saturday stroll {may 7, 2022}

A neighbor posted a sign in her yard for free forget-me-nots so on my stroll today, I took a couple grocery bags and filled them with these sweet flowers. I like forget-me-nots for many reason but the main one is that they're blue. You just don't see many blue flowers in nature. They're already in the ground and thanks to the last two days of constant rain, the dirt was easy to dig and I didn't have to do any extra watering.

The flowering trees have dropped most of their blooms and the sidewalks are covered with petals...Mother Nature is throwing her confetti around.

License plate wisdom:

 

eagles {may 6, 2022}

Dayton, Ohio. 

Home of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Starting in 2018, home to Orv and Willa, pair-bonded eagles residing at Carillon Historical Park. Orv and Willa are parents to nine previous eaglets and this year added two more to their family tree.

I have been following Orv and Willa through the Facebook group, Carillon Eagle Friends, and have learned so much about these birds of prey. 

Did you know...

Despite their name, bald eagles are actually not bald at all. The word “bald” is an archaic old world reference from the word “piebald”, meaning marked with white.

The most obvious differences between  male and female bald eagles are their size. Females are usually a third of the size larger than males. Females tend to weigh between ten to fifteen pounds more. Females will typically have a wingspan of up to eight feet. Whereas the males weigh between five to ten pounds less, with a wingspan reaching up to six feet.

This characteristic of the females being  larger can be seen in all birds of prey. The scientific term for this  size phenomenon is known as “reverse sexual size dimorphism.” The females do the majority of the incubation when it comes to nesting, and the males do the hunting. The size difference fits perfectly for their duties; males’ smaller, sleeker body enables them to be slightly better hunters and the females’ larger size allows her to sit for longer  periods on the nest. The larger size in females is also a great deterrent for predators approaching the nest.

Another notable fact among bald eagle females is their dominant personality and protective nature. Bald eagles have a monogamous mating system. These birds mate for life, many times  not even choosing another mate when one of the pair passes on.

The eaglets are expected to fly from the nest around June 6. Their names are Kittyhawk and Skye. The first to fly will be named Kittyhawk.

And now some photos of Dayton's first eagle family and their little ones. None of the photos are mine. They come from the group of eagle experts and photographers who document daily the lives of this family.

  

the fifth of may {may 5, 2022}

 Le cinq mai in 1921...

On May 5, 1921, Chanel No. 5 officially debuted in Coco Chanel's boutique on the Rue Cambon in Paris. The new fragrance immediately revolutionized the perfume industry and has remained popular for a century. 

In 1921, Parisian fashion designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel asked Russian perfumer to the czars Ernest Beaux to create something that "that smells like a woman, not a flower bed."

There are lots of stories about the origin of this scent but this is a fun one: Beaux came up with several different scents and since Chanel was in the midst of a horrible headache, she instructed him to leave the bottles on the mantel. Minutes after he left, she sprang from the sofa and began sniffing the contents of the bottles. It seems that the fifth bottle caught her attention and bottle number five was chosen. Five was also her lucky number. True or not? No one really knows except Chanel herself.

The Chanel bottle on the right belonged to my mom. I found it while cleaning out her bathroom drawers at her house after she had moved into assisted living.  Chanel No. 5 was her favorite perfume. I bought the bottle of Chanel No. 5 on the left in October 2019 while shopping at Aéroport Charles de Gaulle before heading back to the US. The last two years of sheltering and avoiding crowds put a damper on using perfume. Time to get back to a spritz here and there.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Cinco de mayo in 1862...

Cinco de Mayo, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. This day is also known as Battle of Puebla Day. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

My brother Pat has a really tasty margarita recipe and is it ever good. We fondly call them "Pataritas." 

PAT'S REALLY GOOD MARGARITA RECIPE

One drink:

3 oz. margarita mix

1 1/4 oz. tequila

1/4 oz. Grand Marnier

1/4 oz. Cointreau

1/4 oz. Triple Sec

1/4 oz. Irish Mist

Squeeze of fresh lime juice

Salt the rim of a margarita glass and add freshly squeezed lime juice.

Put the margarita mix, tequila, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Triple Sec, Irish Mist, and 5 ice cubes in a shaker. Shake vigorously until thoroughly mixed and cold. Pour into the margarita glass.

Party crowd:

Find the biggest vessel you have and pour in

60 oz. margarita mix

25 oz. tequila (750 ml)

4 shots Grand Marnier

4 shots Cointreau

4 shots Triple Sec

4 shots Irish Mist

Lots of limes cut into 8 pieces

Squeeze lime juice into glasses. Add margaritas and ice cubes. 

wordy wednesday...spumoni {may 4, 2021}

Today is Star Wars Day...May the 4th be with you!

Now on to Wordy Wednesday.

A couple weeks ago while walking along Huron Street in Chicago, T and I were looking for a place to get our morning coffee. We found Cafe L'Appetito, an Italian grocery store, deli, gelateria, and coffee shop all in one spot. While waiting in line, the man ahead of us ordered a coffee and a dish of spumoni. It was 9:00 a.m. and he just gave himself a marvelous start to the day.

Spumoni has cherry, pistachio, chocolate or vanilla ice cream flavors, colors which  are representative of the Italian flag. Italian culture enjoys showing pride through the combination of their dishes and often chooses foods that coincide with the red, green, and white colors found in the flag. 

A similar ice cream, Neapolitan, is an Americanized offshoot of the spumoni dessert. The combination of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors were the most popular at the time spumoni dessert became popular.

And as the guy in line at L'Appetito showed, ice cream is good at any time of the day!

slippery {may 3, 2022}

A couple of rainstorms have caused the flowering trees to drop a lot of petals and  cover the sidewalks with a white dusting. When the rain stopped I decided to take a walk before it started to rain again. The previous rainfall caused the petals to turn to a springtime "ice." It was slippery. And I slipped but thankfully (really thankfully), didn't bite the dust. 

connecting the dots {may 2, 2022}

Goodale Park is the oldest park in Columbus and among the oldest in the United States. It is located between Columbus' busy Short North Arts District and the picturesque Victorian Village. Lincoln Goodale came with the first settlers to the Northwest Territory. He was the area's first physician and later became a prominent businessman, promoting Columbus by developing railroads. He was also a hotel owner, army surgeon, elected official, and an honorary pallbearer for Abraham Lincoln 1. A bronze statue of Dr. Goodale was placed in the park in 1888 and it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

When T and I strolled through Goodale Park, we entered through a gateway from 2. Sells Plaza. We roamed along the walkways through the park, passing sculpted gardens that will soon be in bloom, a gazebo, basketball and tennis courts, a playground, and a fountain. We walked through Victorian Village and admired all the beautifully restored and maintained homes. One home really stood out and after a little research, we discovered that 3. the house belonged to Peter Sells of the Sells Brothers Circus. Back in the day, the Sells Brothers Circus ranked up there with the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Brothers circuses.

Back to the park from Victorian Village. We heard the water from the fountain spraying into the pond. 4. The fountain rises from the pond like a four-tiered cake and two elephants sit atop this cake pedestal, shooting water from their trunks. This whimsical design gives a nod to the circus history of the day.

Walking back to the parking lot, we pass a memorial to 5. Charles Benton Flagg, the first Supreme Secretary of the Order of the United Commercial Travelers, a fraternal benefit society. Across the street from this memorial is the 6. Pizzuti Art Collection. This building originally was the headquarters for The Order of the United Commercial Travelers. It's cool to see how dots of Columbus' past connect in this in this 32-acre oasis.

And the past connects with the present...at least my present. Back in 2013 on a trip to New York, I went to an art talk with Alexandre Arrechea, a Cuban sculptor. His sculptures of iconic NYC buildings lined the green spaces in the middle of Park Avenue. 7. One of the sculptures was of the Chrysler Building and here was a scaled down replica of that piece of art sitting in the courtyard at the Pizzuti Collection.

I drew a little map to visualize all these pieces. Disclaimer: Cartography is not my strong point.

1. Dr. Lincoln Goodale statue

2. Sells Plaza entrance to Goodale Park

3. The Sells House, aka the Circus House

                                           4. The pond and the circus elephants fountain

                                                   

5. George Benton Flagg, Supreme Secretary of the Order of the United Commercial Travelers

6. The Pizzuti Collection, former home to the Order of the United Commercial Travelers

7. The Chrysler Building by Alexandre Arrechea, housed at the Pizzuti Collection

may day, may day! {may 1, 2022}

Happy 1st day of May!

❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ 

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

:

:

Pilgrims!

❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ 

May 1 also brings back the memory of making May baskets. My brothers, sister, and  I would get our crayons and decorate construction paper. Mom taught us how to make cones with the construction paper. We would then run to the neighborhood five and dime, get a bunch of penny candy, and fill our beautifully decorated cones with a couple pieces of candy, some flowers (dandelions and violets from the yard, flowers pilfered from the neighbors' forsythia and flowering trees) and a little card to wish the recipient a Happy May Day. The fun of it was hanging the May "basket" on the door, ringing the doorbell, yelling "May Basket!" and then running away before the person answered the door. Doorbell ditching with a purpose. Today's Ring doorbells would take away the element of secrecy.

❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ 

Today is also my brother and sister-in-law's 18th wedding anniversary. Wishing them many, many more. Here's to love.