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Blogger isn't working for me and I can't finish my post below. sigh

It's a great day for a parade!!!!!!

IF you are here looking for my ODD SHOT MONDAY, please scroll down as it is at the end of this post.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated the IRISH with a parade on Friday.

The following article was in yesterdays' paper:


"Hough Relative Leads Parade"

Did you know?

Hough enthusiasts are known to lecture outsiders on how to pronounce Hough. But Paddy Hough’s distant relatives pronounce their family name “hock,” not “howk.”

Liam Horan, , the great-grandnephew of Paddy Hough, was the grand marshal for the Paddy’s Day Parade on Friday. Horan, his brother John and their wives traveled from Ireland to learn more about Hough, one of their more mysterious relatives.

Saturday, March 15, 2008
By ISOLDE RAFTERY, Columbian Staff Writer

Every year, Hough Elementary pays tribute to a slight, one-armed Irishman named Paddy Hough. Hough was an educator and champion of the poor, an immigrant who left his homeland in 1872, possibly after the Franco-Prussian War.

A school, a neighborhood and a parade have been named in his honor, but until this week, details about his life were sparse. On both sides of the Atlantic.

On Wednesday, two of Hough’s great-grandnephews arrived in Vancouver, searching for clues about their uncle.

“I suppose the usual thing is for Americans to come to the old country to see their roots,” nephew John Horan said. “And while we’re not coming to see our roots, we’ve come to see a little branch that moved over. It’s nice to know what your people have done.”

Horan lives in County Clare, in the west of Ireland. His brother — the grand marshal of Friday’s Paddy’s Day Parade — still lives near Hough’s old haunt.

“I was born and reared literally across the road from where Paddy Hough was born himself,” Liam Horan said. The land continues to be used as a dairy farm by another Horan brother.

The Horans believe that Hough moved to British Columbia with a group of Christian Brothers. They believe he left Ireland after the Franco-Prussian War, though they don’t know why a one-armed Irishman would have fought in that war. That — and the story behind his missing arm — remain unclear.

“We were led to believe he lost his arm as an infant in a fire, but we’re still researching that,” Liam Horan said.

From Vancouver, B.C., Hough moved to the more southerly Vancouver, Liam Horan said.

After leaving Ireland, Hough wrote to his sister and later his niece. He never returned to Ireland.

On Friday, Hough Elementary’s reader board welcomed “Liam Horan and Family.”

Liam Horan wore a beige sash and a bright green bowler hat his daughter had given him before he left Ireland. Liam, John and their wives led the parade in a tan-colored Cadillac Escalade.

Later in the afternoon, at a gathering at the home of Hough neighborhood native Ceci Ryan-Smith, John Horan contemplated their journey to scope out their family history.

“They say nostalgia starts at the age of 50,” John Horan said. “It started for us around then. We started to do family trees and he was probably the most intriguing because we knew so little about him.”

******************************
This little parade circles around the area where I live in uptown Vancouver, WA. The school is just 5 blocks from my apartment. This is the first year I had a chance to see it since I wasn't working and live in the area.

Besides the great grand nephew of Paddy Hough leading the parade as the Grand Marshal, it included a band from one of the Junior High Schools, politicians, the C-Tran patriotic bus, several antique vehicles and one from the American Legion that looked like a train/bus.

I chose only a few of my photos I took that day to show you. They related to St. Patrick's Day or Hough School entries. The kids were great since it was an elementary school and they had about 3 miles to cover. They will enlarge the size of your computer screen if you choose to click on them. Especially . . . the bagpipe/drummers to see how in step they were!










I also went for a walk earlier last week and took these photos -- they show a resting place with benches and retaining walls to help cut down on a main street noise. It is near the entrance to HOuGH neighborhood and proudly celebrate the Irish heritage. These two retaining walls are made of tiles with art work all in green! Of course, the green HOUGH sign to welcome people to the neighborhood entrance proudly "wears green" also!




OSS SHOT MONDAY

Blog Your Blessings Sunday #21

If you want to join us, go here: Blue Panther

I love to go on walks with my camera in hand. The weather forecast today was for heavy rain but when I looked out the window around noon, the sun was peeking out from behind dark, ominous clouds and actually shining! I decided I had better hurry and get a move on if I wanted to get my walk in today before the "real rain " came.

I live uptown and I headed downtown on Daniels, towards the river and a park that blesses me with beautiful flowers all spring and summer. That was my plan. . . but I didn't get there. I used an alternative route to walk downtown and when I got to Mill Plain, I decided to follow where it led me going west. Got some neat photos for another day doing that. Then I came to the factory area by the river and decided to head back north on Lincoln Avenue. Still no precipitation! Ü

Along my journey, there were several kinds of flowers I took photos of but that is not what I have to share today. . . I was walking along and spotted these. . .CLICK ON TO ENLARGE AND SEE DETAIL. They are reversible, having the bird house on both sides.

Now aren't those the cutest bird house picket fences you ever saw? Well, of course the camera came out and I took one photo of the first part because I wasn't sure I could get all three because of a bush in front of them . . . found out I was wrong but it didn't hurt to have an extra. So, long as I already had one section of the picket fence bird houses, I took singles of all three sections! For this posting, I will show you just the one with all three in a row.

OK so where is my blessing? I guess you could say "that it hadn't rained and I was able to discover such nice objects to photograph" . . . NOPE! well, sure it was a blessing but not my focus today. Ü

As I finished up taking the 4 photos, I heard a voice calling me. I thought. . . "Oh oh! I'm in trouble now for invading someone's privacy or something." Being a courteous person, I turned around to face my "accuser." The lady of the house didn't look mean so I didn't have to run to escape her wrath. She carried no blunt instruments to harm me. In fact, her voice was gentle as she said, "Come here." There was a fence between the two of us so I thought, "Surely there could be no harm in this." and I headed a few yards back towards her to see what she wanted.

I walked closer and said sheepishly that I was just out taking photos of flowers and saw the wonderful bird house fences in her yard and had to get photos of them as I had never seen anything so interesting on my walks before.

I needn't have worried. . . Seems she just wanted to tell me how her husband, who was dying of cancer, had built the bird house fence. First she told me of his illness and impending death and how their yard used to have many flowers but they couldn't keep up with the work involved so had most of them removed but then her husband had made the bird house fences, modeling them after ones he had seen somewhere. They were "on a path to the garage," she said.

I exchanged a few words about how they had made my day and how it was nice to chat for a few minutes since I am learning my way around this area after recently moving uptown. I said my goodbyes and started north on the walk again, thinking how glad I had remembered her name --Donna __ and repeated it with my goodbyes to her. I know she made my day! I hope I was a blessing in hers also.

I walked three more blocks and then it started to pour down rain quite hard. Guess who didn't bring their umbrella? A couple more blocks and I saw a bus stop sign so I waited for it to come along while standing under the shelter of several blossoming cherry trees. While I waited, the rain poured down and I thought of how God provided the dry spell earlier so I could have a chance to be a blessing to the lady named Donna and she could be my blessing too! Isn't it funny how those blessings just sneak up on you when you least expect them? It was more than co-incidence that I changed my mind about walking to the park and had a chance to be a blessing to a lonely lady today. God, you are awesome! Thanks for holding off the rain and giving me this opportunity to not only be a blessing but receive a blessing from a stranger . . . I mean new friend! I got soaking wet before the bus picked me up but I hardly noticed it until I removed my drenched jacket at home, warm and out of the rain that continued to soak the earth for the rest of the day into night.

Before the rain today. . .

More cherry blossoms -- CLICK on PHOTO to enlarge and see the detail!

Sky Watch Friday #20 A GEOMETRIC SKY!

If you want to join Sky Watch Friday blogging, go here for the blogroll.
Skywatch

Click on these to see the geometic sky beter.

Blossoms on trees and blue skies Wednesday. . .

ABC Wednesday - Year 2 #8

Go here if you would like to join us for ABC Wednesday. . . Mrs Nesbitt


There are a lot of historical homes preserved for our heritage history in Vancouver, Washington.

I could have showed you the Hidden House, (1863 -- L.M. Hidden moves to Vancouver to begin a life of civic contribution. His brick company has turned out more than 100 million bricks for such landmarks as The Academy and St. James Church. 1885 L.M. Hidden House is built with bricks made by his Vancouver company.)

OR the Covington House, (Covington House (log cabin) built by Richard Covington who came from London with his wife to teach children at the Fort. Oldest existing school building in the county.)

or Slocum House (1867 Slocum House is built. First elegant mansion in Vancouver. Moved one block north of its original site in 1966 to rescue it from urban renewal. Now in Esther Short Park and used for theatrical productions.)
OR
the Padden House whom our latest freeway is named for or many others. Remember, our town just celebrated our 150th birthday of incorporation last summer but was a Fort before that.

There is a big poster in a gazebo at Esther Short Park that tells you how to get to them. Historic sites in Clark County Map

The ones I focus on today are on that map in a row on one block on Evergreen Blvd. in west Vancouver.

First is the Simpson House. . . I could find no information on this home but I wonder if it has some connection to the Simpson House Inn in California? It is next door to the other two homes I am featuring today and the architecture looks similar in some features. As you can see, it is also labeled -- without a date tho.



Then there is the Eddings House, also on Evergreen Blvd in west Vancouver. I could not find a thing about him on the internet. Guess I need to go to the museum and find out more about the historic register for Vancouver.



The last one of the three I took photos of is the Cushing-Caples House.

This house was once the home of Charles W. Cushing. He was well known in Vancouver as a talented painter of houses, signs, and carriages. The house was purchased in 1890 by John W. and Harriet L. Caples. They were employed in the fur trade; and Mrs. Caples worked as an interpreter at Fort Vancouver.  During the twentieth century the house came to be known as the Fort Vancouver Seamen’s Center. This house is a fine example of the pioneer or homestead style of houses, with subtle Victorian details including the scroll work on the front porch. Built circa 1888. Listed on the Clark County Heritage Register in 1996. This property now houses a private business.

Well, there you have three historical homes on W. Evergreen Blvd. For a better detailed view, click on photos to enlarge. They will not be original size since I made them smaller to fit the collages.

Winter beauty . . .

OK, I was out running errands and saw lots more flowers for Spring's arrival. BUT my darn batteries were dead. I don't know why -- must be something wrong with the charger because they were just charged. Oh well, this is a beauty I took and didn't get a chance to post it last month.
Sometimes dried up weeds and flowers have an interesting look for photographers. I took this photo about a month ago after the snow was all gone and I was out walking the trails, searching for something interesting.



Thanks, Sharon!

Sharon gave me this award. I appreciate her thoughtfulness. In return, give it to anyone that stops by and wants it.

Monday Odd Shots: I Met Tony Tiger in person!!!!!!!!!!!!

The symbol above is for a new meme that Katney started recently .


I was coming out of Walmart with my Propel water packets that I ran in for and saw Tony! In case you aren't familiar with Tony Tiger, he is the spokesman for Frosted Flakes cereal. "They're greaaaattttttttt!"

I guess they were offering kids a photo with him free. I told the ladies who were taking the photos I didn't want my picture taken with him. I had my own camera and wanted to take a shot of Tony myself if it was ok. I think they were so shocked, they said nothing so I took my photo, paid for my items and left. Of course, as you see, Tony was cooperative and even posed for me. . . good 'ole Tony. (I sure love Frosted Flakes!)

Blog Your Blessings Sunday #20 (I think)

If you want to join us, go here: Blue PantherE

I am trying to re-write this from memory because Blogger won't let me get to the post I wrote that was missing the graphic and link to Blue Panther. Thank God for Image Shack which hosts my photos today since Blogger isn't working. . .

As I walked out of the elevator Saturday just after lunchtime, a young girl approached me and asked me, "Why didn't you come to BINGO last night?"

At that moment, I realized yesterday was Friday and I had missed it. I guess I had gotten busy in my apartment and forgotten to go. You see, we have BINGO on Friday nights in our community room in this apartment complex. This young girl was visiting her grandmother, who is a new resident. I had made friends with them when they were moving grandma in one day recently. The following day, the granddaughter saw me in the community room with a small group playing a table game and stopped by to say hello.

A few days ago, this Grandma had told me her granddaughter was coming to visit for the weekend again and I talked her into bringing the granddaughter to BINGO. Then I forgot to go!

Youngsters are a real blessing when they show a caring attitude as this young girl did. This bronze statue in the park shows a young girl handing a grandfatherly looking gentlemen some flowers. It reminds me of the child who missed me and who is my blessing this week.

Having problems with Blogger again. . .

Well, I am having trouble with blogger again. I wrote my blessing post for Sunday and then went to get the info to add to top to link to Blue Panther and I keep getting thrown off, trying to access my post I wrote. I will keep trying even tho it is after 12:30 AM --oops with Daylight savings time starting today, it is an hour later.

White Daffodils say its SPRING!!!!!!!!!!

Recently, I found yellow daffodils in bloom and this week, white daffodils all over the place! Next flower search is for Iris!
CLICK ON EACH TO SEE BIGGER.

Sky Watch Friday #19

If you want to join Sky Watch Friday blogging, go here for the blogroll.
Skywatch

We might have gray skies but I see buds on the trees and lots of diffrent birds recently. Not sure what this is -- maybe a crow? I guessed right. The major consensus is a crow as it is too small for a raven.






 

Some walking trail friends. . .

One of our walking trails follows Burnt Bridge Creek and along the way, there are ponds for many creatures that make Vancouver a natural habitat. These two are examples. I took their photo last week..

ABC Wednesday - Year 2 # 7

Go here if you would like to join us for ABC Wednesday. . . Mrs Nesbitt

G is for Gladiolas and graffiti!

There it was, right in front of me. . .

I don't know what kind of bird this is but I was walking across the Walmart parking lot and looking at the many seagulls there when I spotted this bird in a small tree right in front of me! I was so close to it, I almost didn't see it. . . something made me look down from the sky (probably so I wouldn't trip over a curb!!!!!) and there it was. It was nice enough to let me take a photo from several angles. It doesn't look very happy . . . If anyone knows what it is, I would love to identify it. Thanks!
CLICK ON BIRDS TO SEE THEM BIGGER. jennyi over at Tnet identified it as a Starling. A Google search explains how the birds were transplanted to the United States to make a connection to Shakspear's plays.

Monday Odd Shots #4

If you are looking for my "Building Bridges" post, it is right below this one.


The symbol above is for a new meme that Katney started recently .


The wording on this is my odd shot. Now, I ask you, how many cable TV's do you see parked there? "Cable TV CUSTOMER parking only" would be better sounding to me!

Building Bridges -- March 2008

RuneE is sponsoring this monthly challenge on the first Monday of every month. Building Bridges is subject to open interpretation. I have taken a very wide and literal interpretation for this month. . . They are still "building" this bridge and it should be finished this summer but I couldn't wait to share it with everyone. We have been wanting this for years. Now, it is built to celebrate a special event for the Northwest commemorating Lewis and Clark's expedition in our area.

Our city, Vancouver, Washington is almost finished with this bridge. It is a pedestrian bridge and starts near the old Fort Vancouver replica,


crosses over Hiway 14 and ends at the Old Apple Tree Park,


famous for having the oldest apple tree in the northwest.

This is a photo of the architects plan that is posted across the street from the Old Apple Tree Park. Click on photo to read more about it on the sign. You can also read more about it here: Confluence Project Along the Columbia River. The project itself is a bridge between Washington history and the present day.


I took this photo in a moving car as we were headed west on Hiway 14. The bridge is almost finished. It was supposed to have a completion date of 2007 so we are anxious to use it soon.

Hope you enjoyed learning about my first entry for "Building Bridges." I will update on this challenge when I get to walk across the bridge on its official opening day this summer.