Paducah KY Sept 2025

​I live in Cincinnati, so left here on a Friday afternoon, dined in Louisville KY and then headed on to Paducah and just stayed in a cheap motel on the outskirts of town, so I could get to the National Quilt Museum after breakfast Saturday morning.
I like art that is colorful and that looks abstract but is actually something real, like this close-up of a cactus.

Because It's Rained Every Tuesday

My plein air painting group usually paints outdoors every Tuesday starting in April. But this year it seems like it has rained every Tuesday. And because I still feel like I'm recovering from a health issue experienced last November, I just don't want to paint outside in the rain.

Luckily our group has an alternative place to meet and paint on Tuesdays in April and May. So I've been working on some watercolors indoors. This one's in progress right now. It's of the Harmon Museum in Lebanon, Ohio. I had a one-woman show there 2 years ago and our Mason-Deerfield Arts Alliance Painters will have a show there Oct 18 through Nov 22, 2025.

So I thought I'd use one of the photos I took to create a watercolor -- it's not finished yet but I made progress this week.

 

Lloyd Library

I've walked past the Lloyd Library at 917 Plum Street in Cincinnati so many times and always wanted to take my book club (the Book Babes) there. Becky Shundich, who paints with us every Thursday, told me she'd taken hers to the Lloyd, Mercantile and other libraries in Cincinnati. So I called to schedule a tour and I think everyone was delighted by this "hidden jewel" in our city.

The current show in the museum was Flora Mania and the botanical illustrations and typography in the books being displayed were breathtakingly beautiful to me. Christine Jankowski's stories of the local Lloyd Brothers and their forays into botanical medicine, mycology, and their pharmaceuticals business come alive for us.

I was thrilled to see a copy of a medical journal published in the 16th century. Intrigued to learn about the inventor of Benadryl, George Rieveschl. And having just read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, the story about the cancer drug made from the bark of yew trees really resonated with me. They had to find a way to make it without destroying hundreds of thousands of trees in the Pacific Northwest.

Gardening is not my gift but several of those with me are avid gardeners and there were lots of books we could peruse on subjects they were interested in. If the program "Building Your Herbal Library" were not already sold out, we'd all have wanted to go to learn what herbal remedies we could be growing or stocking up on at home.

The next exhibit is "Pick Your Poison" opening May 31. I started laughing about how Rhoda and I thought the "yellow wisteria" at Blarney Castle was so pretty: we kept standing under it and taking pictures. Later we found out the flowers gave off spores in the air that were poison and people kept their children away from these flowers for that reason. The garden we were in at Blarney was clearly marked "Poison Garden" but we were oblivious. Typical! ha ha

 

Oglebay, Wheeling WV

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The Mansion: worth the tour!

The Guest House

All the nutcracker decorations reminded me of my nephew, Grant, who collects them

First room of the mansion - dining room

I loved this old French hand-painted wallpaper

Mouse kings by the fireplace “Say Cheese”

The crystal chandeliers in every room were beautiful

More beautiful old wallpaper

I want a wallpapered ceiling.

The Pioneer Room

Forgot that WV seceded from VA to be Union instead of Confederate 

Several rooms had wallpapered ceilings which I liked. This was the sewing room

Thought this ceiling medallion was beautiful 

More beautiful wallpaper scenes of the Middle East, Egypt, India?

View of the nutcracker decorations from the front door of the mansion

This Mother Ginger looked like she came from New Orleans Mardi Gras!

Before driving around Wheeling and touring The Mansion at Oglebay, we had Rhoda’s cousins “best pizza in North America” for lunch

I’ll never forget Dennys heartfelt testimonial about a successful business depending on hiring great employees and treating/paying them well.

Colleen’s Christmas cactus was blooming so profusely then I noticed them everywhere around Wilson Lodge after we checked in

The Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations were so pretty and gift shops the kind that made you happy to look around in even if you didn’t buy anything

Loved our table in the window for the Holiday Buffet Dinner before taking Trolley through the Festival of Lights

Photos don’t do justice to the light show

Played cards by the indoor pool and had a hot chocolate while enjoying live music. Ray Stevens’ Guitar-zan, a melange of the Judds’ Love Will Find a Way with Bridge Over Troubled Water and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (Christmas version)

Glenda’s Christmas card photo taken here last year so Rhoda and I took each other’s pictures in the Santa chair

I look forward to returning in warmer weather to see a concert, play golf, and enjoy walking around this beautiful land. There’s a gentility and graciousness here that I appreciate.

Very interesting glass museum and glass blowing demonstration.

Worlds largest glass punch bowl sat outdoors in a cemetery under its makers monument for almost 75 years before this! The horizontal piece in front is just one of the prisms that used to hang around its rim: amazing!