Category: Arkansas

Traveling along Arkansas Hwy. 165

October 4, 2011
A rainbow appears as an area farmer waters his fields outside of Keo.

A Saturday afternoon wedding led me just west of Stuttgart last weekend. The wedding took place at the Marlsgate Plantation in Scott, which was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. How perfect? Here’s some pictures so you can see for yourself. 😀

Marlsgate Plantation is impressive. I could have spent hours looking around its grounds.
The house was built in 1904 and is circled by a stone path Even the simple pathway is part of the place's charm.
It reminded me of Frances Hodgson Burnett's book The Secret Garden.
The plantation was filled to the brim with benches and chairs tucked away into corners for little hideaway areas.
I especially liked this chandelier that hung just outside the back of the house.
Of course, the wedding was pretty great itself. The couple's colors were fall-themed. Above is just one of the table toppers.
The view from the wedding reception opposite of the house.
My drive home was filled with fields as far as you can see, usually filled with hay bales.
Naturally, a drive through the natural state wouldn't be the same right now without seeing at least one field of cotton and farmers harvesting rice.
OK, I'll admit I didn't take this picture this weekend but I did rediscover it this weekend. That counts, right? Anyways, this cat tail reminds me of my sister's wedding. She used cattails in her flower arrangements and, oddly enough, it looked awesome. I was impressed and will never look at cattails the same again.

Arts Festival

September 28, 2011
Needlework that I plan to make.

I picked up a needlework pattern a few months ago that I have been meaning to make as a gift to my sister. It would be a new type of project for me and I have yet to get started on it. This weekend, however, was the local arts festival and one of the displays (above) was the exact pattern that I was hoping to make for my sister.

It was the push I needed and I hope to get started soon since it will take me forever to complete. The arts festival was a blast, although I didn’t completely see eye-to-eye with the judges this year. Continue reading “Arts Festival”

Tuesday blues.

September 20, 2011

It’s one of those days.

I’m cranky, not feeling good and just downright lazy feeling.

The only thing that saved my morning are two small little things:

1 I stumbled across what I should have said to the nosy woman that basically asked me if I, as a single woman, was lonely and jealous of my married friends and if I even had friends. (I think she meant well—we have always gotten along well. It was just inappropriate for the nonprofit seminar setting that we were in.)

While I answered nicely enough, I should have added this phrase to the mix.

Single as a dollar and I’m not looking for change. Continue reading “Tuesday blues.”

St. Peter’s

September 19, 2011
St. Peter's Catholic Church has just received a new sign that is adorned with a 152-year-old bell. The church has had the bell since late 1970.

This weekend I was able to attend mass at my church back home, St. Peter’s Catholic Church. I enjoy attending church there and comparing how the church has changed (and not changed) since I attended regular mass there as a youth. Continue reading “St. Peter’s”

Sideline view

September 17, 2011

I love the crisp Saturday mornings spent taking pictures at area youth sporting events. It’s a great way to spend the morning because, first of all, it always guarantees you cute action pictures.

In Stuttgart, this means taking soccer and football pictures. I found myself on the sidelines of the local football field during the final moments of the seventh-grade football game. The boys were focused and the local team kept charging toward the end zone in a last-minute frenzy to tie the game. While they eventually completed a touchdown, it wasn’t still wasn’t enough to win a game.

Learning history through art

September 13, 2011

Anne Frank. Gerda Weissmann Klein. Sabina Szwarc.

These names are among those recorded at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. They were among the approximately six million Jews in Europe that were subjected to persecution and murder by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. According to the museum, nearly two out of every three European Jews were killed by 1945 as Nazi Germany attempted to create a more pure race which included targeting some 200,000 gypsies and at least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients.

It’s easy to focus solely overseas when faced with these horrible facts surrounding World War II. It’s a shameful part of history that needs to be remembered so that it’s never repeated again. However to do this, Americans must also remember that Europe was not alone in having concentration camps on its land. Continue reading “Learning history through art”

What’s ah cooking

August 30, 2011

My name is Sarah and I’m a terrible cook.

There, it wasn’t too hard to admit the shameful news and it is embarrassing news. My idea of cooking is throwing in a microwaveable meal or making pasta. My past meals have usually consisted of these two options, salads, sandwiches or take-out.

It’s not that I haven’t tried to cook before. I have just either ruined the food, set a fire or annoyed my teacher enough that they took over the lesson and finished it.

Honestly, I was quite content with my cooking disability until recently. I discovered within the past year that I was becoming a little green (figuratively, of course) when my sister would call and describe happily the new dish she conquered for her dinner with her husband. She is a similar to Betty Crocker.

I’ve finally decided that while I love the color green, there was no need to be jealous. She’s my sister — surely my own genes for good cooking are there. I’ve decided they are just hidden.

I’m now getting back into the kitchen (with a fire extinguisher) and learning to cook. I’ve decided to take it slow and set a goal for at least one new homemade dish each month.

To celebrate I cooked chicken for lunch. It was … an adventure … I guess. I had to call my parents for help.

Anyways, I succeeded in making my lunch. So here’s to my next home-cooked meal!

Tomorrow’s scheduled events

August 23, 2011

Here’s my ever-growing “bucket list” of what to do next.

U.S. list:

• ALASKA: Take an Alaskan cruise;
• ALASKA/NORWAY: See the northern lights;
• ARKANSAS: Go diamond digging at Mufreesboro Diamond Mine;
• ARIZONA: Go to the Grand Canyon;
• CALIFORNIA: Visit Glass Beach in Fort Bragg;
• CALIFORNIA: Visit Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles;
• CALIFORNIA: Photograph the Ahwahnee Bridge at Yosemite;
• LOUISIANA: Take a haunted swamp tour through the cypress trees of Manchac Swamp near New Orleans, La. (offered by Plantation Adventure and Cajun Pride Tours);
• NEW MEXICO: Take a wild horse and photography workshop in New Mexico. See here;
• OHIO: Visit the Village of Zoar, Ohio (founded in 1817);
• TEXAS: Visit Haunted Galvston Island in Galveston, Texas, which became haunted after the deadliest storm in U.S. history — the Galveston Hurricane of 1900;
• UTAH: See Bryce Canyon in Utah at sunset;
• Go sailing;
• Skydive; and
• Visit all 50 states in the United States — just 22 left.

 

International list:

• AFRICA: View the shipwrecks and discarded, bleached whale and seal bones at Skeleton Coast within Namibia’s. See here;
• AFRICA: Go on a safari;
• AFRICA: Ride an elephant;
• ARGENTINA: See penguins at Tierra del Fuego;
• CHINA: Climb the Great Wall of China;
• ENGLAND: Visit Whitby, which is Bram Stoker’s Dracula setting;
• GEORGIA: Visit Vardzia Cave Monasteries;
• ICELAND: Hike a glacier;
• JAPAN: Take a hike through Aokigahara Suicide Forest near Mount Fuji;
• JORDAN: Tour the 13-story tomb at Petra before taking a camel ride in desert valley at Wadi Rum;
• NORWAY/ALASKA: See the northern lights;
• PERU: Visit Utcubamba Valley to see the rarest hummingbird — the Spatuletail;
• PERU: Visit Machu Picchu;
• PORTUGAL: Visit Chapel of Bones (designed of bones to show “Life is temporary”) inside the Church of Sao Francisco in Evora;
• SOUTH AMERICA: Visit the Amazon Rainforest;
• SCOTLAND: Visit Dunvegan Castle in the Isle of Skye;
• SCOTLAND: Paddle part of the 300-mile Scottish Sea Kayak Trail;
• Participate in a International missions trip;
• Ride the Orient-Express; and
• Visit all seven continents — four left.

The smallest around

August 23, 2011
A hummingbird perches in a tree at Cook’s Lake in Casscoe.

You can’t help but like hummingbirds.

Slight, gorgeous and swift, they just bring a smile to your face. They have also gotten me interested in taking more pictures of birds in the wild. On Saturday, I visited Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook’s Lake in Casscoe for a hummingbird banding program. The center’s front yard was literally filled with the little birds flying from feeder to feeder and flower to flower. Here are some of the pictures I took:

A Taste of Faith

August 11, 2011

I recently attended my first “A Taste of Faith” event. It is a fundraiser for Diocese of Little Rock’s seminarians. I went with my aunt to support my cousin, Stephen, who is in his fourth year. It was a great event and I enjoyed watching him play the harmonica with a seminarian music group.