About this Blog: Bread making recipes, knit and crochet projects, wood working, gardening, digital imaging, travel, cruise ships, Labrador Retrievers, and more....

About the Header Image: Idlebrook Wendy Darling Evensen "Wendy" one of our four Labrador Retrievers.

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Sunday, April 30, 2017

Granville, Ohio

Good morning,

This is a continuation of the road trip begun on yesterday's blog.
We are on our way to Granville, Ohio,
to see family.
Granville is a gorgeous small town in central Ohio and is the home of Dennison University.
 We stayed at the Granville Inn.  This is the view of the front garden of the Inn from our room.
 I took this image from the inside of the dining room while we were waiting for our dinner to be served.
 Oh, look!  There's that man who keeps showing up in my pictures.  I wonder if he is stalking me again!

Seriously, the part of the Inn straight ahead is where my brother and sister-in-law held their wedding reception.
 This is the entrance to the Inn.  Beautiful.
 Parking is so very convenient.  We were parked just to the right of the cars in this image.

Watch this space tomorrow for a few pictures of downtown Granville.

 All the best,
Lois

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Road Trip - Driving North

Good morning,

We took a road trip this week - driving North in Ohio.
Ohio has excellent farm land...
...and many farms of all sizes.
This Ohio rest stop feels more like a park.
In fact, you can use it as a park and enjoy your picnic lunch here.
 Red Bud trees grow everywhere in Ohio.
 Rich Ohio farm land.
 These homes are nestled into a hillside.  Lovely.
 Here's a smaller, traditional working farm.
 What a lovely country home. 

Stay tuned for more of our road trip to Granville, Ohio.

Lois


Friday, April 28, 2017

Honeysuckle in Bloom

Good morning,

We have a tremendous amount of honeysuckle bushes on our property.
The honeysuckle is in bloom now.  When you open the door in the morning the glorious aroma of the flowers greets you.
Conversely, if you have pollen allergies, now would be a good time to wear a mask!

Happy Spring!

Lois

Thursday, April 27, 2017

The Vikings Came to Town

Good morning,

The Vikings came to Cincinnati in the form of an exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
As we approached the Museum Center, we noticed it is being renovated.  You may recognize the building as the home of The Joker in one of the Batman movies.  Originally, this building was Union Terminal, the central train station in Cincinnati. 
We were permitted to take pictures, but not use flash so I don't have many pictures and those I do have aren't the best.  Still, I took the pictures I could to record our trip.
This is a Stav Church, one of only a few that remain in Norway. While we've been in Norway we have seen these in person.  They are incredible.  Christianity came late in Norway so when you see these churches in the current Vikings television series, they are definitely an error in period history.
 It was very, very dark in the museum, but I was able to get this image at a display of a very old Viking ship that was found.  Below the steel superstructure you see, in the very bottom and at the bottom of the image, is approximately 25% of an old wood Viking ship.  It image on the screen is how the original ship probably looked.
 The Viking Culture was very developed.  Stone carvings have recorded their history.
 This is a smaller Viking boat that would have been used for river and shore travel.
 A great deal of jewelry has been found.
 And, finally, as we were leaving the exhibit, the story of horns on Viking helmets was explained.  Actually, there were NO horns on real Viking helmets.
 The horns were added to costumes for theater and opera productions.  Now, of course, we see them everywhere for plays and sports teams.

Although these pictures weren't so great, they do provide some record of our trip to the Viking display at the Museum Center in Cincinnati.  This was a traveling display and has now closed to move on to other cities.

Since My Honey was born in Norway, we have made many to the "Old Country."  Here's a post from 2015 about a Viking Ship being built on Oslo Fjord in Toensberg, just outside our hotel room:

http://loishands.blogspot.com/2015/10/more-about-viking-ships-in-norway.html

I also have many, many other posts about our visits to Norway here should you be interested to explore:

http://loishands.blogspot.com/search?q=norway

Enjoy!

Lois


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Robin in the Tree Top

Good morning,

We are truly enjoying the warm Spring days as are the birds in our garden.  We were sitting on the patio when I snapped these images with the camera on my phone.

The weather here swings from warm Spring days to very chilly late Winter type days. 
We watched and listened as this robin sang from the treetop.
The tree's leaves are emerging and will soon hide these beautiful birds.
Retirement with My Honey is wonderful.

:),

Lois

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Erik in Charge

Good morning,

I took this image at the end of tax season when Catherine was working most of the night and just coming home to take a shower and go back to her office.

Early one morning she sat down on the couch to talk with me and suddenly Erik landed on top of her. 

Erik's message was clear:  I don't care if it IS tax season!  You're not leaving again!

;),
Lois

Monday, April 24, 2017

Fruit Feeder - It's for the birds!

Good morning,

My Honey enjoys wood working, bird watching, and photography.

To combine them all, he built a fruit bird feeder.  We can put apples in this feeder as well as oranges.
We're still in the test period moving the feeder to different places in our yard where the birds can get to it and My Honey can get good pictures.  

Retirement is such fun!

Lois

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Marzipan Candy

Good morning,

Last week I asked My Honey what he wanted for Easter and he'd like Marzipan.  Growing up in Norway, Marzipan Candy was a special treat for both Easter and Christmas.

I looked up a recipe on line, got the ingredients, and tried my hand at it.
Marzipan is easy enough to make with almonds, corn syrup, and powdered sugar.  After all the ingredients are kneaded together, the "dough" is rolled in plastic wrap and chilled in the refrigerator before being rolled out and cut with a cookie cutter.
I'm not sure if the little heart cookie cutter I used was my Mom's or one from my collection, but it was perfect to make little Marzipan hearts. 

According to my resident Viking, they tasted perfect!  :)

Lois

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Three Fish and a Worm

Good morning,

We had a heavy, steady Spring rain recently, so our gold fish pond not only was filled with more water, but earth worms came in with it.
Although there were plenty of worms washed into the pond, three of our fish tried to eat the same one. 
I saw this action while walking around with only my phone camera.
I knew if I went inside to get another camera, I would miss the action.  The fish were taking turns swallowing most of the worm, then another fish would pull the worm back out and try to eat it from the other end.

 Needless to say, the fish won, the worm lost.

Yummy brunch for the fish!

Lois

Friday, April 21, 2017

Herb Garden Coming Soon

Good morning,

My Honey is planning a wood herb garden planter.  We are pot shopping!

Stay tuned!

Lois