photography

West Side Pub & Grub

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

Friday night is usually (for some) a date night. Well, this last Friday Sher and I decided to have a real date night. Off we went to a local bar named the West Side Pub & Grub. It used to be a semi rough place a couple of decades ago, but now it is a comfortable local bar that happens to serve great food. And we mean great food.

Early Friday night the crowd was small, maybe a dozen or so patrons. Sher ordered a frozen strawberry margarita, I opted for a Blue Moon long neck.  I had heard that this place served a wonderful breaded tenderloin, and the fried spicy cheese curds we also highly recommended by our wait staff.

Shortly our food arrived. The fried cheese curds came in a miniature fryer basket, Cute. My tenderloin was HUGE. The picture tells the story, except it does not show how thick the tenderloin was. (3/8 to 1/2 inch) And so good. The fried spicy cheese curds were most delicious as well.

We found out there will be a live band next Saturday night. We’ll be back at the West Side Pub & Grub for dinner, followed by enjoying what is said to be a great live band. And our bartender explained that the restaurant locally sources all of the meat and most of the other supplies for the kitchen. That is also a very good thing.

Free trees

/ Roadtirementvintage / 28 Comments

List of available saplings

The Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources once again provided free trees for anyone who wanted to come pick them up. Last year we picked up some free trees, and have had reasonable success with them.

This year the give a way was organized at the County Fairgrounds. The variety was larger than last year’s offering and I was pleased to see Red Buds on the list. They are so pretty each year!

There was a good sized crowd as soon as it opened

This is one of the two Pecan saplings now planted

This is our Black Cherry from last year. It has grown a lot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As was the case last year, you could get a maximum of ten trees per household. We decided that this year I’d pick up two Red Buds, two Pecans and one Shag Bark Hickory. All five are now planted, and hopefully they will all survive. We did have a couple of losses last year due to (I think) pesky rabbits. This tree give a way is a great program.

A return to Olive Garden

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

Sher and I have talking about when we could get back to an Olive Garden restaurant. Today was that day. Our closest Olive Garden is across from the Greenwood Park Mall, about a half an hour from our place.

Delicious salad with fresh grated cheese.

Strawberry margarita and hot fresh breadsticks.

Minestrone (vegetarian) soup vegetables and seashell pasta

Chicken & Gnocchi soup with roasted chicken, traditional Italian dumplings and spinach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We timed our trip to arrive at the restaurant at 2:30 PM, which made us eligible for the all you can eat soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. (offered M-F 11 to 3 for just $7.99 per person). Sher enjoyed a frozen strawberry margarita while I chose the peach iced tea. Delicious! We certainly took advantage of this deal: I had 2 1/2 bowls of soup with salad and breadsticks. We brought home some salad and breadsticks.

We felt very safe dining at this Olive Garden. Table spacing was in evidence, all staff and most patrons wore masks, and there were hand sanitizer stations in several locations within the facility.  All in all, we had a great lunch date!

I see you!

/ Roadtirementvintage / 12 Comments

Sometimes there are birds that just stand out when you see them. Here is one:

This interesting gaze belongs to a White-crowned Sparrow. Below are a couple more images of the same bird after he flitted about a bit.

 

 

 

 

This is a direct quote from the allaboutbirds.org website “Scientists interested in movement and energetics have discovered that White-crowned Sparrows can run on a treadmill at a pace of about one-third of a mile an hour without tiring out.” I can’t imagine any self respecting bird allowing itself to be run on a treadmill.

Suet yourself

/ Roadtirementvintage / 19 Comments

Always looking for a new thing, we decided to try our hand at making our own suet. An internet search produced several different recipes. A quick trip to the store and we had what we needed to get started.

 

  • crunchy peanut butter
  • Crisco
  • corn meal
  • quick cook oats
  • white flour
  • bit of sugar

 

 

 

 

 

The simple ingredients were fairly easy to mix in the pan over medium heat. Once everything was mixed we pressed it into the aluminum pan, roughly an inch thick. After setting in the freezer for about we cut the the appropriate size cakes for the cages.

Couple of starlings going bonkers over the new suet

The results? The birds went nuts over the home made suet when we put it out. Sher and I had a ball watching all different species enjoying the new suet. It seems like the starlings especially had gotten a sugar high. They acted like like a bunch of kids who got into the candy a half hour before bedtime.

This pair flies and squawks daily

/ Roadtirementvintage / 9 Comments

If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that Sher and I like to sit outside in our backyard and take in the sights and sounds of our little slice of nature. Recent additions to our bird feeding equipment have increased the number of feathered visitors.

Lucked out and got a photo of the geese just after they passed our yard

We get to share the company of couple of Canadian Geese each day. And we do mean a couple. This pair flies over our house barely clearing the trees. What is fun is how loud they are. They are always having a very loud and animated conversation, both of them honking and squawking during their whole flight. They follow the same route each day, coming from about 6 or so blocks away, and ending after they pass our house and land on the river that is about 100 yards from our yard. They never land in our yard, be we consider them part of our feathered family!