This and That: A Blog

With today being September 11th, I wanted to take a brief moment to reflect before jumping into today's regular post. "Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America."   Then  President George W. Bush   “ Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11 .”   Former President Barack Obama We need to bring back that unity. Skywatch Friday Heading south with a view of the Siskiyou Mountains.  The sharp one in the center is Wagner Butte.  It's not the tallest in the range, that's Mount Ashland, but from this angle it looks like it.  Wagner Butte is geographically at the intersection where the Western Cascades meet the Siskiyous.  It forms a "wall" on the southwest side of the Rogue Valley floor.  On the right is a Boise Cascade EWP (engineered wood products) mill.  The light...

Some Bridges Over Water for Thursday Postcard Hunt . Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge  (Black Suspension Bridge), Grand Canyon National Park, AZ spans the Colorado River. 1960s Friedrich Bridge, then East Berlin, Germany, crossing the River Spree, with the National Gallery in the background. c. 1907-1915 Four of six bridges near Louisville, KY crossing the Ohio River. Zanesville, Ohio's Y bridge spanning the junction   of the Muskingum and Licking Rivers.  The postcard shows the covered timber bridge, the third generation (first was 1814, second 1819), which was built in 1832 and demolished in 1901.   The Y-Bridge in the 1960s was the fourth generation built.  It was demolished in 1979. The current bridge, which opened in 1984, is the fifth generation, is steel and concrete.  While it helps traffic, some complain it has a tunnel-like feeling, solid rails and no scenery views.   Next week our Bridges will be Railway.

Ready-Set-Hodgepodge  1. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?  On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fan are you? (10 is never miss a game and 1 is I'm just here for the snacks). Who's your team? If you're playing along today, but live outside the US feel free to sub your feelings about futbol for the more American sport of football. On a scale of 1-10?  Sorry, my football scale starts at 0 and that’s where I stand as a fan. 0.  Not even for the snacks.   2. What's something you currently have a game plan for managing?  My rotting back deck.  Showed my son my plans just a few days ago.  Not physically drawn plans, pointing out what I want to do. 3. Do you like chicken wings? Hot, mild, or some other flavor? What's a must have food for you on a tailgate menu? I know tailgating isn't as big of a thing outside the US of A as it is inside the US of A, but you can also answer the question this way-what's a must have food for you at a sporting event viewin...

I had some success at the Goodwill Bins last month.  Tucked into a plastic "Vera® Print Table Top Coordinates" bag were these two Chinese silk embroidery panels. They could be used as table top decor, but definitely not Vera. These are from the 1960s-1980s.  The blue is my favorite. Jiffy Bobbin - I'm not sure what sort of yarn craft these would be used for, the illustrations aren't like skeins of yarn as I know them, and what kind of knitting is going on?  Laws of Gravity , can you clear this up? I would have thought this was Mexican or Chile, where the three-legged pottery pigs that bring good luck are from.  No, this is Moroccan.  The clay figures were originally made as children's toys, and are now tourist items.  I would have still thought Mexico or Chile but I did see the same type of animal on Etsy, sold in a group of a dozen or so different animals collected in Morocco in the 1970s. They were said to be made in the 1960s.  They are painted in n...

 Not a lot going on here.  It rained quite a bit for a few days, now it's warming up again. During the rainy period it was quite cold, and I pulled out Mickey's blankie.  Actually, it's "our" blankie, as when it's really cold we share! I scheduled my 'flu and COVID vaccines for Wednesday morning.  If you disagree with vaccines, go away.  Earlier this year I sprinkled a packet of Dollar Tree Wildflower Blend seeds in the "new" daylily bed in the front yard.  I got annuals,  alyssum, Chinese forget-me-not, globe gilia, calendula, and a lot of perennials that don't bloom the first year.  I see blue flax, anise hyssop, coreopsis, coneflower plants, and what looks like penstemon, which isn't one of the listed seeds.    I've sown these before, but this is the first time I got the China asters, an annual kind.  Lots of variety!  The Dollar Tree actually carries nice flower seeds.  I've not tried the vegetables. A few of the ...

 Places of Learning is this week's Sunday Stamps theme.  Bermuda 1967-1971 Government High School and Queen Elizabeth II Hungary 1967   Celebrating 600 years of higher education, referencing the 1367 founding of the Medieval University in Pécs (it had no specific name at the time, that's how it's referred to now) by Pope Urban V at the request of King Louis I the Great of Hungary. It was the first university in Hungary .  There is a modern successor, the University of  Pécs . Ireland 1995 Bicentenary of Maynooth College  (St. Patrick's Pontifical University) Germany 1949  Technical University of Berlin Anyone else have problems figuring out how to catalog old German stamps?  After WWII Germany was divided into four occupation zones, and Berlin into four sectors, and areas east of the Oder-Neisse river were under Polish and Soviet authority.  So, this is some sort of German stamp , issued in 1949 by one of the Berlin sectors... I think....