Sunday Brunch Run

I will be the first to acknowledge we don’t go often enough on Sunday brunch runs, a favorite past time in the American summer. One often sees large groups of Harleys or convertibles take to the road on Sundays. There is something about the wind through one’s hair (or what’s left of it), the sun on one’s skin and the feeling that nature is a little closer than usual. Last Sunday we did one of those runs.

Before we left M prepared the dough for a bread. One of those typically South African home baked breads "soos Ouma dit gebak het" (no cake bread here), where you feel satisfied after the first slice, but you eat the second one because dis so damn lekker - it is so nice.

We left the city limits of Danville via the US 33 north, drove through the town of Burgin until we reached the junction with the US 68 at the entrance of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. Been there, done that, and certainly a worth while trip to take. There we turned right onto the US 68 north and drove through the beautiful rolling hills of the Bluegrass, while famous rock fences, build from ancient limestone by Irish immigrant in the nineteenth century, flashed by.

Barrels of hay on the rolling hills of the Bluegrass.

Soon however, as we got closer to the Kentucky River, the landscape changed to a forest-like environment where huge old trees blocked out the sun and low hanging branches closed in on the road as it twist and turn all along the river. On our right we could sense but not always see the river. Glimpses through the trees revealed tall grey limestone cliffs across the river gorge as if they guard the entrance to the river like a medieval castle wall.

M: “It feels like we driving through the Knysna area.”

The open road and rock fences of the Bluegrass.

About a half a mile or so after we cross the Brooklyn Bridge and the Kentucky River we turned left on to Pekin Pike as the US 33 split off from US 68. The landscape cleared and farmsteads lined the road on both sides. More rock fences partition the pastures. We turned right onto Troy Pike as the US 33 continues its crooked way over green meadows and rolling hills to the town of Versailles. We drove through town (we came back later in the day to stop and take photos of the many churches in town) and then turned onto US 62, a designated Kentucky Scenic Road. US 62 snake through true Bluegrass country and is lined by expensive horse farms among other Lane’s End and Stonewall Farm where they breed thoroughbred racing horses for which Kentucky and the Bluegrass are so famous for.

The historic town of Midway, Kentucky.

At the end of US 62 is the historic town of Midway, the first railroad town in Kentucky, where the railway line runs through the center of town, where the Porterhouse steak originated in the Porter House, which still stands on Winter Street, and where Zeralda Cole James, mother of infamous bank robbers of the late nineteenth century Jesse & Frank James, was born in the Black Horse Inn. Our destination was the charming restaurant Holly Hill Inn, nestled in the shade of several decades old trees on Winter Street, reportedly one of the finest providers of brunch on Sundays (and food in general) and one of only a handful of restaurants in Kentucky that can boast to have received the Wine Spectator magazine’s Award of Excellence on a regular basis for its outstanding wine list.

Horses through a fence.

Brunch was very good. Starters consisted of melon fruits with lime for me and a carrot bisque with croutons for M (excellent). Entrees were Poached Eggs Benedict on English muffins and Canadian bacon for me (it was a long time since I last ate that) and M had pan fried salmon on greens and glazed vegetables. I ended of with a dessert of Ella’s lemon pound cake while M had an apple and loganberry crisp. At $15 a head that was good quality for the money.

I stopped in the entrance of one of the horse farms along US 62 to take some pictures of horses on the other side of the road. M patiently waiting.

It was early afternoon when we returned to the car, took a swing through Midway for a few photos and head back on the US 62 to Versailles. There we stopped and I snapped a few pictures of the many churches before we climbed on the Bluegrass Parkway west and then on to the US 127 south towards home.

Churches of Versailles, KY.

At home M put the bread in the oven while I made a quick raspberry, garlic and red wine marinade for a few lamb chops to be grilled later, and I also put together a salad of Swiss chard and tomato from our vegetable garden and added cucumber, strawberries and blue cheese, all of which will become a simple, but quick dinner much later.

Dinner was washed down with a glass or two of Château Sainte Colombe 2005 from one of Gerard Perse’s Cotes de Castillon estates in Bordeaux, France. Dark ruby red in color, it has lots of black current and spicy flavors, soft on the palette initially, but ends with a slightly dry after taste. It is standard blended Bordeaux for drinking right now, not something to put away for the grand kids.

With the temperatures cooling down by late afternoon we spent the rest of a perfect day in the rocking chairs on the back porch dreaming of more days like this.

View from my rocking chair on the porch.

Thoroughbred race horses lazying around on a Sunday afternoon. We all have to take a day off once a week.

Washington's Art

The heading is a rather broad statement.

I should rather say "some" of Washington’s art, because we only visited two art galleries.

On Saturday morning while it was raining we spend 4 hours in the National Gallery of Art’s West building and on Sunday I did what felt like an Indy car race through the Hirshhorn Museum, skipping the sculpture garden.

Nevertheless, some art is better than nothing.

From the National Gallery of Art

"Ginevra de' Benci" by Leonardo Da Vinci (oil on panel 1474/1478). It is the only Da Vinci painting in America.

"The Marquise de Peze and the Marquise de Rouge with Her Two Children" by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (oil on canvas 1787.)

One of the amazing things in the National art galleries is that they allow people to take pictures preferably without a flash. By allowing cameras I can get much closer to the art and exclude the frames. I was sp surprised because I am so used to the galleries in most other cities usually prohibiting cameras and I have to clandestinely obtain a picture or two. I have never understood why cameras are forbidden. A photo will never be the real thing. From a photo you can never get up close and personal or study the brush stokes or even see some of the subtle nuances of the art.

On the left: "A Young Girl Reading" by Jean-Honore Fragonard (oil on canvas 1776)

On the right: "Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves" by Rembrandt Van Rijn (oil on canvas, circa 1658/1660

Surrounded by towering polished black marble columns with the huge rotunda dome on top one cannot fault the perfect place for showing off Giovanni Bologna's "Mercury".

From the Hirshhorn Museum

The last Conversation Piece by Juan Munoz.

As mentioned in a previous post I spent only about 1 hour in the Hirshhorn, although I would have like at least another 2-3 hours. Here is a collage of sculptures that I snapped.

Clockwise from top left:
“Winter Solstice No. 2” by Seymour Lipton (1957)
“Raven IV” by David Smith (1957)
“Stringed Figure No. 1” by Henry Moore (1937)
“Crouching Woman” (small version) by Auguste Rodin (1880-1882)
“Untitled (Big Man)” by Ron Mueck (2000)
“Two Volumes in the Virtual” by Jesus Rafael Soto (1968)

"Delusions of Grandeur (La Folie Des Grandeurs) by Rene Margitte (1967)

"Portrait of Andy Warhol" by Julian Schnabel (Oil paint on velvet, 1982)

Schnabel is known for painting on unconventional material and he used velvet because Warhol used to wear black velvet jackets and sponsored the 1960's band The Velvet Underground.

Georgetown

Georgetown, a famous neighborhood of Washington, DC was already in existance by the time the other George, from Mount Vernon, VA, decided to make the US capital in Washington, well what became known as Washington. Although old George picked the location of the young country's new capital on the banks of the Potomac, he didn't actually named it after himself. That job was left to the city commissioners that was asked to oversaw the construction of the government buildings. They also named the area surrounding the new city Columbia. At the time when all this new city activity happened, Georgetown and another existing town, Alexandria was incorporated into the district of Columbia. Many years later, Alexandria was returned to Virginia, but Georgetown remained part of Washington. By the way, Georgetown is not named after George Washington. No one is sure whether it was named after King George II of England or after the 2 Georges that owned the land, George Gordon and George Beall. The location of our hotel was in Georgetown and here are a few snapshot from our walkabouts.

To read more on the history of the building of Washington, DC, click here.

The Riggs Bank on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, the shopping and restaurant hub of Georgetown.

Row houses converted to businesses along M Street.

Row houses detail.

More row houses along 30th Street.

A Presidential meeting in a painting of some old timers and some younger ones in the window of a art gallery.

Along the Potomac banks, sunset over Georgetown.

Washington, Da Capital

Going to Washington, DC from the “countryside” of Kentucky excited me as much as it probably excited the Roman citizens from the provinces when they had the opportunity to go to Rome. Being a history lover the rich similarities was a draw card; In Rome I could only see the ruins, in Washington I could see the architecture as it is before it eventually will become ruins...someday.

The similarities between modern-day Washington and ancient Rome are numerous: The seat of world power, the stomping ground of big-ego politicians, the vast number of monuments and statues, the grandeur and sheer scale of the architecture and the extensive use of marble in the buildings and monuments. On top of that, today, just as then, the absolute delight to have such a wide choice of cuisine from all over the world.

As usual, my travels won’t be complete without delays (the story of my traveling life.) Our planned three and a half day exploration of Washington was altered to three days on the very first day by bad weather when a supposedly 90 minute flight from Cincinnati turned into a 6 hour ordeal of end list circling south of Reagan airport, a landing and lift-off again from Richmond, VA, before we eventually arrive at Washington, DC.

In general, the 3 days were taken up by visiting museums on the National Mall, visiting some of the memorials and strolling around taking in the architecture. The pictures will tell the story.

There is one thing you can say about the politicians in Congress: They know how to spend tax payers’ money on buildings. Washington must boast some of the grandest government buildings in the nation, especially the many neoclassical style buildings with their endless columns, classic façades and sculpted friezes.

I love paella. As a semi-accomplished self-trained home cook (in my lexicon chefs are always professionally trained) I have made many different paella recipes and I have received many favorable comments, but I have never tasted the real thing prepared by a Spanish chef. One of my objectives for the trip was to do just that and prior Internet research showed that one of Washington’s better Spanish restaurants was just around the corner from our hotel in Georgetown. All I can say is it is back to the test kitchen for me. The Arroz Abanda paella (monkfish, shrimps, calamari and scallops) at The Bodega in M Street was absoluto fantástico. Every flavor in their paella complimented another and the starchy flavor of the Valencia rice bind the dish together perfectly. What changes do I have to make to my paella? Use a different kind of rice (I am going to try Italian Arborio, since I won’t find Valencia rice in Kentucky) and use saffron instead of turmeric (the poor man’s alternative.) Now you may say, dah…that’s what you should use every time, but at $18 for a few saffron strings it is the most expensive spice in the world. Add the seafood and other ingredients and suddenly it all adds up to a very expensive dinner for a Friday night (the night they traditionally made paella in Spain…all the week’s leftovers into one pot.)

On other evenings we indulged in French cooking at La Madeleine (not bad at all) and Italian at Fino (stay away as far as possible: the food is not too bad, but the service is terrible and they are too expensive for the amount of food you get.)

Alas, enjoyable as it was, 3 days were not enough for a city of Washington’s stature. There was no time for many places we would have like to see (for example the Washington National Cathedral, inside the US Capital, etc.), or for exploring the surrounding area (Alexandria or Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia), or for taking more time inside museums (our visits to the Natural History and the Hirshhorn Sculpture Museums were nothing but a wam, bam, thank you ma’am.)

The Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts "floating" on the Potomac River.

Reiterating its strong links to Rome, Washington's Pantheon - The Jefferson Memorial

And copying of ancient Greek Parthenonian architecture for the The Lincoln Memorial. However, I have to admit both these memorials as very impressive.

One of the more unusual memorials is the Korea War Memorial at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Here is a collage of (1) group of grey soldiers walking through a field of junipers, (2) the Freedom is not Free enscription on the wall, and (3) some of many etched faces on the black marble wall. This memorial was one of my favorites.

Arlington National Cemetery.

Taken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, resting our tired legs and feet at the end of day 2, in front of us the Reflecting pool with the George Washington Monument on the other side of the pool. I still wanted to take the elevator up the monument for a bird's eye view of Washington, but we ran out of time.

However, we did make time to visit the chateauesque National Postal Museum building and to go up in the tower for a view of Washington.

And from the tower I took this picture of the Washington National Cathedral, many miles away. The cathedral, located on the edge of Georgetown, must be massive because it is visible from many parts of the city.

No visit to Washington is complete without a view of the White House, the south entrance on the left and the north entrance on the right. By the way, the White House actually have a key to the front door. It is on display in the National Museum for American History.

The Smithsonian "Castle". The HQ of the Smithsonian Institute and the first building on the National Mall.

Late Spring Flowers

A collage of late spring flowers from the garden.

The Big Garden Makeover (Year 2...)

The big garden makeover continues this year, the 2nd year of a 3 year plan. Well I hope it’s only 3 years. But one thing is already clear: Much less work is required on the mundane tasks of weeding, mulching, etc. And that’s great. That was one of the major objectives of the makeover.

The original plan to have the garden well-planted without seeing much soil is coming on really well. I still have a few open spots, but they will be covered this year as some of the smaller plants grow bigger and where needed, I will plant new ones, but that will only be a handful of cases. I have already identified a few plants that should be moved to more “friendlier” locations and one or two I want to remove completely.

M wou nog altyd 'n bankie onder 'n boom he.

Two weeks ago we created two small vegetable gardens. The one close to the house is mainly for herbs (Italian and sweet basil, German, French and lime/lemon thyme, Greek oregano, Italian and curly parley and some garlic and also chives), one tomato and two sweet pepper plants. In the second vegetable area we planted leeks, Swiss chard, leaf lettuce, green beans, cucumbers, pattypan and crooked neck squash, and also some typical South African green squash (skorsies). Although the area is rather smallish we are going to try our hand at vertical gardening for the vine type veggies.

During the Memorial Day weekend we dressed the backyard beds with 2 and a half truckloads of mulch, and created a rest area or, what I rather want to call an appreciate-the-garden area under the silver leaf maple tree where we laid garden cloth down and then pine bark nuggets on top. The grass never grew well on that path in any case. And we then installed an around-the-tree bench.

In general the garden is looking much better than in previous years. Just about all the plants transplanted last year survived. I was a bit worried that the January ice storm would have damaged many plants, but it seems only the trees suffered. I lost a few perennials, but I don’t think I can contribute that to the ice storm, just normal harsh winter “wear-and-tear”.

For the rest of the summer we have several projects planned, but I will write more about them as time goes on.

Along the path through the "Woodlands" area of the yard the hostas, columbines, coral bells and astilbes are doing really well. These were just baby plants last year.

Dual Flights.
Two Sundays ago while lazily strolling through the garden I heard a loud sound of air being forces out of a container. Looking up I see a huge air balloon above me. I quickly went to grab the camera, which is never far away, and was very fortunate that at that very moment that I took the picture of the balloon a starlet flew past and into the picture.

But it is not all work and no rest. We do make some time to enjoy the sunset too.

South Africa's Version of Google Earth

Google-letu

Dramatic Cape Town Weather

Yesterday my brother-in-law emailed me these dramatic pictures of a thunderstorm over Cape Town in the early hours of yesterday morning.

I certainly can't remember that we had these kinds of storms when I grew up in Cape Town. Thunderstorms were an occasional event in December and then only towards the north of Durbanville. Certainly no over Table Mountain and Kloofnek.

I must say that the weather in Cape Town is certainly changing probably due to global warming. I see that the Cape Town region has been identified as a hot bed of change due to global warming. Doesn't sound too good for the delicate eco system the Cape is so known for.