Berea College

Posted by dkrashb on May 5, 2013

I believe this is a dorm–Hipstamatic tintype style

Berea and Berea College are an interesting place. I say “an” because it’s not clear to me that they’re separable. The founder of Berea College was also the founder of the town. It seems they grew up together.

Having done no research on the place besides having seen signs for Berea and stopped in their visitor’s center once when we needed to make a quick pit stop on the way home, I had only a few second-hand pieces of knowledge about the place to work from.

I was fascinated by this giant tree in front of the dorm

First, I knew there was an artisan community in the town. Second, I knew the college has a work-study program where the students are required to have a job and they get a portion of their tuition covered in exchange. Finally, I knew of a girl in my nephew’s class in Indianapolis who was attending Berea and studying opera singing–they apparently have a good music program and are affordable even for out-of-state students.

A more modern spin on the same dorm and tree

When Tisen and I took a short walk in Berea, we managed to see a couple of buildings on the Berea College campus. The buildings look much like buildings found on any college campus started in the late 1800’s. What surprised me was when we were across from the Boone Tavern, there was a sand sculpture on the lawn of a building I would guess was a dorm. The sand sculpture said two things that gave me pause.

Sand sculpture in lawn of the dorm

First, “interracial” appeared as one of the values of the college. I was rather shocked that in 2013, a liberal arts college felt the need to declare “interracial” as an important value to the college–are there any colleges that aren’t interracial in the US?

The second was, “Christian.” I had never heard that Berea was a Christian school. These two words caused me to do a little reading about Berea College online. As it turns out, while Berea identifies itself as Christian, it also believes that you don’t have to identify yourself as a Christian to further Christian ideals. As long as you accept the college’s mission, which includes doing work and doing it well, providing service to others, and promoting the notion that we’re all of “the same blood” whether we’re black, white, female, or male, you’re welcome to attend or work at the college. So, while the college is Christian, the students and faculty may or may not be.

I love the big old trees on older campuses

The fact that the college was conceived before the civil war explains why being interracial warrants comment in its mission. It was among the first interracial schools in Kentucky, but was stopped from being interracial for about 45 years when Kentucky law prohibited it. Berea College assisted with the creation of another school near Louisville to serve black students during that time and then re-integrated the school when the law was changed again in 1950. They have good reason to consider integration an important value of the school, even if it is 2013.

I thought “Sustrainable” was a clever name for a group training others on sustainability until I realized it was a mistake in this hand-created sign

Boone Tavern

Posted by dkrashb on May 4, 2013

Boone Tavern Histamaticized with Tintype effects

Sometimes, a five-year age difference can make a big difference. Most of the time, my husband and I remember a lot of the same things from childhood, ranging from the kinds of candy we found at the drug store to popular clothing styles. Although, things he remembers from high school, I remember from elementary school.

Every once in a while, we find a TV show that was a big part of Pat’s youth was one I’d never heard of. Daniel Boone was one of those shows. While Pat watched every episode both in its debut and in re-run, I vaguely knew there was a show called Daniel Boone, but I had never actually seen it until I got hooked on retro TV a couple years ago.

I don’t think Daniel Boone ever waited for gaps in car traffic to snap a picture of his namesake tavern

Watching Fess Parker battle bad guys on the American frontier felt nostalgic to me even though the show wasn’t part of my childhood. My brother and I used to play cowboys and indians as children and Daniel Boone with his coonskin cap was a pretty constant hero figuring into our games.

This may have been fueled, in part, because of family lore. Daniel Boone apparently came through the region my family settled in a few generations ago. I remember having a newspaper article in my photo album (curtesy of my mother) that described the experience of my “aunt” Polly (I think she was really my great, great, great aunt Polly and long gone by the time I arrived on the scene) with whom Daniel Boone stayed for some period of time. I can’t look up the details anymore, but in my memory, Daniel Boone lived with her family for several months when she was a girl.

The long-side of Boone Tavern surprised me with its size

For many years, I believed I was related to Daniel Boone. Who knows? Maybe I am.

Whatever my relations, whenever I passed the exit sign on interstate 75 that says, “Historic Boone Tavern,” I always want to stop. On this trip home from Columbus, I decided it was time. I was surprised to realize Boone Tavern is in Berea, Kentucky. This is the approximate halfway point between Columbus and Chattanooga and another place I’ve always wanted to stop. So, taking the opportunity to feed two hawks with one rat (as my friends at Save Our American Raptors would say), Tisen and I took another breather from the drive home in this small town.

The sign definitely takes me back to childhood

Boone Tavern is an operating hotel today. Apparently it is not kept in its original state–a sign proudly declared it’s air-conditioned. Tisen and I didn’t try to go in together and it was too hot to leave Tisen in the car, so we made a lap around downtown Berea, checking out Boone Tavern from two sides instead of sipping a cold adult beverage at the bar.

Tisen making the most of the Kentucky grass

Tisen was unimpressed by the view of the tavern. However, he did seem to take a special liking to the grass in the small park across the street from the tavern.

Big Bone Lick

Posted by dkrashb on May 3, 2013

The sign at the entrance to the park

What’s in a name? That which we call a park by any other name would smell as fresh. So why not call it something that makes people think, “Hmm. I really must go see what that is some time.” I think that’s what the creators of Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky thought when they chose the name of the park.
Never mind that the area was a “lick” (as in “salt lick”) in ancient (and even more recent) times that attracted animals large and small with its mineral deposits. Never mind that native americans talked about the “big bones” left behind by the giant animals that were trapped in the bog. I’m pretty sure that someone in marketing decided naming the park “Big Bone Lick” would attract more tourists.

The one short stretch of shade on our way to find the bison

They were right.

After all, how many times have I driven by signs advertising parks I can’t remember the names of? But “Big Bone Lick” has been the subject of several conversations–visitors often comment about it when they arrive at our place after having made the journey from the North.

Tisen casting a dark shadow that he tried to figure out how to stand under

Since I’d decided to take a day off work to drive home from Columbus with Tisen at a leisurely pace, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out what Big Bone Lick was all about. As is typical of Tisen and my walks, we hit the park at the peak of the afternoon sun. But on this day, I was surprised just how hot it was as we made our way up the trail in the harsh light. Tisen couldn’t stop panting–I’m sure he was wishing his fur coat had a zipper so he could take it off.

If bison could pant, I think this guy would be panting

But the park had something I wanted to see–Bison. I guess it’s appropriate and historically accurate that the park should have bison. I just wish they could roam free throughout the park rather than being fenced in. For a moment, I flashed back to Montana’s approach to “fence them out” vs “fence them in,” but then I remembered the dead horses we saw on the road outside of Glacier National Park and decided I didn’t want to see any run over bison.

Even the bison were shedding

We followed the signs that said, “Bison.” When we got to the “Bison Viewing Area,” there were no bison. Just empty pastures with nothing like bison in sight. I think someone was confused about what “bison viewing area” meant.

When I first spotted the bison, I thought I was seeing round bales of hay or something

I felt betrayed by the park signs. I looked at my poor, hot dog standing in a shadow panting like it was 100 degrees out and decided we’d better head back rather than keep looking. However, there was another path that headed back towards the car. I thought it would be shorter and, since it bordered a bunch of paddocks, perhaps we would see bison by going that way. Both turned out to be true. Although Tisen was less patience than usual waiting for me to take pictures, we left the park happy.

Mind the Gap

Posted by dkrashb on May 2, 2013

A Red-winged Blackbird takes a stroll in the grass

I would now like to take a moment to interrupt your regularly scheduled program. I discovered a set of photos from my last solo bird walk of the Birdathon over a week ago. I suppose I was getting tired of posting bad pictures of birds and writing about bird walks, so maybe it was a Freudian slip?

A roosting coot

In any case, on the last day of the Birdathon, I decided to take a drive over to Standifer Gap Marsh for the second time. It was a long shot given it was going to be about 1PM in the afternoon when I arrived (the worst time for birding) and it was hot and sunny out. But, needing 10 more species to get to my goal of 100, and knowing that the marsh is well known for Least Bitterns and Virginia Rails, I thought is was worth taking the chance.

Turtles trying to escape over the fence

Tisen and I arrived to discover a completely empty parking lot. We got out of the car and spotted our first bird–a Red-winged Blackbird. This was not very exciting since we see Red-winged Blackbirds every time we walk the park outside our building, but I did take a few shots of it. I managed to get one of it walking, which was kind of fun.

I really thought this was another Yellow-rumped Warbler in the field, but in looking at the photo, I think this must be a Magnolia Warbler

We walked slowing along the road that goes between two parts of the marsh, looking on either side to see if we could spot anything really exciting. The bad part about going birding some where new and hoping to see something even newer is that the odds of me feeling confident that I’ve correctly identified whatever it was are pretty slim, meaning I pretty much needed to get a good enough photo to identify it later and get confirmation from someone else. That’s a lot of pressure when you’re birding in the middle of the afternoon and walking a dog at the same time. Of course, that would have been a good problem to have.

Yellow-rumped finding a snack to fuel up for a long flight

As it was, I spotted a coot hanging out in broad daylight taking a nap on top of a broken off snag in the marsh, endless numbers of turtles, and a gaggle of Canada geese in the nearby soccer field before deciding we’d had enough sunshine and heading back into the wooded part of the park.

One more shot of my hungry friend

The woods were quite nice. Tisen got to walk off lead, exploring ahead and behind me while I cranked back my neck and looked for Warblers. I heard several different warblers, but am a bit rusty on my warbler songs, so I didn’t feel certain I could correctly identify them by song. The one I saw and then saw again and then saw some more until I was rather tired of seeing it was the Yellow-rumped Warbler. It makes me laugh how quickly we go from being amazed to annoyed when someone becomes overly familiar.

More content turtles hanging out in the marsh

In the end, I found no new birds, but Tisen and I enjoyed our walk.

To Spring or Not to Spring

Posted by dkrashb on May 1, 2013

Flowering trees in the neighborhood next to the restaurant

Returning to my home town for the first time in quite a few months, I was disappointed to discover it was still winter there when I arrived. The temperatures dropped to the upper 30’s and the rain seemed never-ending. I was regretting having left spring behind in Chattanooga.

Fortunately, the expression “if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes,” is as applicable in Columbus as it is anywhere else I’ve heard it uttered. While it took more than 10 minutes to make a significant shift, the sun appeared, the rain dried, and the temperature started to rise.

I went from wishing I’d brought a winter coat to worrying about not having a raincoat or umbrella to wondering if I even needed a light sweater in just a few days. I suppose it’s typical for spring–it comes in fits and starts. One day it feels like August, the next we’re back to January and gradually the ratio changes and the high and low temperatures keep staying higher until most of the days feel like August. Sometimes it’s hard to remember it’s a process.

Our friend on the patio while we wait for food

By the time we met friends for dinner on Monday night, the weather was cooperative. This was especially good because the restaurant we ate at had about 5 tables inside and 10 out. Had it been bad weather, we would have been waiting for a table for a long time. As it was, we were able to sit outside without a wait because the sky was gray enough to elicit looks of suspicion from patrons hovering around the bar with their food. The weather may have been cooperative, but just barely. By the time we finished eating, we were wrapping our jackets around us tight trying to stay warm.

Our other friend cooling off after walking to meet us and his wife

One of the great things about eating in a new restaurant in our old neighborhood was that we actually ran into other friends while we were sitting there. Friends we hadn’t seen in a really long, long time. It made me think maybe we should try the approach one of my friends who moved to Seattle uses when she comes into town for a visit. She schedules dinner at a place where people can easily come and go without throwing the staff for a loop. Then, she invites all her friends to meet her there. She gets to see many friends in a 2-3 hour window this way. It does sound much easier to coordinate than trying to schedule 3 meals a day with different people. However, I’m not sure I would get to actually talk with everyone that way.

In any case, it was cool to get to catch up with 4 friends at one meal. Unfortunately, our surprise friends arrived after it was too dark to take photos with my iPhone. I did manage to catch some blooming trees and the friends we’d scheduled our dinner with via Hipstamatic. I should probably start experimenting with something other than tintype soon.

Tisen refusing to hold still after we returned to our host’s house

Gina and the Magnolia Warbler

Posted by dkrashb on April 30, 2013

This Magnolia Warbler remains perched all day

The next hardest part after getting someone to agree to pose for you is to find a setting to shoot them in. Lucky for me, the ravine at the end of Gina and Gill’s street provided a lovely backdrop.

After seeing the critters that had been collected in the ravine that day (see yesterday’s post), we paused to check out Gina’s bird under the overpass. A group of people had gotten together to raise money to have a mural painted under an overpass in the ravine.

Gina’s Magnolia is a bit bigger than life-sized

The idea was less about making it pretty and more about preventing people from touting whom they love in the not-so-public forum of graffiti on rarely seen walls. Interestingly, graffiti artists do not usually graffiti over top of someone else’s art. So, putting a mural on a space that gets graffitied a lot can be effective when it comes to combatting the problem.

I am particularly fond of the bird mural in Gina’s neighborhood ravine. Gina and Gill sponsored the painting of a Magnolia Warbler. They didn’t know they were sponsoring a Magnolia Warbler until after it was done and they were informed of what type of bird they had funded.

What’s that birdie on your shoulder?

The Magnolia Warbler is partially responsible for growing my interest in birds sufficiently that I started learning more about them. My mom had tried to get me interested in birds for many years. I did have some interest, but not enough to go out and learn much beyond feeder birds. Then, I met a woman at work who asked me to sponsor her in a fund raiser for the local chapter of the Audubon. This is when I first learned to open my ears and eyes and see birds I would have sworn I’d never seen before.

With a little more flash

One spring, I was working from home back when my office window looked out into several trees. As I sat at my desk diligently working, I looked up briefly–just long enough to notice a beautiful small bird sitting on a branch. I watched it as long as I dared. I was torn between running upstairs for the bird book to identify it and staring at it for as long as possible so I could sear the image of the bird into my brain and identify it later.

Creating a little drama with a Snoot

Realizing I didn’t really know (yet) what to look for and probably would have forgotten the bird by the time I got to the bird book, I decided to make a run for it and see if I could get the book and get back before the bird flew away. I didn’t, but I did manage to remember what it looked like. Of course, it took both looking it up in a bird book and talking to my friend the next day to confirm that it probably was a Magnolia Warbler I’d seen before I believed it.

It was such a surprise to learn such small, beautiful birds are really a common sight.

What a beautiful day in the park

Ravine Critters

Posted by dkrashb on April 29, 2013

I swear there is a mouse in this photo

Sometimes when you go for a walk, even if it’s in a relatively familiar place, you end up seeing something you’ve never seen before. Gina and I took a short walk to a ravine at the end of her street. The ravine has a lovely little park in it, complete with an arched bridge over a large creek. Given that it was one of the first sunny, warm days of the season, the park was fully of people.

A little bit more of our white-footed friend is showing in this one, but not much

We were there to do a little practice portrait shooting. As we wandered around looking for a good spot, we saw a group of tables set up under an overpass where the creek flows under a major roadway and continues its course downhill towards the nearest river.

Under this overpass, about 5-6 naturalist-looking people wearing naturalist-like attire had a bunch of critters they had collected on display, along with a microscope and some other types of collections that weren’t moving. I wasn’t well equipped for shooting these critters, but I did the best I could given they were in glass containers and I was shooting with my 70-200mm lens.

I forget what this was, but I think it’s some kind of salamander

Having to stand back when shooting through glass is a major disadvantage. The smudges and reflections on the glass show up quite a bit more than I would like. But, to be honest, I didn’t take these images with the expectation that they would win any photography awards. It’s just pretty darn interesting to learn what critters are crawling all around us that we’re mostly oblivious to.

We were introduced first to a white-footed mouse. The mouse ran out and posed for us just long enough for me to get my lens cap off and my camera turned on. Then, he ran back under the leaves in his cage, rolled up in a ball, and promptly fell asleep. I tried shooting from several angles, but all I could get was a spot of brown fur amongst brown leaves. Trust me. He was really cute.

One of the most frightening creatures in the mid-west: the Wolf Spider

The group had also collected a snake and a couple of spiders. While I am a fan of snakes, I have a bit of a problem with spiders. I love spiders and their contribution to the balance of the ecosystem. I particularly love their webs. However, I love both their webs and them a lot more when they are not on the same side of a window as I am

I appreciated when the ladies holding the spiders for us decided to put them back in their containers–I would never have shot them when they were running around outside the containers, I was too busy jumping.

I was too nervous to remember what kind of spider this was

When we asked the group what they were doing, they told us they were both trying to get people interested in the flora and fauna in the ravine and getting a baseline of what was there so that as they work to restore the native habitat, they can see how many more species start appearing.

My baby boy in a blur–I’m so happy he rejoined me

Road Trip

Posted by dkrashb on April 28, 2013

Gina looking fierce in front of unwanted graffiti

Loading the car for a road trip used to be simple. It was a matter of throwing in a small bag with some clean underwear, a change of clothes, maybe some special face soap, and, of course, my purse. Now, it takes a whole lot more.

This would be a little more timeless without the sunglasses

There’s the additional wardrobe required for business meetings. This, of course, must be accompanied by additional baggage required for a laptop, a phone, a tablet, 3 chargers, headphones, business cards, and miscellaneous forms of paper.

Then there’s the additional wardrobe required for hanging out with friends and encountering a variety of social settings. Limiting myself to 2 pairs of shoes is quite a challenge.

This reminds me of the kinds of photos my grandparents used to take

But the mass of what I loaded into the car was photography equipment. It took two big bags of stuff plus my tripod–that’s without my umbrella stands. Had I brought Tisen with me, the volume of stuff would have doubled. Fortunately, my husband is taking care of Tisen for a few days and we’ll meet up later.

I managed to get the car loaded in one trip with my husband’s help.

I like driving. At least, I like it until miscellaneous body parts start going numb, my shoulders start burning, and I realize I’m clenching my jaw like I’m performing one of those rope tricks in a circus where a lady is spun and swung all over the place while she bites on a rope. Then, I would like a more comfortable seat and perhaps a massage.

I keep thinking I should make the drive at a leisurely pace, stopping to shoot interesting sights and exploring the area each time I stop. Unfortunately, I never have that kind of time to get from one place to another. This time, I opted to drive a few hours the night before I needed to arrive at my destination. Then, I stopped at a hotel for the night before driving the rest of the way. This divided the drive up nicely, allowing me to get a decent night’s sleep and also to miss rush hour traffic outside a major city in the morning. Had I not stopped, I would have needed to leave by 5AM to make sure I got to my meeting on time.

Gill and Gina looking strangely contemporary in this tintype-effect Hipstamatic shot

After doing my work stuff, I got to have some time to relax with my hosts, who we like to call Gina and Gill. It’s a beautiful sunny day for a change. Gina and Gill have the perfect porch for a sunny day. We ended up hanging out on said porch, enjoying the warmth and the breezes. I decided that the big front porch on their 100+ year old house was the perfect setting to pull out the Hipstamatic app and use the tintype film.

After taking a few shots of Gina and Gill on the front porch, Gina and I took a little walk where we found some unpleasant graffiti to shoot her in front of. I like the urban look.

Tuesday Night

Posted by dkrashb on April 27, 2013

Exactly how much stuff does it take for a road trip when I decide to take my DSLR?

Every Tuesday we eat the same thing. This is our way of simplifying. We have 3 nights a week when we always eat the same thing. Or, as close to the same thing as a given restaurant gets. It always surprises me how much variability there can be from one week to the next between the way a meal is made.

There are times I like surprises and then there are times I want my food to be utterly predictable. Food items like pizza should be predictable, in my opinion. I have never picked a favorite pizza joint on the basis of how frequently the way the pizza tastes changes. Yet, one of the things that probably keeps us from getting bored with our eating routine is that we cannot predict how the pizza will taste or how the sushi will be prepared from one week to the next.

This is especially true of the pizza. We usually eat Mellow Mushroom pizza having not found a mom and pop shop that we like yet. We like Mellow Mushroom pizza about half the time. The other half, it’s either over cooked, under cooked, or cold. I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall in the kitchen to figure out exactly what goes wrong half the time.

Food art at a nice restaurant on the road–a far cry from the sushi

Our Tuesday night choice is not pizza, however. It’s the Rice Boxx. This is a Chinese/Thai/Japanese place that has decent Chinese and sushi. I have found a couple of dishes I like, but I tire of them quickly. I have been ordering 1 shrimp tempura and 1 sweet potato roll every Tuesday night for months. The sushi is OK, but once again unpredictable. The thing that is predictable is that there will always be a surprise in the fortune cookies.

Sometimes it’s a missing fortune. Sometimes it’s a fortune that is a weather forecast instead of a fortune. Sometimes it’s the cookies themselves, which go from thicker to thiner styles and back again yet always come in the same wrapper.

On this particular Tuesday night, I was running around like a mad woman trying to pack for a road trip. I had decided at the last minute, after working late, to leave that night instead of the next morning so I could avoid hitting Knoxville during the morning rush hour. Pat went and picked up our food without me so I could finish packing.

I stopped running around like a mad woman long enough to sit down to eat when Pat returned. There was a new sushi chef and he made the sushi smaller and tighter, making it easier to get the pieces in my mouth without making a mess. When I finished my sushi, I opened up my fortune cookie, already smiling with anticipation as I tore open the wrapper.

Does this really count as a fortune?

This is what it said: “An alien of some sort will be appearing to your shortly.” I keep watching out for bright lights in the sky, but so far, nothing.

Hawk Hunt

Posted by dkrashb on April 26, 2013

One of the best wren shots I’ve managed to capture–this little guy posed about 6 feet away from me

On a Saturday afternoon, with only 1 day left in a “Birdathon” (a competition to find as many bird species as possible in a 3-week period), what’s a girl to do after returning home from spending 3 ½ hours wandering around a wetland looking for birds?

You guessed it–go look for more birds. Never mind that it’s the afternoon and not exactly prime birding. Never mind that I’d just spend all morning walking around straining my neck. Never mind that I had a dog that needed to go for a walk.

There was still a good chance of picking up a species or two in the afternoon, I would drive to the trailhead to reduce the walking, and Tisen would just have to go birding with me to get his walk in.

The only question was where to go. Since I hadn’t been up to Stringer’s Ridge during yet and I knew there were Cooper’s Hawks nesting up there last year and I didn’t have Cooper’s hawks on my list yet, I thought Stringer’s Ridge was a good place to go. Besides, if anyone is likely to be up and active during the middle of the afternoon, it’s a Cooper’s hawk.

Tisen peering back at me through trailside brush

Tisen and I gathered up our respective equipment–binoculars, birding book, and camera in my case; Pink Elephant in his–and made our way to the car after a brief potty break for Tisen.

Stringer’s Ridge is close enough to walk to from our place, although it’s probably a good mile away and part of that mile is up a steep climb. I was happy I’d decided to drive as we made our way through the neighborhood and up to the parking lot, my back was already aching from the wetland walk.

We parked in the empty lot and I enjoyed being able to let Tisen walk off-lead for a change with no one else around. Tisen was pretty happy about getting to explore, too. One problem with birding with Tisen is that he doesn’t really do a great job flushing birds for me. He tends to scare them off in the opposite direction. I found myself contemplating whether I should try to train him like a hunting dog to circle around and flush the birds towards me. I decided it probably wasn’t worth the effort.

My sweet boy coming back to Mommy after wandering aways ahead

There weren’t many birds for him to scare away that day. The occasional drumming of a distant woodpecker reached our ears and the ubiquitous Carolina Wren seemed to be following us along the path, but no Cooper’s Hawks were to be found. Thankfully, as we made our way along a loop trail that gave us a nice walk through the woods that was probably less than 2 miles long, I heard a Wood Thrush singing its glorious, wistful song. If you’ve never heard a Wood Thrush, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen. You can play its flute-like song here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Thrush/id

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nomadicmainstream

Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

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