Clifton Gorge

Saturday
Quite a full and enjoyable day today. This morning I was at church for our monthly Coffee and Conversation. Our speaker this morning was Beth Guckenberger. Beth grew up in our church, and now lives with her husband and their family in Monterrey, Mexico where they serve with Back2Back Ministries, an international orphan care ministry headquartered in Cincinnati. She is an amazing woman of faith and excellent and inspiring speaker. The forecast was for a beautiful day - sunny and temperatures in the upper 60sF, so we had decided to get out and enjoy it in the afternoon. By the time I got home, Roger had kindly prepared us a picnic to take up to John Bryan State Park near Yellow Springs. When we left home there was still quite a bit of cloud cover, but by the time we got up there the skies had cleared, and it was a beautiful afternoon. After our picnic we went walking along the river and into Clifton Gorge Nature Preserve, which protects a spectacular dolomite and limestone gorge. Geologically, it is an outstanding example of interglacial and post-glacial canyon cutting. At one point, the river funnels through a deep, narrow channel, which was formed by the enlarging and connecting of a series of potholes in the resistant Silurian dolomite bedrock. In other sections of the gorge, cliff overhangs have broken off forming massive slump blocks scattered along the valley floor. With the nice weather, it was a very popular place this afternoon - everyone wanting to make the most of what will probably be the last few days of warm weather before winter sets in.

When we got home, there was just time to fix and enjoy dinner, before going to the Cincinnati Symphony Concert downtown. The conductor this evening was Louis Langree, in his first concert as Music Director Designate - he will take over the reins in the 2013/14 season. The program was all French, starting with Messiaen Les Offrandes Oubliees, followed by Saint-Saens most popular piano concerto, with the French pianist Cédric Tiberghiena, and finally Franck's Symphony in D Minor. It was a great concert - and at a great price - free! They wanted the hall to be as full as possible for Louis Langree's first performances with the Symphony, so they were offering free tickets to subscribers!

One year ago: Exposed roots