Kansas City Downtown July 4, 2009, Evening.
Kansas City Downtown July 4, 2009, Night.
July 2, 2009
Old Cowtown Museum Celebrates Independence Day
"Abraham Lincoln" visits Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita, Kansas, to celebrate Independence Day. Lincoln actually did visit Kansas once before he was elected president.
A few decades ago, when I was a Girl Scout I spent a week during a couple of summers as a tour guide at a living history museum called Old Cowtown in Wichita, Kansas. There were only a few buildings in those days, and it was hot and dusty, but I loved it!
This past weekend, I returned with my family to experience it as a tourist. Old Cowtown Museum has grown and become even more of an Old West experience. Now, instead of Girl Scouts, there are professional costumed re-enactors and guides. The buildings are almost all authentic from the late 1800s and show what a midwestern cattle town was like. The buildings are also now air-conditioned….so you can re-live the past more comfortably.
Special events are planned throughout the year. This past weekend, the museum celebrated Independence Day 1870s style. “Abraham Lincoln” visited. Of course, he’s an anachronism, but he did visit Kansas once before he was elected president. Brass bands played, there was an old-style baseball game — Lincoln played third base, gun fights between cowboys and ranchers, dance hall girls, pie-eating contests, watermelon spitting, a bucket brigade and wagon rides. My nephews are champion pie-eaters. We drank sarsaparilla (root beer) in the saloon.
We visited a homestead and saw a half-day-old calf in the barn. The mother wasn’t too happy with our interest in her baby. I never knew a moo could sound so threatening. Every time I tried to focus my camera on the calf, the mother tried to head butt me. Fortunately, the rail was in the way.
In the grand finale, a couple of cow pokes placed two anvils together and blasted the top one with dynamite in the anvil shoot, which was one old-time way to celebrate before fireworks were available. People do love to blow up things to celebrate!
There were so many activities, we didn’t get a chance to visit all of the buildings, including the Munger House, which was the home of Darius Munger, Wichita’s founder. I was the tour guide for the Munger House as a Girl Scout, so now I have to return to Cowtown just to re-live my old guiding days. New since my tour days is the home of the Marshall Murdock, who vigorously promoted the town through his newspaper. There are dozens of buildings, including two churches, a school house, many stores and professional buildings, a train depot, saloon and homes.
To see more of the experience, see my YouTube slide show below, which shows a lot of the action. You can also click on Old Cowtown Museum. Check out the map of the town on the Cowtown website.
June 25, 2009
Stoned Wallabies Make Crop Circles in Tasmania
Tasmania produces about half of the world's medicinal opium poppies, under strict regulation. But they can't keep the wallabies out.
My friend Anita, who lives in Canberra, emailed me this story. We traveled together in Tasmania in January of this year and saw these poppy fields, and we saw wallabies lounging in rutabaga fields, but we didn’t get to see this!
Stoned wallabies make crop circles
Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:30pm EDT
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The mystery of crop circles in poppy fields in Australia’s southern island state of Tasmania has been solved — stoned wallabies are eating the poppy heads and hopping around in circles.
“We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles,” the state’s top lawmaker Lara Giddings told local media on Thursday.
“Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high,” she said.
Many people believe crop circles that mysteriously appear in fields around the world are created by aliens.
Poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids said livestock which ate the poppies were known to “act weird” — including deer and sheep in the state’s highlands.
“There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles,” said field operations manager Rick Rockliff.
Australia produces about 50 percent of the world’s raw material for morphine and related opiates.
June 24, 2009
Life and Death in the Garden
- A crab spider grabbed a honey bee that visited a common milkweed flower.
This honey bee was lucky it didn't encounter any crab spiders hiding in the milkweed flowers.
In the Midwest, Master Gardener J. G. has planted a complete banquet for pollinating insects, such as bees and butterflies. There are plants for all stages in an insect’s life. One section of her garden is devoted to native prairie plants, such as the common milkweed, which has a wonderful fragrance and beautiful flowers. Monarch caterpillars are dependent on milkweed leaves and flowers for food, and other insects drink the nectar. The garden is a certified Monarch Watch monarch butterfly waystation that provides milkweed, nectar sources and shelter for monarchs as they migrate through North America.
J. G.'s garden is a certified Monarch Butterfly Waystation that provides plants for nectar, milkweed and shelter for migrating Monarch butterflies.
Honey bees were busy getting nectar and pollen in the milkweed flowers when we toured J.G.’s garden. One honey bee wasn’t so lucky. A crab spider grabbed it and paralyzed it for its own dinner. Crab spiders don’t spin webs but hide on plants, waiting for prey to visit.
It was a hot, humid day, and few butterflies appeared. J.G. called out the names of the few that passed through — fritillary, painted lady, skipper. I recognized a Monarch butterfly that flitted over the milkweed, settling just for a moment, before leaving.
To learn more about butterflies in the Kansas City area click on this links and do a search on butterflies: Johnson County Extension Office. Other useful links: Monarch Watch and look for Bug Girl’s Blog, Anna’s Bee World and Pollinator Partnership in my blog roll. If you’re buying from Amazon.com, use the Monarch Watch portal on my blogroll. I’ll be posting more about J.G’s garden, including her leaf cutter bee boxes.
A honey bee visits a rose blossom. You can see how closely these wild-looking roses resemble apple blossoms, members of the same family.
June 21, 2009
Father’s Day
My father holding me at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate.
Happy Father’s Day in honor of all fathers everywhere. I lost my father in 1995, so Father’s Day will now always be a bittersweet day. I treasure his memory and miss him so much.
Below is an article about the rocking horses my father made for his grandchildren. Later, when he heard he had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — Lou Gehrig’s Disease), he hurried to complete the horses he was working on. If you magnify the article on your screen, it is readable — if barely.
Rocking Horse Story.
June 19, 2009
Fancy Foods Word Quiz — How much do you know?
25 FANCY FOOD WORDS USED ON ‘TOP CHEF’ (Do You Know What They Mean?) See how many of these food words you can correctly match with their definitions.
1. Ganache (GAHN-ahsh)
2. Ceviche (seh-VEE-chay)
3. Risotto (rih-SO-toh)
4. Carpaccio (kahr-PAH-chee-oh)
5. Hamachi (hah-MAH-chee)
6. Rémoulade (ray-muh-LAHD)
7. Chiffonade (shihf-uh-NAHD)
8. Panna cotta (PAHN-nah KOH-tah)
9. Hearts of palm
10. Geoduck (GOO-ee duhk)
11. Aioli (ay-OH-lee)
12. Pain perdu (pahn pehr-DOO)
13. Frisee (free-ZAY)
14. Tostones (tohs-TOH-nays)
15. Roulade (roo-LAHD)
16. Pancetta (pan-CHEH-tuh)
17. Paella (pi-AY-yuh)
18. Pommes dauphin (pom doh-FEEN)
19. Halloumi (hah-LOO-me)
20. Fleur de sel (flur-duh-SELL)
21. Cavolo nero (KAH-voh-loh NEH-roh)
22. Amuse-bouche (ah-mewz-BOOSH)
23. Radicchio (rah-DEE-kee-oh)
24. Sweetbreads
25. Sashimi (sah-SHEE-mee)
B. A mayonnaise flavored with garlic or other ingredients
C. Short-grained arborio rice cooked in meat or seafood stock, then seasoned (with Parmesan, saffron, etc.)
D. Tender inner portion of a palm tree; eaten as a vegetable or used as a garnish for salads
E. A large edible clam typically weighing 2 to 3 pounds
F. French toast
G. Fried plantains, smashed and served with garlic sauce
H. Deep-fried crispy potato puffs
I. Unsmoked Italian bacon
J. Thinly sliced raw meat or fish served with a sauce
K. Traditional Greek cheese from Cyprus made with sheep’s milk, or goat’s milk
L. Delicate and fluffy hand-harvested French sea salt
M. A sweet, creamy chocolate mixture, typically used as a filling or a frosting
N. A saffron-flavored dish containing rice, meat, seafood and vegetables
O. A thin slice of meat rolled around a filling
P. Yellowtail fish, often used for sushi
Q. A strong flavored cabbage with dark green leaves
R. Pungent sauce or dressing resembling mayonnaise
U. Shredded or finely cut vegetables or herbs, sometimes used as a garnish
V. The edible glands of an animal, often thymus glands of veal, young beef, lamb and pork
W. Very thinly sliced raw fish
X. Raw fish marinated (or “cooked”) in lime or lemon juice, often with oil, onion, peppers and seasonings and served as an appetizer
QUIZ ANSWERS — 1 M , 2 X, 3 C, 4 J, 5 P, 6 R, 7 U, 8 A, 9 D, 10 E, 11 B, 12 F, 13 Y, 14 G, 15 O, 16 I, 17 N, 18 H, 19 K, 20 L, 21 Q, 22 S, 23 T, 24V, 25 W.
June 16, 2009
Garage Sales
Cleaning out our closets we found a lot of great stuff. Maybe I should try on some of these jeans -- after I haven't eaten for a week.
It’s garage sale season in our part of the world. No matter where you live, I highly recommend going through your closets and basement and setting up shop with what you find. You’ll learn a lot.
About every five years, my friend Joy and I combine our sale items in her garage or mine. We recycle a lot of great stuff for low, low prices, including toys our kids thought they couldn’t live without like a barely used Xbox game. We never make much money but we have a good time. I’m not a big schmoozer, but I really enjoy the people who shop in my garage. I love to listen to their new uses for my treasures. We hear stories of why they are buying or who will get the items — college dorm, a son’s new home, daughter’s dining room, games to occupy visiting grandchildren, clothes for work and play.
This year my daughter was a big help. She was motivated to prune her possessions as she prepares to move to California. One of the sad things was seeing all of her no-longer-wanted stuffed animals. Where did those all come from? And where did my little girl go?
This year, it was so chilly and wet in early May when we had our sale that we almost cancelled. Even the blob in the lava lamp (for sale — only three dollars!) barely bubbled after a couple of hours of warm-up. Traffic was slow at first. We seriously thought of closing down, but we persevered. Joy jammed a new sale sign — bright green neon — in the wet earth on the corner. That brought a flood of customers.
Sandy, a great friend, brought a great, rich cinnamon cake, which lifted our spirits….The hungry teenaged sons of one of our shoppers wanted to buy some of the cake, but Joy offered slices to them for free. Their embarrassed mother added a dollar to the money she paid for her purchases. We tried to give it back. Really, after a while it seemed ridiculous to charge for stuff we didn’t want any more. Here, just take this stuff. Enjoy! But giving away stuff isn’t easy, as we found out. People don’t like free, they want to pay at least a dime.
It may be tarnished, but this heart touched my heart when a customer told a touching story.
We learned:
•Ten cents is more attractive than free. When no one would take a free push broom, Joy put ten cents on it. The next person bought it. Maybe people think free means worthless, but I think people want to pay something.
•People can show you the value of your own discards. A woman holding my small heart box (only a dollar!) told us how a friend had given her a heart box full of heart-warming sayings that she could use whenever she needed one. Of course, I couldn’t sell our heart box after she told me that!
•People will buy items they don’t have any use for if the price is low enough. We sold a marble clock that told the time around the world.
“I don’t know what I need this for,” the buyer laughed. “I never leave Kansas City.”
I warned him that the batteries only lasted about a month. He didn’t care.
•Some people insist on paying full price. Others want a discount no matter how cheap the item is. Still, everyone was gracious and polite, even the hagglers.
•Most importantly, we learned how lucky we are. Near the end of the sale, a woman was looking through a rack of clothing, mostly my daughter’s. She held a pair of jeans to her hips and laughed.
“I know these aren’t my size,” she said in an accent I couldn’t quite place. “They are for my sister. She’s skinnier.”
She brought her choices to the card table, our command post.
“You’re so nice to buy for your sister,” Joy said.
Going, going, gone! Don't look too closely. You might see some cat hairs.
“She’s lives in Ukraine. It’s hard there. I can’t buy from a store, but I can buy here,” she said. “Now I have five minutes to get back to work!”
I’m glad we stayed open. Sure, we like getting a little money for our decorating detritus, fashion faux pas and bikes ridden only a few times. But what we learned — or re-learned — was priceless.
Lately, a lot of people have been grumbling in our local newspaper about how cheap people are who shop at garage sales, but Joy and I have learned how generous they are — and how grateful we are for what we have. I know that in the real world of everyday retail, there are a lot of grumpy and whiney people, but luckily so far they haven’t shown up in my garage.
A shorter version of this post was published in the Kansas City Star on May 27, 2009.
June 8, 2009
The Elders and Beautiful Furniture
Ian Byrne, center on the drum, of the Irish-American band The Elders gives an enthusiastic performance, as always.
Twenty years ago my husband handed me a flyer he’d found on a bulletin board in a Martin City, Missouri, barbecue joint.
“Maybe this guy can make some tables for us,” he said. We’d wanted a couple of oak tables to match a pair we already owned.
“Sure,” I said. ”Call him.”
And that’s how we met Ian Byrne, furniture maker extraordinaire but even now more widely known as the lead singer of the contemporary Irish-American band “The Elders”. It’s been fun ever since.
Kathy Quinn brings a young man on stage to introduce the band The Elders. Lead singer Ian Burne and Kathy's husband) is at the left.
Long ago, when we handed Ian our plan for some oak end tables, Ian worked in a small shop (I think it was someone’s garage) in Martin City, a Kansas City suburb with a rural feel. He was slowly acquiring wood-working equipment and told us we were some of his first customers.
When we met Ian, he’d only been in the United States for a couple of years, coming to live in his wife’s hometown of Kansas City. Native to County Wicklow, Ireland, Ian had met his wife Kathy Quinn when her family regularly vacationed there. They were each other’s first and only sweethearts, they are happy to say. Kathy is an award-winning disc jockey and newscaster for local Kansas City television and radio stations, and Ian would tune in her radio program while he worked. She dedicated a song to us once while we visited Ian’s shop. They are both such warm, happy, inclusive, delightful people that you can’t resist them.
What a shapely leg! Ian crafted this table after I showed him a photo of a similar table leg. It's one of my favorite tables.
Ian’s business continued to grow, and he moved to larger shops. Ian made more oak furniture for us – a china cabinet, a head board, book shelves, entertainment centers, more tables. We like oak — it’s solid, beautiful and indestructible — but Ian can work in any wood. One of Ian’s early shops was in a forested area, and when we talked to him about a new project, he told us he’d just seen his first snake — ever. He made some joke about St. Patrick needing to come to Missouri.
Eventually, his business grew so large that he moved into a 16,000-square-foot area in a large old warehouse in the West Bottoms near downtown Kansas City. He gave us a tour after we’d visited the nearby Haunted Houses with our kids one October. Byrne Custom Woodworking Inc. is now in more than 30,000 square feet in an underground facility in Lenexa, Kansas. His company makes custom furniture, exquisite cabinetry for kitchens and plantation shutters. His clientele have included people from here and far away, including Steven Spielberg. Ian is out of our league now!
Danny Cox, a noted Kansas City musician, opened for The Elders in June in Olathe. Cox is featured in the newly released documentary "Cowtown Ballroom...Sweet Jesus!"
With his business booming, Ian was still able to find some time to return to music. The Elders were formed in 1998. (Their tag line is Arse Kicking Music from the Heartland.) Ian told us that in Ireland he’d been in a band that traveled around playing music in the style of Supertramp — I think. I confess that although his accent is adorable and charming, I’m not always sure quite what he is saying.
We have followed the band through the years from gigs in local pubs to parking lots in Westport to large venues. They have a huge following of fans who can sing along. Two years ago, my daughter worked as an intern for The Elders’ violinist Brent Hoad in his recording studio, which gave us a taste of just how busy they were, crisscrossing the country. The band headlines at many festivals.
The Elders performed in Olathe, Kansas, on June 5, 2009.
This past weekend, The Elders opened the tenth year of free concerts in Olathe, Kansas. Ian told the crowd how great it was to play in town.
“In thirty minutes we can drive home and be in our scratchers,” he said.
It was a perfect June night, just warm enough to be comfortable with a light breeze. An almost full moon rose to cast its cool, pale light upon us. There weren’t even any bugs! Could this be Kansas? Step dancing erupted in the crowd, and the dancers had to find places to do their complicated moves among the blankets and folding chairs.
“I came to this country in 1987,” he told the crowd. “This year I’m completing my papers to become a citizen.” He said he’d been studying for the citizenship test, and then one of his band members joked that ”I hope they grade on the curve.” But Ian rejoined that he thought he now knew more about this country “than most of you” and was eager to become a citizen. Many of The Elders’ songs are about tradition and family, about roots and leaving home.
Here, Ian is singing with The Elders at the St. Patrick's Day festivities in Westport area of Kansas City, Missouri, on March 17, 2005.
The Elders have recorded several CDs and are featured on two DVDs, including “The Elders: Alive and Live in Ireland” about their 2007 tour of Ireland by Kansas City documentary maker Ben Meade, who is also featured in Joe Heyen’s just released documentary “Cowtown Ballroom…Sweet Jesus!” When my daughter was an intern with The Elders’ violinist, she and I worked the merchandise table at a special showing of The Elders movie when Meade, the band and many friends were there to celebrate its release. It was like one big happy family. Ian and Kathy give back to the community a hundred-fold. I’ve even seen his company’s name on a barbecue tent at the annual American Royal Barbecue Contest. Every year, Ian’s woodworking company creates and donates a beautifully crafted wine cabinet for the Operation Breakthrough auction, and The Elders play many benefit concerts for schools and groups.
I hope you get a chance to see them if they play in your area. Here’s their website, which includes music, merchandise and their schedule: The Elders, Arse Kicking Music from the Heartland. They can tell their story better than I can. Check out Ian’s woodworking company at Byrne Custom Wood. Check out Operation Breakthrough.
May 31, 2009
Kea Parrot Steals Passport
Two Keas parrots conspire on the rooftop of The Hermitage Hotel at Mt. Cook in New Zealand.
My favorite parrots are in the news again! A Kea parrot has stolen a passport from a tourist visiting New Zealand. ( See the story below.) The Keas hang out at a tunnel that everyone must pass through to get to Milford Sound. Everyone stops there, because it’s a one-lane tunnel. The keas are probably part of an international passport theft ring. At the bottom is a link to a post I wrote about keas, which includes some great videos (which I didn’t take).
An Associated Press story, May 28, 2009.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Polly wants a passport — and isn’t above stealing one.
A brazen parrot, which spotted a Scottish man’s passport in a colored bag in the luggage compartment under a tour bus, nabbed the document and made off into dense bush with it, the Southland Times newspaper reported Friday.
The bird — a parrot of the Kea variety — made its move while the bus was stopped along the highway to Milford Sound on South Island, and the driver was looking through the compartment. Milford Sound, which runs inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock face, is part of Fiordland National Park, a world heritage site and major travel destination.
Police told the newspaper the passport has not been recovered and is unlikely to be located in the vast Fiordland rain forest.
“My passport is somewhere out there in Fiordland. The Kea’s probably using it for fraudulent claims or something,” the passport owner, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper.
A replacement passport from the British High Commission in Wellington could take six weeks and cost up to $250.
“I’ll never look at a Kea in the same way,” the man was quoted saying.
Kea, the world’s only snow line-dwelling parrot, are widely known as inquisitive birds who appear to take delight in attacking rubber items like windshield wiper blades.
Native to New Zealand, the birds are found only in or near South Island mountains, where they live in high-altitude beech forest and open sub-alpine herb fields that stretch up into the snow line.
Covered mainly in brown and green feathers, they have large flashes of bright orange feathers under their wings.
