Is Spring Coming?

Donegal wonders if spring is ever coming. Lots of Minnesotans are asking the same question. They must be forgetting that historically March is our snowiest month. You can always plan that at least one of the state high school sports tournaments in March will see a good snow storm. I can only think of 3 sports that have tournaments in March, there may be more: basketball, hockey, and wrestling. Hockey is going on now, I think. LOL, with my kids all out of high school and college I don't follow sports any more. I still think the winters here are mild compared to Cassadaga,NY winters.

BTW, I don't know why my Saint Patrick's Day post was dated 3/16. I posted it after midnight, it should have been dated the 17th.

Darn, I just missed a great photo op. It is 0300, snowing hard, and the train is going by. It reminds me of the Polar Express, which is a great story. I love having a train track very close to my apartment. It reminds me of pleasant McBride homestead memories.

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Saint Patrick's Day

Blessings on this most wonderful of days.

May the blessing of light be on you—
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

and

May the frost never afflict your spuds.
May the leaves of your cabbage always be free from worms.
May the crows never pick your haystack.
If you inherit a donkey, may she be in foal.





Photos: Howth Castle, where friends of my parents live.

Glendalough, one of my most favorite places which I visit on every trip.

Friends, after Kilkenny beat Waterford in soccer semi-finals. Yes, they are wasted. The man in the yellow/black soccer shirt is director of the Irish chapter of Europeans against the Smoking Ban (or some such name). How the rabid anti-smoker and he met is a long story.

Basic Grey

How hard can it be to find the name of a particular Basic Grey pattern? I can tell you, it is very hard. I make cards for friends and neighbors. I've had many requests to make a certain card, shown here. I used a Basic Grey paper for the photo mat.I could not remember the name of the series or pattern. I eventually found it. It is the Fusion series and the paper I need is Fusion Explosion. So, once I had that I thought it would be easy to find. Wrong. My local scrapbook shop no longer carried it as it is about 2 years old. I found several on-line places but all were out of stock on that item. I finally found a few sheets on EBay. So, they'll be here in a few days and I can make more cards. The house in the photo is an abandoned farm house near the Minnesota/Iowa border. It was a beautiful autumn day when I took the picture.

Express Issue

Three photos. One shows that spring is indeed coming to Minnie-sota.We won't talk about the predicted storm on St. Patrick's Day.


The second shows the real Spammy for the scrapsmack crowd.











Picture number 3 shows el nino trying to make friends with el gato. El gato is in striking mode should el nino move one step closer.

Owls, Birds, and Butterflies

In November 2003 a young owl crashed into a window at the school where I was the school nurse, in St. Paul, MN. The owl was very stunned. His left eye appeared injured but later he could open it.His wing appeared broken. His imprint was in the window for a long time as we didn't want to wash it away. We notified The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, they recommended we put him a box until they arrived as the owl needed darkness. We named the owl Screech. Yeah, I know, original weren't we!It was identified by the Raptor Center as a long eared owl,very rare in Minnesota. They were very excited to get him because of how rare they are here. Previously only a few had been identified in Minnesota but no where near us; rather in the lower southern corner of the state. We are located on the banks of the Mississippi River and get many birds in our courtyard, but never an owl in broad daylight. Screech spent several weeks at the raptor center while his broken wing healed. Then he was released in southern MN where he will hopefully find other long eared owls.














These are a few examples of the many birds of Hawaii. I took these photos last month along Waikiki Beach. I love seeing colorful birds. They are easy to see in Waikiki because they are everywhere. When I go bird watching here along the Mississippi I need binoculars to find the birds amongst the foliage.




These are photos of Admiral butterflies taken in June 2005 by my son Alex. They were taken in Ontario, Canada. We drive to Armstrong, where the road ends, then fly to an island, never the same one twice. Every morning these butterflies would be found in shoes left to dry out on the dock.

Hawaii: The Wedding

In February I traveled to the island of Oahu for my niece's wedding. Julianne is stationed in the U.S. Army, as is her new husband. Hawaii is certainly a better assignment than Iraq. Juli, who has her B.S. and M.S. in criminal justice, is a surveyor with the Army Corps of Engineers. But given the amount of dollars being spent in Iraq she's not doing much surveying. So Juli plays the taps for the many military funerals in Hawaii. While that might not mean much to you civilians the sound of taps is a must at military funerals.It gives those of us who've been in the military chills, the same way the National Anthem does, or Eternal Father for us Navy veterans. So it is an important job.

The wedding was held at the Ocean Crystal Chapel, on the grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village at Waikiki Beach. The location was beautiful. I especially liked the throwing of rose petals on the bride and groom as they exited the chapel after the ceremony. I have to say, Protestant weddings aren't very long compared to Catholic weddings. That makes it easier for kids at the wedding. The reception was held at the hotel also, in one of many reception rooms. There were several other weddings the same day as Juli and Stephen's wedding.

I caught the bouquet, what a hoot!! I was told to go up since I am not married. Well, I figured if I was competing with young Army women I, the old Navy Nurse, was going to out jump them. I did ;-) I wanted the bouquet so Juli could get it back. I sure am not planning on getting married again.

It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting with a beautiful bride and handsome groom.

Which TV Dog Fits You?

Which TV Dog is Your Ideal Pet?

More on Pushing Daisies. Created by BuddyTV

I've never seen the show but the dog looks like a golden retriever and I do like them. My sister always has a golden, and my parents did too. When I move to a dog friendly apartment I'm getting a miniature goldendoodle. They get to about 35 lbs. I'm hoping to find one who matches my red hair ;-) I plan to get the dog from a MN breeder:

http://www.dogpage.us/red-cedar-farms/goldendoodles.html

My foster cat has returned home. Donegal, his litter mate, really misses him. So now I have 3 cats.

In Memory of My Dad

My Dad was born on Valentine's Day 1904. This day was always special in our home, mostly because it was Dad's birthday. He was a very cool parent. He was 41 when he married so when we kids came along he was more like a grampa than a dad. He had time for us kids. Everyone loved him, he was called Daddy-O by everyone. He had no enemies.

During Prohibition he was a rum runner, and had keys to over 100 speak easies in New York City, NJ, and CT. He was Irish but always drank responsibly, no getting stinkin' drunk. What he loved almost as much as his family were the horses and ponies. I was in high school before I figured out that The Daily Racing Form wasn't a daily paper for any of our neighbors. I also thought every family had a bookie. I wasn't sure what a bookie did. I just knew that what the bookie said determined my Dad's mood.

The best gift my Dad ever gave me, besides the gift of life, was a box containing every letter I had ever written home. The letters started in 1953, when I was in Girl Scout Camp. Those letters help me a lot with my scrapbooking in that when I'm scrapping photos from the first few years of marriage I just get out the letters from that time and I have the details of where we were and what we did. He also saved every letter his 1st cousin sent to him from WWI. His cousin died during the influenza epidemic. The man surely would have become an author. Each letter is 10 - 15 pages long, with all kinds of very interesting details about the local environment, people, etc.

On the day he was born his father gave his mother a beautiful gold bracelet, which she wore the rest of her life. It has my Dad's baby teeth marks indented in the gold because he chewed on it when he was being held. I now have the bracelet and think of him every time I wear it.

My son and his wife gave their baby son my Dad's 1st name as a middle name. I wish he was still alive, he'd be so proud.

In the girl looking photo he is 3 y,7 months old. In the haywagon photo he's the one standing on top of the hay . The old man is his grandfather, who died when my Dad was 12. The other person is a cousin.

I miss him everyday.

Look Alike Meter

http://www/.myheritage.com

This is a very interesting site where you upload 3 face photos and the meter will tell you who the subject in the middle most looks like. It is set up as mother-child-father but the final outcome just shows names so you can do siblings, grandparents, etc.

The example I am showing is of a great aunt, great uncle, and their daughter. The photos were taken in 1898, all are now deceased.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Familytree - Ancestory

Off to Hawaii

I leave shortly for Hawaii, where my niece is getting married. Back in a week.