OPEN

How well I remember a year ago today, having dinner at Town & Gown on Friday the 13th. Everyone knew trouble was brewing, but little did we know how bad it was going to get and how long it was going to last. We assumed that our favorite restaurant would be open through the weekend and that we would be able to meet up the follwing week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (on Tuesday, March 17, 2020).

But it was not to be. We woke up on Saturday morning to the announcement that the shut - downs had begun and our beloved Town & Gown would be closed for the next two months. When it reopened on Wednesday, May 13th, Gerry and I were there first thing for breakfast -- and the next morning for breakfast again, and the day after that for dinner! Thankfully, with all pre-cautions and protocols in place, everything has gone well since then.

One year later, I like to think of the Town & Gown OPEN sign as a metaphor for renewal, symbolizing a new season, heralding a new, confident era of post - virus socializing!

Previous ~ OPEN ~ Signs

And Previous Posts
lattes
spiced coffee
whiskey
scenic views
autumnal ~ flora
leftovers

Plus a surprise throwback:
this clipping saved from seven years ago
found neglected in kitchen drawer

It turns out that back in 2013, nearly two years before Matt and Regen brought Town & Gown to West Lafayette, I came across this list of notable places to visit in Bloomington, and have been saving it ever since.

The clipping comes from the Fall 2013 Campus Visitors Guide that I was perusing during my first ever visit to Indiana University - Bloomington. I've been back a few times since then, but never remembered to bring along the clipping. However, even without the aid of the Visitors Guide, I did manage a visit to the Runcible Spoon.

Why? Because in the meantime, Matt and Regen made their way to West Lafayette, quickly becoming our favorite restaurateurs! So, naturally, we were keen to check out their other trendy locale.

Matt, on the left, kicking back at The Spoon

Before Winter

Red Maple by Night
In front of Town & Gown Bistro

"Before Winter or never. There are some things in this life which will never get done if they are not done before Winter. Certain doors are now open that Winter will close for ever; certain voices to which we can now respond which Winter may silence for ever.

For instance, there is the voice of friendship and affection. . . . It is this certainty that Winter will come which injects urgency into our human relationships. . . . Whenever for our peace of mind or our conscience's sake there is something to be said or done for another human being and we decide we will get around to it tomorrow or next week or next month -- better think again do it now, before Winter.

. . . if you are going to make a fresh start, do it now -- before Winter" -- intervenes.

from the essay "Do It Now!"
found in What the Papers Didn't Say
by Colin Morris, 1929 - 2018
Essayist, broadcaster, minister
Methodist Church of Great Britain

******************

Town & Gown Maples ~ North River Road
West Lafayette, Indiana

Trees Next Door to Town & Gown

I took these pictures a year ago for
The Last Nice Day of 2017

"Even as it envelops me
it is not mine, this autumn:
that wind blowing through the pines,
I regret how it makes them fall --
the leaves, the scarlet leaves of ivy." ~ Anon.

******************

And for
The Last Nice Day of 2018
The Last Roses of Autumn
at Town & Gown Bistro

P.S. And 2019

Writer's Tears

No, whiskey is not my favorite,
but I am partial to this name!
I asked Regen, one of the owners of our favorite neighborhood bistro ~ Town & Gown ~ if she and her husband Matt, who's from Ireland, carried this brand of whiskey in their bar. I told her that I was curious just because I liked the name of it, and she said:

"Me too! When the salesman first showed me this
product, I said 'Writer's Tears!' Sign me up!"
Haha! You can see why I like it there! They think like I do! I still haven't actually tried it though, so I have no idea how it tastes, but it might be good as a prop when reading an Irish novel!

Or an American novel:

Ordering drinks always floored me. I didn't know whisky from gin and never managed to get anything I really liked the taste of. Buddy Willard and the other college boys I knew were usually too poor to buy hard liquor or they scorned drinking altogether. It's amazing how many college boys don't drink or smoke. I seemed to know them all. The farthest Buddy Willard ever went was buying us a bottle of Dubonnet, which he only did because he was trying to prove he could be aesthetic in spite of being a medical student.

"I'll have a vodka," I said.

The man looked at me more closely. "With anything?"

"Just plain," I said. "I always have it plain."

I thought I might make a fool of myself by saying I'd have it with ice or gin or anything. I'd seen a vodka ad once, just a glass full of vodka standing in the middle of a snowdrift in a blue light, and the vodka looked clear and pure as water, so I thought having vodka plain must be all right. My dream was someday ordering a drink and finding out it tasted wonderful. . . .

The drinks arrived, and mine looked clean and pure, just like the vodka ad. . . .

I began to think vodka was my drink at last. It didn’t taste like anything, but it went straight down into my stomach like a sword swallower's sword and made me feel powerful and godlike. (10, 11, 12)

from The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath

Or a short story:

"Anis del Toro. It's a drink."
"Could we try it?"
The man called "Listen" through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.
"Four reales."
"We want two Anis del Toro."
"With water?"
"Do you want it with water?"
"I don't know," the girl said. "Is it good with water?"
"It's all right."
"You want them with water?" asked the woman.
"Yes, with water."
"It tastes like licorice," the girl said and put the glass down.
"That's the way with everything."
"Yes," said the girl. "Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe."

from "Hills Like White Elephants"
by Ernest Hemingway

************

"You're a writer; you're supposed to be sad."

What, after all, is a writer's life without a dose of despair?
from Dear Committee Members (p 68)
by Julie Schumacher

“The world is a hellish place, and bad writing
is destroying the quality of our suffering.”
Tom Waits

“I drank to drown my sorrows,
but the damned things learned how to swim.”
Frida Kahlo

Meme ~ The Scariest Halloween

The New Yorker ~ Ha

November Personified

Such an elegant personification of Autumn!

Golden Autumn (1925)
by William Henry Margetson (1861 - 1940)
More by Margetson & others

"The Professor happened to come home earlier than usual one bright October afternoon. He left the walk and cut across the turf, intending to enter by the open French window, but he paused a moment outside to admire the scene within. The drawing-room was full of autumn flowers,dahlias and wild asters and goldenrod. The red-gold sunlight lay in bright puddles on the thick blue carpet, made hazy aureoles about the stuffed blue chairs. There was, in the room, as he looked through the window, a rich, intense effect of autumn, something that presented October much more sharply and sweetly to him than the coloured maples and the aster-bordered paths by which he had come home. It struck him that the seasons sometimes gain by being brought into the house, just as they gain by being brought into painting, and into poetry. The hand, fastidious and bold, which selected and placed--it was that which made the difference. In Nature there is no selection." [Or perhaps there is?]

"We had a beautiful autumn that year, soft, sunny like a dream. Even up there in the air we had so little wind that the gold hung on the poplars and quaking aspens late in November."

both passages by Willa Cather
from The Professor's House
(Book 1, Chap 6, p 61 & Book 2, Chap 5, p 200)

*****************

"It is another glorious autumn day, but there is a bite in the air that tells you there won't be too many left. Winter is waiting impatiently round the corner."

by Richard Osman
from The Man Who Died Twice
(Chap 4, p 22)

*****************

Such a stylish personification of Winter!

Autumn may be mellow,
but still she prefers a fashionable scarf,
something new for the season!

Saved ~ on Facebook
Poem by Emily Dickinson ~ Art by Dee Nickerson

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.
[emphasis added]

*****************

P.S.
Some Schubert for the early evenings:
Fantasie in F minor & The Trout Quintet

P.P.S.
More from Cather and Osman:
In Art As It Is In Heaven

P.P.P.S.
Looking ahead to April / Spring Personified

Mystic Ouabache

~ Belated Happy Earth (& Water) Day ~
Greetings From the Banks of the Mythic Wabash!

Local Mural by Craig Martin

Fun Fact From
Indiana Department of Natural Resources:

Wabash is the English spelling of Ouabache
the French name for the river.
French traders named it after the Miami Indian name,
Waapaahsiiki, meaning “it shines white.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several times per week, Gerry and I enjoy breakfast / lunch / dinner at Town & Gown Bistro (situated on North River Road, adjacent to Craig Martin's mural), and we always prefer a view of the mural to any other, drinking our coffee while mesmerized by the deep tones and swirling textures of the Mythic Wabash Man (aka "Celery Bog Man"), rising mysteriously from beneath the mighty river.

We feel so lucky to live just a few blocks not only from the Mighty Wabash, but also from such great public art and such a fine restaurant. Many thanks to artist Craig and Bistro owners Matt & Regen for sharing their talents in the community!

Wabash ~ Ouabache ~ Waapaahsiiki

Believe It Or Not

The River Simply Manifest

So Much Water Moving

Dawn on the Wabash

Come Back to the Present!

Back When We Had More Trees
~ Happy Arbor Day! ~

Wabash from the Driveway April 8, 2009
[file: finepix March 22, 2009]

Resolutions for the New Year

1. Start Fresh

2. Drink Deep

3. Run With the Wind*

4. Live in the "Golden Envelope of Light"**

Spiced Coffee at Town & Gown Bistro

"Gilgamesh, whither rovest thou?
The life thou pursuest thou shalt not find.
When the gods created humankind,
Death for us they set aside,
Life in their own hands retaining.
Thou, Gilgamesh, let full be thy belly
Make thou merry by day and by night.
Of each day make thou a feast of rejoicing,
Day and night dance thou and play
Let thy garments be sparkling and fresh,
Thy head be washed, bathe thou in water.
Pay heed to the little one that holds thy hand,
Let thy spouse delight in thy bosom,
For this is the task of humankind.

~From The Epic of Gilgamesh ~ Tablet X
~Translated by E. A. Speiser

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For additional New Year Poems:

*"i am running into a new year" by Lucille ~ Clifton
and
** "in celebration of surviving" by Chuck Miller

see my current posts

Ghost of Myself

&

Ghost of the Girl in the Pepsi Ad

@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
A literary blog of connection & coincidence;
custom & ceremony

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring Planting

Spring Planting at Town & Gown!

"May [or April!] is a rush to plant a hundred flower boxes with pansies, petunias, impatiens, and vining vinca and to mulch the hill of colorful perennials in the back of the Inn. These are our efforts to provide a suitable backdrop to the parade of caps and gowns that bustle with such excitement, such elegance, such promise, and such hope on their way to life's fulfillment."

from The Seasons at Walden Inn:
Signature Recipes from an Elegant Country Inn (1997)
by Chef Matt O'Neill

Good For You!

T & G ~ By Night, By Day,

By Twilight!
Holly held the curtain back at Town & Gown Bistro
so that we could see the Golden City!

Neon by Night

Sunshine by Day

Mimosas by Morning

Malbec by Evening

After Dinner Mood Lighting

We'll Be Back for Breakfast!
Ellie loves Town & Gown Bistro, where they always
know her name & they're always glad she came --
and her shirt kind of matches the cushions!

Once & Future Posts

May Day
All Felled

Spring Planting
night & day

gather
open
lattes
spiced coffee
whiskey
scenic views
autumnal ~ flora
leftovers

Previous ~ OPEN ~ Signs

Matt's Roses in the Parking Lot

Latkes for Hanukkah

My cooking friends asked me to reveal the secret of my "pancakey . . . puffy" latkes, so here goes . . . it's a very easy secret:

End of the Weekend Leftovers
1. one scoop of mashed potatoes & one crumbled up piece of raisin / soda bread from Sunrise Diner

2. one half serving of fried breakfast potatoes & one half crumbled up breakfast biscuit from Town & Gown Bistro

3. mixed all together with 2 fresh raw eggs & fried in no - stick skillet with no - stick spray, served with applesauce and orange marmalade.

When I make them from scratch,
I use an old favorite recipe from
Paul Levy's
The Feast of Christmas: Origins, Traditions, and Recipes

******************

And Here's a Picture of a Menorah Cat

Girl of Vision

"The earth is just too big, too beautiful:
I like it small, through a window, catching
the light at the day’s end. I prefer poems
haiku-size; a pair of binoculars
through which I see one bluebird at a time . . .

See what I mean? Take one small thing in hand,
open it up, and there’s another door,
and another, long corridors of views
into the heart of darkness or of light . . . "

from the poem “Small Portions”
by Julia Alvarez

Peek - A - Boo!
Ellie at Town & Gown ~ February 2022
Surprise!

Eastertime 2022

~ May 2022 ~
Getting a Good Look at Aidan,
wrapped in his special gray & white
blanket from Auntie Tina!
see Ellie's pink blankie?

Moving to Virginia
~ June 2022 ~

Apple Juice Al Fresco
~ New Years Day 2023 ~
Magic Markers En Plein Air

Girl of Vision: Eleanor
Woman of Vision: Emily

Before I got my eye put out –
( Poem #336)

Before I got my eye put out –
liked as well to see
As other creatures, that have eyes –
And know no other way –

But were it told to me, Today,
That I might have the Sky
For mine, I tell you that my Heart
Would split, for size of me –

The Meadows – mine –
The Mountains – mine –
All Forests – Stintless stars –
As much of noon, as I could take –
Between my finite eyes –

The Motions of the Dipping Birds –
The Morning’s Amber Road –
For mine – to look at when I liked,
The news would strike me dead –

So safer – guess – with just my soul
Opon the window pane
Where other creatures put their eyes –
Incautious – of the Sun –

by Emily Dickinson

Thanksgiving with Holly & Nora

HAPPY COOKING!
HAPPY FEASTING!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Holly Hobbie

" . . . life's great conversation:
what we ate yesterday,
what we plan to eat today,
what we're eating right this minute,
and what we're going to eat tomorrow.”

~ Nora Ephron ~

Denise Holly Ulinskas Hobbie

P.S.
Seems like I must have posted this before --
but just can't remember where:

Can also be seen at
Town & Gown Bistro

Oh So Smoothie

And don't forget the ice cream!

Who can always make us laugh?
Roz Chast, that's who!
Check out my recent book blog:
Books to Make You Laugh

Speaking of Smoothies . . .

Ultra - Healthy

Pistachio Fluff
Happy St. Valentine's / Patrick's Day 2017

Root Beer Floats

All Jello, All the Time

Half Orange Juice - Half Guinness*

Coffee Break*

*Last two pics courtesy of Town & Gown Bistro
Thanks Magan, Matt & Regen!