It’s still pretty cold here in Indiana. Let us reminisce about our backyard birdwatching last spring.
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Pair of Grosbeaks
Flicker enjoying suet
Pair of Cowbirds
Chipping Sparrow
The short video is of a female Pileated Woodpecker. We did have a pair show up several times during May and June. This is when they are feeding their young in the nest. We named them “Woody” and “Wilma”.
The bear was enjoying the sunshine on a cold winter’s day during the annual “Christmas at the Zoo” celebration each holiday season at the Indianapolis Zoo.
It has been a while since we have posted about one of our listings on our online Etsy Store, Roadtirement Vintage. This post will feature one of the necklaces that Maj handcrafted.
From the listing description: “Offered is a 24 inch hand made beaded necklace. The stone beads I used include lava rock, agates, tiger’s eye, lots of flat circular green turquoise and a large single faceted agate. Also used were ornamental metal barrel beads and various wood beads. There is a loop and bead clasping system shown in the photos. The porous lava rock beads can also be used as essential oil diffusing.”
The listing for this unique necklace (complete with many more photos) can be found here. We invite you to take a look at our Roadtirement Vintage Etsy Store. There are more hand crafted necklaces, other small antiques and unique items. You might find something you can’t live without!
Yes, we enjoy a good glass of wine. One of our favorite wineries when we are not traveling is the Buck Creek Winery, southeast of Indianapolis off of I-74 Exit 99. They offer a “buy it by the case” club that gives you very nice savings. (A case of wine is 12 of the 750ml bottles.) After buying a case in January or February at 15% off, any other cases that year are a full 20% off. This is a substantial saving that adds up over the course of a year.
When the owners see us come in they recognize us right off and ask if we want our usual case. Kind of like the old TV show Cheers. Remember it’s “Where everybody knows your name”. We like this place.
Yesterday we posted a picture of a “Frozen Solid” wheelbarrow. Today one of our friendly squirrels showed up, and looks like he managed to find some liquid water, or at least a place to lick some ice.
It was another frigid cold Saturday in Central Indiana. After a trip to a local winery we noticed that there weren’t many cars at the Indiana Grand Casino. We thought let’s drive around a bit.
Street level view of the Casino, Main Entrance behind the large sign
Apparently there was some construction ongoing as there was equipment around the entrance and Valet Parking was closed. We drove into the parking garage. There were a decent amount of cars on the first two levels. By the time we got to the open top level, there were less than a handful of vehicles.
Few cars in the open air parking lot. This view is from the top level of the parking garage.
View of the empty race track from the garage roof. Racing will start again in April
We chose to not park and go into the casino. It’s a miserable and cold day. With the Omicron covid still a threat it did not seem like a wise thing to partake of today. We’ll just head back home and enjoy a glass of wine.
Charles Major was a lawyer and author from Shelbyville, Indiana, a small town near Indianapolis. Major wrote several novels, including his second book, The Bears of Blue River. A statue of the book’s hero and main character, Balsar Brent, was commissioned in 1927. The statue used to be in front of a now demolished elementary school, but recently was placed within the town square, recently reworked.
Statue in front of school, circa 1950’s
Newly relocated place of honor
The statue still sported the festive Santa hats when we got the pictures. The new town square construction has provided a lovely place for folks to relax and enjoy the seating, and when the weather warms, surely events will be planned.
Detail of bronze plaque
Close up of Balsar and his cubs
The book “Bears of Blue River” is a staple of Hoosier school kids, and has been since it was published in 1901. It is a very exciting read, complete with harrowing adventures, exciting chases and a plethora of encounters with 1820’s wild animals on the then Indiana frontier. I remember it well…
The old wheelbarrow has acted as a raised firepit. Filled with rainwater, the fire wood had provided a perch for squirrels to use for drinking. Now after two days that never reached above 20 degrees, we have the result pictured.
We recently enjoyed some fabulous ice cream sundaes at the opulent and historic Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor and Museum in Columbus, Indiana. In addition to the antique soda fountains and cabinets filled with vintage flavor jars, there are several beautiful Welte Orchestrion automatic music machines displayed.
Welte Orchestrion, left. This was during our April 2021 visit.
Welte machines have a long and detailed history. Note that the term Orchestrion was coined by Welte in the 1850’s. Some refer to these types of automatic music machines as orchestrations.
Fully functional, coin operated
Play list
Large and fancy, see the clock on top?
We have been to Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor and Museum twice now. Here are the links to our posts about each visit. The April 2021 post has photos of lots of the vintage things in the shop. Our visit a couple of days ago will make you want to visit and have a hot fudge sundae.
Roadtirement 