Europe in June - Photos

The Netherlands

Denmark

Lugano, Switzerland

Garmisch, Bavaria, Germany

Paris

Calpe Rock, Costa Blanca, Spain

Sunset in Devon, England

A Day of Ups and Downs - March 19

Yesterday was the 91st anniversary of my Dad's birth.  Dad got married relatively late in life, and fathered my sister and me, six and a half years apart.  I never had children; I couldn't.  My sister, the elder, got married immediately after graduating from high school - but she waited a while before having her kids.  Dad died when I was 24, at the age of 57.  At that time, neither Kathy nor I was married; Dad had no grandchildren - and he dearly loved children.  Kathy had a son and a daughter with her second husband.  Evie, Dad's first great-grandchild, arrived on the same day as Prince George, of the British Royal family.  Yesterday, on Dad's birthday, his first great-grandson was born.  I think that Kathy and I were more excited by Finn's arrival date than his parents were - but then, Mike never knew his grandfather...  So, there was a new arrival of 19.5 inches of Snow in Boulder, Colorado yesterday, and his name is Finnley Kent.  That makes his initials FKS - I pronounce that Fix, and I hope he'll be able to fix things around the house for his old Auntie when he grows up a bit!
   I was sorry to hear that well-known thoroughbred trainer Allen Jerkens had passed away earlier this week.  He was known as "Chief" on the backside of the track, while most fans knew him as "the Giant Killer."  Chief's father was a retired Austrian cavalry officer, and Chief wanted to be a jockey, as a youngster. He grew too tall, and too heavy, and after a brief stint as a jump jockey, he settled down to training.  He got his "Giant Killer" nickname by training horses that unexpectedly beat big-name champions.  He trained Beau Purple, who defeated five time Horse of the Year Kelso; and, after the great Secretariat had won the Triple Crown, Jerkens trained both Onion and Prove Out, who defeated Big Red.  The Chief won over $104 million in purse money, and never ran a horse in the Breeders Cup.  He was 85 when he died from an infection in a Florida hospital.
   And I was totally engrossed by Vikings on the History Channel last night - I was completely drawn into the story, and felt like a participant in those events - until a time/history mistake happened near the end of the show.  I don't know why it disturbed me, but it it.  I realize that this is a fictionalized dramatization of the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, and that the old Scandinavian sagas play fast and loose with dates, places, and times.  In history, the Vikings first attacked the city of Paris in the year 723; in last night's episode, Ragnar stated that they would attack Paris in their next raid, in the Spring.  Near the end of the program, King Ecbert of Wessex is crowing over a very nasty betrayal of both the farming Vikings on his land, and a turn against his own nobles.  He compares himself to Charlemagne...  but Charlemagne was the King of the Franks and most of western Europe from 771 until 814.  How did writer Michael Hirst miss this?  Or was it a "dramatic twist" of history, as happened in Braveheart, where time was also twisted so that it could be assumed that Wallace was the real father of Edward III?   In any event, I felt as if a huge bucket of cold water had been dashed over me....  Maybe that's what happens when you know your history too well?

Abandoned Places and Things Photos - 2

Chernobyl, Russia

Sydney, Australia

Angor Wat, Cambodia

Ferris wheel

160-year unused Paris train tunnel

House in mining town in Nambia

Kamchatka, Russia

Abandoned Places and Things

Vashion Island, Washington

Paris railway

Arcade in Abkhazia, Georgia

Power plant cooling tower at Monceau, Belgium

Factory in Sorrento, Italy

Shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand

Hotel room

Another Four-Bed-Companions Night

Well, the storms held off last night until 8 pm, but then they certainly made the house and the sky-lights shake.  I had baked strawberry cobbler for myself and Shirley, taking it out of the oven at 5...  And the dogs were dancing with delight, believing that I would share with them.  They got a dog biscuit each.  Shirley didn't eat much of her dinner, so just before the storm system arrived, I took her a small serving of the cobbler.  She scraped her saucer clean.  This morning I heated up a much larger serving for her breakfast, and she scraped that bowl clean.  The nursing people who visit her daily say that, at her age (96), it doesn't matter what she eats - calories are calories.  So, since she likes cobblers, I'll continue making them for her while I'm there.
   I went to bed at ten, and had to clear the bed of critters three times before I could insert myself and start reading my book.  I ended up with a dog on either side of me, Tipsi at my feet, and Pounce on my chest/shoulder/neck area.  The library didn't have anything new by any of my favorite authors in, so I grabbed two new authors, and two favorite authors, who had books that I didn't recognize.  The first new authors' book was a mystery set in Paris during the Revolution (1797); I finished it yesterday evening.  I took another new mystery to bed - this one is also set in Paris, but in 1818, during the Restoration, following the downfall of Napolean.  Reading these two books, back to back, is a neat experience - I keep looking back and forth between the two, looking at forms of address (Citizen/Monsieur), and place names, which can't quite be erased and changed entirely.
   Tomorrow the Bolder Boulder will be run, and other than the Skip route, going north and south on Broadway, and a few connector buses to Denver and the Airport, the bus system will be shut down.  I'll be walking  a mile and a half to Broadway, and then walking a mile back to my apartment tomorrow.  And I told Rosie's owners that I'd walk her tomorrow, also...  Not to mention the two walks a day for Cooper and Lola.  Nicodemus, the tri-color Jack Russell terrier next to Cooper and Lola, has a new brother - a seven-year-old Jack Russell that is almost completely white.  He's a rescue dog from Iowa and was kept in a cage in a basement for his entire life.  His name is Emmitt, and he's a sweetie.
  And one of the colts that was expected to run in the Belmont Stakes, Intense Holiday, was vanned off the track after a gallop yesterday morning.  He has a condylar fracture of  a foreleg, and is expected to recover and return to racing, after the break heals.  People at Belmont Park seemed amazed that an opossum, walking across the main track, did not disturb California Chrome during his gallop.  The trainer said that they see coyotes frequently on the track in California, so the opossum wasn't anything out of the ordinary.