East Row Garden Club hosts annual Garden Walk June 2-3

Image courtesy of EastRowGardenClub.org

An early Spring has pushed up the 16th annual Garden Walk hosted by East Row Garden Club.  Traditionally held in late June, it happens this weekend, June 2nd and 3rd.

Eight private gardens featured on the tour include six never open to the public before.

This tour is one of the most popular tours in the region.  Guests will enjoy lingering in these tucked away oases and will marvel at the peaceful serenity that can be found in these small urban secret spaces.

If you go:

Saturday and Sunday, June 2nd and 3rd, 2012 
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Tour begins at corner of 6th and Washington in Newport, Kentucky 41071

Tickets: 
$15/person available for advance purchase online and in person at A New Leaf Florist.
Children 12 and under are free if accompanied by an adult.
Purchase tickets on day of tour at Watertower Square parking lot (6th Street and Washington Street).
Credit cards accepted for online orders but CASH or CHECK only accepted on the day of the tour.

Tour begins at the ticket booth, where visitors will also find a vendor market featuring garden accessories, plants, antiques and other garden related items for purchase from notable vendors such as Greenfield Plant Farm and Greg's Antiques among others.

Wanna nominate a garden for next year's Garden Walk?

Novice and expert East Row gardening residents are invited to join the Garden Club anytime throughout the year.

See some of the garden club's current projects and programs.  Learn about how the garden club gives back to the community.

Find the garden club on Facebook and see their website www.EastRowGardenClub.org  for more information.

Amanda's fabulous bean salad recipe

My version of Amanda's fabulous bean salad

This is one of those recipes that you just eyeball everything depending on how many people you are trying to feed, what you have on hand, and your personal preferences.  There is no single ingredient that will make or break this dish.  If you aren't a fan of one item or another, leave it out.

It is fabulous.  My neighbor Amanda clued me in a couple of years ago, and I've been making it ever since.

1 can dark red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 can whole kernel corn (drained) *can use frozen instead*
1 rib of celery - diced
1 cucumber - diced (remove seeds before dicing)
1/2 small red onion - diced
1 orange bell pepper - diced
Fresh, flat-leaf italian parsley - chopped (to taste)

Toss ingredients in a bowl, douse generously with red wine vinegar.  Sprinkle with a little sugar and salt to taste. Serve.

Makes approximately 6-8 servings. 

Taste of Cincinnati 2012 there's an app for that

Image courtesy of Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber

The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber hosts the 34th Annual Taste of Cincinnati this Memorial Day weekend.  Hailed as the nation's longest running culinary arts festival,  the party fires up Friday, May 26th and continues through Monday, May 28th, 2012.

New this year, the Chamber offers a free iPhone app (a Droid version is available as well) that will help festival guests navigate over 40 food vendors. The app promises to enhance guest experience by providing booth map and menus to discover new and favorite samplings from over 200 food and beverage offerings.  It also features an event schedule along with an entertaining photo booth feature.

Make a bee line to J. Gumbo's for some Bumblebee Stew.  Then head over to Pit to Plate for a pulled pork BBQ sandwich with slaw.  Strasse Haus breaks the rules with fried peanut butter and jelly and Keystone Bar & Grill will make you swoon with their Buffalo Mac & Cheese.  Do yourself in with some real Schnecken from Queen City Cookies.


In addition to plenty of eats and drinks, the festival includes live musical and comedy entertainment all weekend long.  A complete schedule can be found here. 

East Row Mama's personal pics include dancing yourself silly with the Naked Karate Girls Saturday at 4:00pm on the Fountain Square Stage. Kick up your clogs with the bluesy, bluegrassy acoustic sounds of The Tillers on Sunday at 4:30pm on the Metromix Stage at P&G Gardens.  For a dose of some killer good piano blues, check out Ricky Nye Inc. on Monday at 2:00pm on the Government Square stage.

Taste of Cincinnati always happens along Fifth Street between Race and Broadway with Fountain Square at the center of the action.

Admission is free.  Parking is easily accessible all around downtown in garages, surface lots and on the street. 

  East Row families can catch a ride to the fest   on the Southbank Shuttle Trolley at several stops   along East Third Street in Newport between Hofbrauhaus and the Newport Aquarium for a dollar per person.

   If you go:

Hours: Noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 9:00pm on Monday


Video courtesy of CincyChamber via YouTube

May is the new December

A friend of mine declared recently that "May is the new December."

Boy, she is NOT kidding.  If you are at all involved in your children's life, and if they are at all involved with any activities beyond eating, drinking, bathing, sleeping, going to school and coming home, then your weeks leading up to the close of the school year are just as busy as those leading up to the holidays.

Recitals and performances, tournaments, bees, competitions, concerts, and countless other exhibitions of the talents that your children have been honing throughout the fleeting school year, must be attended.

Loose ends must be tied up.  Missing books must be found and returned.  Gifts must be purchased or made for teachers in appreciation for their efforts to help shape our "young breed."

This is the time that the weekends become crowded with First Communion and prom and graduation celebrations.  You know they are coming. You just don't often know when or how many until you've already got multiple balls in the air and you've abandoned the ink pen on your calendar and resorted to pencil instead.

In the midst of all this, winter clothes must be purged and replaced with summer wardrobes. 

Those of us who wear all the hats of running a small business or work away from the home must still find time to keep those initiatives moving forward.  The good news is, I decide when and where and who I work with on most days.  But what I want to get done and what is humanly possible are two different things in May. 

And just like the Winter holiday season, those who enjoy it most are the ones who simplify and prioritize.  The ones who trade in at least some of the "nice-to-haves-but-not-necessary-for-happiness" in exchange for "this-must-be-done-to-preserve-sanity" tasks wind up getting to June with a sense of sentimental accomplishment, traditions and memories that their children will cherish.

I'm working on that.  But it's a feeble attempt at best.  What do you think?  Is May the new December at your house?


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