This is just a quick note to a) have one post in 2010 and b) dust it off and get ready for the shiny new year. I miss blogging.

Good Eats in Kentucky

I spent last night in Lexington last night, doing a hotel mystery shop. I love these mini-vacations - just a few miles out of town in a different part of the world. I managed to find a couple of interesting places to eat while I was away. I've no intention of trying to become one of the multitudinous restaurant-reviewer-wannabe bloggers, but I'm happy to share a good place or two in the hopes of a) supporting local restaurants and b) sharing my finds so others can have a good meal too!

Billy's BAR-B-Q was my stop for dinner on Friday night. I am not a big meat eater, but when I do eat meat, I like it to be barbecue. Personally, I'm not fond of what passes for barbecue in Cincinnati, which tends to be some sort of meat (which doesn't ever have to be near a flame) doused in a thick, sweet, syrupy sauce. I like my barbecue smoked, and if it's sauced at all, it should be light and vinegary and spicy. Think Carolina style barbecue. That's what I found at Billy's. I had the mutton barbecue sandwich - I had to. It's the only time I've seen mutton on a menu anywhere. I loved it, it was smoky, tender and the table sauce was the perfect sour and spicy accompaniment . I also tried the Kentucky burgoo (I also had to try that, with a blog named Cincinnati Burgoo) and it was great. Meat, meat and more meat, with a couple of lonely lima beans and cubes of potatoes. It had a slightly sour edge to it - I'll have to look up some recipes for burgoo to figure out what that might have been. For a side dish I ordered 'sliced tomato with cucumber dressing'. I felt a bit silly paying three dollars for a tomato, but it was such a treat to see a simple vegetable dish on a restaurant menu that I had to order it. It was delicious - but local summer tomatoes at the beginning of September are truly a great reason to live in the midwest. Billy's is fun. I loved the stuffed fish and boar's heads on the wall - even the plastic ones. Oh! I almost forgot to mention the beer! On tap they had a couple of locally brewed beers from Kentucky Ale, including one that is aged in former bourbon barrels. Sublime.

The place I'd chosen to have lunch on my way home on Saturday was closed for business - permanently from the look of the it. I'd already decided I was going to take Route 27 home instead of getting on the highway, and I knew I'd be able to find some food on the way, so I didn't fret much about that. Sure enough, as I was passing through Cynthiana, Kentucky, I saw a restaurant downtown that advertised "Since 1894". Any place that has been in business for 115 years must be doing something right, so I stopped into Biancke's. I was late for breakfast and early for lunch, so I was one of the only people in the place. For my lunch I ordered fried green tomatoes, corn pudding and the vegetable of the day, which was tiny baby potatoes roasted with garlic. I felt like I'd won the lottery with my choices - it was all so very good.

I think it's always a good idea to order the thing on the menu that you don't see every other place you go - that's probably the thing the restaurant gets really right. It worked for me this weekend in Kentucky.

Goldenrod Soldier Beetle

I had no idea what sort of beetle this was when I photographed it in Glenwood Gardens last week, but as it was helpfully perched on a goldenrod flower, that did help me narrow it down. I was able to find it by looking through the beetle families on Bug Guide's helpful web page.

Soldier beetles are a large family, there being somewhere around 450 species in North America alone. The larval stage lives in leaf litter and is carnivorous, while the adults are nectarivores feeding primarily on nectar, pollen and sometimes aphids. Soldier beetles are also nicknamed "Leatherwings" for their soft, cloth-like wing coverings. In shape and size they resemble fireflies, to which they are closely related.

The Goldenrod Soldier Beetle, as the name suggests, are often found on goldenrod flowers but they'll also feed on other late summer blooming flowers such as asters and sunflowers. They are welcome addition to any garden as the larva eat other pest species and the adults are great pollinators.

International Vulture Awareness Day!

Today is International Vulture Awareness Day, which makes it the perfect day to dust off this old blog and get it up and running again.

I happen to love vultures. I never get tired of seeing them patrol the skies and I still get a little thrill when I spot a black vulture among the more numerous turkey vultures in my area.

My last memorable encounter with vultures happened in July in the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania. The zoo has a lovely open exhibit of bald eagles near the entrance, the sort of enclosure that relies on moats and walls rather than fencing to keep the animals in. They have two bald eagles in the exhibit and I was snapping pictures of them, wondering why in the world they had so many black vultures in with the eagles. Then the sun came out from behind a cloud and the vultures, as if on cue, opened their wings to catch some rays. I then realized the vultures were neither pinioned nor banded and therefore had to be volunteers. The wild vultures had figured out that the bald eagle exhibit was a safe place to hang out and pick up some fishy snacks.

Vultures won't be in the Cincinnati area much longer this year; they wander down south for the winter months. So get outside and have a look at the skies, especially on a warm sunny day and you'll almost certainly be rewarded with a vulture sighting.

Dipity

I'm re-posting this from TreeHugger more because I really like this application; I've no desire to dwell on the myriad environmental failures of the Bush administration. We just have to move forward and fix the damage.



If you head over to Dipity you can create your own personal timeline drawing from online sources or by populating the line yourself.

How to run a 10K

"I started running at the age of 47 in June of last year and couldn't run a mile at that time, but I ran my first ever 10K on Thanksgiving."

How I did it: I just kept going. I trained and read a lot about running, talked to other about running and JUST KEPT RUNNING. I ran a little further each time I went out running. Once I could run a mile the rest really came easily. Soon it was two miles, then I ran my first 5K and I was halfway to a 10K right then and there.

Next stop - a 15K in March. Then hopefully a 1/2 marathon in May.

Lessons & tips: Just keep running. Find a friend if that works for you. Set a goal. Pick a 10K race 3 months or so ahead of time and train with that in mind.

Resources: Here are some great resources:

Map My Run
Runner's World
Daily Mile

It took me 6 months.

It made me

See more progress on: run a 10K

A quick note regarding ring tones

I've not much of anything today. I'm a bit worn out from my first day of work after a four day weekend plus a 2.6 mile run after work. But I thought I'd share this link for free ring tones from the Center for Biological Diversity. I'm quite liking my new Barred Owl ring tone.

Syrinx

I like to think I know a little something about birds, but even after years of study, I'm still discovering new information. I received a bookmark in the mail some weeks ago from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which showed a picture of a Wood Thrush on one side and factoids about the bird on the other. From the bookmark:

"Thrushes have a complicated syrinx (song box) that allows them to sing two notes at the same time and harmonize with their own voice."

From the website, pertaining to all birds, not just thrushes:

"All calls and songs come from the syrinx, a unique organ in the bird's body cavity at the division of the trachea and bronchi. The elaborate syringeal muscles enhance the frequency of their songs. The syrinx consists of two independent halves that can produce two different sounds at the same time."

In Greek mythology, Syrinx was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, well known for her chastity. She unfortunately encountered the randy Pan whilst on a hunt and rather than submit to his attentions, cried out to her water nymph friends who turned her into a clump of reeds. Not one to waste an opportunity, Pan harvested the reeds and made a musical instrument, known today as panpipes or the syrinx.

Wood Thrush photo by Badjoby on Flickr.

Halls Creek Woods

I found a little nature preserve I'd not been to before by way of a Flickr photo group I was invited to join last week (Ohio Dedicated Nature Preserves). Halls Creek Woods is near Morrow and Oregonia in southeast Ohio. It's a little park, just under 300 acres and not much trafficked from what I could tell. There was only one other car in the parking lot when I arrived and I didn't encounter any other people while hiking around. I startled a flock of wild turkeys and a small herd of deer while I was walking, which was only fair since they startled me a great deal.

The trail, which was not blazed, would be a bit hard to pick out after a fresh leaf or snow fall. The website says the trail is two miles long, but my pedometer told me about 1.5. There's a steep climb to get up to the main loop of the trail and I would imagine it would be a bit treacherous descending after a wet spell; wear something with good traction! The trail doesn't follow along Halls Creek itself, which is a shame because it's a lovely creek with lots of small waterfalls and an abundance of fossil-bearing Ordovician stone. However, Halls Creek Road, just around the corner, follows along the creek and there are a couple of spots to pull off and snap photos.




After Halls Creek I drove over to Caesar's Creek and hiked the gorge trail loop. I did my best to find a decent specimen of bryozoan to photograph (or pocket) but it eluded me. I found scads of brachiopods though, and a bit of crinoid stem and a partial cephalapod shell, but no good bryozoans. I think I'll have to hit Keener Park in West Chester - I know there's loads in that creek.

My new waterproof Kamik boots did well! They are slightly too big for me, nothing a thicker pair of socks won't cure. They felt really stiff at first but I got used to them quickly. I've been needing a proper pair of winter boots.

New Year's Day

I'd love to say that I bounced out of bed at six AM to greet the dawn of a New Year with an invigorating hike in the woods. But, that would be a lie. I got off to a slow start, but I did get in a couple of hikes in my two nearby city parks for a total of 4.5 miles this afternoon. Somewhere along the way my scarf slipped from my shoulders; I'll try hiking the same trail tomorrow to see if I can find it. I liked that scarf.

It was the first time I'd hiked French Park since Hurricane Ike blew through back in September. The park was closed for weeks after and today I could see why - there is still plenty of evidence of the massive damage done by the winds.

I also made a big pot of black-eyed peas and sausage stew today - the peas and the pork are supposed to bring luck and prosperity in the new year. I could use a little of both.

I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled blog in the coming weeks. In the meantime, an inspirational quote:


"No matter how slow you run, it's faster than someone sitting on a couch"