Winter Along Anchorage Trail

What better way to give you a brief glimpse of the snow and ice from this week's winter storm than a little nostalgia thrown in.

A beautiful old fashioned wagon greets you as you begin your walk on the Anchorage Trail in eastern Louisville. It's a beautiful area of town that is even more gorgoeus with a fresh blanket of snow and ice. I generally pay at least one visit each season to see just what landscape Mother Nature has painted. ENJOY!

A Thanksgiving Story

Thanksgiving Day grows closer. And this is what Thanksgiving means to me. I hope you will indulge me as I share this story. My Thanksgiving brings with it a golden brown turkey with gravy and turkey giblets and sage filled dressing with onions and celery. Sweet potatoes hot out of the oven with a lightly toasted marshmallow topping and perhaps scattered walnuts will be served. Mashed potatoes and green beans and perhaps even a fruit salad too.

Least I forget dessert, no doubt the star will be pumpkin pie, warm out of the oven, wafting hints of pumpkin and cinnamon, filling the air. The mild hint of brown crusted dough and perhaps a simple dollop of whipped cream melt down the side as my fork cuts through.



Before dinner . . . before the turkey, before the dressing, comes the preparation. Our Thanksgiving table will be donned with a beautiful tablecloth of soft gold and brown hues and adorned with rustic red dinnerware. Each place setting carefully positioned around the Thanksgiving table. Dinner's guests will gather in the kitchen around the counter each filling their plates with delicious Thanksgiving fixings. Plates filled with heaping spoonfulls, each of us will retreat to the dining room and take our seat around the table. Thankful for this wonderful meal and yet another Thanksgiving, the chatter begins as every one partakes in this year's Thanksgiving feast. Stories of by gone days and wishes and hopes of what the coming Christmas season will bring fill the room.

Every Thanksgiving my younger sister spends countless hours cooking, baking, roasting, decorating and place setting. As each of us arrive at her door, we are graciously greeted and Thankgiving Day commences. Yet, I realize every year how much work and effort goes into this fabulous meal and, oftentimes, I wonder how she manages to do it all, with such perfection. This meal shared by family. This younger sister who wasn't supposed to be as the doctors informed my Mother that she was too weak to bear another child. I knew she was coming as my Mother had told me of her coming that day in the back yard of our small home in Louisville. I sat on the swing still as my Mother approached. She told me A baby would be born in a few short months. I was ready. Adults were anxious. Not sure if this baby or my Mother would survive. And yet the day came and my Mother did give birth. And I had a younger sister, and after many months of recovery, my Mother grew strong again. And so today I dedicate this Thanksgiving Story to my younger sister. ENJOY!

Fall Farm Stand, Nashville, Indiana

Along the state road driving west toward the quaint little arts and crafts village of Nashville, Indiana, you will pass a farm that fronts next to the main road. And every year the farm has a vegetable stand in their barn with corn and tomatoes and green beans and well, anything they grow on the farm.

A fun thing I enjoy doing each year as I drive by the farm is photograph new images of the old wagon that sits in front of the barn. Adorned with mums and pumpkins and other fanfare for the Fall season, it's a treat to see just what is new. This year as I opened the images in my software and cropped this one, I realized I had a special feature with this image. The hanging dried corn husks added a new dimension to the image. One that I feel really pumps up the charm. After all what's not to like about an old farm stand with an old wooden wagon filled to the brim with harvest's bounty. ENJOY!

Grounds at Maker's Mark, Loretto, Kentucky

A few weeks ago I spent a Saturday afternoon shopping in Bardstown at some of my favorite home decor shops. Then I drove the twenty minute drive to Maker's Mark. I hadn't been to the distillery in over ten years and I didn't have any of those old images. So, allow me to give you a quickie tour of this famed distillery . . .

As you make your way from the parking lot to the main grounds, you'll pass this old painted wagon filled with, what else, but bourbon barrels.


Next you'll walk over a bridge and please do notice the creek which I'm sure plays a big role in the 'making of this mark'.



Oh, look. Here we are at the distillery building where you can go in and take the tour. No, I've never done the tour, but perhaps one day.


As you make your way back to the parking lot, you'll pass this black and red painted barn which no doubt plays a role in the bourbon making process. Tomorrow, as it happens, is the last day for the annual Bourbon Festival that's been going on all week in and around Bardstown, Kentucky. There are bourbon enthusiasts from all over the globe visiting Louisville and Bardstown this week just to tour the many bourbon distilleries and participate in the festival. Have a fantastic weekend all. ENJOY!

Photographer's Note: Before I close this post, I wanted to share that at one time I played a role in the branding of Maker's Mark. Back in the beginning of my career in advertising, I worked for a major ad agency here in Louisville. I managed the typesetting department and typeset many a Maker's Mark ad and billboard. One holiday, Bill Samuels gave me a signed bottle of Maker's Mark, with my name printed on the label and the top was dipped in gold wax instead of red.

Vintage Fall!

It was a beautiful Saturday last weekend and I could not resist the chance to take a drive and take in some Fall color. On my way back to the interstate from Nashville, I stopped to take a few photos of my favorite wagon sitting next to the barn at the Farm Market I pass along my usual route to Nashville, Indiana, the small arts and crafts village in central Indiana. Love this wagon. Loved the weather. Now it's turning miserably cold and raining. Someone deliver me. ENJOY!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

ENJOY THE DAY!

Signs of Fall!

Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day Weekend. ENJOY!