Thanksgiving in Cove Oregon

We spent Thanksgiving this year at Ascension School Camp and Conference Center in Cove Oregon. The organization is under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon and runs camps during the summer for children including children whose parents are incarcerated.

We had heard how wonderful the facility and staff were and when we heard that they would again be offering Thanksgiving dinner and that the Bishop and her husband would be attending, we decided to go there have dinner and spend the night in the conference center.

Cove is about six hours from Bend and the view from the roads through the mountains and national forests is gorgeous.

There were about 35 people who attended dinner, most of them simply drove in for the dinner but there were four couples, including the Bishop, her husband and their niece who stayed the night. We had an enjoyable evening just sitting around after the meal and talking with those staying the night.

One of the things that the Bishop likes to do is to play games – here are a couple of pictures from the game. The Bishop is on the right in the black and red sweater and her husband is sitting at the far end of the table.



Helen with one of the participants.



And finally the Bishop and her husband “relaxing” – except she is answer email on her IPhone.

And the Winner Is?

Congratulations to Ms Helen for winning the People's Choice Award at the "City Walls at City Hall" art competition at Bend City Hall. This competition is a uniquely-themed quarterly juried art show held at Bend City Hall and built around the overall theme of inspiring community with art. The competition is designed to support artists, advocate for the business development aspect of the arts and develop successful partnerships to promote the arts. This is the first year for the show which will hold a total of four competitions this year and to date Helen won the Judge's Prize in the first competition and the People's Choice award in the second!

The theme of the show she just competed in was “Growing Up – Bend Inspires Its Children: Our Future.” Artists where paired with organizations in the city that support the development of children in need and the goal was to have the artist meet with members of the organization and produce art that represents the mission of the organization.

Helen was paired with Healthy Families of the High Desert. The organizations website describes it as “… a voluntary home visiting program that assists families in giving their newborn children a "healthy start" in life. The program offers weekly intensive home visits for first birth, high-need families and a one-time welcome home visit to all families with newborns.”

Family – look closely you may see someone that you know in the images!

4th of July Parade in Redmond OR

Greetings after a LONG posting absence! Our motorcycle club was in the Redmond 4th of July parade. The club's picture guru snapped these photos. Helen was first in our group behind the club's banner (one of the advantages of having the biggest motorcycle in the parade) and got a several ATTA GIRL’s from the people who turned out for the parade!

Oh the Pain

Helen and I were delegates to the 40th annual convention of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. It was an interesting time – the Church is faced with some serious issues. However, let’s not address that here.
Unfortunately on Sunday we were walking in the parking lot at the hotel and Helen fell and hurt her knee (left side) and broke a chunk of bone off of her right ankle, one that she has broken before. Here are the gory details, forever preserved in the ethereal world of the Internet…
It hurts when someone you love is hurt…….

The Beekeeper

We had the opportunity to see Jennifer (also known as Jenn) and Ryan for a couple of days on our way back from KC. It was great to see them and as usual there was something interesting going on - we had our first chance to see their (mostly Ryan's) beekeeping activity.

One of the days we were there he was weed-whacking near where his two hives are located and apparently this caused one of the hives to swarm - he discovered most of them on the branch of a tree nearby. They eventually returned to the hive, but when Ryan checked the hives it was obvious that the little guys had been very busy so there was a rush to add another level to both hives.

Some photos (double-click for larger images!):


And a short video!

Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms

Over the last three days I have had one of the most thrilling and challenging experiences in the many years that I have enjoyed singing with choirs.

The Central Oregon Mastersingers, along with the Cascade Choral and the Central Oregon Symphony performed Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem (German Requiem) in German. There where 85 members in the orchestra along with a chorus of 104 voices. What a glorious sound!

The preparation for the performance was extensive, 7 rehearsals of the choir members and 4 rehearsals of the choir and orchestra - 33 hours in all!

Brahms began this work in 1864 after the death of his mother and unlike the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, written in Latin, the Libretto was written in German using text from the German Luther Bible. Also, unlike the Roman Catholic Requiem which focuses on prayers for the dead, the Brahms' work focuses on God as a figure of comfort.

Anyway, I don't have a recording of our performance but there are many on utube - give this one a listen, it's the second half of the second movement of the work (OH turn your volume down!):

Utube: Movement 2 part 2

Mexico - Pt3: Chichen Itza

Our visit to the Mayan Civilization ruins at Chichen Itza was a 2 hr bus ride from our hotel on a VERY hot day. Here is Ms. Helen suffering from the heat but "hot" as ever.

The descriptions here I have pulled from http://www.chichenitza.com/ I (of course) cannot guarantee their historical accuracy (can I hear a DUH!)However I can tell you it is a remarkable site, and there is MUCH more to be seen than what I have included here.

The major feature of the the site is the "Great Ball Court" (El Gran Juego de Pelota). "The Mayans were great sportsmen and build huge ballcourts to play all their games. The Great Ballcourt of Chichen Itza is 225 feet wide and 545 feet long overall. It has no vault, no discontinuity between the walls and is totally open to the blue sky.
Each end has a raised to the temple area. A whisper from end can be heard clearly enough at the other end 500 feet far away and through the length and breath of the court.
The sound waves are unaffected by wind direction or time of day and also night. Archaeologists engaged in the reconstruction noted that the sound transmission became more and more strong and clear as they proceeded.
In 1931 Leopold Stokowski spent 4 days at this site to determine the acoustic principals that could be applied to theater for an open-air concert he was designing. Stokowski failed to learn the secret. To date it has not been explained.
It is easy to imagine a Mayan King sitting here presiding over the games. Legends say that the winning Capitan would present his own head to the losing Capitan, who then decapitates him."
Note the hoop in the wall.

The Castle (El Castillo - the Kukulkan Pyramid):
" The Kukulkan Pyramid was built for astronomical purposes and during the vernal equinox (March 20) and the autumnal equinox (September 21) at about 3pm the sunlight bathes the western balustrade of the pyramid's main stairway.
This causes 7 isosceles triangles to form imitating the body of a serpent roughly 37 yards long that creeps downwards until it joins the huge serpent's head carved in stone at the bottom of the stairway."


The Sacred Cenote (Cenote Sagredo): "The Yucatan Peninsula is a limestone plain, with no streams or rivers. The region is pockmarked with natural sinkholes ( Cenotes ) which expose the water table to the surface.
One of the most impressive is the Sacred Cenote, which is 60 m. in diameter, and shear cliffs that drop to the water table some 27 m. below.
The legendary Sacred Cenote (natural waterhole) of Chichen ltza was special to the people for its social and religious significance. On occasions, the sacrifice of human life was part of the offerings made to the Water God. But, it was not as common as had earlier been imagined."