August

 

 I feel fall in the air...

 

Rain teeming down here this week...

 

 Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Moth

 

Cherry Valley Coke Ovens, Leetonia, Ohio. The small town of Leetonia is home to hundreds of 19th century coke ovens, one of the largest group of coke ovens in the United States. Coke was used as a fuel for the blast furnaces in the iron and steel industries, and at one time, Leetonia produced more steel than Youngstown, Ohio. Coke is made by heating coal in extremely hot, airless ovens such as these, so that all the impurities are burned away.

 

A Mug of Your Own in Leetonia. For any of you who have read the charming Mitford novels by Jan Karon, I think I may have discovered Ohio's own version of the fictional town of Mitford: It's Leetonia, just south of Salem, Ohio, and probably no bigger than Mitford. On Tuesday, my friend Char and I ventured off to sample some Cornish Pasties at a tearoom named British Pastries in Leetonia. As we sat there enjoying our pots of tea, meaty pasties, and the tenderest raspberry tarts imaginable, we noticed a table packed with coffee mugs. As it turns out, British Pastries, is a crowded place on weekday mornings. A good number of the local Leetonians show up for breakfast, so often in fact, that they just keep their coffee mugs at the restaurant. The large red one belongs to the Lutheran pastor, if I remember right. For any British visitors to my site: Author Jan Karon is the American counterpart of British novelist Miss Read, who wrote the Fairacre and Thrush Green series of novels about village life in the Cotswolds.

 

 One raindrop from the torrential downpours we've been having!