Back in Columbus for the first of our triannual visits in late February it is basically the normal cold soggy Ohio winter.
What snow they had is now melting and Alum Creek passing through Westerville on the northeast side has AGAIN flooded the bike path. This is frequent enough that there is a regular detour up to Schrock Road to cross at the light and reconnect on the other side. Even after the water receded the path will be filled with mud and treacherous.
We also discovered that the owner of our favorite Honey Dip Donuts was planning to retire and his son planned to remodel and expand the offerings. Unfortunately the remodel would eliminate the pride of place occupied for over 30 years by this massive jade plant. Lori had a cutting and had distributed cuttings to a lot of her friends. We understand the original is still thriving in it's new home although I left Lori's in the truck one Arkansas evening and froze it to death. Lori really likes plants but like pets they are difficult to care for on the road.
Back in the summer we were now staying in southern Westerville within easy walking distance of a lot of stores and restaurants. They also have a lot of side streets and residential neighborhoods just perfect for a brisk walk finding these unusual planters and some huge hibiscus. Along the way I found a great spot to view the fireworks on the fourth.
Typically Columbus has a lot of rain in the spring ending abruptly soon after messing with the Memorial Golf Tournament. Catching the sunset with the clouds and the rainbow in August is a rare treat. Also in the sweltering heat of a Shreveport, Louisiana summer my dad had a sudden desire to see me.
It did not take long to convince the Corpus Christi, Texas veterans to pack up dad and the dog and the cat and head up here where we could enjoy an evening concert in Clintonville at the Whetstone Park of Roses where it was a whole lot cooler although the Ohio folks still consider it to be rather hot.
Finishing up our visits for this year is my traditional Halloween display and one of the many visitors coming by to enjoy the decorations at Nancy's house. As you can see from Betty bundled up on the porch and the costumes it is starting to get rather brisk and time for us to head south before we have to hibernate.
Getting into Columbus in March to again help the doctors with their Mercedes payments we made an early spring visit to Inniswood Garden and returned again in June. Spending two months of the summer in Columbus I finally got photographs of the Fireworks which were always a major event when we lived here. I also went a little wild photographing the street rods participating in the Good Guys event in Columbus. Again we were using Columbus as something of a rest stop on our travels rather than a place to really explore.
Halloween we were back again to see doctors and here is the new display and a few of my favorite visitors. At Nancy's house there are a lot more kids and they generally like the spiders or as one young lady said it was one of the few scary ones. We do get a few cases of Arachnophobia and try very hard to make the experience as pleasant as possible but for a couple of kids there is just no way they are getting close.
By some miracle we spent about 14 weeks or more than a quarter of the year in Columbus and I can't find that I took a single picture. Quite amazing but here in 2017 I have spent better than a month mostly working on adding 2009 to the site and taking very few pictures. I'll make up for it later.
Our travels were now starting to settle into something of a rut or at least we were wearing a rut in the road on our triennual visits to Columbus to see doctors and friends. Like how many ways can you discover to get between here and Dad in Shreveport, Louisiana.
We got here just in time for an early March winter wonderland. These pictures at Sharon Woods Metro Park remind us of the fundamental purpose of a nomad lifestyle. Of course Rochester, New York only has five bad snowmobiling months in the year so it's a matter of perspective. I put three more snowscapes in the Inniswood Garden Metro Park page so I can compare some future pictures of the same area in more pleasant seasons. Speaking of more pleasant seasons we made a quick flight back in July from Seattle, Washington to see doctors and friends and visited the Franklin Park Conservatory to catch the summer flowers shown on this other page.
Not the same picture as 2007 shown below but the same setup of my favorite holiday at our friends Linda and Allan. This year I got to try out the new flash attachment for my camera that I did not have available last year and you can see the wonder and amazement of the kids coming up to get their treats from under the huge spider. We had fun.
As our primary base area with doctors and friends from 25 years to visit I have had to break out the area into a multitude of pages to hold all the pictures. I'll try to get all the links listed here as I get the pages created but they are available in the tabs above. Gardens include Inniswood Garden actually in the northeast Westerville area, and Whetstone Park of Roses in the Clintonville North Columbus area.
The photographs above are from North Market which has an eclectic collection of foods. Most of the dealers have a selection prepared to take upstairs and dine in the ambiance of an old factory mezzanine. With Lori's love of pigs the mailbox obviously had to be included. One gloomy weekend I managed to capture this unusual mural with the parking lot almost empty. This iteration is now gone and I have to check each visit to see the current version. As I get to later years there will be more photographs of the Columbus downtown area
My favorite event of the year is Halloween and without a house our good friends Linda and Allen allowed me to decorate theirs. Allan and I sat under the spider to hand out treats and with any loud noise the black and orange spider hanging in the corner would shake, screech, and flash his eyes, Scary!