I’m
of an age when it’s best to start checking items off my bucket list, so Dennis
and I took a short road trip into central Kansas last week.
First,
I wanted to visit the Stafford Milling Company in Hudson, Kansas where Hudson
Cream Flour is produced. Before I
switched to baking with organic flour I favored Hudson Cream, because it is a
regional product and not shipped long distance. The trip to Hudson was a big
disappointment because all we got to see was the outside of the grain silos and
the mill. Instead of a tour we got to watch a twenty-minute DVD of the milling
process. Driving away from the mill we did admire the Hudson Cream wind turbine
that supplies the mill’s electricity.
Wind
turbines are an increasingly common sight in Kansas, along with fields of
wheat, oil pumps, and oil storage tanks, often in the same spot.
Another
item on my bucket list was to visit Coronado Heights, near Lindsborg. A view
from the hilltop shows how prevalent wheat fields really are.
If
not for a grove of trees at the north edge of the hill, one could have a 360º
view of the surrounding landscape. During the Great Depression the Works
Progress Administration (WPA) put stonemasons to work erecting a castle atop
Coronado Heights so that visitors could get above the trees and see for miles
in every direction. Ensuing years of neglect left the castle in such poor condition
it was no longer safe. Today, the castle is being repaired, surrounded by a
chain-link fence.
WPA masons also several built picnic areas around the
hilltop edges, using the Dakota limestone that constitutes the hill.
Unfortunately these, too, have been neglected. It isn’t even possible to access
them, the steps to them having completely eroded,
On a whim we ended our excursion with a visit to the
Sandzén Art Gallery on the Bethany College campus in Lindsborg. The art was
amazing, and it more than made up for my flourmill disappointment.
He apparently painted this oil with a palatte knife.
I learned that sometimes what we think we want doesn’t turn
out to be what we expected, but the unexpected can be a delight. There’s more
to be enjoyed than we can imagine. All we have to do it venture out.
Copyright 2016 Shirley Domer
3 comments:
I assume it's a Sandzer oil painting but in the photo it looks like a woodcut. You made the trip while the weather was good.
I can see why it looks like a woodcut. I'm adding a close-up of the painting to the post to illustrate his technique.
I love living vicariously through your blog, Mama!
Love you!
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