The cloud of fear and uncertainty that gripped the United States during the years of World War II began to lift with the defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945, but Americans felt the war’s aftershocks for a long time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in April of that year took from many Americans the […]
Community & Lifestyle
Posted inArts & Culture
On the mole patrol
Every summer, gardeners envision a beautiful lush green lawn and flower gardens abounding with color. Then along come four- and six-legged creatures to dine on the smorgasbord provided for them. Although many four-legged animals damage plants, others are just obnoxious. Among them is the lowly mole, a four- to seven-inch-long beady-eyed burrowing mammal with velvety […]
Posted inArts & Culture
prairie notes 9-9-04
‘Tis the season to be wooed. Ardent politicians, like new lovers, fill the air with promises crafted to push our hot buttons and spend money as if it belongs to someone else. Millions are spent on polls to figure out what’s important to us, millions more to convince us they have the solution to whatever […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Apple appeal
School has started, cooler temperatures are just around the corner, and apple-picking time has begun. Your idea of a fresh apple may be a Red Delicious from the grocery store — if so, expand your horizons this year and take a trip to a local apple orchard. Picking apples is an enjoyable activity for the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
That burning sensation
If you want zip and heat in your favorite entrée, add a chile pepper. Peppers come in a variety of shapes and colors and range in taste from sweet and mild to hot. Bell peppers are often picked when green and immature. Allowed to ripen to red, yellow, orange, brown, or purple, they are sweeter. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Friendly competition
Tucked away on the east side of the Illinois State Fairgrounds you will find the Hobbies, Arts, and Crafts building. During the fair, some of Illinois’ finest baked goods, textiles, hobby collections, fruits, vegetables, and agricultural crops are on display. These items are exhibited by residents from all over Illinois. Of course, near and dear […]
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Ramble through the brambles
Fresh blackberries and raspberries, from plants often referred to as brambles, are currently available at local produce stands. Because blackberries and raspberries belong to the same genus, Rubus, the plants and fruits are easily confused. To confuse matters further, fruits are not always true to their names — for example, there are red blackberries and […]
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Springfield puts on a show for the Hoovers
With all the hyperbolic and near-hysterical rhetoric flying around Springfield like so much chaff at a threshing party (“Is Springfield ready?”), one might be excused for thinking that never before has this city found itself at the center of national attention for even so much as a day. It is true that Springfield is now […]
Posted inArts & Culture
When size does matter
Recently a fellow gardener proudly showed me her six-pound zucchini. Though impressive, this mammoth green monster is better suited to the compost pile than to the kitchen. “Big and green” are words best used to describe a watermelon, not a zucchini. Unfortunately, many gardeners wait too long to harvest summer squash. For the best quality […]
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A stroll in the garden
This year, the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at the Illinois State Fairgrounds features several changes and additions, including a new landscape design in the Identification Garden, a Shakespeare Garden, and a native-plant research project. Visitors have the opportunity to see what’s new at the garden at “Evening in the Garden,” a special event on Tuesday, […]
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The Stratton Building’s midlife crisis
Just west of the Capitol complex, new markers have sprouted from street signs, identifying the area as the Pasfield House Historic District. The city-sanctioned designation honors the memory of one of Springfield’s great families and the site of their 40-acre “cosy rural retreat,” as it was described in the 1881 History of Sangamon County. The […]
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“Uglier than ugly”
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but it seems architectural historians alone find reason to swoon over the massive William G. Stratton Building, located directly west of the Capitol. Lawmakers and state workers whose offices are in the Stratton have long complained that the ’50s-era building is outdated and inefficient, blocks views […]
