My Day in Lexington

Despite giving up on the idea of seeing the latest Potter movie before I ever even left the house yesterday, I had a fun time in Lexington. I usually enjoy going there because, while it's big enough to qualify as a city rather than a town, and therefore has a lot more stuff to see and do than our little wide-spot-in-the-road, it is nevertheless a small city, so it's usually not so very horrible in terms of snarly traffic and one-way streets (although it has its share!). The errand that was my primary reason for going was over with quickly and then it was on to lunch at The Garden Cafe at Flag Fork Herb Farm. I would love to turn that into a link so you could click on it and read a little more about Flag Fork and maybe even see some photos, but unfortunately they don't appear to have a website. I'm really surprised, because they were collecting email addresses for a mailing list, so you'd think they'd have some sort of web presence, yes? Strange! Oh well, anyway, it's a very cool little shop/restaurant combo, housed in a building that dates from around 1800, give-or-take 10 years. The owners ran an herb business on a farm near Frankfort for years before moving to their current location, hence the name Flag Fork Herb Farm. The gift shop part specializes in Kentucky arts, crafts, and food gifts - things like Bybee pottery, their own "Kentucky Gourmet" food products, (I couldn't even find anything online for those! Sheesh!), and things like these: (not a great pic, sorry!) ...a pair of beady earrings and an embellished patchwork Whatsawhosits that came home with me. Actually I think that patchwork thing is supposed to be a cell phone holder, but it could also hold sunglasses or reading glasses, or even a drivers license and a credit card or a little folding money. The small handle you can see in the pic has a snap so you could attach it to a belt or belt loop, and it also has a long, skinny strap tucked down inside you could use to wear it around your neck. I thought it was pretty and looked useful. And sure, I could make something like that myself, but would I? Probably not. So I bought it. Ditto for the earrings, which are brighter than they appear in the photo. Too much flash bouncing off those beads! The Garden Cafe, which takes up two small rooms in the rear of the building and is only open 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, is probably my favorite place to have lunch in Lexington. It's a "girly lunch" sort of place, featuring soups, salads, quiche, and sandwiches, all seasoned with their organically grown herbs, and yummy desserts. My favorite thing on the menu is the soup, salad, sandwich combo plate, where you get a small cup of any soup on the menu, a bit of any salad, and half of any sandwich. I got their house specialty soup, burgoo; a lovely seafood pasta salad with tarragon dressing; and half a chicken salad sandwich. Yum! And yes, I had dessert - pumpkin pie with maple whipped cream. (No photos, sorry! I'd intended to take my camera with me and forgot.) I checked out a new shoe store in town but didn't buy anything. Are you proud of me? [grin] I weakened a bit at the book store though, and came home with "Class Dis-mythed", the latest in a humorous fantasy series I've been reading for years, and "Queen of the Slayers" because, yes, I'm such a Buffy the Vampire Slayer geek that I sometimes even read the novels. (Stop laughing!) I also really would have loved to buy "Undead and Unreturnable", "Grave Sight", and "Rituals of the Season", but my bank account can only stand just so much in one day. Another time... My idea of wealth: to be able to buy absolutely any book, any time, without a second thought, and to have room to store all the "keepers" while still having space to do things like sleep and eat. That's not asking too much, is it? Heh.