Where I've been

* Updated... see below...

If there happens to be anybody still following the ol' blog, you might think I've disappeared into thin air... or given up on the blog completely. Nope! Neither is true. I have a good excuse for my absence. We made another trip to visit Jess & Alex in Newport, Kentucky, and we were gone a week. We had a great time and enjoyed pleasant weather while everybody back home was enduring abnormally cold and wet weather. Good "planning" on our part! ;)

This post is photo-heavy, so I'll  try to be brief with the narration. 

Of course there were 'projects' to work on while we were there. This time most of them were outdoor ones. Grandpa and Alex were into a building project... look at the lumber.

There were consultations with Jess as to how to get it 'just right'.

There were more consultations.

Jess's and my part of the project was to plant plants of many kinds.

When the project was completed (almost), it looked like this, a huge planter box that served a dual purpose of hiding the not-so-attractive wall behind it.

It was deemed a success! The 'almost' part that hadn't been finished when we left was to stain the boards. They needed a couple days drying time, and the weather wasn't cooperating, with off-and-on showers while we were there. I'm looking forward to seeing photos of the staining done and the plants huge and trailing over the edge of the planter box! (Hint, hint, Jess!)

* Update: I don't know if Jess saw this post or not yet, but here's the photo she sent of the newly-stained planter box! I think it looks great! What a place to lounge, eh?

Jess has flowers on the fence, and there is a little garden below.

After her hoeing job, she got fancied up as she usually does to water her plants.

Okay... truthfully, she was headed to a funeral visitation, but needed to water in the new plants first. Here's a closer look at that pot.

They'd had their backyard redone, with the old deck torn out and pavers put down, and arbor vitae planted along the fence.

Here's the table and chairs (note the lights hung on the fence)...

... and this is the lounge area. It's very comfy, as Grandpa is demonstrating!

More lights were strung on the opposite fence, for a little ambiance when sitting out there after dark.

Did you notice what was planted in the garden below those lights? There was lots of kale (Alex likes to juice it)... AND Jess bought and planted a rhubarb plant while we were there. We don't know if it'll do well down there in that warmer climate or not. Time will tell.

We ate lots of good food, much of it cooked right there in the backyard. YUM!

Speaking of rhubarb, we brought some along from home. Part of it went into this creme brulee, which turned out just perfect!

Another portion of it went into rhubarb mojitos! Very tasty!

We also ate out a few times, for some more new taste experiences.

Last but not least (well, it really wasn't even last), we went canoeing for a couple of hours. It was very fun and produced a lot of laughter.

So that's the gist of it. Projects, food, relaxing, fun and laughter. Couldn't ask for a better time than that!

Newport cooks

No, I didn't forget that I'd promised you one more round of photos from our trip to Jess & Alex's in Newport. I only said that I'd hopefully get around to showing you before we went there again. Well, we haven't gone there again yet, so I didn't lie, either. Ha!

We ate a LOT of good food while we were there. Yes, we tried out some restaurants, the best of which was the Red Feather, where we got to sit at a bar right next to where they were cooking all the food. Wow, were those guys (yes, all males) good... organized, efficient, and fascinating to watch! The food was scrumptious, too.

We also had a lot of good food cooked right in J&A's kitchen (where we also got to sit and watch them cook). Here's Alex preparing his special banana french toast, as requested by Jess for her birthday.

It was soooo yummy!

One night he also made us a deep dish pizza from scratch. He was a good sport and tossed the crust in the air when we asked him to, just like a real pizza chef. He did very well for a first time! Unfortunately, I don't have a photo for you. I do have a video, but it's on the iPad, and it's complicated getting it onto my computer, so I'm not going to bother. It was fun, though. The pizza turned out yummy also.

Grandpa has gotten on a bread-baking kick recently, since he has more time on his hands these days. He gave several demos while we were there, and here he is with one of his finished loaves. It was very good.

I don't remember what Alex was making in this next photo, possible the topping for the fabulous filets he grilled for us on my birthday on their green egg grill. Jess was making us cocktails from a recipe sent by Aunt Audrey. Can you guess what was in them? I bet not.

It was rhubarb juice... made from fresh rhubarb! Don't they look pretty (especially on that brand new countertop)?

The taste? Not bad. Very drinkable. But probably not worth the bother, since there are lots of other drinks that are better and easier to make. But, it was worth trying, and now we can say we've had rhubarb cocktails! :)

Okay, I'm done. That's all the Newport trip photos I have to show you. At least I finished what I started, even if it did take me over a month. ;)

Newport sights

Must be time for another blog post, huh? I don't know about you, but I'm tired of looking at that ugly fish. ;) I have a couple of sewing projects in the works, so I've been busy. I haven't forgotten, though, that I promised you more photos from our Newport trip, so you'll get some here.

Newport has so many beautiful old buildings (and lots of trees). A walk one afternoon resulted in these photos.

Our walk took us across the Purple People Bridge (no motorized vehicles allowed) and gave us a view of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (a.k.a. Big Mac Bridge - can you imagine why?), both of which cross the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Newport.

Here's a lovely view of a hillside seen from the bridge:

This also makes for an interesting view, but I forget what it is... and am too lazy to look it up. :)

Sometimes there are interesting sights ON the bridge. We saw a lot of red that day, because it happened to be the opening day for the Cincinnati Reds.

Then there are sights like this...

... or this (hmm... that guy got around!):

Okay, that's it for now. One more round of pics from the Newport visit will be coming. Hopefully I'll get them posted before we go there again. Ha.

Blooming Newport, KY

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent the first week of April at Jess and Alex's in Newport. Spring had definitely arrived there, as shown by all the new growth and blooming flowers. I thought I'd share some of the beauty with you.

This view is from their back door. There were these pretty lavender trees scattered all over the city. Google tells me they're probably a type of redbud tree. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's another. They were just so eye-catching!

Jess had her first iris bloom while we were there, too.

These creeping phlox were also brightly coloring their yard.

Lots of people had creeping phlox. They were blooming profusely!

These, I believe, are azaleas. They were just getting going.

Of course there were tulips (and many pansies which I failed to take a pic of).

This next tree(?) had an interesting shape.

I don't know what these next blossoms are, either. There were lots and lots of trees scattered around with white blossoms, although many had already lost their petals.

This little red tree was pretty...

... as was this yellow/green bush.

Update: My readers have helped me out in identifying the plants above. The twisty tree is wisteria, the white blossoms are dogwood, and the little bush with the yellow blossoms is forsythia. Thank you "dagan" and "Sant Family"!

It was so nice to see all the color after having had such a lot of whiteness back home. Incidentally, I walked through our evergreen trees yesterday and still found 3 little patches of snow. They must certainly be gone by now, though, as we hit a high temperature of 80° today! Hurray!

Hope you enjoyed this brief tour. I'll have more photos for you in another post.

Oops! A bit of a late update

I was reminded in the comments yesterday that I had never shown you an update of Jess and Alex's front yard after we did so much work on it last spring. Unfortunately I totally forgot about it, so I don't have any photos of the entire yard, and when I asked Jess about it yesterday, she said everything is kind of end-of-summer worn out now and beyond pretty. So I'll just show you the only pics I have saved that she had sent earlier. Here are her gorgeous crazily-blooming begonias, with the hydrangeas in the background.

That's all I have of the font yard, but here are a couple pics of her climbing black-eyed Susan vine from her back yard, with some daisies in front.

They're on a trellis. They were kinda slow to get going, but the flowers are very pretty.

(She gave me some of her seeds, and I also have them growing up the posts under our deck now. Fun!)

Sometime after we were there, she also added this beautiful caladium in the back yard.

That's all the photos I have. Sorry.

Newport leftovers

This will be my final Newport post. It's a few somewhat unusual photos that didn't fit anywhere else.

The first picture is unusual just in that it doesn't get to happen very often. :)

Here we have a fake (I think) owl, presumably put there to keep other birds (the multitudinous starlings, perhaps?) or maybe bats(?) away. I wonder if it works.

What is this horse-head thing - a hitching post? Or just a good place to plant a vine?

Watertower Square. Okaaaay. I guess it's office space.

Then there was this lovely tree with the pink and brown leaves!

Sooo pretty, right? Some Google searching finally informed me that it's a Tri-Color Beech tree. Have you ever seen one before? I hadn't. I love it!

This 'thing' below is some kind of evergreen plant that's been trained to twist around itself. Or something. We saw a couple different ones of these. I didn't take the time to search for what it might be.

Now below is a really strange sight. It left us confused.

Take a closer look:

Yeah, it's wires. Why???

One final photo. It's one I didn't take. I found it in my camera. Hmm...