CEDAR RAPIDS — Location, location, location. Cedar Rapids made Livibility.com‘s list of best home base cities for road trippers, but not necessarily for any attractions here. Coming in at #2, Cedar Rapids was cited for its affordable housing (the median home price is $134,0000) paired with “amazing job opportunities at Fortune 500 companies, quirky startups […]
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Author: Cindy
Market After Dark to feature not-so-secr...
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The popular nighttime farmers market in downtown Cedar Rapids returns Saturday, Aug. 24, for its fifth year. Market After Dark runs 6:30-11 p.m., with nearly 100 vendors selling prepared foods, honey, baked goods, flowers, clothing, handcrafted items and more. A few vendors sell fruits and vegetables, but the focus differs from […]
Attack of the aphids: keeping a healthy ...
For the past decade, my insect nemesis has been the voracious Japanese beetle, but this summer, we’ve been battling an aphid invasion. These tiny sap-suckers are particularly fond of milkweed, the sole food source for monarch caterpillars. They appear uninterested in ironweed, (Vernonia fasciculata) and other native plants that are beneficial for pollinators. More: Differences […]
Naked Ladies make late appearance in Iow...
In a topsy-turvy gardening season, when June clematis are blooming in August, an Iowa favorite known as Naked Ladies have finally made an appearance. Also known as surprise lilies among other names, the perennial flowers possess an astounding synchronicity, blooming at the same time throughout the region. For the past several years, they have popped […]
Photos: 2019 Czech Village Blues
CEDAR RAPIDS — Perfect weather provided ideal accompaniment for the third annual Czech Village Blues. An enthusiastic crowd filled a good portion of 16th Avenue SW, where the stage was set due to ongoing construction of flood protection around Sokol Park, where last year’s festival was centered. The 2019 Czech Village Blues, hosted by the […]
Czech Village Blues enters third year to...
CEDAR RAPIDS — Czech Village Blues approaches its third year as a fundraising effort to restore the Riverside Roundhouse, a site for farmers markets since 1963 that was dismantled after the devastating floods of 2008. Gates open at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for the event along the Cedar River in Czech Village, hosted […]
History project coincides with Tournamen...
By Cindy Hadish In 1934, a bugle was thrust into 10-year-old Bob Steuber’s hands after his mother brought him to try-outs for the Musketeers Drum & Bugle Corps at a second-floor ballroom in downtown Cedar Rapids. “I couldn’t blow it. I was in tears,” Steuber, now 95, recalled of his first efforts at playing the […]
Quaint Iowa town hosts vibrant Czech cel...
Like many small Iowa towns, Clutier helps keep its community alive with an annual celebration. With a population of just over 200 people, Clutier is located in east-central Iowa, in an area fondly dubbed the “Bohemian Alps” and more formally as the Scenic Czech Trail. Related: Find three cultures along the Iowa Valley Scenic Byway […]
Cedar Rapids neighborhood: “We’re litera
UPDATE: Following a public hearing, the Cedar Rapids City Council will vote Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019, on allowing Cargill to build a railyard in a residential neighborhood. Unlike the typical rezoning measures that require the council to vote three times, designating an “essential service” allows the council to only vote once. The meeting is at […]
Nature watch: cicada emergence
Large-scale cicada emergence, with periodical broods crawling out of the ground every 13 or 17 years, capture widespread attention when tens of thousands can mob en masse onto a single tree. But even one cicada, emerging from its shell, is fascinating in itself. Related Cicadas: Sounds of summer The process can take an hour. Cicada […]