Category Archives: History

Being An Adult Hodgepodge

Joyce From This Side of the Pond has a fresh set of questions for us to ponder for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Growing up, at what age did you think you’d become an adult? At what age did you actually become an adult? 

If I thought about it I didn’t call it being an adult. The older siblings in my family had some responsibilities that were adult like earlier in life. Our parents immigrated to the U.S. just after World War II, legally. Our mom never drove and our pop had to work hard to support a family with 8 children.  Sometimes my older sisters and I walked into town to pay bills in person with cash from our parents. We got ourselves to swimming lessons, the library, and to school. When I got my license there were times that I took my younger brothers to their baseball practices and games. When many of my friends were at senior prom, I was at my younger brother’s baseball game.  In my senior year of high school I had enough credits to graduate with morning classes. I found an afternoon job at a local company and got rides to and from work. I saved up for college with that job. I earned scholarships for most of my college costs. My older sister drove me to the University of Redlands for my freshman year and helped me settle in. We didn’t have and didn’t expect input from our parents on which college to go to. If they could they would help with college costs but mostly we paid our own way. We purchased our own cars and they were mostly used cars. After college I was able to finance my Volkswagen at a school credit union and when I paid that off, like an adult, I earned some good credit.

2.  What’s a favorite item you’ve bought this year?

At our church my area of service is the kitchen and the hospitality branch. We had some money left in the budget so I was able to purchase a coffee system that got plumbed and makes providing coffee at functions so much easier. Instead of those big old coffee pots that you have to fill with water, add the coffee in the baskets and plug in two hours before an event, we can now fill a basket with coffee grounds push the button on the new system and have 2.2liters of coffee in 5 minutes. Yes, and amen!

3. May 28th is National Hamburger Day…are you a fan? If so, how do you like yours? When was the last time you had a hamburger? Besides the backyard grill, what’s your favorite place to go for a burger? 

We do enjoy a good burger. We hadn’t had burgers for a long while but Saturday of Memorial weekend we had a good burger on the way home from shopping in Spokane. We enjoy the burgers at Masters Brew House in Deer Park. Their onion jam that you can have on a burger is delicious. Sorry to say we haven’t found a good burger in Colville. We have fond memories of In N Out burgers.

4.  How have your priorities changed over time? 

The closer I get to heaven the more concerned I am about friends and family and people in general who haven’t had their debt to God paid by Jesus Christ. We all have a debt of sin on our accounts. You can trust Christ who suffered and died and rose from the dead to provide that debt payment.  You need to ask forgiveness (repent) for your sin and put your faith in him and His sacrifice. What Jesus accomplished will pay your debt in full or you will have to pay that sin debt to God yourself in hell. Only Christ’s sacrifice provides the way. You can not earn it by being a ‘good’ person or a ‘religious’ person. It’s a no brainer to me. I’m getting too old to sugar coat this message. Heaven is real and Hell is real. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Him.

5. What’s one thing on your June calendar you’re really looking forward to? 

The very last weekend in June our family of 10 will be enjoying time together in Walla Walla at a VRBO.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Our son gifted his dear bride a long weekend away over Memorial Weekend. He took time off of work and cared for our Grands while mommy was gone. We enjoyed feeding them a meal on Friday night of the weekend.

First corn on the cob this year!

I’m Late, I’m Late…

…for a very important date!

The photo above is of my brother Steve creating my blog for me.

In March of 2007 when my brother told me he was going to start a blog for me I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle the technology. He convinced me everything would be ok. We were at Greg’s brother’s home in Anaheim Hills, California. We started brain storming about what I should name it. We came up with a few fun names but the way I came up with my keeper is…

 

a. I’m generally a very happy person.

b. I’m also someone who wonders about a lot of things and have a deep need to know.

So as we were discussing point a and b my husband came up with The Happy Wonderer.

As far as the purpose of my blog I chose “to Honor and Encourage”. I’m an encourager to people around me and I wanted that reflected in the relationships I’d develop on my blog. It is very important to me to Honor Jesus Christ who is my LORD.  I want my words and posts to be things that will encourage people and be something that won’t reflect poorly on my relationship with Jesus.

My blog was born on March 3, 2007 which means I’m a little late in celebrating my 17th Bloggy Anniversary! 

I’ve had a few headers over the course of the 17 years.

Conwy Castle from our trip to Wales, Scotland and England in 2006 was one of my first headers. Greg took that photo.

I had a different view of this table from our Mennonite Girls Can Cook Tea to celebrate our second cookbook as my header for a few years.

My current header is just a stock header that I find easy to look at.

I used Photobucket for several years to store and post my photos to my blog and sadly they stopped being a free service and hijacked my photos.  They will let me have them again if I’m willing to pay but it is more than I want to pay. That was very disappointing to me. I have a lot of clean-up to do on my older posts.

I did have some technical challenges off and on with my blog and my brother Steve was my go to person who could fix things for me at the beginning.

I’m not participating in many blog carnivals anymore. They were very helpful at the beginning to get connected with others in the blogging community. Blue Monday, Tablescape Thursday, Photo Hunters, Friday Feast, Mosaic Monday, ABC Wednesday, WFMW, Show and Tell, Thankful Thursday, Friday’s Fave Five, Sky Watch, Recipe Round-Up, Ruby Tuesday, Before and After,  Wordless Wednesday, and many more were fun to join.

These days I’m participating in Hodgepodge Wednesday. On Thursdays I have my Truth for Today Bible Verse posts. Sundays are my Hymn days. The rest of the days are for what’s happening with family, our country bungalow, weather, travels and other events.

A big thanks to my brother Steve for nudging me into this fun activity that has opened up so much more of the world to me. Blogging has also improved my photography and given me ‘eyes to see’.

Lovella’s Blog is what connected me to my Mennonite Girls and my life is better because of my relationship with these ladies.

I’m grateful for the many friendships that have developed over the years with fellow bloggers. I met my walking buddy, Willow, in Camarillo through our blogs. I’ve been able to meet up with other bloggers from California, Kansas, Canada, Utah and Washington.

Thank you for visiting my blog and for the comments you leave. I have one survey question for fellow bloggers and those of you who leave comments. Do you prefer a reply to any comments even if it isn’t a question that you leave on a blog or would you rather someone visits your blog in return and reads and comments on your posts? Hope that question makes sense.

Fountains Abbey ~ Wow!

 

On Saturday September 23rd, day nine of our travels, we had our buffet breakfast at the Knaresborough Inn, checked out and journeyed to nearby Fountains Abbey which is one of The National Trust properties in England at the Studley Royal Park. It was a rainy morning and we were wondering if the clouds would clear for our time at this property. Yes and hallelujah the rain moved on and the skies were glorious for our time at this magnificent property.

 

History of these largest Monastic Ruins in the country can be found here.

We paid our admission fee and walked down the pathway to the ruins. What a treat it was to be here and to see the wonder of it all. This was way up there in the Wow Factor.

Be forewarned that this post has a lot of photos.

The timing for our visit couldn’t have been better. As you can see, we are enjoying the grounds without other people around. A few more people arrived as time went on but we never had to dodge anyone.

I’m sure Laura was saying WOW! here.

 

 

This was a wonderful setting to remember all our Savior completed for us on the cross 2000 years ago.

I’m ending this post here. We walked on to more of the Studley Royal Park grounds and enjoyed some other sights before we walked back to the main entrance and had some lunch at the visitor center restaurant.

If you’ve made it all the way through this post you deserve applause! Thank you for coming along on my travel journal of our time in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Just a few more posts to go.

Knaresborough~ Day 8

We continued Day 8 of our travels on September 22nd from Skipton to Knaresborough. It was a short journey. We arrived in Knaresborough before our rooms were ready at the Knaresborough Inn. When we walked in to inquire about our rooms the employee behind the counter looked at us and asked, “Are you for Trump?”.  Cheeky question and I gave him a cheeky reply with a smile. I suppose it was no secret we were from the USA. Our rooms were not ready so we continued on to see the iconic view of the Railroad trestle over the river Nidd at the Knaresborough Castle grounds. It took us a while to find a good parking spot near the castle grounds.

Like in most towns in England there is a lot of history to explore but we were at a place in our travels that we just took in the views. You could spend days in each of the towns we chose to visit and take it all in.

The Kanesborough War memorial is set up on the Castle, overlooking the River Nidd. 156 names from the First World War and 55 names from the Second World War are commemorated on this memorial. One soldier who served with the Yorkshire Regiment is commemorated on this memorial.

After taking in these beautiful views we continued to some of the market streets.

This is the ‘oldest chemist shoppe in England’ or so they say. It was right to get a photo of our resident chemist in front of this establishment. It is now Lavender Tea Rooms & Coffee.

This Blue Memorial Plague stood out to me as we walked a few of the streets in Knaresborough.

A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker.

Persecution of the Jews continues to this day. It is evil and should not be tolerated.

We finished up in town and drove back to our Inn to check in and get freshened up for dinner at the Inn.

I took the photos in the collage above in the morning without the crowds that we experienced at the dinner hour. Things were really hopping in this newly refurbished Inn. Tables were at a minimum and we finally found one for the four of us. We had to find a waitstaff person to give our order for food and then we had to go to the bar to put our drinks orders in, too. The staff, many of who were young and new were responsible for making drinks with the help of cheat sheets. We had some fun interactions with James, our server, who we watched running about for all the ingredients for the drinks we chose.

The food was good.

It was nice to finish up our day with a good meal and just steps away from our room for the night.

Again we had the most amiable weather and were thankful for another good day to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

Skipton to Knaresborough ~ Day 8

Friday September 22nd was the eighth day of our travels in the UK. Originally we were going to be driving straight to York from Grassington to return our car and take a train to Liverpool. The reason we were traveling to Liverpool was to attend the Liverpool v. West Ham futbol/soccer match which was scheduled for Saturday the 23rd. After we had made reservations for a hotel and flights back to Dublin based on that date the game was switched to Sunday the 24th. We scrambled to make different plans than we had prior to the game change. Instead of spending an extra night in Liverpool we decided to spend Friday night in Knaresborough. On the way to Knaresborough we stopped in Skipton to see the castle.

Before we packed up and checked out of the Devonshire in Grassington we enjoyed breakfast.

Breakfast was very good each of our mornings here.

On the road to Skipton Laura managed to get snaps of all these great road signs. We don’t see Hedgehog area signs on any roads we travel in the USA.

We had reservations for the castle and the castle car park.

Over 900 years old, Skipton Castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England. If you are interested in the history of this castle follow this link.

The ancient Yew tree in Conduit Court.

Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676)
Born at Skipton Castle, 30th January, 1590, the daughter of George Clifford, she was the last Clifford to own Skipton Castle. She fought equally tenaciously for her rights and for the King’s cause in the Civil War, when Skipton Castle withstood a three years siege.

Lady Anne was also remarkable for the extensive post Civil War restoration work on her Castles. In 1659 she planted the yew tree in the central courtyard to mark the Castle’s repair from its Civil War damage.

The beautiful Conduit Court where a 350-year old Yew tree planted by Lady Anne Clifford still survives today

We enjoyed our time here especially since we were early enough to enjoy the castle mostly on our own.

This door called out to me at Holy Trinity Church in Skipton. Before we left Skipton we popped into the church.

The window of the Ministry and Ascension of Jesus. Centre-Ascension to his Father in Heaven, whilst his disciples watch from the ground as they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Left panel: Jesus the Good Shepherd. Right Panel; Jesus walking on water.

Window by; J.B. Cappronnier of Brussels, 1899.

Love the rest of our journey to Knaresborough. That will be another post.

Back to the Present: Greg is working hard to finish up the redo of our Master Bedroom Shower stall. He is almost there. He needed a break from all the hard work so we did a little drive on Friday to some craft fairs. We had breakfast in Chewelah and then took some roads less traveled to see the beautiful larches in our area. Before we left home I put a roast in the slow cooker so dinner would be taken care of while we were out and about.

Saturday was back to work for Greg and he finished the grouting while I did some shopping. We enjoyed leftovers on this day.

We had a wonderful Sunday at church including our annual business meeting. After church we stopped for Mexican food in town. We were happy to see my cousin and her husband at the restaurant and had a good catch up with them. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Marcus Ciderfest 2023

There is no Hodgepodge this week so it’s a good time to go back to our time at the Marcus Cider Fest this past Saturday and get caught up with what’s been happening around here recently.

Every October the little town of Marcus hosts a Cider Fest that is well attended. It starts with a parade on Saturday. This year the weather was so nice it seemed the attendees and cars in the parade doubled!

Granny Great and Jim rode in Jim’s car for the parade.

His car was so shiny that we could see our reflections!

Our kids entered our DIL’s Thunderbird in the car show.

Jamie created all the t-shirts. Dan’s said, It is her car but she lets me drive. Jamie’s shirt said, It is my car but I let him drive and the kids shirts said, What’s the Word? Thunderbird.

We enjoyed the parade with our Grands and then we walked about the craft stalls, bought a caramel apple and headed home for the day.

The last Saturday in September I attended our Women’s Retreat and one of the workshops I attended was on Hospitality and Flower Arranging.

This was my arrangement. Those flowers were spent after a week and I replaced them with these Dahlias I purchased at Trader Joe’s keeping the same filler greens.

Last in this catching up post are photos from our back acres showing some Fall color.

Speaking of Fall, we finally had conditions that allowed us to take care of our burn piles. Branches that fell throughout the year were gathered up and burned. We worked as a team and accomplished a lot on Tuesday.

It’s been good to catch up with many of your blogs.

We are praying for Israel and the conflict on that side of the world. So distressed at how prisoners of war have been treated in such a barbaric and inhumane way. I can’t even imagine the sadness, terror and grief of losing loved ones in this way and the feelings of despair while huddled in a bomb shelter.

Borrowing the verses that Joyce shared on her blog.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day” Psalm 46:1-5

Dublin Day Two ~ Tour Part Four

Our last stop of the day on Saturday September 16th before heading back to Dublin was the city of Belfast.

We enjoyed the little we saw of Belfast.

We popped into the Magnificent Margot and had an enjoyable time in the upbeat and friendly atmosphere. We joined a local couple at a table and had an enjoyable conversation with them.

The Belfast Boer war memorial takes the form of a statue of a private of the Regiment in khaki uniform, with topee and puttees, with a rifle and fixed bayonet at the ready. It lists 130 names of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal Irish Rifles who were killed during the Second South African War that lasted from 1899 to 1902. The memorial was unveiled by Field Marshall Lord Grenfell in 1905.

There were several meaningful monuments around the City Hall, war memorials and a memorial to the lives lost on the Titanic.

The last work of sculptor Sir Thomas Brock and originally unveiled in the North of Donegall Square in 1920, this memorial was moved in 1960 to where it stands now. In white Carrera marble, the female figure of Death or Fate looks down at two sea nymphs rising from the waves, with the body of a drowned sailor in their arms. It was thought at the time that only 22 local people had died in the disaster and only the names of those victims are recorded on the original memorial. Their names are listed on two sides in order of rank upon the ship.

The Titanic was built in Belfast.

Created by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, it was unveiled by her son, King Edward VII in 1903. Carved from Sicilian marble and standing 11 feet high, this memorial is accompanied on each side by life size bronze figures representing spinning and shipbuilding.

The birds have no respect for Queen Victoria or any other people memorialized in the statues.

 

Robert McMordie Statue at City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland
The political position of Lord Mayor of Belfast dates back to 1613 when the Sovereign of Belfast received its charter as a town. This is one of four statues of famous Lord Mayors on the grounds of the Belfast City Hall. The sculpture by Frederick Pomeroy is a tribute to Robert James McMordie. He held the post from 1910 until his unexpected death during his fifth year in 1914.

The Belfast War Memorial is in the form of a cenotaph (a memorial to those who are buried elsewhere) with the backdrop of a colonnade. The memorial was unveiled on Armistice Day 11 November 1929. It was designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas and constructed by W J Campbell from 1925 to 1927.

Several days after we were here our daughter Katie and hubby Andrew reached Belfast on their small tour and stayed in the hotel directly behind this memorial.

From this stop we boarded the bus for our trip back to Dublin. We had one ‘convenience’ stop off the motorway on our trip back. Dropped off along the River Liffey in Dublin we decided to walk to The Church Cafe for our evening meal. This was a great find I learned about by watching podcasts of places to visit in Dublin. I’ll share more about this Cafe in a post of it’s own.

Sláinte!

Back Then and Now Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and I’m recovering from a full to the brim extended weekend of activity. Joyce From This Side of the Pond has the questions ready and also let us know we will take next Wednesday off. Thank you, Jo!

1. What’s one thing you’re excited about in the coming month? 

At the end of July we are traveling and joining several extended family members and friends to celebrate our youngest siblings’ 60th birthday. The party is at a ranch in Texas so we are getting our ‘yeehaw’ on and packing our boots and new duds for some line dancing and heat!

The picture above is of the twins at their 40th birthday celebration, a luau. That party twenty years ago was in Downey, California in our brother’s backyard.

My siblings and me twenty years ago in order of age. I’m in the middle in the dress. All of us but the brother in white will be traveling to Texas.

2. What was your life like when you were ten years old? 

The Spring of 5th grade and beginning of 6th grade was when I was ten. I skipped 2nd grade. John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president of the U.S.A. Things were a mess in the world as they are now, too. 5th grade was not one of my favorites. My teacher, Mrs. Helm, seemed to dislike me. I broke my first and only bone in the 5th grade at school and my mother had to get a taxi to take me to the doctor for x-rays and a cast on my wrist. My 6th grade teacher was kind to me. He got me a job as cafeteria helper and I enjoyed a free cafeteria meal each day for my service.  He also noticed that I was struggling to see the chalk board and suggested that I get my vision checked. It was determined that I was nearsighted and the distant world became clearer to me with my first pair of prescription eye glasses.

3. What’s something from your childhood you still enjoy today? 

Music, watermelon, a double scoop of ice cream.

4. What state (that you haven’t been to) do you most want to visit? Tell us why. 

I think it would be lovely to explore Maine and cross the border into New Brunswick and on to Prince Edward Island. From what I’ve seen in photos it is a beautiful part of our world.

5. Do you like to drive? Tell us how you learned to drive. 

Yes, I do like to drive. I honestly can’t remember who taught me to drive but it was probably one of my sisters. I was driving before I got my official license. After I had my license my brother, surprisingly, offered to teach me to drive a stick shift using his VW bug.

The VW above was the first car I purchased through my credit union and payed off over the course of a couple years.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We are recuperating from a wonderfully packed weekend of events and celebrations. The highlight was our family being all together in church on Sunday to see our sweet Addy May get baptized. A full post with lots of pictures will be coming soon. On this weekend of her baptism we also had a Pastor candidate preach along with several meet and greet opportunities with him and his wife. Our church body will be voting on July 16th as to whether we will call him to be our new Pastor.

Old Marcus

Though the original town of Marcus has lain below the waters of Lake Roosevelt for 60 Years, it is not forgotten. Many a Spring, as the lake is drawn down to generate power, the ghost town of Marcus is again visible. Sidewalks and streets and foundations rise from the water for a few days or weeks, reminding us all of Marcus and the other drowned towns of the upper Columbia.

This happened this Spring and we decided to walk out on the exposed lake bottom to see what we could see. We walked the flats on Sunday the 16th of April, 2023. Vast expanses of sand, mud and rocks are being exposed by a deep reservoir drawdown to make room for runoff from snow from surrounding mountains.

As the Grand Coulee Dam grew higher in the 1930s, the water of the Columbia River rose behind it. 150 miles of the free-flowing river was transformed into the placid Lake Roosevelt, drowning hundreds of acres of timber, farmland, Indian villages, and camas meadows. Also below the waters of Lake Roosevelt lie eleven little agricultural towns with names like Peach, Inchelium, and this town, Marcus, Washington.

Lake Roosevelt is a working reservoir. It is the main storage reservoir on the Columbia River for the United States. The reservoir is lowered in the spring, to make room for the spring runoff. This prevents flooding on the lower Columbia River. The water that enters Lake Roosevelt during the spring is stored in the lake and is used later in the year for power generation and to enhance river flows downstream for endangered species of fish when flows on the Columbia River drop later in the summer and fall.

Walking the old sidewalks that are covered by the lake most of the year.

 

Main Street Old Town Marcus!

Back to the cars and on to lunch.

Here’s what the lake looks like when it is full.

Happy Tuesday. We are looking forward to a major warm-up the rest of the week. I’m going to have to mow the lawn before the week is over.

 

The Bodlein

On Tuesday September 13th we booked a tour for the Bodlein Library at 11:00. We waited for our tour guide in this section of the building which was the Divinity School. Divinity School is the oldest and largest room in the Old Bodleian Library, and a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The stone carved ceiling is magnificent.

I’m standing between the two pulpits.

This room was used as the Hogwarts infirmary in the Harry Potter film series. It was also used in the Morse Series and Shadowlands. The Hugh Humphreys library was also used in the films. No photos were allowed in the library.

This is the door that was added by Sir Christopher Wren.

Our tour guide arrived and he had so much history stored in his brain to share with us.

We went through this door to the Convocation House and Chancellors Court which was the Universities former courtroom.

Originally built in the 17th century, Convocation House was once designed as a meeting place for the University’s supreme legislative body while Chancellor’s Court was the University’s former courtroom.

Adjoining Convocation House is the anteroom, Chancellor’s Court, which was used as the court for the university.

After we left this room we walked up a series of stairways to the Duke Humphrey’s Library. Duke Humphrey’s Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. It is named after Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, who donated 281 books after his death in 1447.

As I mentioned before I was disappointed that photos were not allowed in the Duke Humphrey’s but I’m glad we could see it in person.

The Divinity School and the Convocation House can be rented for weddings or other meetings.

You can read some history about the Bodlein here.