A Couple of New Places for Us...

Monday, January 11, 2021 we woke up and both wanted a biscuit. I had a package to mail and needed stamps. Claude joined me and we took care of the post office business and then made our way to Love's to get a biscuit from Hardee's. I must say this was the biggest biscuit I have ever gotten from anywhere. It looked like whoever made it was at the end of their biscuit dough and didn't have enough for two biscuits so they plopped it all together and made one giganormous biscuit. Claude got a chicken biscuit sandwich and my biscuit was bigger then his! It was yummy but it was a really big biscuit.

Claude had a doctor's appointment in Georgetown at 1pm. I was going to go with him to drop things off for Papa. We had a bit of time so I ordered from the Great Courses catalog that came in our mail. I always look through this catalog but the courses are usually a few hundred dollars. I don't want to pay that much so I never order the course. This time the courses were all $37. I picked seven of these courses and placed my order for them. I am going to share them with family. I have read several reviews from friends on Facebook who say the courses are really, really good. Looking forward to learning new things. 

We left at 12:30pm for Georgetown. I drove so I had my car to take care of Papa while Claude was at the doctor. Papa was in his bed when I filled his birdfeeder so I got a wave and kisses blown to me. He was actually reading one of the letters I mailed to him. That made me feel good. I found myself crying as I walked back to my car. I truly believe, if Papa were to pass away, it would easier than having to walk away without giving him a hug or letting him tell his stories for the umpteenth time. To me, this is the real trial of the corona virus. 

I picked up Claude and we went to the drug store to get his prescription and then to Burger King for a drive-thru lunch. Claude wanted to buy groceries while in town so we went to Walmart. I stayed in the car enjoying my game on my Kindle. I stopped that and started reading a new novel. I received a text from my poor hubby stating the lines at checkout were exceedingly long. Twenty minutes later I received another text from poor hubby stating he was #3 in line for takeoff. Those lines must have been very long. I assured Claude via text I had started a new novel and was in good shape to wait.

We got home and, after typing a letter for Papa, I curled up on the loveseat in the living room to watch television and crochet and work on plastic canvas projects. We enjoyed Jeopardy. Alex Trebek passed away and Ken Jennings was guest hosting for the first time. He paid a heartfelt tribute to Alex Trebek before they started the game. Then Ken went on to do a great job of moving the show along. He has the potential to be a good host if offered the job. My understanding is they will have some other people guest host as well.  

I couldn't sleep again. It may be dealing with the virus and the state our country is in. Not sure but that may factor in. I went to my tried and true remedy, getting my book to read until I get sleepy. It helped and I did have periods of sleep through the rest of the night.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021 was the day I was calling AT&T again. Our Internet keeping dropping off. The router shows all systems are green and good to go. My laptop in right under the router and it loses the Internet connection. Claude's laptop is doing the same thing. His office is upstairs and around a corner or two from the router, so one would expect that to be a bit of a problem. So, I called the nice lady at AT&T and spent an hour trying to get the connection set up correctly. I did this the end of last year and it worked for a few weeks and then started up again. She wanted to plug the ethernet into my laptop. My new laptop has no such portal. So, I had to get Claude and his laptop down by the router as he did have that kind of portal. We were able to get what we hope will work for the future. 

The fun thing that happened was receiving a package for Claude. I shared in a previous post a couple of weeks ago about Claude dropping his one and only jar of dill pickle mustard as he was getting ready to prepare sandwiches for us. It shatter and all was lost. He was crushed and he had no idea where that mustard came from and he was really enjoying it. I took the broken pieces of the jar out and wrote down information from the label. Then I used my cell phone to order him four more jars of the mustard. The fun things about these jars is they are made to be juice glasses. Ordering four will give us a nice set of glasses. While I thought we had grown past this way of accumulating dishes, it appears my hubby was looking forward to using the container as a juice glass. I also found on the company website that they made pickled green beans. Our Andie bottled some pickled green beans a couple of years ago and she gave one jar to her dad. He was hooked. So I quietly also ordered Claude two jars of pickled green beans. I told Claude about the four bottles of dill pickle mustard and that we was getting two more surprise jars as well. 

I am working away in my office/sewing room and the light on the stairs starts to go off and on rapidly. Then I hear Claude say, "The package is here!" I ran upstairs with my cell phone and took pictures of Claude opening this box. I must say that watching Claude open this box took me back to opening our box of treasures from our trip to China. We purchased some things in Xian and they shipped them to our home. They arrived about six weeks after our return. The box was layers and layers of wrapping protection from paper, to bubble wrap, to Styrofoam, etc. It took us forever to get through the layers of packing to get to the items we purchased. This wasn't quite as bad but it came close. Claude found the dill pickle mustard first.

Then he found his pickled green beans. He was one happy guy. I guess we never get to old to get a package in the mail and it bring us joy!

Wednesday, January 13, 2021 we had the first of two really pretty days. Wednesday would be in the mid to high 40's. We needed to make good use of this day. A search of unique places to eat in Kentucky turned up a place that would be new-to-us named Hall's on the River. We ran some errands while we were out and then drove to Winchester, Kentucky. I found a walking trail there for us to try. We never found it. The plan was to drive past it to where we would eat. Then come back after eating and do our walk. We did find the restaurant at which we wanted to eat. It is on Hwy. 418 not far off Hwy. 627. It actually sits on Lower Howard Creek which runs into the Kentucky River not far away. 

We arrived at the restaurant and thought maybe it was closed. We put on our masks and went to the door to be sure. There was a cook, a server and a person to run the cash register but absolutely no diners in the place. We had it to ourselves. 

We chose the table we wanted to sit at and reviewed the menu. I had read the menu to Claude at our home when we were determining where to go. We both found there were items that sounded good to us. We ordered Fried Green Tomatoes for our appetizer.

For our meals Claude ordered Fried Catfish and I ordered Crab Cakes. Then we each shared so we both got a flavor of some of the things this restaurant offers. 

The food was delicious. We will return. I asked the server if we could roam around and take some pictures. There is decking around to eat outside with a view of Lower Howard Creek. The pictures are from the decks of the restaurant.

As we left Halls on the River, I asked Claude to pause for a photo op!

Once outside, I took pictures of the historical markers on either side of the bridge that goes over Lower Howard Creek. 

Then Claude and I walked down the mouth of Howard Creek to where it flows into the Kentucky River. The sun was going down on the Kentucky River. It was very pretty.

With the sun setting, it was time to head back to Sadieville. I posted my pictures on Facebook and was surprised at the number of people I know who have been to this restaurant over the years. Many suggested we try the fried banana peppers. It was fun to be out and enjoy a new restaurant. The virus has made it very hard for the food service industry. It is good to support them as they try to remain in business. 

As we were out and about, I did some texting with our grandmonster, Katelyn. She has two little girls and is pregnant with a son, due in June. She has wanted to hang pictures on the girls walls by an artist named Simon Dewey. He has painted two pictures of Jesus with a little girl. Katelyn loves that they look like her little girls. Raelyn is blond and Emelia has dark curly hair. 

I found the pictures by Simon Dewey that Katelyn wanted and also a painting by Greg Olsen that I thought would be great for their son. 

I ordered all three pictures. They will be framed and hang in the children's bedrooms so they know they are always safe. Love this.

Wednesday evening I received a telephone call from our daughter Andie. Her question, "Were you in South Africa in August 2019?" Yes, we were. Andie continued, "Well, you will find this amusing. Hayden received the post card you sent him from South Africa in today's mail!!" That's right folks, we mailed that postcard from Johannesburg, South Africa the day we were returning home, Tuesday, August 20, 2019. Hayden received it Wednesday, January 13, 2021. Andie told me it was in good condition. This she found amazing since it took 17 months to get from Africa to Kentucky. Amazing. Michael's stepmother was complaining about how long it took U.S. Mail to travel in December. Michael was going to call Joyce and be sure she heard this story!!

Thursday, January 14, 2021 would be another beautiful day. This time the temperature would get to the mid-50's. Time for a walk. We determined we would try Raven Run Nature Sanctuary. This was a place we found last year but could not get in. At that time you had to have a scheduled appointment on weekends so there were no crowds. This time no reservation was needed. It is located south of Lexington. We drove to Lexington and did a few errands there. Then we drove to City Barbeque for our big meal of the day. Then south to Raven Run. 

We found a kiosk with information about the trails to be walked. Raven Run is 734 acres of land with 10 miles of walking trails in varying degrees of difficulty. We opted to begin our visit with a walk of the Freedom Trail. It is listed as easy. It is close to the parking lot. We enjoyed this walk and I took these pictures of our walk on Freedom Trail.

As we got to the end of Freedom Trail just before returning to the parking lot, we spotted a mother deer followed by her baby. Her baby was almost as large as she was but it was obvious it was a baby and much more skittish than the mother. The mother looked at me and was wary but did not attempt to run away. It was nice to be close to them.

We decided we would walk to the Nature Center. 

In front of the Nature Center is a grass covered slope with a 'Phenology' station. This is a place where you put your camera in a stand and take a picture of the land. You then post your picture on Instagram. This allows them to watch the timing of changes through the year on this grassy slope. 

Between the buildings that make up the Nature Center was an interesting thing to me. It was called an 'impluvium'. Basically it collects rain water that is recycled and used at the Nature Center. Fascinating.

We found where the trailhead was for all other trails at Raven Run. Now we are prepared to come back and try another trail next time. We headed back to the car for the drive back to Sadieville. We made good use of our two good days.

We made good use of our two good days sandwiched between very cold days and snow days.

Claude and I finished two projects we have been working on. Claude finished his first ever plastic canvas piece of artwork. He did a fantastic job.

I finished repairing a gingerbread house. The roof had holes where the plastic canvas broke and the bottom also had holes in it. I made an entirely new roof. I cut the bottom out of the gingerbread house and attached a new plastic floor. This will go to our daughter Nissa. She plans to use it to put Christmas cookies in when her grandchildren come to visit at Christmas. 

Friday, January 15, 2021 was the first of three weekend days with potential for bad weather. Friday was to have a brief bit of sunshine. Then the front would move in and change that. We started the day with a bit of rain, then sunshine, then snow. It came down in little pellets like BB's. I know this because I took a letter to our mailbox for Papa and it snowed like this on me as I walked to and from the mailbox. 

I would spend my day in my sewing room. I determined my next project would be cleaning out my music files. I began taking piano lessons when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I have been collecting music of various types since then. I have two file drawers full and four boxes by my piano and what is in the piano bench as well as a bag of organ music in the back seat of my car. I would spend Friday and Saturday getting through all of this music. 

Saturday, January 16, 2021 we awoke to a bit of snow on the ground. Claude suggested we start our day with a biscuit run to Hardee's. I will never say no to that suggestion. Off our bright green Jeep sped to satisfy our biscuit cravings. Claude enjoys a chicken biscuit sandwich. I always opt for a plain biscuit. Without fail, I will be asked if I want butter or jelly on that. My response is always, "It has no calories if you don't put those things on it!" 

On our way to Hardee's, I had Claude stop so I could take a picture from the bridge of the snow on the creek. It had turned cold enough so the snow was not melting on the water and just resting on top of the water. It was simply lovely.

Back to our home to spend a day on our projects. Mine was to complete going through my music. I threw out three Walmart plastic bags of things. Emptied four binders of things. Now all my music fits nicely into the bottom two files cabinet draws, my piano bench, a basket with Christmas music and the bag for me to play the organ at Church in the back seat of my car. There is room in the two bottom file drawers for the music not in there to be in there if needed. Yeah me!! I was able to scan some pieces that are part of my three children's history and eMail this to them for their files. I taught all three to play the piano. 

Claude's project was the workshop's funny little storage area. We have lived in our home for 16 years. I gradually started saving boxes in this little area. It is a space that was finished as part of the room but is narrow between the stairwell and the wall to the family room on the other side of the workshop. Claude decided some time back it would be nice to have shelving in there to store the boxes on. He purchased supplies and Saturday was the day to get it done. He did it all himself with the exception of my holding up the long shelf while he attached it to the wall. Then he called me and I helped him put the boxes on the shelves. It looks so nice and like that space really had a purpose all along. 

During my rummaging and cleaning, I came across two potential frames for Claude's cardinal artwork. He was able to use one of the frames. I have moved this to our gossip bench in the entry way. It is perfect for a winter decoration.

Saturday evening, Claude and I curled up in the living room to watch more of Season 6 of Northern Exposure. During this season, Dr. Joel Fleischman goes 'up river' to live with a group of the local Inuit people. He goes from being a New York doctor to a person who lives in a hut with a dirt floor and lives off the land. His hair has grown out and I took this picture of him as we watched the television. I put a picture of Hayden beside it. Hayden has let his hair grow during the pandemic. I think there is a lot of similarity there. I looked at Claude as we watched Northern Exposure and he looked at me and we both said, "yes", at the same time. 

We went to bed Saturday night feeling good about our day and accomplishing tasks we really wanted to get done. I even found time to read some during the day. Good Day.

Sunday, January 17, 2021 we have enjoyed Church service via Zoom, Claude passed the sacrament to us, we read and studied together. Now Claude is getting his nap while I use the WiFi to accomplish the Blog and eMails. Then he can use the WiFi for his meeting. There is snow, a little bit, on the ground. As we ate breakfast this morning, the flakes were enormous. I was watching the snow fall as we waited for breakfast to finish baking. I said to Claude that these flakes were enormous and they reminded me of our wedding day. Growing up in the south, snow was a rarity. I prayed for snow when we were in Utah to be married on February 13, 1970. It did snow that day. When we came out of the Logan, Utah Temple, the ground was covered with snow and there were enormous flakes falling from the sky. It was like a blessing on our marriage from a loving Heavenly Father. As we are tucked in our home on a snowy Sabbath day, I again feel like it is a blessing on our marriage. We are richly blessed.