The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chambers (Second Floor of the Government Center). Those wishing to attend may also sign up to speak for three minute slots.

A rending of the new design for Kroger, as seen from Euclid Avenue. Click the image to see a larger version.

A rending of the new design for the Euclid Kroger, from Marquis Avenue.

Representatives from Kroger filed a new zone change application regarding the company’s grocery store on Euclid Avenue. The application includes new preliminary plans for the store, with several differences to the initially proposed design.

The current store is 38,641 square feet and zoned B-1. This zoning designation only allows for a store to be 40,000 square feet. Kroger representatives are applying for a B-69 Zone “shopping center” designation, which would accommodate the company’s plans for a completely new store, originally planned for approximately 64,000 square feet.

Called “Sip Nibble Shop Chevy Chase,” the event will resemble the pub crawl the association held last November, only retail shops will be incorporated into this June event.

Participating bars and restaurants will be offering special food or drink items, and participating shops will be offering discounts in their stores. There will also be a schedule of music and other entertainment at certain venues.

Those wishing to attend will be able to purchase tickets for $10 at various businesses participating in the event; tickets will also be available for purchase online.

Check back at a later time for more information on participating businesses, specials, hours and ticket information.

The event is intended to be a fundraiser and promotion for the annual Chevy Chase Street Fair in August.

Lacrosse is a club sport in the Commonwealth; it is not sanctioned by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. In this year’s 16-team state tournament, Henry Clay defeated Tates Creek to advance to the title match, and Paul Laurence Dunbar lost in the semifinals.

The “Honor the Game” award went to Bryan Station High School as the team that best demonstrated respect for coaches, teammates, opponents, officials and fans, and honored the traditions and spirit of lacrosse on and off the field.

Lexington, KY – One-year-old West Sixth Brewery is facing a lawsuit from Magic Hat Brewery claiming the Lexington brewer copied the logo for one of its beers.

Magic Hat asks for “West Sixth to account for and to pay over to Magic Hat all profits realized by West Sixth” for what the lawsuit claims is “irreparable harm” brought upon the company for the “confusingly and substantially similar” logos.

According to the lawsuit, Magic Hat’s #9 beer logo which was originally trade marked in 1995 and updated in 2007, was copied by West Sixth’s company logo which appears on its two canned beers and promotional materials.

Taking place June 3-8, the multi-venue celebration will showcase a wide array of artists working under the genre’s umbrella, from bluegrass hip-hop to the traditional masters. Organized by the Lexington Area Music Alliance (LAMA), BOB will help usher in the 40th anniversary of The Festival of the Bluegrass, which takes place June 6-8 at the Kentucky Horse Park.

In addition to a bevy of bluegrass-themed performances scheduled at pre-existing concert series – including Woodsongs, Southland Jamboree, Red Barn Radio and Thursday Night Live – Best of Bluegrass will host nightclub and street performances throughout the week.

2013 BOB Lineup:

June 3
• Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour feat. The Cleverlys and The Moore Brothers Band. 6:30 p.m. Lyric Theatre.
• BOB Kickoff Party feat. Gangstagrass. 8 p.m. Natasha’s.

June 4
• Southland Jamboree feat. Newtown. 7 p.m. Southland Bowling Lanes.
• Alison Brown. 9 p.m. Willie’s Locally Known.

During a phone drive on Wednesday, organizers raised $75,000 for the relief effort.

“We were amazed by the generosity of so many people,” said Terry Burkhart, CEO of the Bluegrass Chapter. “When the day began we didn’t know what to anticipate. To say this exceeded our expectations would be an understatement.”

Up-and-coming Nashville-based act Night Beds, marked by the striking country-tinged vocals of Winston Yellen, will perform at Cosmic Charlie’s on Sunday. 

Click here to visit a comprehensive listing of this week’s local live music options – which includes reggae legends The Wailers, The Grateful Dead Hour’s David Gans, and a local Bob Dylan tribute – at our sister site tadoo.com. And be sure to visit our Contests & Giveaways page for your chance to win tickets to some of these shows!

Currently, two student housing facilities are already being built at the Cooperstown site, Woodland Glen I and II, which are scheduled to be open by August 2014. When Woodland Glen I, II and III, which were recently approved, open in 2015, more than 2,000 students could live at the site.

But some residents in nearby neighborhoods, such as Columbia Heights, Hollywood and Aylesford, are anxious about the effects this large influx of undergraduate students could have on the area.

Amy Clark lives on Kastle Road and has been active in the town-and-gown discussion between the university and the neighborhoods. Clark says she and many of her neighbors like the vibrance of the university district and its diversity.

“We want to be a little tolerant of people having a good time,” she says. ”But with this huge population increase massed right at our borders, we’re concerned. Last year Cooperstown was seven low-lying buildings with 314 graduate and family apartments.  In two years it will be five high-density buildings housing over 2,000 undergraduates, mostly freshmen. That’s a lot to live with.”

The LASC has now raised $2.85 million, more than half of their goal, and will break ground for the expansion of a new facility in the spring of 2014, according to a press release. The organization also plans to renovate its current building on North Martin Luther Boulevard. The expansion and renovation are anticipated to be completed in the spring of 2015.

In honor of the $1 million gift to the LASC, the planned addition will be named the Lucille Caudill Little Discovery Center.   Lucille C. Little was an original founder of the Living Arts & Science Center when it originated in 1968.

New York based folk singer Ana Egge will perform in Lexington three times this week, including Red Barn Radio, tadoo Lounge and Natasha's.

Visit tadoo.com for a comprehensive listing of this week’s live music.

Ilias Pappas is opening The Athenian Grill on South Ashland

The Athenian Grill, a popular Greek cuisine food truck in Lexington owned and operated by Ilias Pappas, will become a small brick and mortar restaurant and market on South Ashland Avenue later this summer.

Pappas, a native of Greece who started the food truck last fall, is currently working on renovating the space, the former location of Belle’s Bakery, to fit the restaurant’s needs. Plans include completely gutting the interior and giving it a clean, modern look with exposed brick walls.

The restaurant will have deli-style service, where customers can order at the counter and sit at the few tables inside or outside, or pick up for take out. On the second floor, The Athenian Grill will have marketplace with a few shelves of authentic Greek items, such as spices, for sale. Each night, Pappas will also take reservations for one party (up to six people) who will be served a full-service dinner in an intimate setting upstairs.

Pappas says the need to have a brick and mortar restaurant came from frequent requests for catering services while he was operating his food truck, which would require him to have a commercial kitchen. He also plans on offering a delivery service during lunch and dinner, which is one reason he was interested in the South Ashland location, given its proximity to downtown and Chevy Chase.

Large blooms cost 50 cents, small blooms are 25 cents and herbs are 25 cents for a small bunch. The U-pick garden employs the honor system when paying for snips. Roses and vegetables are reserved for residents. The donation box and scissors are located at the start of the main garden walkway; water and containers are available near the shed.

All proceeds are used to maintain the garden and feed the garden critters. Call (859) 266-2581 for more information.

SCAPA senior Virginia Newsome. PHOTO BY MICK JEFFRIES

Virginia Newsome, a 17-year-old senior at Layfayette High School’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA), was named one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2013 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards during the program’s 18th annual national award ceremony at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Selected from a field of more than 28,000 youth volunteers from across the country, Newsome has earned the title of National Honoree, along with a personal award of $5,000 and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of her choice.

Newsome created a nonprofit organization in 2011 that has donated $50,000 worth of visual and performing arts supplies to schools that cannot afford them. “I have seen firsthand the benefits of making the arts available to all students,” she said. “Studies show students who participate in the arts do better in school, have fewer discipline problems, higher test scores, and are more involved in their schools and communities.”

While attending a leadership conference, Newsome was challenged to find a way to help her community. Knowing that arts programs throughout the country were falling under the sword of budget cuts, she decided to create “heARTS Inc.”

There will be at least one event each night “to maximize and flaunt the exploding beer scene in Lexington,” according to LexBeerScene’s Chris Vandergrift, who also started the successful Fest of Ales, which has been held on Labor Day weekend since 2009 at the Fifth Third Pavilion at downtown’s Cheapside Park.

Venues for the week include the Beer Trappe, Country Boy Brewing, multiple Liquor Barn locations, the Village Idiot, Pazzo’s Pizza Pub, Drake’s, Arcadium, Lexington Beerworks, Whole Foods, the Alltech Kentucky Ale Brewery, West Sixth and more.

Sean Tibbetts, a non-voting member of the Food Truck Work Group, is director of the Blue Grass Food Truck Association.

After more than three months of meetings and discussions, the city’s Food Truck Work Group has agreed upon a Food Truck pilot program, according to 2nd District Council Member Shevawn Akers’ office.

Akers is the chair of the work group, which includes other council members, other city officials, and representatives from local food truck operators and brick and mortar restaurant owners. Vice Mayor Linda Gorton formed the work group in late January with the intent of creating a new Food Truck Ordinance.

Click here to see a downtown map of the proposed food truck zones.

Under the proposed pilot program – which must be presented as a resolution to the Urban County Council, following approval from the Lexington Parking Authority – food truck vendors will have access to designated on-street parking areas downtown within proposed food truck zones (see the accompanying map for the locations of proposed food truck zones).

The parking authority board will take up the matter on May 16, if the group approves of the proposed spaces, Akers said she will bring the resolution to council on May 23. Akers says if the parking authority board doesn’t approve of the proposed parking spots, the work group will likely propose on-street parking after 5 p.m. to the board.

Earlier this year the work group had success passing a partial ordinance streamlining the permitting process for food truck vendors, who are currently limited to operating on private property.

Voting and non-voting members comprised the Food Truck Work Group. Voting members include:

Shevawn Akers, 2nd District Council member

Bill Farmer, Jr., 5th District Council member

Kevin Stinnett, 6th District Council member

Esteemed experimental violinist Emily Wells will perform at Natasha’s on Monday.

Visit tadoo.com for our comprehensive listing of live music this week!

A rending of the new design for Kroger, as seen from Euclid Avenue. Click the image to see a larger version.

A rending of the new design for the Euclid Kroger, from Marquis Avenue.

The current store is 38,641 square feet and zoned B-1. This zoning designation only allows for a store to be 40,000 square feet. Kroger representatives are applying for a B-69 Zone “shopping center” designation, which would accommodate the company’s plans for a completely new store, originally planned for approximately 64,000 square feet.

Along with applying for a new zoning designation, Kroger representatives are asking for a number of variances to restrictions to a B-69 Zone, according to the application material, such as allowing three exterior walls to exceed 100 feet without a change in the setback; reducing the 50-foot setback to 25 feet along Marquis Avenue; increasing the amount of space a building can cover on a lot from 35 percent to 50 percent; and reducing the setback from 50 feet to 40 feet along Euclid Avenue and in the back of the store.

Due to soggy weather conditions last weekend, organizers have rescheduled the Ashland garden tour and peony sale for this Saturday, May 11.

The peony garden at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate blooms once a year with over 100 Sanders Hybrid Peony plants. Guests are invited to enjoy the peony garden and formal garden this weekend, along with five gardens around the historic Ashland Neighborhood.

The garden tour includes:

On hand at Ashland will be Rett McGoodwin of Rett’s Lanscaping, Jim McFarlane of United Landscape, Jeff Moore of Signature Landscapes, and Dave Leonard of Dave Leonard Tree Specialists to answer gardening inquiries.

In April, Richard Moloney, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works, announced 20 grants are being awarded to neighborhood groups, churches and schools throughout the city.

“Our neighborhoods are improved as citizens and groups work together to implement these project all across Lexington,” Moloney said. “These projects will improve the environmental health of our neighborhoods, making Lexington an even more attractive city.”

The projects include rain gardens, an outdoor environmental classroom, street tree plantings and community gardens. The grant amounts, which require a 100 percent match, range from $1241 to $2500 in size.

“Sun Boxes,” sculptural experimentation with sound and solar energy, is made up of 20 wooden “sun boxes” that are equipped with solar panels, speakers, amplifiers and electronic sound modules. Each Sun Box is preloaded with recorded guitar notes and the Sun Boxes collectively create unique melodies that vary infinitely throughout the day depending on the amount of clouds and sun and even the shadows of the spectator.

A plaque on Tomi Ross’ front porch pays tribute to friends and neighbors who supported Ross this past year. PHOTOS BY ROBBIE CLARK

Tomi Ross has to search diligently to try to find a photo of her old home, a striking teal Victorian house that stood on Bassett Avenue in the Kenwick neighborhood.

Last summer, lightning struck one of the home’s three chimneys, which was used as a vent for the hot water heater, and traveled through the pipes, igniting the second story of the house. When the fire reached an upstairs bathroom, a clawfoot tub fell through the ceiling into the downstairs kitchen as the floor gave way, bringing the flames with it.

Fortunately, Ross was in Louisville at the time and wasn’t injured in the fire.

“I got a call at 1:07 in the morning from a friend who said, ‘Tomi, your house is on fire,’” Ross remembers. “So I rushed back here, I got back in like 45 minutes – that’s a speed record from Louisville.”

Ross, who had lived in the old house for 27 years with her partner, Catherine, has to search diligently for a photo of the home, because the fire destroyed most of her photographs, along with the majority of her other belongings.

What wasn’t destroyed, friends and neighbors helped pull from the wreckage.

“The day after the fire, I was standing in the backyard, in a daze,” Ross said. “People all around me were carrying out my possessions.”

But the outpouring of help from neighbors didn’t stop there.

Some children in the neighborhood drew Ross pictures of her old home to help cheer her up, and she said whenever she got a new refrigerator, their illustrations would go up on it. Ross says she remembers seeing the horror on the children’s faces when they realized that she no longer had a refrigerator, let alone a kitchen, after the fire. Wanting to assist their neighbor, the kids hosted a lemonade stand to help raise money for Ross.

Another neighbor suggested Ross rent a home he owned just down the street; other neighbors lent her furniture to use.

The location of the rented house was very convenient for Ross, a senior facilities manager at UK Healthcare. She could watch the construction of her new home, which had to be built from the ground up since the former structure had to be demolished.

After talking to a number of contractors for the design and build of her new home, Ross chose Angela Forsee and Greystone Restoration.

“I knew it was the perfect fit for the project,” Ross said. Although Greystone doesn’t specialize in new builds, Forsee understood the period housing that Ross wanted to recreate.

Shelby Reynolds’ and David Bartley’s backyard garden on Aurora Avenue probably has more “rooms” than there are in the couple’s home.

And as with most rooms in a home, each one of their garden rooms has a theme or motif, all loosely tied together by an overriding concept.

For Reynolds and Bartley, that idea is a celebration of different cultures. Some of the most prominent features and nooks in their highly stylized backyard are heavily influenced by the tastes and fashions of people from around the globe.

“It’s our around the world tour,” Reynolds said.

The first thing that will catch a visitor’s attention is the ornate water fountain sprouting out in the middle of the yard. Reynolds says the feature is reminiscent of an European, especially Italian, couryard.

Encircled by the only patch of grass in the whole backyard (and front yard, for that matter), Reynolds says they don’t have to do much mowing.

“That was part of the original plan,” he said, “to get rid of the grass. So I just have one of those little spiral push mowers.”

Reynolds has lived in the house since 1987, and for the first 15 years, Reynolds says the couple had a typical backyard – a flat, rectangular plot of grass with some trees and some simple landscaping. But after the space was decimated after the 2003 ice storm, they decided they would give their yard a considerable facelift after a very considerable cleanup effort.

The garden was assembled on a “room by room” basis, as time and effort would permit. As the seasons progressed, a number of plants began to make appearances, such as climbing hydrangea, a weeping Norway spruce, rhubarb, pom pom junipers, arundo grass, rosebush, boxwood and bonsai.

Morningside Woodcrafters co-owner Willy Brown. PHOTOS BY ROBBIE CLARK

Brand new furniture has been coming out of Morningside Woodcrafters for over 23 years. Or furniture that’s as good as new – it depends on what service the customer wants.

The two-person team that makes up the business, Willy Brown and Shelby Reynolds, specialize in different aspects of wooden furniture. Brown restores or repairs old pieces; Reynolds custom builds new pieces.

Brown and Reynolds have been in business together since they opened their workshop on National Avenue (Morningside Addition is the old name of the area), and they’ve been in the same location ever since.

Brown grew up around his father’s woodworking shop in Lancaster, where he started working after school and in the summers when he was 10 years old. Skilled cabinet makers and other artisans worked in the shop too, and Brown learned about furniture repair watching and learning from them. An interest blossomed, and he hasn’t done anything else since.

As Brown grew older and more accomplished, he eventually took over his father’s business, and ultimately decided to move it to Lexington, where a number of his clients were already located.

At that time, Reynolds was working for another Lexington woodworking company. An acquaintance of Brown’s, Reynolds suggested the two open a shop together when Brown was relocating to Lexington.

“I said, ‘Let’s do this together,’ because I was wanting to get out on my own as well,” Reynolds said. “But it’s kind of a scary proposition to get out there and do it by yourself.”

Reynolds (whose backyard garden is featured here) first recognized his talents for furniture making while taking woodworking classes in junior high school and high school. He attended Centre College as a theatre major, and after graduating stayed at the school for two years helping to build sets for school productions. Then he decided he was more interested in finer woodworking and enrolled in an apprentice furniture-making program in Massachusetts.

Through the years, Reynolds says that the way he builds custom furniture – from chairs and tables to grandfather clocks and beds – hasn’t changed, but new technology has changed the way he works with clients, especially when it comes to e-mailing and texting pictures.

“For a long time, I didn’t want to get a cell phone when they were new,” he said. “With texting, customers can send me pictures, and we can talk back and forth with just a text. It’s so convenient, especially for sending pictures. I can look at something and say, ‘This is going to cost this much.’”

The old kitchen in Tim and Beverly Walden’s Richmond Road home wasn’t anywhere near large enough as one would expect out of the size of the house.

It was small and cramped, “with a big island in the middle, so when you opened the refrigerator door, it hit the island,” Beverly said. Whenever the couple was entertaining, there was always a bottleneck at one of the entrances.

When the couple decided they would completely rework their kitchen last year, they used the services of Chris and Cindy Hopkins of C & C Home Improvements, a husband-and-wife design and construction company based in Nicholasville.

To open up the kitchen to flow into a casual dining room, a bearing wall was removed and a countertop sitting area was installed while the entryway was widened.

The kitchen island was taken out, which exposed missing portions of the hardwood floor. Instead of replacing the flooring, which the Waldens liked, with its rustic, hand peg nails, Chris Hopkins patched in the gaps to give a uniform appearance.

Custom-made cabinets, extending to the ceiling, gave the family much-needed storage space. Interestingly, pieces of a laundry room and coat closet were morphed into a “prep kitchen,” complete with the former kitchen’s cabinets and recut pieces of its granite countertops. Being close to the grilling station outside, the prep kitchen serves as a space where work can be done without messing up the formal kitchen. The Waldens also use the prep kitchen for their day-to-day countertop appliances, so the main kitchen isn’t cluttered.

James Caudill is sometimes accused of making it hard for people to come eat at his restaurant, Dad’s Deli, which showcases the handful of cheese spreads, called Dad’s Favorites, Caudill has created in the past few years.

The soup and sandwich shop is virtually hidden in the back of the Garden Springs Shopping Center’s arcade shops, and their small window of business is only 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, I’ve got a real job and I can’t get over there,’” Caudill said. “And I say, ‘Well, I’m sorry.”

But for those that can make it out to Dad’s for lunch, and there are many, they don’t mind. The lines are already long enough.

On a busy day in early April, as the line to the counter started to backup down the arcade’s hallway, Caudill, in an ever-present flat cap, was taking the time to speak with people waiting to order, check on some tables, and even get his picture taken with some customers who had reached the upper level in the deli’s loyalty program. If a customer buys 10 sandwiches, and keeps track of their card, the 11th is on the house. At first, the used cards would be displayed on the walls, but wall space filled up quickly. To conserve space, they said for those loyal customers who filled up three cards, they would get their framed photo, with Caudill, mounted on the wall. Now, after all the walls have been festooned with used cards and photos, a digital photo screen displays slideshows of the most recent faithful eaters.

Caudill, who employees his two sons, Jayson and Jeff, in the deli and in the cheese spread operations of the business, says that customer interaction, and definitely appreciation, is just as important as the food.

“That’s one thing I tried to instill in my boys – you want to treat people the way you would want to be treated. They want to know you, you want to know them,” Caudill said. “The ones that don’t want to know us, they aren’t going to be our customers anyway.”

The deli opened in October of 2010. To keep up with the growing demand for Caudill’s cheese spreads, Caudill fitted a commercial kitchen in Garden Springs Shopping Center earlier that year. The space had a small front, which Caudill intended to paper over since they were making the spreads in the back, but Joe Singleton, who owns and works at Garden Springs Barber Shop across the hallway, said that he had four barbers who eat out every day. The owners of next-door Alterations & Sew Much More echoed the same notion.

At minimum, Caudill figured that serving simple sandwiches might be a good way to market the handful of spreads they were producing in the back. They would put a table out in the hallway in case a customer wanted to hang out and eat.

“If we can make a $100 a month to pay the electric bill, we’ll be happy,” Caudill remembers saying about the idea. “Next thing you know, one table turned into 10. … It’s one of those things where we had no idea that it was going to take off like this. But we figured, if we put the love in it, if we try to make food that we like, let’s see if other people like it.”

The quick and robust popularity of Dad’s Deli runs parallel to the cheese spreads, which Caudill started producing, commercially at least, in 2008. Prior to that, always fond of cooking, he would prepare the spreads for parties or other social gatherings.

He remembers one tailgate where someone first gave him the idea to make the spreads for retail.

“Somebody stood up and said, ‘Who made this?’ I kind of cringed,” Caudill recalls. “I thought somebody had gotten sick or something.”

Being raised on the eastern seaboard in places between New York City and Washington, D.C., livestock is not something with which Penny Whitman was familiar growing up.

But looking at her interact with the fine flock of five heritage breed chickens she keeps in her backyard in the Southland neighborhood, you might think she was raised on a farm.

Whitman represents an ever-increasing trend among city dwellers, young and old, who are exhibiting more and more rustic and agrarian sensibilities. She said she first became interested in organic gardening, and it just seemed like a “natural progression to have chickens.”

But it was a fellow North Easterner who really convinced her to fly the coop. Susan Orlean, a celebrated author and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, published an article a few years ago (titled “The It Bird,” it’s still a very popular read) about her foray into backyard chicken raising, and Whitman was smitten.

“It was so compelling, and for whatever reason, she went for it. So I did,” she said.

Whitman also thought the endeavor would be a good project for her and her son, Frank.

Jeremy Porter, a chicken expert with Seedleaf, a local food and sustainability organization, and organizer with CLUCK! (Cooperative of Lexington Urban Chicken Keepers) says this notion of families raising chickens together is what drives many people to put up coops in their backyards.

“I think for most it’s enjoyable to see an animal flourish under their care and given the proper nurturing and attention,” he said. “Plus, there’s food involved, and it can be beneficial for children to see that eggs can come from their chickens and not the grocery store.”

Whitman started, in 2009, with two light Brahma chickens, Colette (who is still in Whitman’s brood) and Cookie, which she purchased from a Cynthiana farmer she found online. The farmer gave Whitman a few suggestions: don’t start with chicks the first time; get a heritage breed on the verge of laying (the term to describe a hen almost to the point of being able to produce eggs).

Since then she has brought other heritage breeds into the fold: Marguerite, a Black Marans; Sabine, a Cochin; and Cloud and Cecile, two White Plymouth Rocks Whitman has raised since chicks.

The purple deadnettle is a very common weed from the mint family.

Sprouting weeds are one of the first signs of spring, but unlike other buds and blooms, we tend not to welcome these plants. There are three weedy plants that clients invariably ask me about.

Here is the most common question I get: “There is this little weed with tiny white flowers, it’s everywhere, and it pops seeds when I try to pull it out. What the heck is this?” I’ll bet you know exactly what I’m talking about, and I’m sure I could find some in most any backyard in Lexington. It is Cardamine hirsuta, better known as hairy bittercress.

Hairy bittercress is an annual with a pretty little basal rosette of leaves. Flowering stems, just a few inches long, grow out of the center of the rosette. Look very closely and you may see scattered hairs on the leaves, especially around their bases. Tubular seed pods project nearly straight upwards, each containing many tiny seeds. If you try to pull the plant after the seed pods ripen, you will experience their carpet bombing attributes. Seeds everywhere, projected as far as 10 feet.

This plant produces flowers and seeds vigorously before most other plants have reached the reproductive stage. It can complete its life cycle in three to four weeks to disperse thousands of seeds, all of which can germinate to release their own seeds in quick succession, so it can dominate yards and gardens if not caught in the early stages. They grow best in damp, recently disturbed soil, which pretty much defines garden beds in the spring.

Hairy bittercress is a member of the mustard family. While we do have beautiful native mustards, this is not one of them – it is native to Europe and Asia. Apparently the young, tender leaves add a peppery bite to a salad and can be added to soups.

Another common weed is from the genus Lamium. Actually, there are two similar plants: purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) and henbit (Lamium amplexicaule). Both are in the mint family and have that characteristic square stem but no minty odor. Pinkish or purplish tiny tubular flowers grow in whorls around the stem. These plants grow in moist, disturbed areas and look very much alike. If you’re interested in telling them apart, here’s how: purple deadnettle’s leaves have a stem (petiole), a pointed tip and a triangular shape; henbit’s upper leaves have no stems and are circular or heart shaped, with big, scalloped edges.

The interior space has seen a significant makeover since Regatta shut its doors in November, with rustic hardwood floors, modern and sophisticated equine-themed art work and ambient lighting. The patio, which overlooks the pond at Lexington Green, was still undergoing its final touches during a mid-April visit, but our server – who was quite friendly and knowledgeable – assured us that the restaurant had plans to open it before May 1.

First things first; my guest and I started with an Austin Mule (a spin on the Moscow Mule, only with Tito’s vodka, ginger beer, lime juice) and the Benton’s 46 Manhattan, made with Maker’s 46 bourbon infused in-house with Benton’s bacon. In an interesting (and actually quite delicious) twist, the Manhattan was garnished with candied bacon. The drink menu featured several other creative cocktails as well, including four options that are only $5 during happy hour.

Poet, Publisher and Literary Activist Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

An accomplished poet, teacher and translator; founder of the longstanding creative writing group Poezia; founder and host of a literary-themed radio show; and founder and senior editor of her own press (whew) – it’s no wonder Katerina Stoykova-Klemer has become a household name among the Lexington literary scene.

Given her extensive accomplishments, it might surprise folks to learn that the local literary scene is not something she dove into headfirst upon moving to Lexington from her native Bulgaria in the mid 1990s. A writer from an early age, Klemer came to the states to marry her American fiance (now husband), whom she initially met through the pen pal organization International Pen Friends, but between raising her son, living in a new country, and working full-time as a project manager and software engineer for Lexmark, she experienced a distance from writing for more than a decade.

“I wrote a lot before I came, then when I came to the United States, something happened and I didn’t write for 11 years,” she said. “Then all of a sudden, I started writing again – in English.”

Klemer said the experience of being reacquainted with writing – in a new language, no less – was challenging, but liberating as well.

“For the first time, I learned to tell the truth to myself,” she said.

“Accents” (she speaks with a lovely Eastern-European one) has become a major theme in Klemer’s life – and the title of her radio show, an annual literary reading she organizes, and the publishing company she founded in 2010, which is currently her primary job.

While it maintains a strong focus on local and regional poets, Accents Publishing occasionally publishes prose (something Klemer says she would like to do more of in the future) and also highlights national and international authors. Expanding the press’ focus is a distinct part of Klemer’s strategy for the press – something she hopes will ultimately help put local authors on a larger literary map.

“It’s wonderful to have a local press that highlights the local community, the local art and local talent,” she said, “but unless (we include authors from) outside this area, then our press is not relevant outside this area.”

Like many other major projects she has embarked on, Klemer had some initial hesitations about starting her own publishing company.

In a class with fried chicken and the amber spirits that define other traditions, Kentucky barbecue has a rich history of its own. The author writes, “Although that noted Kentucky institution, the barbecue, is not by any means confined to the Bluegrass, yet it is only there that it reaches its happiest development.”

Berry’s intention is for “The Kentucky Barbecue Book” to be an introduction to the regional culinary traditions, as well as serve as a travel guide to seek out the best “mom-and-pop smoked-meat destinations in the Commonwealth.”

He provides a map of Kentucky barbecue regions designating as areas preferring brisket and beef ribs, pork shoulder and vinegar dip, hickory smoked mutton and burgoo, pork shoulder with vinegar-cayenne table sauce – county by county – and while by no means exclusive, it does offer an interesting guide to the variety the region offers.

Providing information on the cuts of meat, varieties of meat, and varieties of wood for the fire, Berry sets up a veritable roadmap for the lovers of all things barbecued – complete with descriptions of authentic and tastebud-worthy side dishes and recipes for the sauces that offer the distinct flavors. Homemade ice cream, buttermilk pie, fried Amish pie, grilled cabbage, cheese grits, various potato salad recipes, and green bean recipes are sprinkled throughout the book. Baked beans, sweet and sour slaw, and signature sauces adorn the pages, and it is with this that Berry admits that a good part of the enjoyment of each meal comes from the folks doing the mixing, firing and cooking.

First, the Numbers

The 2013 paving allocation per the adopted budget was $3,080,000. Pursuant to a council-adopted formula, it is allocated in each district based on the total paving need of the district as a percentage of the whole. Because of the expanded size of our district after the census and redistricting, we received $376,540. That isn’t much against our total inspected need, but it is second highest among all 12 districts.

When you see new paving going on about town and in our area, it will be in short “fits and starts” as we had so little money against the estimated $26 million overall need. For instance, you’ll see paving in the two blocks of Clays Spring Lane or the two blocks of Cochran Road from Hart Road to Providence Lane. That is the original budget being spent.

What’s Next

Last fall the Planning and Public Works Committee – and then the full council – embraced and enacted a heretofore underutilized financing method. Based on continuing income from the state, we know the minimum amount we as a community will receive will be no less than $3 million per year in our share of the gas tax income in the form of Municipal Aid Program (MAP) funding. The plan is to commit half of that as a bond payment. That income produces a net bonding of $13 million, roughly half the inspected repaving need across the city. The bond documents, in final form, are currently on the council’s docket for final approval. Most district representatives, including me, have turned in lists to use those funds as quickly as possible.

This article reminded me of a New York Times article, titled “The Fat Trap.” Both of these articles concluded that there are genetic factors that make both exercising and being of normal weight more difficult. People read these articles and quickly jump to the conclusion that they don’t have to exercise or watch what they eat because it’s no use, their genetics are never going to allow them to be successful.

This is wrong. The fact that some of us are wired to dislike exercise is not permission to abandon all efforts. It is a reminder that some of us, due to uncontrollable factors, have to work harder to keep up with a regular exercise routine.

So, why do some people naturally hate exercise? Let’s take a look:

First let’s talk about genetics. A study done at Iowa State shows that how people interpret their body sensations during and after exercise plays a large role in whether they enjoy it or not. Some people are “wired” to enjoy the feeling of muscle soreness, sweating and being physically challenged, while some brains interpret these same sensations as terrible, even dangerous. Your body naturally tries to get you to avoid things it thinks are dangerous or bring you pain, therefore you are not motivated to produce those body sensations again.

Country/blues/Americana artist Justin Townes Earle will perform at Buster’s on Friday.

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Click here for a comprehensive listing of this weekend’s live music!

Participants can learn more about the trees on this fun and casual walk about the estate while sampling some of Kentucky’s best bourbons, including special selections by Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and Four Roses.

Click the image to see the garden layout

The Kenwick Neighborhood Association and Victory Christian Church are gathering volunteers to help construct the organizations’ community garden.

The garden will be located at the corner of Owsley and Cramer avenues, in Victory Christian Church’s back lot.

From 1 − 4 p.m. April 27, volunteers and organizers will participate in a “build day,” in which five 16 foot by 4 foot raised beds will be assembled from cedar plants and filled with a topsoil-compost blend.

Celebrate Bike Month by attending or participating in these great events during May:

• Bike Lexington Commuter Challenge
• Bluegrass Cycling Club Group Bike Rides
• Bike Progressive Dinner
• Bike-in Movies, including Fountain Films on Friday Presented by Hilliard Lyons, which will show “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”
• Pedal Power Bike Clinics
• Central Bank Thursday Night Live
• Horsey Hundred

“Blood is needed in the event of accidents, illness or natural disasters, and that’s serious business. But this week, we’re having a little fun with a Zombie Blood Drive. You just never know when you’ll need blood in a Zombie Apocalypse,” said Martha Osborne, KBC’s Executive Director of Marketing and Recruitment.

Donors will have the chance to win tickets to the AGL upcoming production of “William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead,” an apocalyptic comedy featuring great men of history surviving against the undead with both wit and sword. The production opens May 9. Donors will also have the opportunity to be made over into zombies by AGL make-up artists.

The series, which is shot from a helicopter equipped with a state-of-the-art Cineflex HD camera system, will be visiting Kentucky starting April 27 to shoot across the state, filming the natural and manmade wonders of the region. The filming is part of one of the most expansive aerial television series ever produced.

From the famous Bluegrass region to the “greatest two minutes in sports” at Churchill Downs, “Aerial America” will show a bird’s-eye view of many of these locations:

• The Kentucky Derby, from 500 ft. above
• The Kentucky Bourbon Trail
• The Wilderness Road
• The Capitol Building in Frankfort
• Fort Knox
• The home of Loretta Lynn
• The Corvette Museum
• The Cumberland Plateau
• Daniel Boone National Forest
• Federal Hill Mansion (“My Old Kentucky Home”)

Residential sales increased 22 percent in the first quarter of 2013 versus the first quarter 2012, according to a release from LBAR. The median sales price increased five percent from $137,500 to $145,000.

Townhouse/Condo sales increased 60 percent for the same time period from 80 to 128 sales reported closed in the first three months of 2013. The average days on market dropped 22 percent from 129 to 100 days.

 Renowned cellist and Lexington native Ben Sollee will perform at Woodsongs on Monday. Click here to visit the rest of this week’s live music listings on our sister site, tadoo.com.

Participants are encouraged to skate, walk, bike or skateboard to show support of action sports as a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative mode of transportation, while also demonstrating support for the development of action sports facilities within the Lexington Parks & Recreation system.

Ashland’s 17-acre estate in the center of Lexington has over 400 trees, some of which date back to the 1800s when Kentucky statesman Henry Clay lived there. Arbor Celebration festivities begin at 1 p.m. and will include Free Tree Talk and Tours on the half hour with arborist Dave Leonard; an Adopt a Tree program featuring 100 Ashland trees that individuals may adopt for $50, $100, $250 or $500, which will helps maintain a tree for a year; and Graeter’s Ice Cream.

The UK Wind Symphony concert will begin at 3 p.m. on Ashland’s back lawn. The program will include an assortment of popular traditional band music selections including marches, patriotic pieces, overtures and other family-oriented concert selections. Many of the pieces performed will be inspired by nature in honor of Ashland’s Arbor Celebration. In case of rain, this concert will be moved to the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

The assembly will present a former Cassidy and Morton student, now a senior at Transylvania University who has succeeded with a physical disability; a successful entrepreneur and parent who has overcome a hidden disability; and a surprise UK Athletics start who has overcome a hidden disability – all delivering positive messages to the kids and community.

Visit this week’s live music listings at our sister site, tadoo.com.

Following the alumni game, the UK Rugby JV squad will face off against the Alumni Old Boys, which consists of former players now 40 and over.

At this popular family-friendly event, organizers will be grilling burgers and hot dogs and a DJ will be providing music. There will also be UK Rugby merchandise available for purchase, and donations will be accepted on behalf of the team. Last year organizers raised almost $10,000.

In his address, Gray stated a desire to lower the city’s debt service – money owed to pay off bonds – by 2016 to the point it was less than 10 percent of the city’s overall revenue.

The city received a grant from the Kentucky Division of Forestry to treat some of the blue ash and white ash trees in the city parks with insecticide to get rid of the small exotic pest, according to a press release. Part of the money is also for public education.

The Emerald Ash Borer has been responsible for the death and decline of millions of ash trees in the United States and Canada and threatens a significant number of trees in Lexington and Fayette County.

To prevent the spread of the pest, Fayette and other counties are under a quarantine that prohibits the transportation of firewood, nursery stock and other ash wood products that can spread the insect infestation.

The grant from the forestry division continues the treatment that started about two years ago to save ash trees in the parks.

The MPO is the transportation planning agency for Fayette and Jessamine County. The TIP is a listing of transportation programs and projects for which federal transportation funds will be used during the next four years.

To be eligible for these funds, applicant groups must be either incorporated, active neighborhood/ home-owner associations or a federally recognized non-profit organization 501(c)3. Cooperation between applicant groups is encouraged. For FY 2013-2014, the entire fund is capped at $10,000, with a $10,000 match. It is anticipated there will be multiple awards for this round of funding, according to a press release.

Applications will be evaluated by a review board appointed by the Corridors Commission. Funds will be awarded by June 30 of the award year and participants will have one fiscal year to complete the projects.

Those interested in applying for the funding must apply by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 10, 2013. Instructions (including activities that are eligible and ineligible) and an application are available on the Corridors Commission website.

Through Nov. 30, the Lexington Farmers’ Market will be open every Saturday from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. in Cheapside Park next to the old Fayette County Courthouse on Main Street. Free parking can be found in the Financial Center Garage or in any available street space near the market.

Sunday, April 14th will mark the opening of the Southland Drive market. This market runs every Sunday through October 27th from 10am to 2pm and also offers free parking in the lots adjacent to the market.

On May 2nd, the mid-week markets open and the operations expand to four days a week. Every Tuesday and Thursday, growers will set up in the Lexington Center parking lot at the corner of South Broadway and Maxwell Street from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Every spring since 1999, volunteers have gathered in different locations throughout Lexington to plant over 100,000 tree seedlings and to restore 175 acres of streamside forests, once native to the Bluegrass.

City agencies, such as the Divisions of Environmental Policy, Streets and Roads, and Parks and Recreation, are joined by several private and public partners to support the event. Financial supporters of Reforest the Bluegrass include Kentucky American Water, Keep Lexington Beautiful, Kentucky Utilities, Lexmark, Fortune Collision and Paul Miller Ford, Fayette Local Emergency Planning Committee, Wise Recycling and Perkins Landscape. Other supporters of Reforest the Bluegrass include Bluegrass PRIDE, Lexington’s Environmental Commission, the Kentucky Division of Forestry, the U.S. Forestry Service, and the Cane Run Watershed Council.

Volunteers are welcome to take a break from planting seedlings to explore Hisle Park, which has hiking and riding trails as well as an archery range. Development of this property is ongoing, with fishing ponds, an orchard and garden and a pavilion planned for the site.
Folk singer Mitch Barrett will be playing from 10 a.m. to noon. Volunteers who are planting trees, as well as those exploring the display tent and eating lunch, will be able to hear him from their locations.

Acclaimed alt/grunge outfit The Meat Puppets will play at Cosmic Charlie’s on Wednesday.

Other great shows this week include Richard Thompson, Peter Case, David Mayfield Parade, Green Jelly, Euclid String Quartet, Ed Shrader’s Music Beats, J.J. Grey and Mofro, Victor Wooten and more. View our complete listings for the week at tadoo.com.

Standing next to his 3,000-gallon jellyfish aquarium at Coba Cocina, the new restaurant that opened on Richmond Road in March, Lee Greer recalls one of his first forays into aquatic ornamentation.Greer – the president of Greer Companies, a local hospitality and real estate development company whose portfolio includes, along with Coba Cocina, 35 Cheddar’s restaurants in Kentucky and several contiguous states – was opening one of his first Cheddar’s restaurants, in Johnson City, Tenn. Aquariums, usually behind the bar, are popular features in most Cheddar’s restaurants, but this one, for some reason, had a hairline fracture in the glass, which decided to give way and spill forth its contents – 15 minutes before opening.“That was almost the beginning of the end of the fish tank experiment,” Greer said with a chuckle.

Obviously undeterred, this new aquarium is the piece de resistance of Coba Cocina, which Greer opened in the Idle Hour Shopping Center with his father, Phil, the founder of Greer Companies. Extending nearly 20 feet into the air, the tank is visible from nearly every nook and cranny in the 12,000-square-foot restaurant. Greer says it’s the largest private jellyfish aquarium in the world, and is home to hundreds of moon jellies.

Aquarium aside, from the food to the architecture to the unique concept, Coba Cocina is certainly a distinct Lexington restaurant.

The restaurant is actually three separate, but complementary, concepts: Cocoh! Confectioner, a bakery, cafe and gelateria; Cobar Cantina, an upstairs lounge with a specific small pate (tapas) menu; and Coba Cocina, the intricately decorated downstairs restaurant with seating for nearly 230 people (the entire building can sit upwards of 400).

The cuisine, managed by chef Alejandro Velasquez, is “pan-American,” according to Greer, and is inspired by dishes from Mexico, South America and Latin America, the Baja, and Texas. Coba menu specialities include ceviche, brisket tacos, a Cubano sandwich, agave-BBQ glazed ribs, chicken monterey and “pescado de Yucatan.” Coba offers lunch and dinner, as well as a variety of breakfast items in Cocoh!, which is managed by Velasquez’s wife, Shanyn – a seasoned pâtissière.

The restaurant is named after the city of Coba, on the eastern Gulf Coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, which is a well-known destination because of its Mayan ruins. Its interior was inspired by “cenotes” – sea caves characteristic of Yucatan which were important sources of water and other aspects of the Mayan civilization.

The moon jellies and many other features feed into this nautical and cenote-cave theme, from the 38-foot-wide dome perched on top of the building, to the sparkling blue ceiling panels and the wavy, scale-like, “fish panel” walls. Other pieces and installations play into the Mayan theme, with a row of panels of “glyphs” lining the exterior and ornate, hand-hammered front door pulls at the front entrance.

Dozens of local and central Kentucky craftspeople and professionals contributed to specific components of the building’s full rendering, such as Mike Angelucci, whose company, Angelucci Acoustical, constructed the the restaurant’s large domes, and Bryan Uittenbogaard from Garrard Wood Products, who fashioned the interior’s distinctive walls. Greer said he is excited finally to be able to show off all the work that went into the building, which was designed by architect Todd Ott.

“When this thing was under construction, it was a hodgepodge of all kinds of crazy stuff,” Greer said. “You had a bunch of people thinking we’d just dumped a bunch of leftover building material on to a job site and started throw

ing it together. But now, with the outside really coming together and done, you can get a full appreciation. It is an amazing work of art by the architects and all the craftspeople we had working on it.”

Greer wouldn’t provide the exact amount invested for the multi-million-dollar restaurant, which he said will employ about 200 people, but he did acknowledge that opening more Coba Cocina locations (or perhaps one of the three different concepts) could be a possibility after gauging the success of the initial restaurant’s performance, from the food to the service to the design.

“Frankly, this one could never make money; there’s just too much in it,” Greer said. “This is for Lexington, and we want to get it right. … If you’re ever looking for a return on investment, you’ll never get it in just one. It’ll take several of these.”

Richmond Road Sea Change

Annette Castle is the president of the Idle Hour Neighbors Alliance, an organization which represents the community just north of Richmond Road behind the Idle Hour Shopping Center. She and her husband, Derriel, have lived on St. Ann Drive for 45 years, and during that time they’ve watched the ebb and flow of development along the stretch of Richmond Road between Idle Hour Country Club and New Circle Road, but Castle says nothing really compares to the sea change currently taking place along that busy thoroughfare.

“It’s been fun to watch things change,” she said.

Last Year

At the budget retreat last year, the council, through a collaborative goal-setting session, ranked our priorities. The three that topped the list were, in order, the pension, infrastructure and better investments in our parks. At that time and place those three encompassed what this current year’s priorities would be.

Pension

The pension consensus was reached because of Mayor Jim Gray’s skill set and leadership to bring parties together to arrange a more affordable answer. That measure, which the governor recently signed, mandates that this government will put $20 million per year into the pension system for 30 years. So, relief has a price. Depending on the conversation and the progress being made at the time, the estimated difference between what we have budgeted yearly and will need to budget has fluctuated between about $3 million more. (My estimations calculate about $9 million more.)

Infrastructure

Who knows what sparks our desire to redo a room? It could be something obvious, like a child moving out and you finally have the chance to get that guest bedroom you’ve always wanted. It could be something subtle, like wanting to incorporate a new piece of furniture into a room.

Or it could be that you’re just plain being tired of looking at the same thing day after day and only a new coat of paint can break the monotony.

Sometimes redoing a room can be so daunting, it takes all the fun out of creating a new space in your home. There are many things that need to be considered: color, material, textures, furniture, accessories, functionality, and, of course, a budget.

Whether it is a complete overhaul of your living room or a few tweaks to the color scheme in your kitchen, redoing one, or more, of your rooms requires just as much forethought as it does creativity.

We asked a couple of local designers – Heather Reilly, from adele; Dwayne Anderson, from house by jsd; and Megan Green, from For Friends – to give us some pointers and other aspects to consider when redoing certain rooms of the house, using some of their recent projects as examples.

 

Redid: Living Room

Redoing your pillows is a quick, but effective, method for refreshing your living room if you don’t want to purchase new furniture.

Redoing your living room starts with a little pillow talk. Tired of your sofa, but not ready for a new one? Pillows are the easy answer. The first step is to find a few toss pillows already pre-made at a local design shop. I think of these pillows as the Milli Vanilli of the design world – pretty to look at, but they really don’t sing. Find a fabric that make those basic pillows earn their money. Look for ikat, chevron or tribal patterns – timeless in themselves, yet very new again. The scale of these prints have become larger and new bolder colors have been introduced to really capture the spirit of today’s design focus.

The next step for refreshing this room is working with the windows. When choosing window treatments, the humble drapery panel is a classic option. The linen, Euro pleat style is hard to beat and versatile. Like the “little black dress,” linen can be dressed up or down, yet is always timeless and goes with virtually anything.

The last, easy step to a room makeover is the humble can of paint. Everyone needs a few fans, and I say the paint fan deck should be in everyone’s life.

I think of a humble neutral as a bowl vegetable soup. The soup can be hearty and filling but a little bland. The right spice changes everything. Neutral does not have to be bland.

The classic Lexington paint color Newport Tint is a great color, but other options do exist. I recently used a Sherwin Williams color called Garden Urn. It is a dark grey with muddy undertones and a slight green cast in certain lights. The name really does describe this color beautifully.

Dwayne Anderson is a designer with house by jsd. For more information, call (859) 523-3933 or visit www.housebyjsd.com.

 Redid: Kitchen

If you think colored cabinets might be too bold for your kitchen, try adding color to your island. Simple trays on the island can be functional, and attractive, design elements to keep clutter in check.

Whether you’re doing a facelift or starting over in your kitchen, color on your cabinets can be a scary thought. But the lowly kitchen island is a safe place to add color without going overboard.

A soft mossy green was chosen for this kitchen. The color is applied in a matte finish and then slightly distressed. The effect is soft, subtle and chic, and it’s a big green island.

Lets keep working on that island. Recently while in a kitchen cabinet shop, I overheard a saleperson guide someone to granite counters as if were the only option in the world.

I could not disagree more – yes, granite is a very good answer and pricing has become more competitive – but is not the only answer.

In good design, texture can make a room. Granite is always an option for counters, and pricing has become more competitive over the years, but it’s not the only option. Instead of going with granite, the island top in our design project is a butcher block, stained a rich English walnut.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/room-for-a-redo/feed/ 2 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/growing-community-and-some-tomatoes-too/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/growing-community-and-some-tomatoes-too/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:41:26 +0000 Saraya Brewer http://chevychaser.com/?p=398022

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]]> Kenwick Neighborhood community garden inches toward fruition

Almost a year after the initial seeds for the idea were planted, a community garden in the Kenwick neighborhood is starting to take root. Spearheaded by the Kenwick Neighbor-hood Association (KNA), with seed money provided by the 5th District office, the new garden will be located in the green space behind Victory Christian Church (facing Owsley Avenue).

According to Kenwick Neighborhood Association board member Sara Constantine, the hope is to have the garden installed before the neighborhood’s semi-annual Bungalow Tour, which is scheduled for June 2.

“I don’t know if we’ll necessarily have early spring plantings, but we’ll be ready for tomatoes,” Constantine said, adding that she has heard from more than 40 volunteers interested in helping bring the garden to fruition.

“The response has been fantastic,” she said. “[The neighborhood association] has put together so many events in the past that require volunteers, and I would say this has been the most effortless outpouring of volunteers.”

Fifth District councilmember Bill Farmer, Jr. approached the KNA last summer with the funding opportunity. He said he identified Kenwick as a good location for a community project like this for a number of reasons, including the potential to engage with the Kenwick community center, which is operated by the Lexington Parks & Rec department, and also the opportunity to engage a variety of neighborhood volunteers from a wide range of economic backgrounds.

“What you get is a whole lot of people with ownership now – it’s a chance to bring the people from the community center more into the community,” Farmer said.

“Kenwick a very neighborly group,” he added. “Now you can thread the neighborhood with the church and the community center, with one fairly vibrant spot.”

Several details of the garden still need to be sorted out at the initial April meeting, but Constantine says the biggest hurdles – securing a space and funding – have already been crossed.

Currently, Constantine said she envisions it will be a primarily edible garden utilizing raised beds, with the harvest split between neighborhood volunteers and residents, and also those in need.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/growing-community-and-some-tomatoes-too/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/thatch-watch/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/thatch-watch/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:35:07 +0000 Ann Bowe http://chevychaser.com/?p=398018

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]]> Okay, all you lawn nerds out there, this one’s for you – an entire article devoted to the mysteries of thatch. What, exactly, is thatch? Is it always a problem? Do grass clippings cause thatch?

Thatch is a distinct layer of spongy brown organic matter consisting of living and dead roots, leaves and stems that accumulates between the actively growing grass and the soil surface beneath.

A certain amount of thatch is quite normal and even beneficial. Like mulch, it shades the surface, reducing summer soil temperature and evaporation. It competes with crabgrass. Thatch provides food for beneficial microbes and supplies organic matter to the soil. And it filters stormwater to reduce groundwater contamination.

While excessive thatch is unlikely to kill the grass directly, it can lead to turf health issues that surely can kill your lawn. More than one inch of thatch will block the movement of air, water and nutrients into the soil. This impervious layer causes the grass to root into the thatch layer to get nourishment, which reduces the drought resistance of the turf. Thatch can harbor disease-causing fungi and insects.

Thatch production is all about balance. When the production of new grass shoots is equal to the microbial decomposition of old roots, leaves and shoots, excessive thatch build up won’t be a problem. But, if grass is growing too quickly or the microbes aren’t functioning properly, this balance is lost.

Excessive nitrogen fertilizer makes the grass greener, but it makes the lawn grow faster, too. Also, chemical fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides are detrimental to the beneficial organisms in turf. The result can be too much grass growth combined with reduced microbial action which will allow thatch to build up. Consider an organic lawn care program. Organic fertilizers do not push growth. Rather, they are slow release and nourish the soil in order to provide a healthy growing medium for the grass roots.

Watering should be infrequent and deep. Frequent watering (which is the way irrigation systems are often set) keeps the surface moist, which is where thatch accumulates. Grass roots and shoots will begin to grow in this moist thatch layer instead of in the soil. Grass growing in the nutrient-poor thatch layer is more prone to die when the thatch does dry out. This then adds more dead plant material which accumulates in the thatch layer. Over-irrigating also creates waterlogged soil which damages the aerobic microorganisms.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/thatch-watch/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/restaurant-review-jefferson-davis-inn/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/restaurant-review-jefferson-davis-inn/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:29:17 +0000 Biff Shanks http://chevychaser.com/?p=398014

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]]> One of Lexington’s newest places to eat and, especially in this case, belly up, the Jefferson Davis Inn is one of the first restaurants to emerge from the rubble on South Broadway amid the new housing and apartment complex developments on that busy thoroughfare.

Jefferson Davis Inn, or JDI Grille and Tavern (or just JDI) as it is being referred to, is not the reopening of the former bar that sat at the corner of West High and Limestone streets until closing in 1996. Instead, JDI is a tribute to that popular, bygone nightspot.

My guest and I, being too young to have experienced the original location, weren’t sure how faithful of a homage the new incarnation was; on its own, however, the new JDI, especially the building with its appealing and ample wood and brickwork throughout its three levels, will likely become an attractive haunt for people in the South Hill Neighborhood, most certainly for those from the college community. We went on a recent Tuesday evening, and the restaurant was full and boisterous, though I think the crowds gathering to watch the multitude of television screens and cheer on the UK women’s basketball team advance to the Sweet 16 had something to do with this.

The menu is a quick assortment of appetizers, with items such as chicken wings, beer cheese nachos and fried pickles (priced between $6 and $9); a few salads, including a wedge and salmon; a variety of burgers (priced between $9 and $11) and sandwiches, including chicken, fish, a rueben and a club (priced between $8 and $10); and entrees, which include fish and chips, a pulled pork dinner, steaks, pork chops, and chicken and waffles (priced between $11 and $19).

We started out with beer cheese nachos, which is an interesting regional spin on regular bar nachos, before ordering our entrees; my guest ordered the chicken and waffles, and I had a cajun pasta (andouille sausage and chicken in a heavy cream sauce). The food is on par with your standard pub grub, but we weren’t expecting a fine-dining, gourmet meal.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/restaurant-review-jefferson-davis-inn/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/book-review-ancient-creek/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/book-review-ancient-creek/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:13:19 +0000 Linda Hinchcliffe http://chevychaser.com/?p=398010

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]]> Lexington resident, author and educator, Gurney Norman is a readily recognized advocate of the culture and beauty of the Appalachian region. He grew up in the mountains there and his written works ardently express his love and respect for the area. After working as a reporter for his hometown paper, the Hazard Herald, he joined the UK faculty in 1979 and now serves as Director of the English Department’s Creative Writing Program. He received the much respected title of Poet Laureate for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 2009, a few short years after receiving the Helen M. Lewis Community Service Award – an award that recognized his significant contributions to the Appalachian region through his involvement with and service to its people and their communities. It is with this passion that he provides us “Ancient Creek.”

In a presentation that is no subtle throwback to the folktales told to us and by us in our lifetimes, Norman places the reader down in Holiday Land, located not far from what was once the beautiful and naturalized Appalachian region. King Condominium now rules the area and, as Norman provides: “…wasn’t satisfied with just half. He wanted it all. He’d heard that this Hill Domain had a lot of beautiful rivers and valleys and meadows and great herds and flocks of wild game … So he sent his army down to dispossess the natives and put them to work as laborers for his empire.”

Resistance comes in the form of an elusive hero named Jack. He and a band of natives, and the ancient Aunt Haze from the remote Creek area of the Hill Domain, defy the edicts of King Condominium and break the law with their forbidden telling of stories in their regional dialect, “sitting around an outdoor fire on a hillside, laughing and talking in illegal accents … whittling strange images from blocks of cedar … making an unauthorized wooden chair by hand.” When caught, many endured the unbearable punishment of “life at hard labor as public relations workers for various imperial enterprises,” the author writes. The King’s resolve to capture and eliminate these heathens is absolute.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/book-review-ancient-creek/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/getting-a-chinn-up/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/getting-a-chinn-up/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:09:51 +0000 Saraya Brewer http://chevychaser.com/?p=397998

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]]> Multi-media artist Stacey Chinn uses a variety of material to compose art on an even wider variety of topics

Stacey Chinn got an initial whiff of her future vocation when her first grade teacher told her she was going to be an artist.

“I guess I was fairly impressionable at the age of 6,” said the multi-media artist, who served as the head of Georgetown College’s sculpture department for three years, and has served as adjunct faculty in the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky art departments.

Chinn is one of over 30 regional female artists who will be presenting work at the upcoming “Femme-A-Nest” group art show, a Gallery Hop event and benefit for The Nest Center for Women, Children and Families, with a general “nesting” theme. Chinn will feature several photographs; an installation representing a dozen “nests” or egg-like forms hanging from clothespins; and A knitted piece that incorporates man-made yarn as well as rubber bands, metal wire, grocery bags and other materials.

Known for incorporating a variety of unusual materials into her pieces – synthetic hair, fibers, found objects, metal, wool, wood – Chinn says her attention span is much like that of her 5-year-old daughter. “I’ll be working on something and I’ll literally stumble upon something else,” she said.

This was the case with the photographs that she’s including in the Gallery Hop show – she had been traipsing around in a field, looking for a large stick to incorporate into another piece, when she came across a large pile of scrap metal resembling a nest. She took some photos, thinking the images could inspire a “nesting” piece for the show, and then it occurred to her that the photographs themselves were nest-themed works of art.

“When I think about nesting, you take what’s around your environment and make it into something,” she said.

Chinn took some time away from nesting to answer some questions about her art and other interests. For more images and information about Chinn’s art – including a link to her newest line of wearable art, “alter-knit-ive,” visit her website, www.staceyrchinn.com.

What’s currently on your iPod/ CD player/ record table?

Adele, Billie Holiday, Dolly Parton, Mamas and the Papas, Missy Higgins, Pink, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Rufus Wainwright, Vanessa Carlton, Yann Tiersen, and everything in between.

Favorite TV show?

“Project Runway” – hands down.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/getting-a-chinn-up/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/counting-the-years/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/counting-the-years/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:57:32 +0000 Harriett Rose http://chevychaser.com/?p=397995

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]]> Next year the Carnegie Center will observe and celebrate its 21st birthday. I’m sure there will be articles about what it has meant to Lexington and the people it has served through its teaching, tutoring and mentoring programs.

I want to talk about what it has meant to me and how grateful I am for its contribution to my life. Back in the ‘90s, my retirement activities had gotten a little old and my husband, who had been my research and writing partner during our years working at the university, suggested that I should try writing unrelated to research. I then wrote an article about life in Lexington as it had been and was no longer.

He, that husband who had been the editor of a professional journal, used his editorial skill to make suggestions about my output. I made changes he suggested, but put the article away, assuming it had little merit.

A couple of years later he suggested that I might like a class being offered at the Carnegie Center on non-fiction writing. I dug out the laid aside article and enrolled in the class rather diffidently to see if I really could write.

There were about 15 people in the class, taught by Jan Isenhour then. The custom was that the class members read their pieces and the class and Jan gave gentle critiques to the author.

I was asked to read anything I had brought, as was customary for new class members.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/counting-the-years/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/sticking-around/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/sticking-around/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:49:35 +0000 Esther Marr http://chevychaser.com/?p=389121

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]]> As local interest in lacrosse continues to grow, more players are getting caught up in the fastest sport on two feet

On a warm, March afternoon, Henry Clay High School’s lacrosse team competed valiantly against Northern Kentucky and ran away with an impressive 10-1 victory. As the young players engaged in the fast-paced sport under clear, sunny skies, one thing was apparent: the sheer enjoyment and determination on their faces.

Lacrosse is not a school-sponsored sport in Lexington, but rather a team activity made possible by the Lexington Youth Lacrosse Association. Currently offered at all of the city’s high schools and nine middle schools, as well as at Transylvania University as a NCAA Division III sport and at the University of Kentucky as a club sport, the LYLA board consists of coaches, officials, parents, and advocates of lacrosse and the sport’s development in the Lexington area.

LYLA president Linda Borkosky, whose son plays for Tates Creek High School, caught her first glimpse of the sport’s positive impact on youth when she helped get a team started at Tates Creek Middle School five years ago.

“I witnessed several boys that were not that vested in school suddenly have a reason to attend school regularly, keep their behavior in check, their grades at least at a 2.0 and have a connection to their school,” she said. “Anytime you can give students a reason to be connected to their school, good things usually happen.”

As enthusiasm for the sport started to spread around the city, LYLA grew rapidly, with the organization adding around nine teams to public schools in the last few years. This year, LYLA plans to launch the first girls’ middle and high school teams.

“It’s a lot of work but when you see the rewards of players on the field enjoying a great sport, it’s suddenly all worth it,” Borkosky said.

LYLA also sponsors youth and middle school lacrosse conglomerate teams called the Lexington Lizards for players in the Lexington area that do not have a school team.

“Lacrosse has exploded in popularity as more kids see the game played on ESPN and on the high school field,” said Candace Clay, a local parent that helped get the Lexington Lizards off the ground.

Kim Eldridge, who serves as the LYLA field committee chair, feels lacrosse has gained quick popularity because of the ability of most individuals to pick up the sport, become proficient and hone their skills in a fairly quick manner. Youth also develop an affinity for lacrosse because of the fast-paced, exciting nature of the game.

“There’s also room (in the sport) for people that aren’t experienced,” Eldridge said. “As soon as my son, Grayson, picked up a stick he was hooked. When your kid hasn’t liked any other team sport, and they find something they love, you find a way for them to play.”

Grayson and Clay’s son, Sam, were able to play lacrosse with Sayre’s youth team in fourth grade. Even though they didn’t attend Sayre, the school let them join since it didn’t have enough members to field a team. Now teenagers and still going strong in the sport, Grayson and Sam currently play for Henry Clay High School.

Julie McDonald, the coordinator for the newly launched girls’ lacrosse teams, has a son that plays for Morton Middle School. She noted that lacrosse is known as “the fastest sport on two feet.”

“Players and parents quickly become addicted to lacrosse because it combines all the most exciting features of other sports into one game,” she said. “Lacrosse also has a very strong national governing body, U.S. Lacrosse, and a strong local organization, LYLA, that have ensured the game grows with a continuing emphasis on safety and sportsmanship.”

“(Lacrosse) offense is similar to basketball – pick and rolls, backdoor cuts, and give-and-go passing,” added veteran lacrosse expert Terry Justice, who is currently the head coach at Transylvania University. “The contact is similar to both football and hockey. The hand-eye coordination needed to catch and throw the ball with a lacrosse stick is similar to baseball skills.”

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/sticking-around/feed/ 0 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/register-your-business-for-bike-lexington-commuter-challenge/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/register-your-business-for-bike-lexington-commuter-challenge/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:43:49 +0000 Staff http://chevychaser.com/?p=389118

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]]> Registration for this year’s Bike Lexington Commuter Challenge, presented by Pedal Power, will open April 8, and the challenge runs from May 1 through 31.

During the challenge, registered business employees will commute to work via bike and log the mileage through the month. Business teams will be grouped into one of four categories according to company size.

The Commuter Challenge serves to help cyclists feel more comfortable on the road while creating awareness of biking in Lexington and encouraging an alternative method of transportation. In 2012, nearly 30 businesses competed in the event, totaling 3,527 trips and 11,729 miles traveled by bicycle in the month of May.

Last year’s winners were: Bullhorn Marketing (small group, 0 – 10 employees), UK Department of Statistics (medium group, 11 – 25 employees), The Hive from UK (large group, 26 – 100 employees) and Good Foods Market and Cafe (extra large group, 101 and more employees).

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/register-your-business-for-bike-lexington-commuter-challenge/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/keeneland-spring-meet-preview/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/keeneland-spring-meet-preview/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:39:55 +0000 Natalie Voss http://chevychaser.com/?p=389115

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]]> Birds are chirping, the (hopefully final) pop-up flurries are blowing out of town and Keeneland Race Course has launched its “Countdown to Race Meet” clock on its website – all welcome signs of spring. Keeneland’s spring meet will run this year from Friday, April 5 to Friday, April 26 and as usual, there will be something for everyone.

For race fans

Horse racing is entering its busiest season of the year as the Kentucky Derby looms on the first Saturday in May. Three-year-old racehorses will be running their final races in preparation for the Derby over the next month, and many will make a stop at Keeneland.

Unlike previous years, in which the Derby’s 20 starters were selected by their earnings in graded stakes races, this year’s contenders will be chosen based upon the number of points they have earned in designated races. The points system, dubbed The Road to the Kentucky Derby, includes 36 races in which the top four finishers can earn a number of pre-determined points. Keeneland’s traditional Derby prep races, the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on April 13 and Grade 3 Coolmore Lexington Stakes will each offer points to top finishers. A win in the 1 1/8-mile Blue Grass is one of the highest values in the system with 100 points, and a win in the 1 1/16-mile Lexington Stakes is worth 20.

Among the anticipated field to the Blue Grass Stakes is Will Take Charge, who will be looking for another win after his victory in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes. Derby veteran trainer D. Wayne Lukas conditions the colt for Willis Horton. Uncaptured, runner-up in the March 23 Spiral Stakes at Turfway, will also be hoping to cinch a Derby entry for owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse.

The stakes calendar offers thrills for those not interested in the Derby trail, also. Among the highlights of the meet, which will include 16 stakes races, are the Grade 1 Central Bank Ashland Stakes on April 6, which is worth $500,000. Early nominations for the Ashland include Beholder, winner of last year’s Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies who will be looking to add to her earnings of over $1.3 million for local owner Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella.

For handicapping fans

Keeneland’s announcement earlier this year that it will raise purses could draw more entries in less-prestigious maiden and allowance races, which may provide more challenging fields to bet. The track will offer spectators the chance to try their hands at wagering with three handicapping contests on April 10, April 17 and April 24. For a $10 buy-in, contestants can place virtual $2 wagers on five of the day’s races, for a chance at prize money and an all-expense paid trip to the 2014 Coast Casinos Horseplayers World Series in Las Vegas.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/keeneland-spring-meet-preview/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/live-music-listings-april-2-8/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/live-music-listings-april-2-8/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:00:36 +0000 Saraya Brewer http://chevychaser.com/?p=386265

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]]> The free downtown concert series Thursday Night Live will kick off the 2013 season with James Brown tribute band The Payback on Thursday.

Visit tadoo.com for our comprehensive list of this week’s live music!

 

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/04/live-music-listings-april-2-8/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/shepherds-house-opening-permanent-housing-facility/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/shepherds-house-opening-permanent-housing-facility/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:30:07 +0000 Robbie Clark http://chevychaser.com/?p=376794

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]]> The Shepherd’s House, a local transitional residential treatment program for adult men recovering from substance abuse, is planning on opening its first permanent housing facility at the corner of Dinsmore Drive and Fontaine Drive.

The organization, which has worked with individuals since 1989, purchased the apartment building at 2117 Fontaine Dr. in November of 2012 for $340,000, according to Fayette County PVA records.

Since the organization started in 1989, The Shepherd’s House has assisted more than 1,300 individuals, said executive director Jason Thomas. The non-profit currently operates three other facilities in Lexington for clients in the 12- to 18-month transitional living program, where they must obtain employment, become involved in a sobriety program (such as Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous), undergo counseling, avoid legal troubles and maintain sobriety to graduate. During the transitional living program, Shepherd’s House clients are instructed in an array of life skills, such as budgeting finances, setting goals and learning valuable employment information.

The permanent housing facility is tentatively scheduled to open in June of this year, and will be able to accommodate nine clients who have already graduated from the transitional living program, meaning, among other things, that have been clean and sober for at least one year.

“It will be our clients who are much more stable,” Thomas said, “And if they continue to do what they are supposed to, they are welcome to stay there. This just provides them with a safe and affordable place for housing.”

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/shepherds-house-opening-permanent-housing-facility/feed/ 3 http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/clay-family-reunion-coming-to-ashland/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/clay-family-reunion-coming-to-ashland/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:28:17 +0000 Staff http://chevychaser.com/?p=376790

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Along with a family reunion, there will be other events focusing on the trees on Ashland's grounds.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the Clay family coming to America when John Claye arrived in Jamestown in 1613, Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate will be hosting a series of events in April called Clay Roots.

If your name is Clay, you might likely be related to the “Great Compromiser,” Henry Clay. There are thousands of Clay descendants across the country, and many here in Kentucky. There will be a large Clay Family Roots Day from 2 − 4 p.m. on April 20, but you don’t have to be a Clay to attend the activities, which include tours of the historic home, genealogy talks, family portraits and an ice cream social.

Other Clay Roots events include:

Ashland Stakes, April 6
Ashland Stakes race at Keeneland. The race is named for Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate and Clay was a major force in making Lexington the “Horse Capital of the World” with his thoroughbred breeding operation. The race is sponsored by Central Bank. After a day at Keeneland, enjoy an Ashland Steak special at Dudley’s (120 West Short). Clay, a farmer, brought the first Hereford Cattle to the United States.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/clay-family-reunion-coming-to-ashland/feed/ 2 http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/live-music-listings-march-26-april-1/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/live-music-listings-march-26-april-1/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:12:22 +0000 Saraya Brewer http://chevychaser.com/?p=374819

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New Mexico-based alternative band Howling Hex (featuring guitarist and producer Neil Hagerty of Royal Trux) will perform at Cosmic Charlie’s on Sunday.

Click here to visit our complete live music listings at tadoo.com!

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/live-music-listings-march-26-april-1/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/thursday-night-live-gets-an-early-start-in-april/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/thursday-night-live-gets-an-early-start-in-april/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:29:11 +0000 Staff http://chevychaser.com/?p=374817

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]]> Fans of Thursday Night Live, a popular downtown music series held every week during warmer months of the year at the Fifth Third Pavilion, will be excited to see the program’s early start date this year.

This year TNL will run from April 4 – Oct. 31; in the past the music series began later in April.

Bands will play from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., and food and beverage booths will be set up and open for business 4:30 – 8 p.m.

]]> http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/thursday-night-live-gets-an-early-start-in-april/feed/ 1 http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/student-environmental-group-keeping-thousands-of-water-bottles-form-landfill/ http://chevychaser.com/2013/03/student-environmental-group-keeping-thousands-of-water-bottles-form-landfill/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:47:16 +0000 Staff http://chevychaser.com/?p=374811

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Each high school's cafeteria has a bottle refilling station and a second one in another high-traffic area.

The Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council (BYSC), an environmental advocacy group comprised of 30 public and private high school students in Fayette County, with funding from Kentucky American Water and the FCPS Child Nutrition Department, has installed bottle refilling stations in all area high schools. Bottle refilling stations installed on two water fountains per high school encourage students to bring reusable containers and thereby cut down on plastic in landfills. In the first week, more than 3,600 containers were filled in the five public high schools, and usage has increased since early February.

The BYSC is an environmental advocacy group made up of 30 students from public and private high schools in Lexington. Among their various initiatives are leading energy audits in the main office building of Fayette County Public Schools, working with elementaries to promote rain gardens and hosting an Earth Day celebration.

“By just bringing a reusable water bottle, every single student can impact sustainability,” said Marie Armbruster, a junior at Lafayette High School. “This is just a start, but it empowers students to make the small changes that collectively will result in a major impact on our local solid waste.”

The National History Bee provides tournaments that are fair, educational and lots of fun for all. The substance and style of questions reward students who can make connections across eras, places and themes in history, and they learn that history is one key to understanding every human endeavor – from the battlefield to the baseball field, from sacred places to the science lab.

The event will be held April 19, and volunteers can register anytime between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the Fifth Third Bank Pavilion, where they will be armed with trash bags, recycling bags, gloves and hand sanitizer (the first 200 volunteers will receive a free t-shirt and refreshments). In case of rain, the clean-up effort will be April 26.

East Short Street between Elm Tree Lane and Curley Avenue;

Appian Way between Centre Parkway and Octavian Way;

Kenesaw Drive between Armstrong Mill Road and Brentmoor Drive;

Bob O Link Drive between Harrodsburg Road and Shaker Drive;

Woodford Drive between Versailles Road and Brittany Lane.

Lanes on Euclid Avenue will be blocked as needed at Woodland Avenue on Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, from 6 p.m.-8 a.m. for utility work.

The right lane of the outer loop of Man O’ War Boulevard will be blocked between Rapid Run Drive and Mt. McKinley Way from Monday, March 25, through Friday, April 5, for sidewalk replacement.

The inbound right lane and sidewalk area of Versailles Road will be blocked between Alexandria Drive and Village Drive from Monday, March 25, through Wednesday, March 27, for sewer work.

A rolling lane closure will block one lane at a time of North Limestone Street between West Short Street and West Sixth Street through Tuesday, March 26, for sewer work.

The right outbound lane of Winchester Road will be blocked between Dayton Avenue and Lliberty Road through Friday, March 29, to replace a gas main.

The index is a tool designed by Keep America Beautiful to assess the overall appearance of communities through indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, abandoned/junked vehicles and outside storage.

KLB is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and the index is a requirement for affiliates.

“We are blessed with an abundance of natural beauty in Lexington, but unfortunately that beauty is damaged by unsightly litter,” said Patricia Knight, chairperson of the KLB Commission. “The visual survey indicates the amount of litter as well as locations where it is more prominent.”

The appointment of Speaks, also a professor of architecture, concludes a national search to replace former Dean Mark Robbins, who stepped down last spring. Speaks will assume his position on July 1, according to a statement issued by Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina.

The former director of the graduate program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, Speaks has taught in the graphic design department at the Yale School of Art, and in the architecture schools at Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of Michigan, UCLA, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., and the Berlage Institute and TU Delft, in the Netherlands. Speaks has published and lectured internationally on contemporary art, architecture, urban design and scenario planning. His essays and exhibitions in the 1990s were among the first to introduce a new generation of Dutch architects and planners to a broader audience in North America.

“I am thrilled to join the Syracuse University School of Architecture, among the most highly regarded programs in the U.S. and, indeed, in the world,” Speaks says. “It is a distinct honor to follow those esteemed deans and school leaders who came before me and who put the school on such a strong foundation. Working with faculty, staff and students, and exploring new opportunities on the horizon, I am confident that together we will build upon and enhance the reputation and standing of this truly great school of architecture.”

Speaks has played an important role in recent debates about city branding and alternative models of city planning, authoring a number of essays and advisory studies, as well as overseeing scenario studies commissioned by city and regional governments in the U.S. and in Europe. Speaks has been at the center of debates about the role innovation and prototyping play in design and has written a series of influential essays that argue for the importance of what he calls “design intelligence,” or the various forms of design knowledge generated during design but which are often overlooked in favor of “the design.”

This year, the Kenwick neighborhood will see a large share of the district’s repaving allotment. Last year, there was considerable concentration in the Lansdowne Merrick neighborhood.

The sections of road scheduled for paving listed below are not arranged in any particular order.

Loudon: from Statesman to Winchester

Prather: from Hart to Clinton

Prather: from Clinton to Culpepper

St. William: from Coburn to St. Mathilda

Sparks: from Lagonda to Delaware

Diaz: from Eastland to Commercial

Liberty: from Winchester to Dallas

Eureka Springs: from Beaver Creek to Deaton

Commercial: from Eastland to Diaz

Commercial: from Diaz to Eastland

Clays Spring: from Chinoe to Culpepper

Clays Spring: from Culpepper to Clinton

Colony: from Cochran to Providence

Cochran: from Colony to Louisana

Cochran: from Louisiana to Hart

Courtney: from Emery to end of road

Baybrook: from Plainview to Folkstone

James: from Helm to cul-de-sac

Lagonda: from Sparks to Liberty

Lindy: from Henry Clay to Appletree

Liberty: from Gatehouse to Lakeview

Culpepper: from Clays Spring to Fontaine

El Paseo: from Eureka Springs to end of road

Clinton: from Hart to Cochran

Clinton: from Fontaine to Hart

Adair: from Fontaine to Hart

Lincoln: from Menifee to Robertson

Lincoln: from Monroe to Menifee

Lincoln: from Richmond to Monroe

Menifee: from Kingswood to Queensway

Menifee: from Henry Clay to Kingswood

Menifee: from Queensway to Holiday

Menifee: from Bassett to Sherman

Menifee: from Holiday to the end of the road

Menifee: from Sherman to Henry Clay

Menifee: from Lincoln to Preston

Menifee: from Preston to Bassett

Menifee: from Owsley to Lincoln

Chinoe: from Clays Spring to Fontaine

Chinoe: from Ashwood to Clays Spring

Chinoe: from Richmond to Ashwood

St. Michael: from St. George to Will Fant

St. James: from Coburn to St. Mathilda

St. Margaret: from St. Julie to Coburn

Coburn: from St. Margaret to St. William

Coburn: from St. Williams to St. James

Coburn: from St. Ann to St. Phillip

Coburn: from St. James to St. Ann

Coburn: from St. Phillip to the end of the road

Hanover: from High to Ghent

Ghent: from Hanover to Desha

Folkstone: from Plaineview to Baybrook

Folkstone: from Baybrook to Lockhurst

Hart: from Old Cassidy to Tates Creek

Hart: from Old Cassidy to Cassidy

Hart: from Cassidy to Cochran

Lakeside: from Lakehill to Lakeside Dr.

Lakeside: from Lakeside Dr. to Lakehill

Andover: from Providence to Cooper

Cooper: from Romany to Garden

Cooper: from Garden to Andover

Cooper: from Andover to Chinoe

Cooper: from Chinoe to Culpepper

Ashland: from High to Fincastle

Ashland: from Central to Main

Ashland: from Central to Fincastle

Romany: from Providence to Cooper

Pleasant Pointe: from Gribbin to Pleasant Pointe

Mt. Tabor: from Tilden to Baybrook

Mt. Tabor: from Yellowstone to Tilden

Mt. Tabor: From Cedarcrest to Kasey

Mt. Tabor: from Patchen to Gribbin

Fontaine: from Desha to Irvine

Fontaine: from High to Desha

This year, Faith Feeds aims to raise more than $3,000 to support its gleaning efforts. Gleaning is the process of gathering excess food from farms and markets that would otherwise be thrown away and donating it to hungry populations. In the three years since the organization’s inception, Faith Feeds has gleaned more than 191,955 pounds of fresh, local produce to give to emergency food agencies, providing nearly 16,000 meals for Lexington’s hungry.

“In the U.S., 40 percent of food gets thrown away,” says Erica Horn, president of Faith Feeds | Glean Kentucky. “If merely 5 percent of food discards were recovered, 4 million more Americans could be fed each day. Faith Feeds is central Kentucky’s only gleaning organization doing this important work.”

InFeed garden coordinator Bob McKinley will be available during the event to advise shoppers on seed selections and answer gardeners’ questions about the upcoming garden season. John Walker, director of the Your Edible Garden series, will also be providing seed-starting demonstrations throughout the day. Also joining Faith Feeds for the sale will be Seedleaf, a Lexington-based community-gardening organization, the Cooperative of Lexington Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK), and Lexington’s Master Gardeners.

Locally grown seeds were produced by Faith Feeds’ InFeed gardens and by Berries on Bryan Station, a Lexington-area community-supported-agriculture farm. Locally grown varieties include:

Black Ruffle tomato

Chocolate Stripe tomato

Local cabaret meets rock-n-roll group The Bats will play at Natasha’s on Saturday.

Click here to check out our comprehensive list of live music listings for the week at tadoo.com.

And it’s a lot.

From the food to the architecture to the unique concept, Coba Cocina is certainly a distinct Lexington restaurant, and a dream years in the making for the project’s founders, father-and-son Phil and Lee Greer of Greer Companies, a local hospitality and real estate development company headquartered in Lexington whose portfolio also includes 35 Cheddar’s restaurants in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina.

The restaurant is actually three separate, but complementary, concepts: Cocoh! Confectioner, a bakery, cafe and gelateria; Cobar Cantina, an upstairs lounge with a specific small pate (tapas) menu; and Coba Cocina, the intricately decorated downstairs restaurant with seating for nearly 230 people (the entire building can sit upwards of 400 people).

The cuisine, managed by chef Alejandro Velasquez, is “pan-American,” according to Lee Greer, and is inspired by dishes from Mexico, South and Latin America, the Baja and Texas. Coba menu specialities include ceviche, brisket tacos, a Cubano sandwich, agave-bbq glazed ribs, chicken monterey and “pescado de Yucatan.” Coba will offer lunch and dinner, as well as a variety of breakfast items in Cocoh.

Coba is an increasingly popular ruined city of the Mayan civilization on the eastern Gulf Coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

These new electronic reports allow users to view and download monthly sales data for commercial property of all types, including multi-family residential units and vacant land.

Similar reports for residential property debuted in June 2012, and are updated on the PVA website each Friday morning.

“The state criminal statute only provided officers the ability to cite under very specific circumstances,” Police Lt. Mark Brand said. “Now, we have a broad range of littering activities that we can cite for.

Brand was speaking at a press conference Wednesday with members of the Keep Lexington Beautiful Commission, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, the Division of Police, Councilmember Peggy Henson and Mayor Jim Gray.

“However,” Brand continued, “I want to emphasize, our goal is not to write tickets, but to provide a clean and safe environment for Lexington citizens and visitors to enjoy.”

The press conference was meant to unveil other trash prevention measures, including a program where citizens can report when litter is thrown from vehicles through an online form at www.lexingtonky.gov/litterreport. The information will be forwarded to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, which will send a letter to the vehicle’s owner. Citizens can also report a variety of issues, including littering, through a free App for iPhones (search Lexington311 at the Apple App Store).

“We at the Office of Sheriff are always looking for ways to strengthen our partnerships and this is one more way to do so,” said Sheriff Kathy Witt.  “I am pleased that members of the community will have an avenue for reporting those that they see litter.”

Singer, songwriter and story teller Tom Chapin (som of Jim Chapin; brother of Harry Chapin) will perform at Woodsongs on Monday.

Click here to visit our comprehensive music listings for the week at tadoo.com.

Called the “Mill Street Mini Mart,” owners Alex Coats and Eric Boggs said the store will offer beverages, cigarettes, and other convenient store items to “accommodate Lexington’s business commuters and downtown residents.”

The Mini Mart’s special feature, they said, will be the “Mill Street Mojo,” a gourmet cup of coffee made with 100 percent Arabica beans.

The grand opening for Mill Street Mini Mart is March 15. It will also be open during the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festival on March 16. Hours of operation are 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. Mon. – Sat.

“A group containing punks from The Clash and rasta guys? With electronics? And sampling?? And turntablism?? Crazy. Unheard-of!” Mick Jeffries wrote in an e-mail recently (tongue planted firmly in cheek). Jeffries was one of the station’s first student directors in the late ’80s, and is currently the host of the station’s Thursday morning music, talk and trivia show Trivial Thursdays (7-9 a.m.).

The station, which has become well known (and sometimes infamous) among Lexingtonians for its diverse and eclectic programming, has certainly traveled a far piece, and continues to set itself apart from not only other local radio stations, but from public and college radio stations across the country.

“WRFL is definitely unique in its broadcasting via a live human DJ, 24/7, every day of the year,” Ben Allen, a former WRFL student director who now serves in a university faculty role as the station’s media adviser, wrote in an e-mail. “Also, the notion of a student managed, volunteer-based, non-commercial, public radio station presents an aesthetic and organizational situation not readily found anywhere else.”

WRFL’s airwaves are manned by over 70 DJs, who alternate 2-3 hour shifts each week with significant free run over what they play – i.e., the station very well might feature free jazz, Bengali folk, black metal, classic rock deep cuts and reggaeton, all in a day’s programming. The schedule features a wide mix of college students and seasoned community DJs, some of whom have been with the station since it’s early days and all of whom are volunteers. It is run almost entirely by a small staff of student directors, who oversee day-to-day duties that range from organizing the station’s massive CD library to keeping the current playbox up-to-date to planning the station-run music and art festival Boomslang: A Celebration of Sound & Art, which enters its fifth year this September.

Sponsored by the Lexington Celtic Association, the Kentucky Rose competition, a regional affiliate of the Rose of Tralee International Rose of Tralee International Festival competition, is a personality competition, not a traditional beauty pageant, for young women of Irish descent. The competition is based on a 19th-century ballad about a woman named Mary whose beauty earned her the title “Rose of Tralee.”

Contestants will be young unmarried women of Irish heritage who are between the ages of 18 and 27.

The Rose of Tralee International Festival draws tourists and contestants from around the globe to Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, to enjoy street entertainment, a carnival, live concerts, markets, fireworks and a parade. The heart of the festival is the crowning of the Rose of Tralee, who will travel the world as an ambassador of Irish culture.

(Note: the report reflects data collected by the Lexington Division of Police, it does not include data collected from other agencies with jurisdiction in Lexington, such as UKPD and Kentucky State Police. Click here to see the full report.)

According to the report, the stretch of road along Man O’ War Boulevard between Alumni Drive and Easthills Drive saw the most “between street collisions,” with 43 incidents. The West Reynolds Road roundabout, at the intersection of Keithshire Way and Wellington Way, was the “top intersection collision location” with 36 incidents; the intersection of Fontaine Road and St. Ann Drive at Richmond Road was second on the list with 28 incidents. The location with the highest amount red light-running collisions was the intersection of East Vine Street and Rose Street, which saw nine incidents.

Made possible by funding from the 5th District council office and a donated plot of land from Victory Christian Church, the garden is still in the early planning stages, with more details to be established in the coming weeks and months.

Kenwick Neighborhood Association board member Sara Constantine said that the preliminary plan is for the garden to be primarily edible, utilizing raised beds.

It is our goal to provide as comprehensive a list as possible. If you have an upcoming show in Lexington that you would like to see mentioned in our weekly listings, e-mail the details to saraya@smileypete.com with “LIVE MUSIC LISTING” in the subject line, at least 10 days in prior to the event.

Smiley Pete Publishing can neither confirm nor deny that all of the events mentioned in our listings will go exactly as planned. We recommended confirming these details with the venue in advance. Visit www.tadoo.com for more information on these events and others.

TUESDAY, MARCH 5

Street Gnar/ Lazy Magnet/ Secret Boyfriend Al’s Sidecar, 603 N. Limestone (behind Al’s Bar), 10 p.m..

Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas; Killer Meteor; Derek Spence Green Lantern, 497 W. Third St., 10 p.m., 21+.

Open Mic Night Al’s Bar, 601 North Limestone Street, 9 p.m.

Cody Canada & the Departed; Sundy BestBuster’s, 899 Manchester Ave., 8p.m.

The Seedy Seeds/ Filigar/ The Ridges Cosmic Charlie’s 388 Woodland Ave., 10 p.m., 21+.

Electric Jam Henry Clay Pub, 112 N. Upper St, 8 p.m., free, all ages. Weekly open-mic style jam sessions presented by the Lexington Funk Cooperative.

Songwriters’ Night Natasha’s, 112 Esplanade, 8 p.m. Feat. Melanie Johnson, Bob Stange and Tom Green.

Beth Burden Parlay Social, 257 W. Short St, 9 p.m.

The Northside Sheiks Willie’s Locally Known, 805 N. Broadway, 7 p.m. Retro R&B supergroup featuring members of Tula, The Tall Boys, Fanged Robot and more.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6

Soulfly Buster’s, 899 Manchester Ave., 8p.m.

Stephen Paul Smoker/ Jovontaes Cosmic Charlie’s 388 Woodland Ave., 10 p.m.,

Red Barn Radio presents Dix River Crossing Artsplace, 161 N. Mill St, all ages, 7 p.m., $8. This radio show is taped before a live audience and highlights a different bluegrass, folk or Appalachian artist or group each week.

Blues Jam Cheapside Bar & Grill, 131 Cheapside St. Every Wednesday night, Cheapside hosts an open blues jam featuring an open jam with a core house group and guests every week.

Hank Smith Band Natasha’s, 112 Esplanade, 9 p.m.

King’s Ransom Parlay Social, 257 W. Short St, 9 p.m.

Velvet Blue Paulie’s Toasted Barrel, 517 W. Main St., 9 p.m.

Singer/ songwriter night with Big Chill Willie’s Locally Known, 805 N. Broadway, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

Nerves Junior; Vinyl Thief Al’s Bar, 601 North Limestone Street, 9 p.m.

Beaux Arts Beats Battle with Nemo Achida Cosmic Charlie’s, 388 Woodland Ave., 10 p.m.

Local First Free Concert series: Patrick McNeese Band Farish Theater, 140 E. Main St., 7 p.m.

Ronn Crowder Friends & Company, 841 Lane Allen Rd., 5-7 p.m.

Big Chill Friends & Company, 841 Lane Allen Rd., 9 p.m.

New Vega Green Lantern, 497 W. Third St., 10 p.m., 21+.

The Hard Quartet Natasha’s, 112 Esplanade, 9 p.m., $6

Address:

Phone: (859) 269-0677

Website: www.schoolrestaurantlex.com

5:30 – 10 p.m. Mon. – Thurs.

5:30 – 11 p.m. Fri. – Sat.

School Restaurant is an ultramodern blend of sushi bar, French cuisine, and traditional Japanese fare, featuring Lexington’s only Kaiten Sushi Conveyor Belt. Be sure to keep our private party room in mind for your next event as well.

Josie's on 68 owner Bobby Murray. PHOTOS BY EMILY MOSELEY

While it may sound cliché, veteran restaurateur Bobby Murray is a firm believer in the saying that when one door closes, another one opens. In his case, that door was his family’s Murray’s restaurant on Harrodsburg Road, which he shut down two years ago, but has now reopened in the form of a second location for his casual-style eatery Josie’s.

Thriving in its third month, it seems Josie’s, which is named after Murray’s daughter, is feeding a demand in this part of Lexington for an inexpensive, yet high quality, family-owned restaurant with an eclectic menu.

Murray explained how he decided to shutter Murray’s restaurant in the wake of his mother’s death and in the midst of the economic downturn. Operating Murray’s, along with Josie’s original Chevy Chase location, plus Merrick Inn on Tates Creek Road, which his parents bought in the mid-1970s, had become too much of a responsibility to shoulder.

“During the time the Murray’s building was on the market, we showed it to some people, but no one ever leased or purchased it, which I never understood because this area is booming,” said Murray of the Southside community, which boasts several newly developed subdivisions and condominiums.

After two years of continuing to pay the mortgage on the empty building, Murray and his wife, Jennifer, thought opening a second Josie’s location there could be a profitable idea based on the growing success of the Chevy Chase restaurant.

Originally called “Josie’s Grab & Go” and operated as a gourmet to-go deli in 2009, the Chevy Chase location was renamed “Josie’s” and turned into a full-scale restaurant just eight months later.

Known for its home-style breakfast menu, which offers an array of sweet and savory dishes, it’s now difficult to find an empty table at either Josie’s location on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Originally open for just breakfast and lunch, the restaurant has recently expanded its hours to include dinner service.

Breakfast specialties include unique omelets and quiches, waffles and other standards, like biscuits and sausage gravy and eggs benedict. The lunch and dinner menus feature lots of gourmet sandwiches, like Murray’s family recipe chicken salad and pimento cheese, and other options. Around 90 percent of the menu items are Murray’s own creations.

“It’s so family-oriented … kids love it and it’s inexpensive,” said Murray, who added it’s the restaurant’s goal to have 10-minute ticket times to ensure swift service for its patrons.

Murray explained how Josie’s has become a welcome spot for families and friends to meet in a warm, inviting atmosphere.

Mile High Meatloaf and Crispy Onion Straw Sandwiches

PHOTOS BY MEGAN SMITH

Take out Chinese and pizza are always a good idea for the season of March Madness basketball and I encourage you to take advantage of as many local food delivery services as you can over the course of the month. But when in need of the comfort of a home cooked meal that still screams “game day food,” look no further. The brilliance of this recipe is that once the meatloaf is cooked, it can be stored in the fridge for days and sandwiches can be assembled at a moment’s notice before tip off. Crispy onion straws aren’t necessary, but are a tasty, crunchy touch of scrumptiousness that is worth those few extra minutes in the kitchen.

Meatloaf Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in skillet and sauté the onions and mushrooms until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Combine milk and breadcrumbs in a large bowl to soak. Add cooked onions and mushrooms. Stir to combine.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the breadcrumb mixture. Combine well using either your hands or a stiff spoon.

5. Using either a meatloaf pan, bread pan or rimmed cookie sheet, form the meat mixture into a loaf shape. Brush the top of the uncooked meatloaf with more BBQ sauce.

6. Bake the meatloaf on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. If using ground beef with a higher percentage of fat, feel free to drain fat from the meatloaf pan while baking. I recommend using ground beef with 4 to 6 percent fat for this recipe.

7. Once meatloaf is cooked thoroughly, remove and turn the oven to broil. Brush the top of the meatloaf with more BBQ sauce and broil in the oven for another 2 to 5 minutes.

Crispy Onion Straws:

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan to 375 degrees.

2. Using a mandoline (or a very sharp knife) slice the onions very thin.

3. Combine flour, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl.

4. When ready to fry, dip the onions into the flour, shake off excess flour, and then drop into the hot oil. Fry for a few minutes or until onions are golden brown.

5. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add another pinch of salt while hot.

To Assemble Meatloaf Sanwiches:

1. The bread of choice is completely your preference. By tradition, I’ve used soft American white sandwich bread.

2. Slice the meatloaf thick. If using meatloaf that has been refrigerated, reheat in a skillet until crispy on both sides and warmed through. Place on one bread slice.

3. Drizzle BBQ sauce over the meatloaf.

As with most comfort foods, pancakes are eaten in some form or fashion in every culture. Scandinavians have crepes (yum), while potato pancakes are popular in Germany. You can eat a sweet pancake called pooda in India and bánh xèo in Vietnam. Our American version is differentiated from most by the use of baking soda and powder to lighten, fluff and brown those golden hued silver dollars we’ve cherished since childhood. Basic as most pancake recipes present themselves to be, they are tricky little suckers to master. Every recipe seems to produce a different reaction (thin batter, thick batter; lots of bubbles, no bubbles) and even the same recipe can give a different result each time (rubbery, dry; too dark, too light). When does the search end? Is there one recipe that marks the end of the perfect pancake search for good?

I would love to say “yes,” but I just can’t because my yes may not be your yes. Everyone must embark on their own pancake quest in life. Pancake preferences abound, so who am I to say my preferred level of sweetness is yours, my desired hint of buttermilk tanginess is what you look for, and the tenderness of bite is the same that you like to sink your teeth into? These answers are ones you must discover for yourself, one Saturday morning pancake breakfast at a time.

Until then, the recipe below is serving us well here at The Smith Homestead. We’re still not at pancake perfection just yet, but the stars are aligning more and more each passing weekend. Have the ultimate pancake recipe? Why not put me out of my experimental kitchen misery and share it on the Southsider website, www.southsidermagazine.com. I’m likely not the only one on the same griddlecake journey.

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes 

Ingredients:

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until smooth. Set aside. Preheat a shallow, nonstick pan to medium heat and add 2 Tbsp. oil. Ladle 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the pan, forming 4-inch circles. When the edges begin to bubble after 1-2 minutes, flip the pancakes. They should be golden brown. Cook pancakes on the other side for 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 10 to 12 pancakes.

Stella’s is marked with its authentic, small-town diner ambiance mixed with the creative, locally sourced cuisine (with lots of vegetarian-friendly options). Those aspects, coupled with the uncanny affordability of everything from beverages ($5 for wine-by-the-glass; $4 for crafts and imports) to entrees (nothing over $16), work in tandem to set Stella’s at the top of its game as far as local “casual upscale” dining options are concerned.

Given the aforementioned small-town vibe that defines Stella’s atmosphere, it’s somewhat disorienting to realize they have a fully-stocked bar and a drink menu that includes a smattering of champagne cocktails, as well as a handful of creative twists on classic cocktails. On our most recent visit, my guest and I started, respectively, with the Lester Carr (Campari, gin and tonic, served on ice in a tall mug, $8) and the Last Word (green chartreuse, fresh squeezed lime juice, maraschino liqueur and gin, shaken and served in a martini glass, $9); both were expertly concocted. We also ordered the deviled local eggs ($4.95) for a starter, which we gobbled quickly before our second course arrived: a cup of the tomato bisque for me (soup options change daily) and a Greek salad for my guest. The soup, straightforward as it was, was the perfect remedy for a cold February night, and the salad was fresh and chock full of cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, peppers and other veggies.

I had a hankering for a burger, and fortunately Stella’s dinner menu features three delectable burger options: the Revro (topped with fried green tomatoes, basil mayo, bacon and jack cheese); a lamb burger; and the Griff Burger (topped with apples, bleu cheese, bacon and Dijon – all three priced at $9.95). I chose the latter, and my guest went with the truffled mac & cheese entree: penne pasta with Kenny’s Farmhouse asiago, swiss, jack and cheddar cheeses, finished with a white truffle oil and garlic croutons. He also opted for the grilled shiitake and portabella mushroom add-on ($16.95 total). The pasta was rich and velvety – without being too overbearing – and the burger, made with local beef from Bourbon County’s Colcord Farm, was juicy and flavorful, accented nicely by the bacon-apple-bleu cheese trifecta. We paired our dinner with a couple of craft beers – the small-but-well-curated rotating selection typically includes a handful of options from Bell’s Brewery as well as West Sixth’s IPA. It’s worth noting that beverage options also include house-made sodas and wine served by the glass, half carafe and carafe.

We didn’t save room for dessert, which is a shame, because the glass display case at the far end of the counter hosts a bevy of homemade pies and cakes.

Our total, before tax and tip, came to $56.85 – a steal for a three-course meal of this quality. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, and while diners were relatively sparse at 7:30 p.m. on recent a Sunday, the tables can fill rather quickly on busier nights – getting there early is a safe bet.

Historian and author Michael Veach explores the history of – and growing passion for – the spirit that has come to be irrevocably associated with Kentucky. And as recent as the Maker’s Mark statement is, its sentiment has been well known since the Revolutionary War.

While distilling equipment was brought from Europe to the colonies and rum and gin were made along the East Coast, whiskey gained its popularity with the westward expansion. Local ingredients were able to be used and it became so much in demand that coppersmiths began manufacturing the distilling equipment in Kentucky. The area was perfect for production due to the water that had lost its flavor-tainting deposits after being filtered through the native limestone. That, plus the weather – and the now famous method of storing the spirit in charred oak barrels – was a recipe for success.

Why do I prefer less than perfect grass? Because it takes a lot of chemical inputs to get that perfect look. For the health of you, me and our environment, my way of looking at grass is the best way. However, for those of you who love a perfect lawn, my view isn’t likely to fly.

I wonder, though, could we meet in the middle?

At a recent conference, Gregg Munshaw, Turf Extension Specialist at the University of Kentucky, described three lawn care options:

Synthetic turf care requires “jacking up the lawn” on synthetic fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides, to use Munshaw’s very apt turn of phrase. The result is thick, very green turf.

Reduced care (or low input) lawn care means that some fertilizer would be used, with very little pesticide use and less frequent mowing. Reduced input care will result in a good looking lawn that is more environmentally friendly.

Organic lawn care uses organic inputs only. The turf will still look good though probably not such a “glowing green” (again I quote Munshaw), and there may well be some weeds.

So, what’s so wrong about synthetic turf care when the results – thick, green, weed-free turf – seem so desirable? Well, the side effects can be a poisoned ecosystem. A good deal of those chemical inputs end up washing into our streams and leaching into our groundwater. Also, conventional treatments are often based on timing, not on actual need. For example, Munshaw noted that many companies treat for grubs mid-summer even though this is often unnecessary.

PHOTO BY ROBBIE CLARK

For years, following the success of the Lexington-based band Chico Fellini (she was the bassist), Emily Hagihara has been one of the most sought-after musicians in Lexington. Locally, she plays drums in the angular rock trio Ancient Warfare, as well as for the all-female cover group The Binders, which played to packed houses on New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. While Chico Fellini is currently taking a break, Hagihara’s recent stint playing auxiliary percussion on the new album from My Morning Jacket front man Jim James, “Regions of Light & Sound,” has provided her musicianship an outlet to a significantly larger national audience. The opportunity arose following her role playing percussion on the 2010 album “Dear Companion” by Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore, which James produced; local producer Duane Lundy, with whom Hagihara has worked on several projects, helped bridge the connection.

“We had a small window of time to work with between our schedules – (James) obviously keeps very busy and I was touring with Cheyenne Marie Mize and catching up with Ancient Warfare at that time,” she said. “We landed on a day that would work, so I brought what would fit in my car, knowing that there would be additional instruments available at the studio. I played lots of hand-held percussion instruments – tambourines, shakers, hand drums, triangle, crotales.”

Stream a brand new, unreleased track by Hagihara.

While Hagihara is known for her ability to play a variety of different instruments – bass, guitar, piano – as a performance major graduate in percussion at UK, drums are her primary forte, and have been since she was about 12 years old. She said she’s drawn to the physical nature of percussion, as well as the “never-ending variety” it provides.

“The day that the music instructor at Cassidy Elementary had us try out the basic wind, brass and percussion instruments was the day that I picked percussion,” Hagihara said. “I’d say the immediate influence came from my older brother, who was playing drums at the time, but aside from that, I was also immediately turned off by the sounds that I got out of the other instruments. I know these things take time, but it felt very unnatural.”

Regardless, when it comes to songwriting, Hagihara said that historically, when she sits down to write, it has started with guitar or keys. More recently, however, she’s been taking a different approach, starting with drums or bass and gradually adding other instruments. She likens the new material she’s working on, which she primarily writes, creates and records at home, to “soundtrack” music.

“The music I am making now is more focused, largely because I have the ability to demo,” she said. “I’m taking my time with it – each part receiving equal attention for the greater good of the whole. There is more of a focus on melody, an area that was lacking in my earlier writings.”

Though she’s still in the “idea” phase as far as a forthcoming solo release, fans will be happy to hear that Ancient Warfare has a full-length album in the works – and also that Hagihara isn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

“I used to sort of have this romantic idea of moving to a big city – I’ve visited New York several times and I love it – but I really love Kentucky,” she said. “And I think it’s something that I realized later in age. I love Lexington, and it’s such a beautiful state.”

Who are some of your favorite local bands?

We all proceeded to our separate seats, but on the way out, we met the same couple. Their comment was, “Now, you have something to write about.” And I do.

There have been a number of interesting looking movies this winter. When we go to the movies, we sit through the previews with various reactions. Some are: “let’s not bother with this” and “on us they shouldn’t count.” But this year we decided to see a few.

Among us, opinions vary.

One person will see only happy endings. None of us likes violence. Music matters to most of us. One’s sister-in-law owns a theater in California; she sees everything and sends her opinion, and the nominees for awards tease us into some bloopers. Afterwards, we discuss our opinions, and they differ too.

That day we saw “Quartet.” There were no differences in opinion. It was a delightful, moving experience. The movie was produced in England where they make such good use of their aging actors, which we don’t in this country. Take for example the casts of “Downton Abbey” and “Upstairs Downstairs,” whom we have taken into our lives as if they were family.

The answer: No, for 99.9 percent of the people out there.

Let me explain. Most of us who are participating in regular exercise are doing it to be healthy, to lose a few pounds, or to help maintain our current weight. We are not vying for a spot on the next Olympic team, hoping to win the Boston Marathon or the Ironman Triathlon. We are just doing our thing a few times a week to look and feel better and stave off icky things like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other factors. If you are not in this category, then this article does not apply to you; go hire a professional coach and go for it.

For the rest of us, myself (an ex professional athlete) included, this information is for us.

Study after study, has shown that moderate exercise done on a consistent basis yields the best health results. Notice I did not say that it yields the most medals, trophies or world records. Overwhelmingly, exercise scientists find that the greatest health benefits come from people who adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and regular moderate exercise (such as 30 minutes a day of walking, plus strength training a couple of times a week).