Prairie town vacation

Saturday's post talked about the Tallgrass Prairie hike, this one talks about the rest of that trip.

Several weeks ago I asked Jer to hold a weekend on his calendar. I wanted to surprise him with a mini-vacation and we were both desperately in need of a break from the usual schedule.

My idea was to be away for only one night and to take in some local places we had never explored. We started in Council Grove with a great lunch at the historic Hayes House. The strawberry pie was homemade and really delicious!

We continued on to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve National Park and hiked one of the trails. It was a gorgeous spring day. We loved having nothing scheduled except a 7 p.m. dinner reservation.

Our final destination was Cottonwood Falls for dinner and an overnight at the restored Grand Central Hotel. We arrived early enough to do a little shopping in the few stores that were open. The beautiful county courthouse is the focal point of the downtown.

We found a great cooperative art gallery that had some beautiful antiques and art pieces of all kinds of media. We bought a terra cotta piece and a wooden business cards holder with the gorgeous silver details. And, I had to get a cd of the Tallgrass Express. I heard the cd at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, but did not buy it. I kept thinking about the beautiful music and had to have it. Once I returned home, it was the background music for grading papers.

Our room at the hotel was spacious and comfortable. The dinner was very good - prime rib and great sides. We enjoyed the chance to relax and feel far from home, yet to be just a little over one hour away.

We highly recommend this line up of stops. Local friends can make a short weekend trip and some who live a little further away can just make this a destination or a stop on the way to or from Manhattan. You will love the quaintness and slow pace.

Prairie home

The famous get-to-know-you question - are you a beach or mountain person? I have always been a little ambivalent about that choice. Both seem kind of exotic since Kansas has neither ocean nor mountains, but I also think my real preference was a third, unnamed option. My choice - the prairie.

Kansas is a beautiful place! We get a bad reputation for a flat and boring landscape, yet I am confident the people who hold this belief have never experienced the Flint Hills. The rolling hills that house the tallgrass prairie are simply breath taking. We have vistas that allow you to see for miles and down into valleys. The colors of the grasses change over the season to all shades of green and brown. We are at this really interesting time of the year when the portions that are recovering from spring controlled burns are turning a vibrant green. The sunrises and sunsets are simply gorgeous over these hills.

Most people only have the chance to drive through the Flint Hills because there are few places where people can get out and experience the prairie. Driving through is nothing compared to hearing the wind rustle the grass, to see wildlife and wildflowers up close, and to examine the detail in a weathered limestone rock.

There is a place where people can experience the prairie. Nestled in the Flint Hills is the National Park Service Tall Grass Prairie Preserve just north of Strong City and south of Council Grove. The Spring Hill Ranch, later known as the Z Bar Ranch, and now the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, has a 1883 ranch house and gigantic barn with other outdoor buildings, all in native limestone. The grounds are open 24 hours a day for hiking and they have some really manageable short trails or frontcountry trails. They also have backcountry hiking trails.

Last Saturday, we ventured out for a short one night vacation. We started our day with lunch at Council Grove at the Hayes House the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi. We had a great lunch with homemade pie.

We then ventured further south to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve for hiking and touring and a little shopping. We hiked the Southwind Nature Trail that leads you to the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse for a nearly two mile hike. The hike was not tough at all and just long enough to feel like you had an adventure without tiring you out.

The gift shop had a lot of books about the prairie ecosystem, ranch life, and cowboy culture. We bought two great pieces of art, some notecards, and a great book on Flinthills cowboys. We then continued on to Cottonwood Falls to shop and stay overnight. More on that in a later post.

It really was the perfect weekend. We really enjoyed the whole trip, but the highlight was the time outside to enjoy one of the treasures of Kansas. There is something so peaceful about being on the prairie. The vastness of the grass and the sense of being small yet connected.

The Dinner Party Download

If you like podcasts, you will love The Dinner Party Download. Ok, even if you don't like podcasts or have little experience with them, you will like the arrangement of entertainment, trends, history, food, and more.

The hosts, Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam, mix up all the ingredients for a great dinner party in a 15 minute podcast. These are FREE in iTunes. The general format includes a joke, a major news story or headline from the week, a small history lesson, a cocktail recipe, an interview with an artist, a food trend, and a new song. The content is fresh and funny. The hosts have great chemistry.

The interviews always include two questions that relate to what the artist hates to be asked/is asked too frequently and the artist is asked to tell us something we don't know about him or her. These two questions always leave a feeling that you really got to know the person being interviewed and it seems more casual and intimate.

I love these podcasts so much that I have downloaded all of them and have been working through the backlog. Follow them on Twitter.

Would love to hear what you think about one of my new favorites!

Signs of spring

Spring is marked by a few important traditions in our home and in our area. One of the first things that happens in our house is the planning phase. In the dead of winter, seed catalogs begin to arrive and we start scheming.

March marks the beginning of the open houses at our favorite nursery and garden shops. This year, we had a bit of a false start with late cold weather and snow. But, this weekend meant it was time to plant!

On Saturday, we picked up rocks in the areas of our yard still bare from construction. We have been tilling and picking up rocks for weeks! Finally, we were in a good place to plant grass. In the afternoon, we decided to select the plants for flower beds and general landscaping around the house. Next weekend, we are set on getting vegetables in the garden.

This was our haul. Nearly four hours after pulling into the drive way, we finished with the planting. I will remember to stick to the list and not impulse shop for flowers - every plant geeks weakness. Impulse shopping equals a lot of extra work for a gardener.
This is the view outside my office window. I spend a lot of time at the office and this is one of our most intense times of the year. It is so relaxing to look out and see this beauty.
And, our neighbors are burning pasture. For the uninitiated, spring burning is a vital part of range management and strikingly beautiful at night. The hill behind our house has been on fire for the past few nights as different sections are covered in the controlled burn.

Spring is here!!!

Ceramics after my heart

If you have not heard of Connie Norman, you are missing out on the work of a lovely and gifted artist. I first learned of Connie in an issue of Peaks and Plains on a flight to Denver. When I find something I love in a magazine, it usually results in some scribbled notes in a notebook and then when I have a chance, I do my favorite thing - learn all about it.

Nearly a year later - a year of wanting some of her work very badly - and following her on Facebook, I decided to e-mail and asked about some pieces. Here are two we commissioned and dearly love.

Notice the "I'M SO LUCKY" inscription around the rim. Sigh. I love the colors and the sentiment.
My favorite saying ever - "BELIEVE."

If you love her work, please go to her website and learn about this professor, artist and amazing woman. You will want some of her beautiful pieces and have you seen the salt and pepper shakers?!

Getting organized

I have posted before about one of my favorite scrapbooking materials - paper ribbon. This stuff is amazing! It can be a quick border for a page, an accent on a handmade card, or the perfect accent wrap for a gift. I cannot get enough of this stuff.

My most recent purchase from Creative Memories spring offerings - the Fabulous and Rugged collection.
The stuff is so beautiful, how could it just be in a basket with all of my other supplies? I ordered two jewelry organizers - one for necklaces and one for earrings. After looking at them for several days on my kitchen table, I decided the earring version would be a great way to display the paper ribbon.
Fun, functional, and beautiful. I am very happy with this idea.
And, did I tell you the ribbon is reversible? How could it get any better?

Hello, Spring!

The Kansas winter really seemed to take a toll on everyone. Once the days began to get longer and warmer, everyone seemed to have a renewed sense of energy. My first signs of spring are the emerging crocuses.

These beauties just showed up near the garden under the old school bell. They loved the unseasonable hot day we had on Sunday.

The purple crocuses are some of my favorites! They are my favorite color and so much fun to see around all the brown plant material. What a pop in the landscape!
These daffodils just shout spring! They were a purchase during my most recent trip to the grocery store. I always feel a little guilty purchasing flowers that I could grow myself. Daffodils have never done well for me here - I think I plant them in a spot that is too shady.

Two bouquets - a really generous handful of flowers - were only $5. It was the best money I have spent for a whole lot of spring feel good.