Trip to Porstmouth Ohio

Since I now have weekends off, we thought that it might be a good weekend to head down to our hometown of Portsmouth Ohio to see if any of the Fall colors have appeared.  We decided to take Sammy with us using his new seat belt.  Sammy is use to traveling with his previous owner, so he pretty much settled into the back seat and sat alert watching the scenery whiz past as we headed down Rt. 23.  It was a cool Autumn morning with bright blue skies, but as soon as we got with miles of Chilicothe Ohio, the fog rolled in along with dark gray ominous clouds.  Not a good omen.

We made it down and decided to head to the Mighty Ohio River.  Sammy fought his first battle of the day on the banks of the Ohio after a barge slowly cruised causing waves that just could not be tolerated by any terrier.  We walked him along the bank, then went back on the other side of the flood wall to view the Flood Wall Murals of Portsmouth Ohio.  Many people were also strolling along taking pictures and looking at the Murals of the wonders of Portsmouth's past.  Both Chris' and my paternal family were founders of Portsmouth.  Each of our families have chapters in the History of Scioto County.  My Father's family came to this area settling in Alexandria which was on the other side of the Scioto River, but due to flooding and the Indian Wars had to leave, but returned after the area was safe for settlement and were one of the few families making the banks of the Ohio and Scioto River their homes.  My Father's Mother's family were also founders, but they were here long before the white settlers crossed the mountains into the fertile Ohio River valley.  So I do have deep deep roots here. 

Here is a You Tube of the about the Flood Wall Murals of Portsmouth Ohio and the Ancient mounds that were found in this area.  Most of the Ancient Indian Mounds are gone, but there are a few left to showcase how important and rich this area was.

Unfortunately, this is what you see when you turn 180 degrees from the beautiful murals.  Most of the glorious buildings from Portsmouth's past have either been torn down, burnt down, or look abandoned like this.  It is such a shame to see the decay of a once proud and remarkable River city.

Day Six Staycation

Day six started out with the dogs waking me up very early.  I gave everyone dinner, then feel back to sleep.  Woke up and did a few chores before it was time to head out to get my hair dyed.  I usually do it myself, but my new hairdresser talked me into getting a deep shade of red instead of the boring brown I had been doing. When there, I decided to get a streak of lighter colored red.  It is perfect as I can hide it if I need to (ie, like at work) or let it out to announce to the world...hey world!  I like being different.

boring brown before

dark auburn with a red streak after

Got home and loaded up all the dog stuff into a bag as they were going to spend the night at the boarders at my Vets.  We got tickets to go see Tecumseh! in Chillicothe Ohio.  The show has been going non stop for almost 40 years. They started in 1973.  We'd never gone in all these years, but decided it was time.  We didn't want to leave the dogs too long alone as we knew we wouldn't get home until around midnight, so they stayed with the girls at Dr. Millers.

We got the buffet at the show which is total Southern Ohio cooking.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, beans, slaw, potato salad with apple cobbler.  Chris even had his fill of chicken legs which are his absolute favorite. 

typical Southern Ohio meal

Chris enjoying his chicken legs and potatoes

The whole place had a homey atmosphere with all the locals doing the concessions and the catering.  Most of the actors were regulars or younger people who were either still in college or just getting out.  The main actor (Stevyn Carmona) who played Tecumseh was excellent.  Some of the other actors were a little stiff, but this is their first week opening.  The original play was written by Allan W. Eckert.  He has written many books set in this time period.  And if you are old enough to remember this then you are probably my age or older, but he also wrote over 200 scripts for the television series "Wild Kingdom".  His most famous book is The Frontiersman.  Dr. Eckert passed away in 2011.  I'm not sure how accurate the storyline was as I don't remember Tecumseh falling in love with a white pioneer girl, but it might be true.  Now I want to find out more about this period of time.  I actually know nothing about the settling of this area or the Indian wars.  I am very intrigued now as my Father's family (The Noel's) were one of the founding families in Portsmouth Ohio which was actually one of the first towns settled in the Ohio Valley. 

Sugarloaf Mountain Amphithreatre

The play had horses and enough loud gun fire and cannons that every kid in the place was jumping out of their seats with excitement.  The tickets for the shows were very cheap compared to those live shows presented here in Columbus, and ALL the concessions were very economical.  But the best part was sitting outside in this theater bowl watching the night slip in.  During the pivotal parts of the drama the stars sparking in the clear sky was the only thing that threaten to keep my eyes off the action on the natural stage.  After the show all the actors came out into the receiving area to let young theater goers get their pictures taken with the characters.  They were all just having a great time.

It was so strange to get back home so late. We decided to drive straight up High Street through town.  It was exciting to see all the entertainment and people enjoying themselves in the Short North area.  Sometimes I think Columbus is pretty dull, but go to the Short North area during any time of day or night and the whole place hums with excitement and an active night life.  We got home and no dogs were there to greet us.  Not a normal experience for us, but we were both so tired that we climbed into bed around 1AM.  And then, our normal body alarms woke both of us up at 6am today because that is always when Fiona wants to get up and eat.

 Today is my 7th day of vacation.  I have a few plans, but at this point I'm just going to let things happen as they do.

First Day of Vacation

My long awaited vacation arrived yesterday at 1:31AM.  When I left the hospital the sky was dotted with many twinkling stars and the drive home was cool.  As I walked into the house, I didn't hear a sound from Chris or the three dogs.  All were fast asleep, so like them I crawled into bed & feel into a deep sleep.  This vacation is going to be so different from any other vacation for the past 10 years.  I'm not going any where in a plane, or a long car trip, or really outside of the Great Lakes area.  I guess you can call it a "stay-cation".  Last time I did this, I was unhappy as all I did was sleep and go see a few movies, but this time I actually have done some planning & intend on doing at least one thing every day that is different for me.

Me and Chris at the ribbon cutting ceremony

Opening of Ohio Health's new Emergency Room

Yesterday we decided to head to the ribbon cutting ceremonies at the new Ohio Health stand alone Emergency Room here in Westerville.  I work for Mount Carmel, but it is always interesting to check out some of the competition.  And what a lovely building it is.  Each patient room is separate so there is no laying there miserable listening to others in misery too.  Chris & I both were impressed with this as in the past, we've always felt terribly uncomfortable while in the ER hearing everything going on with others.  At St. Anns it is not so bad as there are individual glass in cubicles for each patient, but still you can hear things.  I don't mind, but there are times when people not involved in the medical profession get frightened by the goings on in a busy Emergency Room.  The new facility at Ohio Health looks like it will be better for people's privacy and care.  We went upstairs, and I naturally want to see the laboratory.  When I told the guide standing in front of the lab that I was a Med Tech, she invited me in and gave me a grand tour of the whole place.  WOW!  Brand new lab with all new instruments, counters with lots of room, and everything so brand spanking clean.  It was VERY nice.  We then had our picture taken and stayed for the actual ribbon cutting. As I was walking away, three of my former colleagues who worked for Mount Carmel and had left to work for Ohio Health saw me & we had a great chat catching up on gossip and sharing stories.

I had time to finish Jessie's bracelet for the party tomorrow

What then makes a great vacation?  Oh could it be nice napping?  Yes indeed!  It was wonderful to sleep while the warm air blew through the windows.  I slept so hard with nice dreams enveloping me in slumber land.  The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing with Chris and the dogs.  I spent a nice leisurely time chatting with Cynthia catching up and then took a trip out into the field with Chris to watch the International Space Station fly over head.  After a few episodes of Downtown Abbey and three separate walks with the dogs, it was time to say good night to vacation day number one.

Yes!  our first tomato is growing

I see teeny tiny cucumbers on their way too.

Another thing that happened was that Dr. Randall (Arwen's vet) called to tell me that she's researched drug protocol on a medication that Anne on Facebook had told me about that was helping her Scottie's bladder cancer.  If you've followed me for a while or are new to my blog, then I have to tell you that Arwen is a cancer survivor.  She was diagnosed in October with Transistional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder.  The survivor rate is grim and unfortunately Scottish Terriers have a 20% higher rate of acquiring this cancer than any other breed.  Last October, we were devastated upon hearing that her tumor was occupying 50% of the bladder and was inoperable.  Then my Scottie friends from years and years all came to my rescue giving me support and information.  Also, one of the Vet Techs at Worthington Woods also has a dog just diagnosed with bladder cancer.  Scotties don't do well with radiation therapy or chemotherapy, so we decided to go with drug therapy to keep her quality of life at a maximum.  She's now into her eight month of survival.  One person especially has been such a support for me.  Her Scottie is a three YEAR survivor.  Arwen keeps having bladder infections which are making her miserable.  I actually was thinking of taking her in for the last visit as we are so upset, but once again Anne came to the rescue with another medication that works for her dog Sydney.  My vet was intrigued as the drug up until now had only been prescribed at their practice for cats.  But she did research and is not going to try giving Arwen Phenoxybenzamine.  It is suppose to relax the urethra so she'll not strain so much.  I know this is going to help our sweet girl.  It is times like this when I praise the Internet and what a community of caring people there are there.

Life On a Fence Post

When we were building our house 23 years ago, I always imagined a backyard filled with flowers and wildlife.  I wanted plenty of trees and bushes to attract birds and flowers to entice the bees to come visit.  We've worked hard making our backyard into a personal oasis for us, our Scotties, and all the wildlife that can be found in a busy suburban neighborhood.  We've seen so many birds and rabbits born here and on another note, we've seen so many die as well.  Our trees have been nursery for countless generations of robins, cardinals, wrens, song birds, starlings, and a few doves.  Each bird has a favorite spot to raise their families.  The cardinals love the sticky busy outside my studio window.  The starlings love the pine trees in the back.  The robins have taken over the lilac bushes and the apple trees.  I've seen the wrens in our snowball bush, and catch the doves flying too and fro from the bushes out back.  I've taken a few pictures of some of the birds, but they've been all out of reach or else the parent birds make sure no one could even get near. But this year was a first for us.  One robin couple build their nest on the fence post near our back gate.  I was able to take pictures every single day using my iPhone.  It was a wonderful event for me as I got to see them from egg to baby bird to juvenile taking their first flight.  From the very first day of their hatching May 19th until the day they flew away we had a heat wave here in Ohio.  It was so hot that I thought for many days that the baby birds would die.  But the parent bird would sit on the next flapping wings to keep them cool.  Last Saturday, we watched from our front windows as both parents coaxed each baby bird out of the nest onto the grass.  They all hopped around flapping their wings and taking awkward first flights.  Finally we watched as all four flew away.  I still see them in the backyard since then.  We were almost in tears watching our baby robins.  I was so worried about them and was relieved to see all four survive and leave the nest.

Below are the pictures I took each day.  Please follow me in the Life On a Fence Post. 

First day:only three eggs hatched this day

even on the first day they were ready to be fed

Second day all four babies had hatched

I was afraid that the last baby was too weak to eat

The started to develop ears.  It was so hot I worried about them

I thought for sure the heat would kill them.  I crushed strawberries for the parent birds for more nutrition for them

I was thrilled to see their eyes opened and feathers developing

One of the hottest days.  I put out more crushed berries on the fence post for the parents

Cooler, but I was still worried.  All four had more energy and more feathers developing

What a growth spurt in one day. 

Empty Nest

Trip to the Garden center

Yesterday day was Mother's Day. I'm not a Mother except to three rascal dogs, so no big outing for me.  My sister was busy packing things away getting ready for her friend to move in with her.  My sister in law was sneezing away with a bad cold, and my Mother was out of town with my other sister visiting my Grandma so really no real Mother to spend a Mother's Day with except my friends here on the Internet.  Now Fiona is a Mother, but all she really wanted yesterday on a gray rainy day was to sleep in her new cushioned doggie bed and a nice brushing.  So Chris & I decided to go someplace where you can walk about fragrant trails without getting soaking wet.  We went to our favorite garden center, Straders, on Bethel and River Road.  As soon as I walked out into the green house, I just knew I had to take pictures with my iPhone.  The colors were just amazing. 

I'm working on trying to come up with some ideas for my Beading for a Cure project that is a charity that is near and dear to my heart.  I wanted to make a traditional doll this year and have settled on an Asian doll pattern by Leslie Molen.  Leslie does not allow people to sell dolls made from her patterns unless they have contacted her.  I asked Leslie, and she gave me permission to use this doll for my project.  I have the beads from the kit, and the doll pattern, but not a clue on the color palette for the doll's clothing.  Now after spending an hour strolling around the garden center here in Columbus, I've found some ideas to help me on my final fabric decision so I can start this project.  I think about colors and how to manipulate them into pleasing eye catching finish.  Thank goodness that I don't have to struggle with color wheels or books on color design...one trip to the garden center will help me find those colors that appeal to me & hopefully to others next year when this doll will be auctioned off.  Sometimes just a simple walk can give you so many ideas.

My own backyard

Bleeding Hearts

Apple blossoms with our first butterfly

Crab Apple Blossoms

Flowing Phlox

An inquisitive Scottie

Where else can you find beauty except in your own back yard.  We have been blessed to have Spring arrive 3 weeks early.  Luckily we are back in our average temperatures which seem cold after March's blast of heat, but everything is doing so well in our garden.  Lilacs are starting to bloom and I see the Lily of the Valley are pushing up out of the soil.  Some pictures using my iPhone which I am really enjoying.  Now I need to learn to hold it steady, but so far, so good.

Early Spring

The weather this past week has been gorgeous.  Temperatures in central Ohio have been 20 degrees warmer than normal, so everything is sprouting and the birds are just going crazy.  Saturday morning we woke up to the Canadian Geese making such a roar as they flew over the house that all of us woke up.  The big Maple tree behind my house has buds on it, the lilac bushes are sprouting green leaves, and all the flowers are in full bloom.  It was so lovely yesterday that we decided to take a walk in one of our favorite Metro Parks in Columbus.  Highbanks sits above the Olentangy River and has a variety of trails to walk on including a very nice dog path meandering through the hills.  We decided to take the river walk and enjoyed the warmth of the Sun, the rush of the river, and all the small wildflowers decorating the path.  I wanted to take close ups with my iPhone 4's camera, and boy did it do an excellent job.  I had fun photographing some of the holes in the old trees and even found one hole with a little living world inside.  But back home, we checked out the yard & wow! the Magnolias are starting to bloom.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays warm & Spring when if officially starts next week, stays.  A couple years ago we had weather like this where all the fruit trees bloomed, then whammo...Winter came back & that year not a single apple.

Olentangy River at Highbanks Metro Park

Mossy log

Chris standing on the River trail at Highbanks

Magnolia tree in our back yard

So Welcome Spring...we sure have been missing you.