Oliver Daffi

Today dawned as a gorgeous, warm spring Saturday in Bloomington--the perfect day to visit Oliver Winery. While Oliver's has a broad and tasteful selection of wines for tasting, that's not the reason Mom and I went. It was the flower display! Thousands of daffodils, hyacinths and early tulips were on grand display. The daffis, in all sizes and colors of white, cream, gold and peach were showing off like bonnets in a Easter parade.

I love gardening to see perennial beds in pristine shape without a a single dandelion to spoil to spoil the view makes me turn spring green with envy. Even with my foot still in its protective walking boot, I hobbled my way through gardens admiring the evenly spread mulch, the crystal clear water features and kaleidescope of colors and textures. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Oliver Winery and look forward to returning in the sunny days ahead. Maybe next time I'll even have a taste of the grape.

It just isn't right

One of the highlights of summer in Bloomington is our farmer's market (see a previous post). But this season, it's so pricey that its comparable to shopping at Dean & Deluca or the food hall at Harrods. Now I know the farmers have suffered this spring. The continuous torrential rains and cool temperatures didn't make for ideal gardening or growing conditions. And I also realize the flooding all around Bloomington probably damaged many of the farmers' gardens and they have to pay upwards of $4 a gallon for the gas to get them here (if they use motorized vehicles). But charging us as much as $4 for a quart of green beans is ludicrous. Two dollars for six green onions is even worse. But $3 for a pint of small red skin potatoes is totally absurd.

Being the daughter of a home economist, I've been taught from a very early age to choose my fruits and vegetables wisely and with great care. I also know my way around the kitchen and appreciate locally grown, quality ingredients--yes, even those grown with pesticides and non-organic fertilizers. (Miracle Grow is the fertilizer of choice for my own garden.) But I will not pay those prices for any produce any where and I can't imagine I'm alone in my thinking. One can only hope that as the summer progresses, the law of supply and demand will return sanity to the farmers' marketing process.

Easter in Tudor Style

Today's Easter Sunday and despite the cold gray sky and snow flakes, I indulged myself for an Easter treat...lunch at the Tudor Room in Indiana University's Memorial Union Building also known as the IMU. Since my first visit to the Union Building when I was only in 5th grade, the building has seemed like a castle with its fire place that's always burning, the leather club furniture and English Tudor style archways and beamed ceilings.


Situated in the heart of the campus, the Union's proud history dates back nearly 100 years t0 its founding in 1911 as a gathering place for students, faculty and visitors. While the smoke filled lounges and bridge games in the Commons have been replaced with franchise fast food, computer kiosks and bank machines, the Tudor Room remains today as I have always remembered it with its stained glass windows and two-story vaulted ceilings hung with tapestries and banners.


The Easter brunch buffet probably wasn't the tastiest holiday fare in the area and certainly less opulent than Easter buffets in larger cities, but it honestly reflected the tradition and tastes of the collegial community. Today was not a day to stick with the Weight Watchers point counting. It was time to enjoy ham and lamb, spring carrots and delicious desserts and to be reminded that spring will soon arrive. Once again Bloomington will shed the grays of winter and burst into pinks and greens with the Union Building proudly standing in the center of the colorful display.



One more important point about the IMU is its incredible art collection. The IUM's web site describes the art collection as follows:

"Indiana University and the Indiana Memorial Union have a rich history of commitment to the arts and creative expression. Started in 1923 when IU students purchased six paintings from artist-in-residence Theodore Clement Steele, the Union’s collection now boasts more than 1,200 two- and three-dimensional pieces including works by distinguished Indiana artists Wayman Adams, C. Curry Bohm, Marie Goth, William Forsyth and Rudy Pozzati."

Who's Watching the Children

Outrageous is a strong term. No word better describes the Monroe county prosecutor's decision not to press charges against parents who chose to leave their three-year old toddler unattended in their unlocked car while they went to a movie. I don't subscribe to the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child, but I do believe it's the prosector's duty to protect the children. In a town like Bloomington, strange crimes are always occurring (many based on drugs). Any parent who thought for even a brief moment their child was safe in a parking lot needs to be shaken back to reality. Prosecutors usually can do that.

But back to the parents. Haven't they read about amber alerts, stolen children, kidnappings and the like?Are they so isolated that they've escaped the tons of mail and milk cartons with missing children's faces. Don't they see near-daily reports of children being mistreated as a result of parental neglect. If nothing more, the prosecutor should have at least brought some kind of charges. It's too bad that parental stupidity isn't an arrestable offense especially for the sake of the children. Maybe they all need to watch a few episodes of Law and Order.