And that made me think "oh good, I'll add a post to my blog" and that made me realize there are a few things I haven't mentioned since I've been back home.
One of the most exciting things is that we (Huntington) are to be featured on a new "reality" show created by Jamie Oliver, the British chef. West Virginia has a pretty poor reputation as an unhealthy, overweight, starch and fatty food eating state (actually we were rated worst in the nation at some point) and since one of Chef Oliver's goals is to make people aware of how to "eat healthy" without giving up the pleasure of eating, this state seemed like a good place to start trying out his ideas in America. He's done similar projects in Britain with great success apparently, and Huntington is sort of a testing ground for taking it beyond Britain. I don't know what the show will be like - I'm pretty sure it's not a "biggest loser" type of thing. I know he's worked with a local elementary school on their lunch program but that's about all I know. The show is to air in February on ABC so it will be interesting to see what it's all about. Meanwhile, one of our empty storefronts now houses "Jamie's Kitchen" (right now, the only one in the world) and I just went to a meeting yesterday for people interested in volunteering there. They are offering free cooking classes to the public and will also work with anyone interested in learning more about good nutrition, grocery shopping tips, food budgeting, etc. They told us that they've already had people come in and say basically that they would like to "try" cooking, but don't know where to begin - what food should they buy? where to find recipes? how to read labels? After years of cooking, that's kind of hard to imagine, but in this day of fast food eaten on the run, it's not really too surprising to hear. So, I've signed up as willing to volunteer and will see where that leads. And I hope to take some of the classes too. I looked at their schedule and next week is all soups which with cooler weather coming sounds real good!
Also, another empty storefront (we have too many of those but it's very slowly changing) has a big sign in the window that Huntington Prime will be opening in early 2010. I'm assuming that will be a restaurant, but the exciting thing is that about the only information given on the sign is they will have a wood fired oven and ... artisanal bread!! I'm really excited about that.
And, I attended a Chat n' Chew meeting on Thursday. This is a weekly get-together for anyone interested in helping downtown Huntington's "rebirth". They've already made some progress - the art gallery I mentioned is the result of one of the groups and there's also a community gardens project which really took off this summer. Anyway, the reason I attended this particular one is because there was going to be a group discussing getting a grocery store downtown, which is something that would make living downtown just about perfect.
And that's it for today. I'm going to put my camera out with my keys right now so I'll remember to take it with me tomorrow and hopefully get some "fall colors" pictures. And I think after all this talk about Huntington, I may try to get some pictures of some of the buildings, the river, and such in the next few days. I'm still working on my Italy pictures, choosing and editing. I did find a place on-line for getting them printed for 8 cents a print! So, I'm pretty delighted with that - did a test run on 4 or 5 pics and they turned out fine...
About Me
- Mary Lynne
- West Virginia
- When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).
Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):
www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle
I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.
3 comments:
Where are you going today? What road trip?? Have fun!
Glad to hear you were happy with the Clark Labs prints... you'll have to tell me ultimately, which ones you chose (since I have a copy of all of them) or else I'm sure I'll see the finished results at the holidays sometime.
And as January said, you started out with the title of this entry being a roadtrip, but then didn't tell us where... ;)
All your new involvements sound really interesting---how great there is a grassroots kinda thing going on, focused on revitalizing Huntington... and with the attention Jamie Oliver's thing may bring, who knows. (I had just read about that Jamie Oliver program last week, in fact, seeing a picture of him with the gi-normous burger at Hillbilly... Maybe they will have to rename it, when he's all done... "The Ol' Huntington" ;)
Boy, I can't believe I was gone for all the stuff that happened while JO was here! He hosted a dinner at a local Italian restaurant the night I FINALLY got home, and I even got an e-mail invite, but I got home too late. And wow, if I'd been here when he went to Hillbilly Hotdogs, I sure would have tried to catch that! Maybe that will be on his show and then HH will have been on TWO TV shows. They are such fun...
Post a Comment