Where Others Live Our Dreams

   From almost the beginning of our relationship, Bruce and I have talked about living in a log home someday. Antiques and handcrafted objects are among our passions, which would look great in our dream home by a lake. So, as we work toward that goal, we’ve had the fabulous opportunity to write for Log Home Living.

  The magazine has a wonderful column called Great Places, and over the last couple of years, we’ve been able to highlight Ogden, Utah, Talkeetna, Alaska, and Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks as among the Great Places to build and live in a log home.

What a combination of our passions! Although I have to admit, there are times I find myself incredibly depressed after being in a great place like Brown County Indiana, where there are more log homes per capita than any other county in the U.S.

Sometimes our dreams of building our log home seem so far away. But 25 years ago, when I sold my first freelance story, the dream of making a full-time living at this and traveling the world writing for newspapers and magazines seemed far away as well.

 So until we can invite you to celebrate an open house in our own log home, perhaps you’ll enjoy reading about some of the places where people do live happily in log homes. Find Log Home Living in most bookstores or on-line at www.loghomeliving.com.

 In the March issue, we featured Lynchburg, Tennessee.

April is Nebraska City, Nebraska.

And May is Brown County Indiana.

We hope you enjoy where our dreams take you.

From Talkeetna to Tucson

   After a fabulous trip to Alaska in 2006, I worked diligently on what I hoped was a perfectly-crafted query to Cooking Light for the magazine’s Enlightened Traveler feature about some surprisingly fabulous restaurants and indigenous foods from the 49^th state.  I didn’t get the assignment (yet) but the query began some good communication with the folks in Birmingham, where Cooking Light is located.

   At the time, the magazine was celebrating its 20^th anniversary and chose to focus on the top 20 healthiest cities in the country as a part of the year-long celebration.  They needed someone to cover Tucson, Arizona.  That was my first assignment with Cooking Light, which ran in the March 2007 issue.

   As often happens, I gathered enough information, photos and other ideas to develop several stories.  While visiting a farmer’s market, a requirement for the CL story, I came across a guy selling Kansas City style barbeque.  His name was Rodney George, a native of Wyandotte County, and just too much of a fun guy not to necessitate a story.

   That’s the story that ran March 23 in The Kansas City Star.   http://www.kansascity.com/270/story/539937.html  This link only stays live for a week.

   But back to Alaska:  Cooking Light is soon going to start an on-line survey of its readers’ favorite vacation destinations, which will be the basis of some future assignments.  So if you want to see what I had originally pitched, if you want to see my by-line again in Cooking Light, keep an eye out for this survey to start at www.cookinglight.com.

   Remember to vote Alaska, not Arizona.  Already been there, done that.

Is It Spring Yet?

In the last three days in Kansas City, it has snowed, sleeted and rained, respectively.  It’s St. Patrick’s Day, but there’s nothing green happening here except for the beer flowing in numerous bars around the city.

However, the calendar tells us that warm weather and spring days are around the corner, and many of us will soon devote considerable time, money and energy to one-upping our neighbors in the lawn care department.

Early on, Bruce and I concede defeat to our neighbor Joan, but none the less will visit the garden department at our local Lowe’s store in an attempt to save face.  But this spring, we’re looking for more than just crab grass control and fertilizer.

The Lowe’s Garden Club Newsletter has a story and photos from the Lambdin/Meyer team about the 10,000 rain gardens initiative in Kansas City, a fairly impressive effort to minimize run-off and flooding in our storm sewers and waterways.  Learn more about it at www.rainkc.com.

So, if you’re shopping at Lowe’s in the coming weeks and months, be it for snow shovels or rain barrels, be sure to pick up a copy of the newsletter.  And silently give credit to the Meyers for at least attempting to encourage others with a green thumb, even if the Meyer thumb remains as drab as today’s weather in KC.

Stepping In It in Wales

  As April 15 and that annual tax deadline draws nearer, and many of us question how seriously God takes the “thou shalt not lie” commandment, I recall the last time I considered not being entirely truthful with the U.S. Government.  It was October and I returning from a writer’s conference in Manchester England, and a few extra days exploring the north of Wales.

   If you know anything about Wales, you know that it’s a beautiful country where more than 10 million sheep reside in a space about the size of Massachusetts.  And where there are sheep, there are also sheep droppings.  It’s nearly impossible to be anywhere in the north of Wales without stepping in it, literally. 

    So on the U.S. customs and immigration form, the question was “have you been on a farm, in pastureland or in contact with any hoofed animals?”

    Hmmm.  As a product of America’s farm culture, I take the spread of Mad Cow disease and similar agriculture threats quite seriously.  But despite my best efforts to scrape and wipe and soak my hiking boots, the evidence of my encounter with sheep was undeniable.  Those boots were wrapped in plastic in my checked bag, and I knew they wouldn’t be walking the fields of my family or anyone else’s farm until they were thoroughly sanitized.

   I also knew if I checked “yes” that I wouldn’t be back at my desk in Kansas City in time to file my story on craft artisans in Wales that appears in the March issue of The Crafts Report.  I actually have two stories in this month’s issue.  Check it out on-line at www.craftsreport.com or pick up a copy at your local Hobby Lobby or bookstore. 

   I’ve written for The Crafts Report since before I quit my “real” job to pursue this wonderful life of freelance writing.  I’ve never missed a deadline for them, or any other market I write for, but I figure fudging to the federal government once in a calendar year just about tests the limits of God’s patience.  I’m quite sure my Mother, and my Uncle Sam, would agree.

From Kansas City to Spain and Points North

  Those familiar with the architecture of Kansas City’s magnificent Country Club Plaza are surely aware that Kansas City’s sister city is Seville Spain. The  Plaza’s developer, J.C. Nichols, traveled in Sevilla as a young man, and the trip forever influenced his life, and now the lives those who visit Kansas City.

   At an event sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers a few years back, I became aquainted with the media relations director for the Tourism Office of Spain.  “We haven’t had a writer from Kansas City visit Sevilla in some time,” she said.

   So off on a wonderful ten day adventure to the Andalucia region of Spain I went with my husband, son and niece.  It was while traveling and working on stories there, I met the publisher of a magazine from Atlanta, a really great guy who bought us ice cream after the kids peddled him around in a bicycle carriage in Maria Luisa Park.

   Since then, I’ve had the good fortune of selling a number of stories to Points North Magazine.  Last November, the editor contacted me at the last minute to cover a story on Amelia Island, Florida at the Ritz-Carlton of all places.  We kayaked and had massages and ate the most fabulous cuisine at the restaurant “Salt.”

  That’s how my business has grown over the years, just meeting the right people at the right time and sharing with them the love of adventure and travel and communication.

   So if you’re in the Atlanta area, pick up a copy of the the March 2008 issue of Points North, or visit the web site at www.ptsnorth.com.  There’s not a direct link to my story, but you can always order a copy of that issue, if you’re really, really interested.  And I would recommend it, because Amelia Island, off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, is a fabulous vacation destination.

  Or to see Bruce’s photos from our trip to Spain, visit my web site, www.dianalambdinmeyer.com and click on Stock Photos.