Philomath Frolic

This is the weekend of the Philomath Frolic & Rodeo. We attended the parade with Lance and his two daughters.
Of course it had most of the standard things you need in a small town parade but it was missing the marching band. Other than recorded music only a Western Band played on one of the floats.
You start off with the Grand Marshall. When Kevin Boss graduated from your high school and play for the NY Giants to help them win the Super Bowl, he gets to ride in that first convertible as the Grand Marshall. Did I mention he went to college at Western Oregon University where I taught? No he was not in any of my classes.
Then you follow with all the standard floats for a local business, other festivals in the area, student robot or drag race team, and the rodeo Queen Alyssa Miller. Many of the floats were throwing out candy so the granddaughters had a small bag to bring home in addition to what we all ate while watching the parade.
Both political parties had floats but I only got a picture of one of them. The Hull family had a number of logging trucks in the parade. They are one of the big logging families in the area. Some of the trucks were new and some were very old, showing the different trucks they had used over the years.
Both the fire trucks and the local swim team were spraying water so you had to be on the lookout for a stray stream of water. One lady about 50 yards from us said, “Spray me,” and they got the lady next to her, their aim was not that good.

Oddwater

We stopped by the Aquarium for a short time on the way to visit friends on the Oregon Coast. This was our first time to visit this summer and see the new exhibit, Oddwater.
We will be back for another visit in a couple of weeks with the granddaughters but it is nice to stop by when ever we can. Even though it was a short visit I did get some good pictures.

The new exhibit was very interesting with all of the different and weird looking animals that live in the ocean. It was displayed very well with blown glass in the water with the fish.
We didn’t spent much time with the otters or seals but they are more fun a feeding time. Maybe we will see that later. Also we went past the touch area. I will get more on that with the granddaughters.

Fourth of July

Well it is time for obligatory Fourth of July fireworks pictures. We spent July 3-5 on the Oregon Coast at the home of a friend in Waldport. It was a full house with people sleeping everywhere. It was a two bedroom house and eight people. We drew the high card so we got the master bedroom and not the hide-a-bed in the living room. One of the ladies slept on a cushion on the pool table downstairs.
We spent the first part of the evening on the third playing bridge, then when to another friend’s house to watch the fireworks that Waldport has on the evening of the third. It was a cool evening with a little fog but with a few snacks and drinks everyone had a good time.
We had planed on attending the parade in Yachats on the Fourth but when we got up it was raining and that turned into fog as we ate breakfast. We continued the round of bridge and decided we didn’t want to stand out in the old wind to watch the parade. Of course by noon when the parade was to start it was beginning to be a nice day.
The afternoon was spent having our picnic of more food than we needed and going for a walk on the beach. That was followed by a nap and more bridge by the others but I sat out to finish pictures and write the blog.

Summer Flowers

Well summer is here and we finally have some warm weather. It was actually hot for a couple of days. Of course it cools off at night so it works out well. My garden has started to grow except one of my bell peppers died. I guess it got tired of waiting for the warm weather. Of course they are predicting a chance of rain for the 4th of July.
The iris have finished but we enjoyed ours, our neighbors, and we made the trip to Scheiner’s Iris Garden for their Memorial Day open house. That is always fun. The Capital City Jazz Band plays, there is a chicken dinner, and the flowers. Of course they have many different iris in the display garden as well as many other flowers and are more than happy to sell you many iris blooms or roots as you want. Some of the new release roots sell for $50. We did have some rain during the open house this year but it was not that bad and I got a number of pictures. Many times I can’t see the difference between two similar plants but I am sure they can.
After a very slow start the dahlias are about to start blooming and the roses are getting started. The sunflowers and lilies have the buds and a few warm days produce many flowers.
As I drove home from my 7 AM tennis on Tuesday I saw a wild turkey and her seven little chicks. I had been saying that I hadn’t seen the wild turkey yet this year but she is back. It may be that soon we won’t be so happy to see them as they increase in number. They could really take care of a garden for you.

Yorktown and Jamestown

We visited the other two areas of the Historic Triangle, Yorktown and Jamestown. Jamestown is the area of the first settlement in Virginia and Yorktown is the place of the last large battle between Washington and Cornwallis in the Revolutionary War.
I enjoyed the Jamestown the most of the two. It is really two areas. One is a visitor’s center and recreations of a Powhatan Village, the James Fort, and the Susan Constant and a second archeological area at the original site of the settlement. The Powhatan Indians were the natives to the area and Pocahontas was the daughter of the Chief. In the Powhatan Village in addition to the examples of homes and other things you would see in a village there were a number of people in native dress performing some of the activities you would see in a village such as basket making, scraping deer hides, and making stone tools.
The James Fort was their best guess of what the first fort was in size and contents. Recent discovers by archaeologists has required some changes but for the most part they have found the recreation to be very accurate. There you would also find a blacksmith, person demonstration the firing of a musket, and others answering questions about the other buildings in the fort all in period dress. I found it interesting that both the person firing the musket and running the blacksmith shop were both women while the original group that settled the Jamestown had no women.
The original site of the settlement is most an area set aside for archeological study. They have found the corners of the fort and many of the building in addition to many graves throughout the area.
The Yorktown area shows the area of the battle and I was not interested in visiting all of the different encampments but we did visit two houses in the area. The Thomas Nelson Jr. house is in the town of Yorktown. Nelson was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Virginia, and commander of the Virginia Militia. He lost all his money in support of the revolution. The Moore House is located more in the area of the fighting was the site of the negotiations that lead to the British surrender on October 19, 1781.

Williamsburg

We have spent the last two days in Virginia as they experience record breaking heat. It has been at least 100 degrees both days and it can really make you tired walking and viewing much of the history of the early Colonies.
We are stay at a large resort on an old plantation by Williamsburg, Virginia. I am not sure how many units are on the 250 plus acres. There are many geese, rabbits, and squirrels roaming the grounds. It is a very nice setting and has many amenities such as tennis, pool, restaurant, etc. for our use. Internet is available in the unit for $40 for the week but free at the Grill so we walk the Grill to use the internet.
The first day we drove the 100 miles to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home of Monticello. The foundation is doing an excellent job of resoring the home, garden, and many of the dependencies; We toured the home, garden and Mulberry Row.
The vegetable garden and flower garden have been restored as much as possible to the directions drawn by Jefferson and contain older varieties of flowers and vegetables that we grow in much of our yards.
Mulberry Row was the area where much of the work to support the plantation was done. The blacksmith and carpenter’s shop as well as the dwellings of both free and slave workers are gone but through Jefferson’s notes and archaeological digs provided at history of the walk that was one of our tours.
The home and the two wings placed under below the home are well restored. We toured the two wings of the dependencies before taking the house tour. One side contained the kitchen, cooks room, and smoke house the other side had the ice house and stable. They are connected by a tunnel under the house that provides storage and access to the house.
We finished the day with a late lunch at a tavern a short distance from Monticello that served traditional buffet lunch of the time.
The second day we explored part of Colonial Williamsburg. After the introductory film and walk we explored some of the buildings in the area. We visited the George Wythe home which also had weaver and basket makers at work in the out buildings. Wythe was the founder of the William and Mary Law School and teacher of many of the early lawyers such as Jefferson. We also visited the Capital and a number of the other shops along the way. There a few more we will visit another day.
Once of the most interesting presentations was a presentation by a man portraying George Washington. He gave a talk and then answered questions in character as if it was 1777(?).

Hot Air Balloons

After reading about the German man that cause a number of calls about a UFO, when he sent a number of hot air lanterns into the sky to propose to his lady, I thought I should share our hot air balloons. We did not cause much concern with the locals, but maybe it is because these are often used in festivals in Northern Thailand.
The balloon is made of what I assume is rice paper and is about a meter high and about a meter in diameter. The top is closed and in the center of the bottom is a small ring of material that has been soaked in kerosene and then covered in wax. Bamboo is used for the top and bottom ring but nothing on the side so it will collapse to a flat ring. When you are ready to fly you open it up and light the ring in the center of the bottom. After waiting a little time the balloon is filled with hot air and will fly off into the sky.
We released eight of them and I was amazed at how high they went. Our guide said they would fly for about thirty minutes. As for the fire danger, I would not think there is much of a problem. They go very high and will not come down until the fire goes out. And the material the is burning will all burn so there should be now embers by the time it reaches the ground. It was a very fun activity and Marilyn started saying immediately that it would be fun to do it here but I don’t think our neighbors would think much of it.

Buddhism

Writing about Thailand and not talking about Buddhism would be ignoring the elephant standing in your living room. Ninety percent of the people are Buddhist and it is a major influence over the lives of people in Thailand. Our guide said many times that Buddhism in not a religion it is a way of life and you see it every day from the monks walking the street to the many Wats (temples) and the people visiting with gifts to present. Also almost every house, and hotel, has a spirit house where offerings are place regularly.
We visited many different Wats and most were similar but each had a significant reason for the visit. The Golden Buddha is a must see in Bangkok. The solid gold Buddha weights about 5 tons and was not discovered until 1955 that it was discovered that the plaster was covering a solid gold image. We also visited Wat Pho which contains the largest Reclining Buddha. The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana.
What can I say about some of the other Wats? They all have a Buddha image and most are traditional in style and construction, you must take off your shoes before entering, and you will encounter people giving offerings and taking pictures, where allowed. The Wat Rong Khun was perhaps the most unique of the temples. It is completely white and very modern in design. It is designed and financed by and artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. We also visited another wat that I do not remember the name but the anterior was covered with small mirrors that gave it a very interest look. One of the interesting things at this temple was you could buy your offering including your small Buddha image to present inside the temple. The food in the offering was giving to the monks and the Buddha image would be recycled after a day.
We visited the Emerald Buddha at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and also the pagoda where the Buddha was found after a lighting strike.
One morning some of us took part in the traditional Buddhist alms giving. For the one-hour after sunrise the monks will walk through the streets collecting food to eat and to share with other people that come the monastery needing food. Our guide had purchased some non-perishable food to give but you can also buy small trays of food at stands located close to where the monks walk to give to the monks. The trays we purchased where about a dollar and contained small cooked fish and rice, some water and bread.
It is impossible to understand all about Buddhism in such a short time or short story but it was a great experience. I would like to share something of Buddhist thought that our guide gave us. It is more about thinking of others and a better world only in the last line is the work me used.
Spread loving kindness and compassion
May all living beings be free from violence and fear
May all living beings be free from suffering and pain
May all living beings be free from hatred and killing
May all living beings be free from hostility and affliction
May all living beings be free from misery and depression
May all living beings be happy and secure
May all living beings be healing and cured
May peace prevail in the world
May peace prevail in me

Paluang Indigo Home

The Royal Family in Thailand has a huge influence on the people of Thailand and is greatly loved by the people. The present King became king when he was only 19 years old and has reigned for over 60 years. He as no political power but works very hard to improve the life of the people of Thailand.
The Queen is very active in visiting, promoting, and helping the women of the villages to develop cottage industry to help raise the standard of living for the rural people. We visited one such place, the Paluang Indigo Home in Thunghong Phrae. This family as received recognition from the Queen for there work and proudly displays pictures with members of the royal family. Here cotton is printed with wax designs using block prints. The material is then dyed using dye from the indigo plant. The finished product is used for many things including a shirt I got, tablecloths, and bags.
As you can see in the picture of Marilyn making her print, we got an opportunity to make a small print using some small wire patterns, which they dyed for us and we got the next morning. To make their designs they use larger wooden blocks with more designs in each block than the simple wire frame we used. Some of the block designs are shown in the picture. In my picture I am wearing the shirt that I bought at the Paluang Indigo Home.

Elephant Trek

There are always activities that you look forward to doing when you look over the itinerary for a trip. The elephant trek was one of the things we were anticipating on this trip. We had done an elephant ride on your trip to Africa but still it sounded interesting.
It was really much more than a ride. The elephants are very import in Thailand for many reasons. In the past they were a big part of the logging of teak lumber. Now that the logging as decreased many of the elephants were unemployed. The tourist trade has been just what they needed. It is easier work and earns their food. Of course you must remember that elephants only work until noon. After that it is too hot and they need to rest and enjoy life.
We started with the ride up and down hill and through the river. Of course all the elephants knew just where a number of stations had been established with people selling banana and sugar cane. We had a nice ride but going down hill was the hardest to keep in the seat and keep my camera from hitting a restraining bar. There was no place to put your feet so you couldn’t just that to help you hold your position.
After the ride there was ample time to interact with the elephants. The younger elephants that were in training were there to ride and feed for a small tip. They would take the tip from you and give to the trainer. They also went to the river to play and spray water at the people watching.
They then game a program of some of the activities they had learned in their training. There was soccer, basketball, and logging along with other demonstrations on skill and strength. The big finish was three of the elephants painting a picture as we watched.

PAIN and Thai Massage

Today I will write about my only bad experience on the Thailand trip, the Thai Massage. It might be because of my size and the fact that I am on blood thinner but this experience is still haunting me.
Since I am on a blood thinner, when I bump my leg I get a small bump from blood building up under the skin. Well I have a few on my leg and the lady giving the massage took them as muscle cramps and applied an oil and tried to work them out. This was very painful and in the end I had to take the leg away from her.
The second pain I am not sure what happen or if the pain is a cracked rib, as I assume. I have had cracked ribs before so am aware of the pain and know there is not much you can do but take painkillers. I did not see a doctor but the pain on the bottom left rib started during her working on my back and still hurts today. It is better and I know that some of the yard work I am doing is not the best for it but I will recover. Maybe she felt the bigger they are the harder you have to push. It was defiantly a deep muscle massage and maybe just TOO deep.
All that said, it was only one experience that I would not recommend of the many outstanding things we did on the trip.

Home Again

We are back from our OAT trip to Cambodia and Thailand. It was a good trip and I hope to add some notes about the trip each day for a few days. I have over 2000 photographs to edit and process, yard work that needs to be done, and a few other things to do so it will take awhile.
The weather was good and we only had rain on parts of a few days. The storm that hit Myanmar did not cause damage in northern Thailand but did give some rain. The trip provide and great many experiences in food, travel, culture, and sites that are difficult to show in pictures or explain in word but I will try.
It was a good trip and very nice people. Our leader Lin was knowledgeable and funny and it was great traveling with her. Our group started with 14 but one woman tore ligaments in her ankle and had to return home early in the trip. Her sister that was traveling with her went with her to assist in the travel.
I will continue to add some pictures to my flickr account as I get some processed.

Earth Day

Well it is almost Earth Day and everyone is getting ready. Every business that can claim some association to Earth Day is having something special, a sale or open house. The Farmer’s Market had its first day on Saturday. The Woodenshoe Tulip Farm had its Tulip Fest this weekend. Thyme Garden had their celebration “There will be displays from more than 20 companies concerned with the environment, speakers, great music, great food and drink and great people. Come join us to celebrate this awesome planet we live on and share some of the things we can do to save it. “

Oh did I mention that it has been snowing when I got up the last to days and all of these outdoor activities got to be held in snow, rain, sleet, and sun not to mention the freezing nights and temperature in the 40’s during the day. Oh yes, that was my last post.

Well this morning I tried to make up for my failure to get a picture of the snow. Looking back to my April 13 post I took the same picture today with the snow to replace the yellow of the daffodils. As I ventured on to the deck to look over Corvallis, a hummingbird flew to my feeder for it’s morning feeding and then flew to the cherry tree to find the pick blossoms through the snow. Two of the neighbors also have hummingbird feeds so I am sure the two birds I saw were just making the rounds. My feeder was getting low so I put in the new nectar I had made yesterday and by the time I was back in the house the two hummingbirds were back to feed and sit in the cherry tree.

Spring/Winter??

I got up this morning and wondered just what day it was. The calendar said April 19, 2008 but the snow was falling and it was freezing. They tell us we are in for a couple of days of winter. I think we are just on the southern edge of this low pressure. It has been snow, sun, snow, etc. for the morning. It is now up to 40 degrees on my deck and none of the snow is sticking to the ground.
I didn’t get any pictures but as I was coming back from playing tennis at 7 AM the snow was falling in those BIG flacks that you sometimes see. Right now it is cloudy and threatening so I don’t know what will happen next. Maybe summer will come in July this year.

Spring is Here

We just finished a special spring weekend in Oregon. Near record temperatures had us and our neighbors working in the yard and the kids out enjoying the 70+ degree temperature. Of course the flowers as well as the weeds are growing and I am trying to divide the plants that need it and cleanout the plants that did not survive the cold wet winter.
Our daffodils were still looking very nice when we returned and the neighbors said you should have seen them last week. At least they got to enjoy them and we did too. The flowering cherry trees in the neighborhood are in full bloom but I fear the rain and wind that will come in the next few days will have the petals on the ground.
I think I lost more of my dahlias this year then I have for a number of years. I stopped digging them up in the fall. I am now digging them up in the spring to divide and find that many are rotting from the very wet cold winter we had. I still have a number of plants but may soon have to buy some new tubers to expand the variety of color and type of dahlias we have. It seems that the great diversity we once had is gone and I have several plants that are the same.
Why is it that the grass grows better in the flower garden than in the lawn? That is the question I keep asking as I pull the grass from the flower beds.

Band Singer

I have just a wonderful experience for me. Although I have sang for many years in may venues, last Friday I had a chance to sing with the dance band at the Friday night dance at the Senior Center. The leader of the bandand keyboard player, Ken, had created an arrangement of “It Had To Be You” for me to sing with the band with trumpet lead, saxophone lead and my singing. We did not have a chance to practice but just did it. It was wonderful, all the members of the band are experienced professionals and to work with them was great.
The first song went so well we did:”Blue Moon” without any arrangement. Ken just said “Blue Moon in E” and anyway we went. In the middle it seemed like the trumpet was ready for a solo so I stopped singing while he did his thing and then joined for the finish.
Ken even invited be back for another time so this will be something I can do every month we are around. I will be singing next Friday also.

Walk on the Wild Side

I visited the San Jacinto National Monument Visitor Center and did a short walk along the Randall Henderson Trail. I did not walk the full three miles of the trail but was busy shooting the wonderful wild flowers that were blooming along the trail. I can’t identify all of the flowers but did my best with the books that I have.
Many of the Cacti were blooming. The most prevalent was the Beaver Tail with its wonderful pink flowers. I also found one barrel cactus, some cholla, and ocotillo that were blooming. One purple flower that was very prevalent I was not able to identify. I also saw a lizard and jack rabbit along the way.
It was a warm day and with all the desert flowers blooming I think my allergies are acting up.
More pictures can be seen at my Flickr account.

Love or Something Like It

The highlight of my season at RCB is over. This year eight singers including myself and Pauline presented a musical review called “Love or Something like it. I sang two songs with Pauline including “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera and I did three solos including “Some Enchanted Evening”.
It was well received by the people and we had many wonderful comments about the show. It is always a pleasure to work with Pauline. The focus of the show is on the music and there is very little use of props or costumes. I guess it is the old Keep It Simple Stupid outlook on doing a show.
We had Ruth on piano and she is always a great help with her ability to follow the singer and to change from one song to another when we put several songs together in one set. I had not been singing very much for a number of years until I had a chance to work with Pauline and I have learned a lot from her and the other people in the group. It is great to sing and for people to enjoy it.

Photography Workshop

I have been taking as many wildflower pictures as I can since our photography workshop in Phoenix. I also posted a number of pictures taken during the workshop online. One of the things about the workshop was the wide range of cameras the people had. Many had SLR’s and several lens but there were still many that had only a very basic point and shoot.
For an untrained person like myself I really didn’t see that much difference in the pictures that were taken. Yes the people with the long telephoto lens got some great shots. One person, a birder, had a 60 power spotting scope that he used to put in front of his camera to take pictures.
The picture I placed at the first of blog was a picture I took with my Canon 550 and just by luck it turned out great without the need for a lot of work in Photoshop. It just goes to show that the fancy camera is not all it takes. I had been wondering about going SLR and the cost but I also saw the amount of heavy bags many of the people were carrying to take pictures. With all my traveling I don’t think I want to have one more LARGE bag of rocks to carry. OK I did buy the adapter for my S5 so I could put on filters and got the 1.5X telextender but I am still lighter than many of the people.
I will be out shooting and not becoming the hunch-back of Corvallis. I will say that the Photoshop hints and demonstrations he did were great. He didn’t do much and most of it I had done but it was great to see how he used it and made the pictures POP. Each of use got to submit 6 pictures and he would discuss them using Photoshop and do some modification on them. It has changed what I do in some cases but not on all pictures.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers are starting to bloom in the desert. We have had enough rain that the warm weather has brought and beautiful array of wildflowers. I have not had a chance to get out and really enjoy all the flowers but hope to get out for a hike or drive before all the flowers are gone.
I did take a walk to the end of our street and into the empty lot that is to be a city park at some time in the future. It had a very nice collection of flowers and I spent about thirty minutes shooting a number of the flowers. I selected five of them and submitted to The Desert Sun for their wildflowers pictures online. Of the five I selected to submit one was selected by the editors to print in the Saturday paper. You can look at mine and other photographs online. I go by the name Roland42. The picture with two purple flowers was the one that was published. I will try to get more information about all the things I am doing now ASAP. It is a very busy time.