sunrise on October 9, 2013|
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Fun, Gardening, My Thoughts, Photography, Travel, tagged Gardening, Kentucky, Louisville, Travel, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens on August 22, 2013| 2 Comments »
A few weeks ago, C & I had the opportunity to visit the Yew Dell Botanical Garden in Crestwood, Kentucky and had a wonderful time. They have a neat history and I invite you to visit their site for the history and a list of the many events they hold there. I won’t take up much room on my post for that because I have many photos to share with you, and, yes, that is a warning!! Caution: extreme amount of photos ahead!
Crestwood is a suburb community of Louisville, KY and the trip from downtown to the garden takes about 30 minutes depending on the amount of traffic. We turned in and spotted their unique entry gate and sign:
We parked and began looking for the entrance so we could purchase tickets and it is located in this barn. Looks are deceiving in this instance because there is a nice air-conditioned gift shop in there.
There was a sculpture exhibition going on at the garden and most of the artwork was for sale, but it was a little pricey for our checkbook.
Yeah, you are reading that correctly. We made sure not to break anything! Here comes the photo deluge. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Doesn’t everyone have a castle in their backyard? I loved this!
Beautiful views from the lookout above:
This space was an edible garden.
The tree lined allees were gorgeous.
You eyes aren’t deceiving you. That IS a giant ball made of tires.
We really enjoyed our trip to Yew Dell and highly recommend it for any garden lovers out there.
Thoughtful Thursday- Flower Power Take 2
Posted in Fun, Gardening, Kentucky Proud, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Buy Local, Kentucky, Kentucky Proud, Springhouse Gardens, Thoughtful Thursday on May 30, 2013| 3 Comments »
One day, while watching a Lexington, Kentucky news broadcast, I saw a commercial that really caught my eye. It was for Springhouse Gardens which, come to find out, was a nursery in Nicholasville, a nearby town to Lexington.
I mentioned seeing this ad to my aunt and Nanny so we decided to take a little road trip to visit and it was well worth it! Nicholasville is about 2 hours from where we live so we started out early one morning just a couple of weeks ago. It is so worth it to take the scenic route up Highway 68 through Lebanon, Perryville and Harrodsburg. The view up the Kentucky River when you cross is breathtaking! I wish there was a place to stop for photos at that location, but there really isn’t. The huge limestone walls and forests along the banks of the flowing river is absolutely beautiful!
We arrived at the nursery after passing some manicured horse farms and we weren’t disappointed. Since they are located in a more upscale area, the prices reflected that a bit, but they weren’t too bad. I bought an “American Hero “ hosta and Nanny purchased something I had never seen before…a non-vining Clematis which will make a shrub instead.
If you are looking for some specimen trees or shrubs to add to your landscape, then I highly recommend going to Springhouse Gardens. They had things I had never seen before, including a weeping redwood that was out of this world. I didn’t even know you could grow redwoods in Kentucky.
Would you like to see a few photographs from that day? I thought so…I’ll be quiet now and just let you bask in the beauty of Springhouse Gardens. Oh, one last thing…the owners were there that day and they are just delightful. Let them know if you are from out of town and they will have you sign a guestbook.
Yes, we are in horse country.
Beautiful Japanese Maple trees:
I loved the tree they trimmed to look like a flower:
Thoughtful Thursday-Eat Local Edition
Posted in Fun, Kentucky Proud, Photography, Travel, tagged Bluebird Cafe, Eat Local, Kentucky, Kentucky Proud, Lancaster Kentucky, Marksbury Farm, Stanford Kentucky on May 2, 2013| 1 Comment »
Back in March, when C & I went to the Kentucky Green Living Fair, I planned a couple of extra stops while we were in the area. We don’t go that direction very often so I wanted to make the most of my trip.
Our first after-the-fair stop was for lunch at The Bluebird Café in Stanford, Kentucky. I had heard of this restaurant many times when it was mentioned by other Kentucky Food Bloggers that lived in the area so I definitely had to check it out. The food and ambience were just as good as advertised! If we are back in Stanford again, The Bluebird Café will be a definite stop.
C had the Bluebird burger made with locally produced ground beef from Marksbury Farm (more to come on that in a minute) with French fries.
I had the NYC roast beef panini with French fries and it was so good!
Stanford is a beautiful little town that takes advantage of its history and heritage.
Next, we traveled to Lancaster, Kentucky to visit Marksbury Farm which according to their website:
“is a small scale, locally owned, Butchers Shop, Farm Market,
and Processing Facility.
We partner with local farmers who share our
commitment to sustainable, humane,
and natural production methods.
We use traditional and modern methods to
deliver an array of high quality, healthy,
and fresh products.”
It is located in an old farmhouse with a beautiful little courtyard and other old outbuildings left over from days gone by. Make sure and watch your step when you enter. The porch roof is a little low! The owner said he had to choose between the step railing and the roof so the railing won.
While there, I purchased a pound of ground beef, a package of pork chops and a package of sausage patties. The beef is delicious and I can’t wait to try the other products as well. C & I had a great day of enjoying Kentucky people and products that day. Can’t wait for another day just like it!
Thoughtful Thursday-Kentucky Green Living Fair Post 1
Posted in Fun, Green/Sustainable Living, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Barn At Red Gate, Kentucky, Kentucky Green Living Fair, Somerset, Sustainable Kentucky on April 4, 2013| 2 Comments »
Yes, you read that right…this is the first post of several about the first annual Kentucky Green Living Fair that C & I attended last Saturday at the Barn At Redgate in Somerset, Kentucky. Thanks to Jamie at Sustainable Kentucky along with the other sponsors: ClearChannel Media, eat., Good Foods Market & Café, JD Country Milk, Somerset Farmers Market, Story Magazine, Rough Draft Farmstead, Sweetgrass Granola, and Tim Farmer’s Country Kitchen, this was a remarkable first time event that brought together people interested in sustainable and clean living. We loved it and had a great time!
Today, I would like to thank those wonderful sponsors above along with others that gave items for the Kentucky Food Bloggers’ gift bags. I will list them all below with several photos of the goodies. It was great just to get free tickets by being a member so I was overwhelmed with the contents of the bag. I also got my first media pass…
Who knew that being a blogger meant that you were media? I sure didn’t, but it felt pretty good to wear that little badge. I am not normally an extroverted person, so it took me a little while to warm up and strike up conversations with the different vendors, but I am so glad I did since all of them were full of personality and information. I also got to hand out a few blog business cards for the first time. I just might make a go of this yet!
Without further ado, here are some photos and links of the gifts that were given to us bloggers:
Watermelon mint tea from Rooibee Red Teas:
A pound of ground beef from Pike Valley Farm Foods:
I plan on using that beautiful ground beef tonight for hamburgers. Yum!
Salmon filet from Caught Wild Salmon:
Boston Brown Bread from Halcomb’s Knob Farm:
A cute re-usable shopping bag:
A beautiful hardback book named “the pantry” by Catherine Pond (loved talking to her):
Another wonderful hardback book: “A Feast For The Eyes” by David Domine:
Two magazines: eat. and Story:
Cherry Almond granola from Sweetgrass:
Moisturizer and soap from Rock Bottom Stables & Soap:
Honey from Solar Place Farm:
Organic sheep soap from Windsor Wool Farms and native grass/wildflower seed from Sustainable Kentucky:
I also got a free baked item from Clementine’s Bake Shop. Thanks to all of these wonderful vendors and if I left someone off, I apologize, but I have listed as many as I can remember.
We had to give back a little so C & I purchased a few t-shirts along with some delicious cheddar cheese from Heavenly Homestead. You can’t have too many tees, can you?
Please come on back next week for the next installment of the Kentucky Green Living Fair redux. I have so many post ideas swirling in my head that it may take a while to get organized. Can’t wait ‘til next year…March 29, 2014!
Thoughtful Thursday-Travel Edition
Posted in My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Impellizzeri's, Kentucky, Louisville, Thoughtful Thursday, Travel, Whiskey Row on March 15, 2012|
Last week, C & I traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, for his annual work conference presented by KySTE (Kentucky Society for Technology in Education). C is the technology coordinator for our local school system and this conference is held to present new ideas for technology in the classroom and schools. I tag along every year for a mini-vacation that is partially paid for and I always get a lot of good rest and get to eat a lot of great food.
The conference is held at the Galt House Hotel which is in the heart of downtown Louisville right up the street from Fourth Street Live and other big public venues. I like to pick one new restaurant every year to try out and last year we ate at Bistro 301 and it was so good! This year I picked Impellizzeri’s which is an Italian restaurant on West Main Street. We had a short walk from our hotel on Fourth Street down past the Actor’s Theater of Louisville and the KFC Yum! Center to get the what is known as “Whiskey Row”. Let me just say that it is a beautiful urban area that is perfect for walking. In fact, we parked our car on Tuesday night when we arrived and didn’t move it until Friday at lunch to head home. Whiskey Row is just a short section of West Main Street that has been refurbished with remodeled apartments and many eateries. Impellizzeri’s is one such eatery and I picked that one to try.
A lot of the NCAA conference tournaments were going on during that time so all of the televisions in the restaurant were tuned it to those which didn’t bother us a bit. This is more of a family/social kind of restaurant and the ballgames were good entertainment. We ordered bread sticks with pizza sauce and garlic butter on the side for dipping and these were out of this world good!! The breadsticks come swimming in garlic butter while still in the pan and they are fresh made and steaming hot when you get them. I could have made a meal just with them and a salad, and that’s probably what we should have done. That would have been the smart and “healthier” thing to do, but no, we also ordered a small pizza with Italian sausage. We were just a little disappointed in the pizza. I thought it needed more sauce and the sausage was spicier than the Italian sausage I am used to and not quite as sweet. The crust was great…thin and crispy on the bottom and just a little chewy around the edges. Yum!
Now, don’t come here if you need to get in and out in a hurry. They make everything as it is ordered so there will definitely be a wait time, but it is worth it just for the breadsticks. I could eat a few right now!
I was a bad food blogger though because I forgot to take a camera with me. Oh, well, just take my word for it and go to Impellizzeri’s and order the breadsticks. With pizza sauce and garlic butter. Then dip the sticks in both of them with each bite.
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Photography, tagged Farm, Home, Kentucky, Wordless Wednesday on November 9, 2011| 1 Comment »
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Photography, tagged Kentucky, Nature, Photography, Wordless Wednesday on October 12, 2011|
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Home, Photography, tagged Kentucky, Photography, Wordless Wednesday on August 24, 2011|
Picture Perfect Cooking 