Christmas of Old

Season of Love

Changing Seasons

 Photo by Mary Christopher Smith

Christmas Past

 The past is a term used to indicate the totality of events which occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience time, and is accessed through memory and recollection. In addition, human beings have recorded the past since the advent of written language.
Wikipedia

By the Cabin Door

My Old Kentucky Home State Park - 2012

My Old Kentucky Home

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home

'Tis summer, the people are gay

The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom

While the birds make music all the day



The young folks roll on the little cabin floor

All merry, all happy and bright

By'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door

Then my old Kentucky home, good night



Chorus

Weep no more, my lady

Oh, weep no more today

We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home

For the old Kentucky home far away



They hunt no more for possum and the coon

On the meadow, the hill, and the shore

They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon

On the bench by the old cabin door



The day goes by like a shadow o're the heart

With sorrow where all was delight

The time has come when the people have to part

Then my old Kentucky home, good-night



The head must bow and the back will have to bend

Wherever the darkey may go

A few more days, and the trouble all will end

In the field where the sugar-canes grow



A few more days for to tote the weary load

No matter, 'twill never be light

A few more days till we totter on the road

Then my old Kentucky home, good-night

Ohio River

Indiana Shoreline looking towards Kentucky

The Ohio River (Seneca: ohi:yó) is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi; thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream. It is approximately 981 miles (1,579 km) long and is located in the Eastern United States.

The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans, as numerous civilizations formed along its valley. In the five centuries prior to European contact, the Mississippian culture built numerous regional chiefdoms and major earthwork mounds in the Ohio Valley, such as Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana, as well as in the Mississippi Valley and the Southeast. For thousands of years, Native Americans, like the European explorers and settlers who followed them, used the river as a major transportation and trading route. Its waters connected communities. The Osage, Omaha, Ponca and Kaw lived in the Ohio Valley, but under pressure from the Iroquois to the northeast, migrated west of the Mississippi River to Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma in the 1600s.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle led an expedition to the Ohio River in 1669. His French party were the first Europeans to see the river. After European-American settlement, the river served at times as a border between present-day Kentucky and Indian Territories. It was a primary transportation route for pioneers during the westward expansion of the early U.S. 

The Ohio flows through or along the border of six states, and its drainage basin includes all, or part of, 14 states. Through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin includes many of the states of the southeastern U.S. During the 19th century, the river was the southern boundary of the Northwest Territory. It is sometimes considered as the western extension of the Mason–Dixon Line that divided Pennsylvania from Maryland, and thus part of the border between free and slave territory, and between the Northern and Southern United States or Upper South. Where the river was narrow, it was the way to freedom for thousands of slaves escaping to the North, many helped by free blacks and whites of the Underground Railroad resistance movement.

The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical and humid continental climate areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates. In winter it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely so as it travels further south toward Cincinnati and Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky in the south, near the Ohio’s confluence with the Mississippi, it is ice-free year round. Paducah was founded there because it is the northernmost ice-free reach of the Ohio. 

In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas Jefferson stated: "The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth. Its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single instance only excepted."

Source: Wikipedia
Photo by Mary Christopher Smith

Moonrise on the Ohio

Flower Power

                                                        

Passion Flower - Kentucky Beauty

Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 500 species of flowering plants, the namesakes of the family Passifloraceae. They are mostly vines, with some being shrubs, and a few species being herbaceous. For information about the fruit of the passiflora plant, see passionfruit. The monotypic genus Hollrungia seems to be inseparable fromPassiflora, but further study is needed.


Source: Wikipedia
Image by MarY

Kentucky Wild Flower

Purple Coneflower

Echinacea (/ˌɛkɨˈneɪʃⁱə/) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae. The nine species it contains are commonly called purple coneflowers. They are endemic to eastern and central North America, where they are found growing in moist to dry prairies and open wooded areas. They have large, showy heads of composite flowers, blooming from early to late summer. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἐχῖνος (echino), meaning "sea urchin," due to the spiny central disk. Some species are used in herbal medicines and some are cultivated in gardens for their showy flowers. A few species are of conservation concern.
These were found growing in Jefferson County, Kentucky, July - 2012

Source: Wikipedia
Image: M Smith

Summertime in Kentucky - June, 2012

Hang in There

Photo: Mary C Smith

Falls of the Ohio - Exposed Limestone Riverbed

Falls of the Ohio State Park is a state park in Indiana. It is located on the banks of the Ohio River at Clarksville, Indiana, across from Louisville, Kentucky.

The park is part of the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area. The main feature of the park is the exposed fossil beds of the Jeffersonville Limestone dated from theDevonian period.

The park includes an interpretive center open to the public, built on the grounds where Camp Joe Holt once existed. In 1990 the Indiana state government hired Terry Chase, a well-established exhibit developer, to design the center's displays. Building started in September 1992, costing $4.9 million with a total area of 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m²). The center functions as a museum with exhibits that concentrate on the natural history related to findings in the nearby fossil beds as well as the human history of the Louisville area, covering pre-settlement, early settlement, and Louisville and southern Indiana history all the way up through the 20th century.

Unlike at other Indiana state parks, annual entrance permits do not allow unlimited free access (rather, only five people per pass per visit) to the interpretive center, as fees are still needed to reimburse the town of Clarksville for building the center.

The Woodland Loop Trail has ten new stainless steel markers denoting the plant life of the trails, thanks to an Eagle Scout project.

Strange wildlife has a
habit of showing up in the park. Living alligators and crocodiles have also been seen in the park. In August 2006 a fisherman hooked a dead octopus. Zachary Treitz, a 21-year-old Louisville college student, admitted he had put the octopus there after purchasing it dead from a local seafood shop for a film project.

Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Mary C Smith

United States Marine Hospital of Louisville

The United States Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, in the Portland neighborhood was built in 1845, and is considered the best remaining antebellum hospital in the United States. Of the seven hospitals built in the mid-19th century by the Marine Hospital Service “for the benefit of sick seamen, boatmen, and other navigators on the western rivers and lakes.” It is the only one still standing, even after surviving two tornadoes. The building has been extensively restored to match its appearance in 1899.

The U.S. Marine Hospital opened in 1852. The patients at the Louisville Marine Hospital were usually victims of disease, temperature extremes, and mechanical deficiencies of the era's naval technology. During the American Civil War, along with Jefferson General Hospital, it formed the foundation of Louisville health care for wounded soldiers, both Union and captured Confederates. It is believed that a third of the total patients were black. During World War I the hospital cared for many amputees injured in the war. During the 1930s, it served as housing for nurses and doctors of nearby hospitals. The hospital closed in 1933.


The city of Louisville purchased the building in 1950 for $25,000 and used it for a short time as a hospital for the chronically ill.

In the late 1950s, it housed medical residents working in the newer hospital directly behind it, which replaced the Marine Hospital and today is known as Family Health Center Portland. The building was vacant from 1976 until 2007. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Source: Wikipedia



News events from the period concerning Marine Hospitals of the United States of America during the 1800s.

Newspaper Clippings:

27 May 1870

Courier-Journal

At present there are 32 white and 58 colored patients in the U.S. Marine Hospital on High street, a larger number than ever before at any one time.



Louisville Commercial

1 January 1871

United States Marine Hospital

It may not be known to many who are entitled to the benefits of the United States Marine Hospital in this city, that the law provides that all persons who find a livelihood on the river, lakes, or seas, from the captain to the stoker and roustabout (all classed as seamen), when sick or disabled, are entitled to care and treatment in the hospital free of charge. To gain admission into the hospital a certificate from the officer of the boat, or any other reasonable proof of the man’s occupation, presented at the office of Mr. Luse, the surveyor of the port, will insure his card of admission. During the year 1,466 patients were admitted, 27 of whom died.


The following is the official report of the surgeon of the hospital for December (1870):

NUMBER OF PATIENTS REMAINING LAST DAY OF NOVEMBER (1870)

Whites………………………51

Colored……………………..44

Total………………...95



ADMITTED DURING THE MONTH

Whites………………………84

Colored……………………..46

Total………………...130

No. patients remaining and admitted….225



DISCHARGED DURING THE MONTH

Whites………………………60

Colored……………………..33

Total………………...93



DIED DURING THE MONTH

Whites………………………3

Colored……………………..2

Total………………...5



REMAINING THE LAST DAY OF THE MONTH

Whites……………………..77

Colored……………………50

Total……………….127



T.J. Griffith Surgeon in charge, 363 West Jefferson Street, between Ninth and Tenth



Louisville Commercial

1 January 1871

Wm. Trice, a colored deck-hand on the steamer United States, had his knee crushed with a hogshead of tobacco yesterday, while assisting in loading He was taken to the Marine Hospital. The limb will probably have to be amputated.

Louisville Commercial

8 January 1871

George C. Smith, formerly a roustabout on the steamer N. J. Bigler, was taken to the United States Marine Hospital on Friday, suffering from mania-a-potu and exposure, and died yesterday. John Moss, a river man, formerly on the Tarascon, was taken to the same hospital with frozen feet. The stoppage of the boats on the river has thrown a number of men out of employment who take no care of themselves, and drink to stupor, when they lie down on the streets, and before they are picked up are half frozen, and receive injuries from which they die.

Louisville Commercial

10 January 1871

Barry Tallman, formerly of the steamer Mary Huston, had his foot crushed yesterday, and was sent to the United States Marine Hospital.

Louisville Commercial

25 January 1871

Henry Thompson had his feet terribly scalded by the playfulness of the cook on the steamer Shannon. George Winn, while rolling a hogshead of tobacco on the Morning Star, had his leg crushed. Both Thompson and Winn were sent to the United States Marine Hospital.

Louisville Commercial

31 January 1871

Wm. Fuller, who has run as a pilot on the Western rivers for a quarter of a century, and who was for many years past a pilot between Cincinnati and Maysville, died at the Marine Hospital yesterday of dropsy. He had been operated upon three times, each time feeling great relief, but the disease finally caused his death.

Louisville Commercial

13 August 1871

The U.S. Marine Hospital A religious order of the Catholic Church, known as the Sisters of Mercy, has had the management of the United States Marine Hospital, in this city, for more than two years, and have again re-leased it for a term of years. Dr. Thomas J. Griffiths remaining as surgeon in charge. When the Sisters took the hospital they started with eight patients, and now it averages nearly one hundred marine patients, besides a number of private patients. The management of the hospital has been such that sick marines from the Western rivers and lakes have been sent to it for treatment. The discipline in the hospital has been equal to any naval hospital in the country, and has met with the favorable notice of the Treasury Department. The duties of the surgeon in charge have been so largely increased that Dr. Griffiths has been authorized by the department to employ an assistant, and has appointed Dr. Oliver H. Luse, a young gentleman of great promise, who graduated last winter at one of the medical schools of this city.


We congratulate Dr. Luse on his rapid progress in his profession, and believe that Dr. Griffiths will find in him a faithful, energetic and capable assistant. Seventeen Sisters of Mercy now comprise the force, performing all the duties of the management of the hospital, which has become in two years the most prominent Government hospital west of the mountains. To accommodate the large increase of patients, additions will be made to the hospital, and water-pipes will be extended through the building. We are justly proud of this institution in our midst, and feel that it can take rank with any naval hospital in the country.


17 February 1872

Courier-Journal

Woman in the Marine Hospital Mary Jane Grant, a colored chamber-maid, was admitted yesterday to the United States Marine Hospital from the steamer Camelia. She is the only female that has applied for admission to that institution within three years. The managers, however, extend a welcome to all “marines,” whether they are black or white, foreign or domestic, Federal or Confederate. The Sisters of Mercy have charge there and are ever ready and willing to nurse suffering humanity, wheresoever and in whomsoever they find it.


4 February 1876

Courier-Journal

The U.S. Marine Hospital With the 1st of January the lease of the Sisters of Mercy on the United States Marine Hospital, in this city, expired, and the Government took charge of the building, turning it into a class one of marine hospitals. It had belonged to class two, which is composed of all hospitals leased by the Government. The Sisters of Mercy have been in charge of the Marine Hospital in this city since 1869, and have conducted it in an excellent manner. Hereafter it will be under the control of Dr. Tom Griffiths, the surgeon and his assistant, Dr. W. H. Long, who will, through Col. Luse, surveyor of customs, furnish all the supplies and employ the persons necessary to the establishment. Three of the Sisters of Mercy have been retained for nurses and other purposes. The Marine Hospital is one of the largest in the country and adds many thousand dollars per year to the coffers of Louisville people. The surgeon and his assistant are gentlemen well known in the community, and thoroughly able to take care of the establishment. Louisville City Hospital Preston and Chestnut Streets.


REPORT ON LOUISVILLE’S PUBLIC HEALTH:

Two Hospitals Serve More than 100,000 citizens In 1870, the population of Louisville, Kentucky reached 101,000 for the first time. Despite this large population, only two medical facilities existed. The U.S. Marine Hospital (located in the Portland community) served boatmen and federal employees. The Louisville City Hospital (originally known as the Louisville Marine Hospital) cared for the general public. Located at Preston and Chestnut streets, the City Hospital admitted only white patients. Then, as now, the building also served as a teaching hospital and was associated with the University of Louisville School of Medicine.


Mortuary Report

The following is the mortuary report for the Week ending December 31, 1870:


LOUISVILLE, KY. HEALTH OFFICE

December 31, 1870

Accident ...2

Bronchitis ...1

Consumption ...5

Congestion of brain ...1

Convulsions ...2

Colic ...1

Croup ...2

Delirium Tremens ...1

Fever, puerperal ...1

Fever, typhoid ...1

Gun-shot wound ...1

Knife wound ...1

Old age ...2

Paralysis ...1

Pneumonia ...2

Premature birth ...1

Rheumatism ...2

Scrofula ...1

Still born ...5

Teething ...1

Trismus ...1

Unknown ...

TOTAL ...37



SEX

Male ...24

Female ...13



COLOR

White ...23

Black ...14



AGE

Under 3 years ...15

3-6 years ...1

6-10 years ...0

10-20 years ...3

20-30 years ...5

30-40 years ...3

40-50 years ...4

50-60 years ...3

60-70 years ...0

70 and over ...3


NATIVITY America, 27; Ireland, 5; Germany, 3; England, 1; Scotland, 1

Eastern District ...23

Western District ...14

Without medical attention ...7



C.B. Blackburn, M.D.

Secretary, Board of Health


Coroner’s Report

Sept. 5 through December 31, 1870

Suicide from poison, male 1, female 1 ...2

Suicide from hanging ...1

Bursting blood-vessel ...3

Crushed to death in clay-bank, white 1, colored 1 ...2

Drowned, male 4, female 1, white 4, colored 1 ...5

Run over by wagon ...1

Run over by street-car, white 1, colored 1 ...2

Heart disease, males 5, females 3, whites, 7, colored 1 ...8

Old age, males 1, females 1 ...2

Intemperance, males 2, females 1, white 2, colored 1 ...3

Infanticide, males 3, females 2; white 1, colored 4 ...5

Murdered, males 7, white 5, colored 2 ...7

Skull fractured while blasting rock ...2

Falling in pit ...1

Burning, females 2, white 1, colored 1 ...2

Falling and breaking neck ...2

Concussion of brain ...2

Kicked by mule ...1

Causes known, white 1, colored 2 ...3

By explosion of boiler ...1

Total ...55


LOUISVILLE CITY HOSPITAL

Report of pay and charity patients admitted, discharged, died and born at Louisville City Hospital during the month of December 1870:

No. patients remaining November 30, 1870 ..118

No. patients admitted during December, 1870 ...94

TOTAL ...212

No. patients discharged ...60

No. patients died ...8

No. patients remaining December 31, 1871 ...144

TOTAL ...212

No. dispensary patients prescribed for and medicines furnished ...100

No. children born ...4



Mrs. E. H. Geary, Superintendent


Source: http://www.marinehospital.org/historypages.htm

Thunder Over Louisville - 2012

Photo by
Mary C Smith

I ♥ the USA

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals. There are many different types of stables in use today such as the American barn which is a large barn with a door each end and individual stalls inside or free standing stables with the classic top and bottom opening doors. The term "stable" is also used to describe a group of animals kept by one owner, regardless of housing or location.

The exterior design of a stable can vary widely, based on climate, building materials, historical period, and cultural styles of architecture. A wide range of building materials can be used, including masonry (bricks or stone), wood, and steel. Stables can range widely in size, from a small building to house only one or two animals, to facilities used at agricultural shows or at race tracks, which can house hundreds of animals. 

Affordable Health Care is Not Affordable in Kentucky

I have been in the workplace for over 1/4 of a century, having obtained my first job during the early 1980s. I was once "secure" in the knowledge I could take any member of my family for a visit to our family doctor, without worry of being able to afford it. This is now not the case.
I have personally experienced the decline of my family's health care coverage, especially during the last decade. I work for a fortune 500 hundred company; which initially, offered some the best health benefits in the United States. Since the early 2000s, the cost of my family's benefits has increased each year to the point where I can almost no longer afford to even carry it. I am required to pay almost $100 a week to insure my family. We no longer have an affordable co pay, but am required to fulfill a percentage of the total of each and every visit. For those of us living on a budget, this is almost impossible. Our family can no longer run to the Dr. for a sore throat, a rash or even a mild fever. Our visits now must be only, "emergency in nature." When I read all the "benefits" listed on this government website (check the link below) I realize that by not allowing families to pay an affordable low co pay, they are putting a stranglehold on health care.


http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/statehealthreform/kentucky.html


I do believe some of the benefits listed on the government website are good, for example, the ability to keep an older child insured until the age of 26 was a "much needed" benefit for families. However, there needs to be additional thought given to the fact that having a low co pay allows families to have access to a doctor, without worry of not being able to pay a large fee, after a large deductible is met. I currently pay $4,000 a year for family health insurance but we do not receive any benefits until I pay an additional $500 deductible each year.

Families need their co pays returned. Most aspects of Kentucky's health care reform only works for the uninsured, not the insured.

M Smith

Flower Garden

Purple

Pink Blooms

Spring Beauty

Tulips - A springtime treat in Kentucky

Pale Pink

Pink is any of the colors between reddish blue (purple) to red, of medium to high brightness and of low to moderate saturation. Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color known today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century.

Source: Wiki
Image by MSmith

Man Made Ingenuity - Fort Knox, Kentucky

Footer of an Ancient Bridge
Fort Knox, Kentucky

 The first bridges were made by nature itself — as simple as a log fallen across a stream or stones in the river. The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.

Source: Wiki
Image by Mary C. Smith

Pale Violet - Kentucky's Simple Beauty

Pale Violet, Viola striata
Image by Mary C Smith

Kentucky Treasure



Viola (US /vaɪˈoʊlə/ and UK /ˈvaɪ.ələ/) is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, viola species (commonly called violets, pansies or heartsease) are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes inSouth America.
Most Viola species are perennial plants, some are annual plants, and a few are small shrubs. A number of species are grown for their ornamental flowers in borders and rock gardens; the gardenpansy in particular is an extensively used spring and autumn/winter bedding and pot plant. Viola and violetta are terms used by gardeners and generally in horticulture for neat, small-flowered hybrid plants intermediate in size between pansies and violets.

Source: Wiki

Sweet Nectar

Spring has Sprung

Barns of Kentucky

                    Eastern Kentucky - February, 2012

A farm often has pens of varying shapes and sizes used to shelter large and small animals. The pens used to shelter large animals are called stalls and are usually located on the lower floor. Other common areas, or features, of a typical barn include:

•a tack room (where bridles, saddles, etc. are kept), often set up as a breakroom

•a feed room, where animal feed is stored - not typically part of a modern barn where feed bales are piled in a stackyard

•a drive bay, a wide corridor for animals or machinery

•a silo where fermented grain or hay (called ensilage or haylage) is stored.

•a milkhouse for dairy barns; an attached structure where the milk is collected and stored prior to shipment

•a grain (soy, corn, etc.) bin for dairy barns, found in the mow and usually made of wood with a chute to the ground floor providing access to the grain, making it easier to feed the cows.

•modern barns often contain an indoor corral with a squeeze chute for providing veterinary treatment to sick animals.

Source: Wikipedia

Image by M Smith

Bur Oak

 Quercus macrocarpa, the Bur Oak, sometimes spelled Burr Oak.

It is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus sect Quercus, native to North America in the eastern and midwestern United States and south-central Canada. This plant is also called Mossycup oak and Mossycup white oak.

It occurs from the Appalachian Mountains west to the middle of the Great Plains, extending to central Texas, across southernmost Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, east to the Atlantic Coast in southern New Brunswick and down the coast to Delaware. Bur Oak is the state tree of Iowa.

It is a large deciduous tree growing up to 30 m (100 ft), rarely 37 m (120 ft), in height, and is one of the most massive oaks with a trunk diameter of up to 3 m (10 ft); reports of taller trees occur, but have not been verified. It is one of the slowest-growing oaks, with a growth rate of 30 cm (1 ft) per year when young. A 20-year-old tree will be about 6 m (20 ft) tall. It commonly lives to be 200 to 300 years old, and may live up to 400 years. The bark is a medium gray and somewhat rugged.

The leaves are 7–15 cm (3–6 in) long and 5–13 cm (2–5 in) broad, variable in shape, with a lobed margin. Most often, the basal 60% is narrower and deeply lobed, while the apical 40% is wider and has shallow lobes or large teeth. The flowers are greenish-yellow catkins, produced in the spring. The acorns are very large, 2–5 cm (0.8–2 in) long and 2–4 cm (0.8-1.5 in) broad, having a large cup that wraps much of the way around the nut, with large overlapping scales and often a fringe at the edge of the cup.

Bur Oak is sometimes confused with Overcup oak and White oak, both of which it occasionally hybridizes with.

Source Wiki

Photograph: mcsmith

Crocus - Early Blooming Flowers

There are about eighty species of crocus (of which approximately 30 are cultivated). Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. Crocuses typically have threestamens. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.

Wiki

Kentucky Snow

Snow in Kentucky

Kentucky Beauty - Tulip

Mellow Yellow

Kentucky State Capital

Between You and Me

Yellow Rose of Kentucky

Yellow Rose

Perfectly Posed

Sweet to my Nose

Pretty Petals Exposed