February 2026

A lizard sits perched on a rock

In 1951, a young boy was vacationing with his family near Milan, Italy. The boy, George Rau, was a scion of the well-known Lazarus family, which, for generations, ran one of the largest department store chains in Ohio.

Rau became enchanted with the docile lizards that sunned themselves on the rocky walls around Milan, and so he tucked 10 of them into a sock and brought them back to Cincinnati, where he released them in his family’s Torrence Court backyard.

Lavender grows in a pot.

The late spring and summer season are great times to fill your outdoor living space with the lively colors, textures, and fragrances of herbs grown in containers. Potted herbs bring instant visual attraction to your outdoors, and their portability allows you to position plants where they grow and look their best.

Just about any herb can be grown in a container, as long as the pot is sized right for the plant. Most culinary herbs are prime picks, especially familiar favorites like chives, parsley, mint, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, and basil.

Cardinal Plant Manager Bethany Schunn and Sustainability Lead Julie Jones smile together for a picture.

Part of the process of removing sulfur dioxide (SO2) from emissions at the Cardinal Power Plant involves the use of limestone. The process is complicated and can be messy, and when heavy deposits build up in the scrubber, the entire generating unit must come offline.

An employee at the plant suggested adding a chemical to the process that not only would allow for less limestone to be used, it would reduce those deposits in the scrubber — meaning lower maintenance time and cost.

A group of kayakers paddle through a river.

Ohio has a delightful abundance of lakes and rivers to explore, and a kayak is the perfect way to do it. A happy thing about lakes: There are no worries about paddling upstream or needing an extra car and a pickup place downstream. Just relax and enjoy the view, or make it aerobic and paddle hard.

If fishing is your fancy, wet a line and see what’s biting. Like birding or nature watching? Take binoculars and a camera. From your kayak, you can spot that elusive bird flitting in the treetops, get close to the turtles sunning on rocks, and watch the fish swimming beneath you.