Friday, August 27, 2021
Letter "I" -- -- Weekend Roundup and Street/Reflections
THE NINTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES - The Letter "I" Prompts are: (A) Starts with the Letter "I"; (B) "Insect" (Tom's Choice); (C) A Favorite; (D) Street/Reflections; and (E) A Lagniappe.
(C) A Favorite: Taken from The Backwaters off the coast of Southeast India, near Co Chin. There we had a houseboat for our group of ten for a morning cruise on the lakes. 
- - - -
(A) Starts with the Letter "I": Iris starts with "I". The was our first blooming Iris last spring in our Iris bed. The Iris blossoms don't last very long but they are pretty while they last.
(B) "Insect" (Tom's Choice): More than several Insect Eaters. How many Birds on the Wire here?
(C) A Favorite: Taken from The Backwaters off the coast of Southeast India, near Co Chin. There we had a houseboat for our group of ten for a morning cruise on the lakes.
(D) Street/Reflections: Intense?
(E) A Lagniappe: Here will be a copied Letter "I" post that I made showing places where we have been that start with the Letter "I" Over all we have visited all 50 of the U.S.A. states and 74 to 78 countries in our world, that series I showed a few pictures from those places we were that started with the Letter "I".
Here goes: [from Wednesday, January 14, 2015, Link]
""I" is for some places, countries and cities starting with the letter "I" where I have traveled:
- Countries: (I've been to between 74 and 78 countries) (Here is a list of those 78 which participated in the 2020-21 Olympics in Japan this year, 2021. Link )
- Countries: (I've been to between 74 and 78 countries) (Here is a list of those 78 which participated in the 2020-21 Olympics in Japan this year, 2021. Link )
Iceland (not in the original version, since then we have visited)
India (not in the original version, since then we have visited)
Israel
Italy
- States: (I've been to all 50)
Idaho
Illinois
- U.S. Cities over 100,000 population where I've been:
Independence, Missouri
Irving, Texas
- International Cities:
Innsbruck, Austria
Lets start with the countries. I liked them all, not really a favorite. So, Ireland gets the nod, we've been there a couple of times. Both times we had a rental car (drive on the left side of the road). It is a pretty country, not overpopulated, and they speak English. Currency is the Euro which has a better U.S. exchange rate than the British Pound. A favorite thing to do is to visit the Blarney Castle outside of Kilarney. And you will just have to kiss the Blarney Stone while you are there.
For Italy we took a Grand Circle (travel company) tour of the island of Sicily for two weeks (link). Since it was by bus, we could explore each part for about a week.
First we stayed at Palermo for a week, then Argrigento (Greek ruins there) one night, and six more nights at Taormina, a small (population 11,000) hillside town on the east coast of Sicily with a nice view of Mt. Etna. We did go onto the slopes of Mt. Etna.
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..
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Then we took a Grand Circle excursion on the Amalfi Coast for another week.
After that we flew from Naples over to Milan where we rented a car and toured Provence (France) and Tuscany a week each to finish our five week vacation.
I took a lot of motor scooter pictures when I could. A lot of women ride them in Italy. To the right we see Mrs. Jim sampling the goodies at the Market in Palermo, Sicily.
Israel
Italy
- States: (I've been to all 50)
Idaho
Illinois
Independence, Missouri
Irving, Texas
- International Cities:
Innsbruck, Austria
Lets start with the countries. I liked them all, not really a favorite. So, Ireland gets the nod, we've been there a couple of times. Both times we had a rental car (drive on the left side of the road). It is a pretty country, not overpopulated, and they speak English. Currency is the Euro which has a better U.S. exchange rate than the British Pound. A favorite thing to do is to visit the Blarney Castle outside of Kilarney. And you will just have to kiss the Blarney Stone while you are there.
Mrs. Jim went up there also but she didn't want to kiss the stone. I've kissed it twice. To read and see more please check the original 2007 post, found here.
The Isle of Man isn't a country so I can't put it on the list above. It is a self-governing British 'Crown dependency,' not a country. (Wikipedia link) It is located off the coast of Britain. Though there is a ferry that goes there, we flew. My grandfather's family came from the Isle of Man. We visited it in 2007 (prior blog posts).
The main thing we did in the Isle of Man was to go from Douglas, the capital city in the middle, where we stayed up to the north by train and then go to the south end via bus. Lots of site seeing. We did see evidence of the Corkhill family having been there. One lady at the information center (above, right) informed us that her maiden name was Corkhill.
For Italy we took a Grand Circle (travel company) tour of the island of Sicily for two weeks (link). Since it was by bus, we could explore each part for about a week.First we stayed at Palermo for a week, then Argrigento (Greek ruins there) one night, and six more nights at Taormina, a small (population 11,000) hillside town on the east coast of Sicily with a nice view of Mt. Etna. We did go onto the slopes of Mt. Etna.
.
.
.
.
..
.
.
Then we took a Grand Circle excursion on the Amalfi Coast for another week.
After that we flew from Naples over to Milan where we rented a car and toured Provence (France) and Tuscany a week each to finish our five week vacation.
Above, to the left is looking out our hotel window to the north to the sea. Next, Mrs. Jim and I took a walk up our hill in Sorento (Amalfi coast) and could look over to the Isle of Capri.
I took a lot of motor scooter pictures when I could. A lot of women ride them in Italy. To the right we see Mrs. Jim sampling the goodies at the Market in Palermo, Sicily.Iceland was a part of a New York City to Dover, England cruise aboard the Pacific Princess ship in 2016. You can search my blog for Iceland, this post has our itinerary (link) and another in the Labels at the bottom of the post.
India was a fun trip too. This one was aboard the Oceania Nautica ship in 2019-2020 with several posts using this link, 2019-20 Dubai to Cape Town . At the end we stayed in Cape Town, South Africa to spend a few days. The highlight there was a safari.
Independence, Missouri, is the home of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum (link). It is a wonderful presidential library. I have visited slightly more than half of them, seven (7) of the thirteen (13).
The libraries make a nice goal for seeing places in the U.S as surely if you go by car you will not only explore the state of the library you pick, but also the states along the way (List of all 13 links on left sidebar). We love to make a sweeping tour and try to not come back the same way we went. We have been to ALL 50 of the states.
Independence, Missouri, is the home of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum (link). It is a wonderful presidential library. I have visited slightly more than half of them, seven (7) of the thirteen (13).
The libraries make a nice goal for seeing places in the U.S as surely if you go by car you will not only explore the state of the library you pick, but also the states along the way (List of all 13 links on left sidebar). We love to make a sweeping tour and try to not come back the same way we went. We have been to ALL 50 of the states.
- Jenny is starting in now on her tenth series of Alphabe Thursday. With 52 weeks in a year and 26 letters in the alphabet she is now in her fifth year. I am linked to her blog, GO HERE for more participants and their offerings.
Labels: Alphabe-Thursday [5th], Jim Does, Travel 2
Labels: Alphabe-Thursday [5th], Jim Does, Travel 2
- - - - .
Fine print stuff
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linking again this week with James of "Weekend Reflections/Street Photos" (click here for his Street Folk and Reflections Photos).
- The pictures mostly are all mine and rights are reserved to me under Copyright Law
Labels: 2019-20 Dubai to Cape Town, Birds, Driving Pictures, Flowers-buds-plants, Friday's Weekend Roundup 07, Iceland, India, NYC to Dover Cruise, Reflections
Friday, September 11, 2020
The Letter "K" -- Weekend Roundup and Reflections
The thirty-seventh issue of Weekend Roundup for this year, 2020...
(THE ELEVENTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES)
- the Letter "K" Prompts are:
(A) Starts with the Letter "K";
(B) "Keepsake" (Tom's Choice);
(C) A Favorite; and
(D) Reflections.
_ _ _ _
(A) Starts with the Letter "K": King starts with the letter "K". Here is a little poem about King Og that I found: (Hint, I've always been saying that he had big feet but that is not the correct answer.)
BED OF OG
"While browsing through the Bible once
I ran across the queerest thing:
A Bashanite of giant height
Upon his nation’s throne was king.
His name was Og. …" (more, please click here)
The five cousins
Adi was certain she was going to have to stay in the car
We met at the New Hope Baptist Church in Elmer, Louisiana, for Homecoming 2006. Only Mema had been able to come to the family reunion the week before in North Louisiana, so this was a second reunion oppertunity for them.
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I forgot to ask if the original restaurant in New Orleans had reopened yet after being devastated by Hurricane Katrina (link). [This is pulled from a 2006 post, you will have to imagine these folk aging 14 years (link to 2006 post)].
(D) Reflections: Parked water taxis at the Dubai Harbor. We were headed toward the dock riding in one like these.
_ _ _ _
Bonus Questions:
1. What is your favorite "K" word? Mine was hard to decide. I settled on Kind. My MIL, Mrs. Jim's mother had a favorite Bible Scripture verse that she taught to all of her preschooler Sunday morning Bible class. It was "Be ye kind one to another..."
She once came into her room one morning and two boys were fighting. She asked them, "Boys, boys, do you know what Ephesians 4:32 KJV says?" One replied, "Yes, Ma'am, we know but we just ain't doing it."
2. Tell about one of your experiences with water travel. We like to do the "Transition Cruises" offered by the cruise lines. Our first was from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal. It and Princess below both were sailing for over two weeks.
Then we have done several to Europe on the Princes line. Our favorite there was on the small ship, the Pacific Princes, from New York City to Brittan. It stopped at Halifax, Newfoundland, three stops in Iceland, and two stops at Scotland, then it cruised on to Dover, England.
_ _ _ _
The fine print:
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linked this week with James of "Weekend Reflections" (click here for his Reflections Photos).
- The pictures mostly are all mine and rights are reserved to me under Copyright Law.
(THE ELEVENTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES)
- the Letter "K" Prompts are:
(A) Starts with the Letter "K";
(B) "Keepsake" (Tom's Choice);
(C) A Favorite; and
(D) Reflections.
_ _ _ _
(A) Starts with the Letter "K": King starts with the letter "K". Here is a little poem about King Og that I found: (Hint, I've always been saying that he had big feet but that is not the correct answer.)
BED OF OG
"While browsing through the Bible once
I ran across the queerest thing:
A Bashanite of giant height
Upon his nation’s throne was king.
His name was Og. …" (more, please click here)
The five cousins
(B) "Keepsake" (Tom's Choice): This picture is a Keepsake, from 2006. Left to right is Viola (Mema, Mrs. Jim's mother), Gracie (a cousin by marriage), Louvenia, Oma, and Ethel. All of them were born and grew up in Central Louisiana. They all still lived there, except for Mema, who lived in Texas near us. All were widowed, all have died since 2006.
Adi was certain she was going to have to stay in the car
while we all were enjoying food things in the church
[This photographer is overpaid]
.
Adi wonders if she will get to eat with us
The service was good, the guest minister, Dr. Joe Kite, gave a fiery sermon. He was about a year older than me, both of us slightly younger than Methuselah. He had a keen sense of humor. Since he didn't know us, he looked our way a lot; sure he didn't want to miss an opportunity for a convert.
The piano player played like church music should be played in a Louisiana country church. Her grandmother was a cousin of some sorts to the five cousins.
The piano player played like church music should be played in a Louisiana country church. Her grandmother was a cousin of some sorts to the five cousins.
Excerpted from (read our escapade from this link below) http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/2006/06/family-reunion-ii-meeting-of-five.html
Adi was our Beagle dog. She and I were a registered Pet Therapy pair. (Adi's meme )
Adi was our Beagle dog. She and I were a registered Pet Therapy pair. (Adi's meme )
(C) A Favorite: We had been celebrating our younger daughter's birthday and stopped off at Brennan's Restaurant for an open house with wine and hors d'oeuvres; also there was a kitchen tour and demonstration by the chef.
(D) Reflections: Parked water taxis at the Dubai Harbor. We were headed toward the dock riding in one like these.
_ _ _ _
Bonus Questions:
1. What is your favorite "K" word? Mine was hard to decide. I settled on Kind. My MIL, Mrs. Jim's mother had a favorite Bible Scripture verse that she taught to all of her preschooler Sunday morning Bible class. It was "Be ye kind one to another..."
She once came into her room one morning and two boys were fighting. She asked them, "Boys, boys, do you know what Ephesians 4:32 KJV says?" One replied, "Yes, Ma'am, we know but we just ain't doing it."
2. Tell about one of your experiences with water travel. We like to do the "Transition Cruises" offered by the cruise lines. Our first was from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal. It and Princess below both were sailing for over two weeks.
Then we have done several to Europe on the Princes line. Our favorite there was on the small ship, the Pacific Princes, from New York City to Brittan. It stopped at Halifax, Newfoundland, three stops in Iceland, and two stops at Scotland, then it cruised on to Dover, England.
_ _ _ _
The fine print:
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linked this week with James of "Weekend Reflections" (click here for his Reflections Photos).
- The pictures mostly are all mine and rights are reserved to me under Copyright Law.
Labels: Aus-NZ, Bible, Family, Friday's Weekend Roundup 06, NYC to Dover Cruise, Reflections, Travel
Friday, February 24, 2017
~~ Friday’s Hunt v.3.08 -- "H" is for ...
Friday Hunt for the week of February 24th: (1) Starts with H; (2) Week's Favorite; and (3) Chiaroscuro or shadow.
(2) Week's Favorite(a): This February 24th is our 44th Wedding Anniversary. I posted on Facebook: ( https://www.facebook.com/jim.hovendick )
To see our other Years' "Anniversary" posts, please click here.
The Fine Print: - Teresa of Eden Hills, (click) is running this meme, Friday's Hunt. Her rules are: "Welcome to linkup for Friday’s Hunt. It’s very simple. Anyone can participate. The link opens at 7pm Friday Central time and will close Sunday at 7pm."
(2) Week's Favorite(a): This February 24th is our 44th Wedding Anniversary. I posted on Facebook: ( https://www.facebook.com/jim.hovendick )
To see our other Years' "Anniversary" posts, please click here.
(1) Starts with "H": This week my "H" is for Horse. Did you know that I rode a horse to high school for my freshman and sophomore years?
The horses here are purebred Icelandic horses. They have a carefully guarded strain. Part of that guard is to keep horses from another country from coming in. Furthermore, once an Icelandic horse leaves the country it is very hard, and often impossible to bring these horses back into the country.
The horses are beautiful. The ones in the picture I took from our tour bus window last June during our Iceland cruise stops. I haven't posted much about this but we had three stops in Iceland from our Transatlantic, Pacific Princes ship, cruise from NYC to London. We also stopped in Halifax and made two more stops in northern Scotland. You can read more about the Icelandic horses here.
(2) Week's Favorite (b): Our chair is ready to be picked up. This chair he did for free for a class he was taking about recanting chairs. He has offered a reasonable price to redo the other five. One will be more than the others because it is in pieces.
I intend to check the value of a restored chair. They are slightly over 100 years old but I think that they were rather inexpensive chairs when they were purchased way back then. Mom had stored them for her step-mother (Mom's mother, my grandmother, died of the flu in 1917) when the family moved from Tekamah (Nebraska) to Missouri back in the 1930's.
(3) Chiaroscuro or shadow: "Chiaroscuro, the marriage of light and shadow, is primarily used to emphasize details for dramatic effect. It consists of bright light and bold contrasts, hence balance. In Renaissance painting, the technique is used to master human anatomy, formation and structure. The art will often have a heavily darkened background, sometimes reaching out to the darker parts of the subject. Most of the time only the subject is being touched by light."
I don't have great pictures to represent these. I do have quite a few with shadows, perhaps a few with the Chiaroscuro effect to some extent.
Here are three more that I took on one of our Iceland stops. The snow capped mountains at the bottom were taken from the ship pointing towards the mainland. We were somewhere near the Artic Circle then, we did cross into it.
The Fine Print: - Teresa of Eden Hills, (click) is running this meme, Friday's Hunt. Her rules are: "Welcome to linkup for Friday’s Hunt. It’s very simple. Anyone can participate. The link opens at 7pm Friday Central time and will close Sunday at 7pm."
Labels: Animals, Antiques, Friday’s Hunt # 03 - 2017, Iceland, Jim Does, NYC to Dover Cruise
Friday, July 29, 2016
~~ Friday’s Hunt v.2.05 -- "E" is for ...
For the week of July 29th Friday's Hunt:
1. Starts with E
2. Week's Favorite
3. Bounce
1. Starts with "E": English Gardens
I like to visit English gardens, most are kept so pretty.
The first I caught during our bus ride from Dover where our cruise ship landed to London to spend a few days there. I do not know what this garden is for or what it may be a part of. Note the black striped airplane beside the building.
3. Bounce: My title, "Hang on, we'll bounce when we land".
1. Starts with E
2. Week's Favorite
3. Bounce
1. Starts with "E": English Gardens
I like to visit English gardens, most are kept so pretty.
The first I caught during our bus ride from Dover where our cruise ship landed to London to spend a few days there. I do not know what this garden is for or what it may be a part of. Note the black striped airplane beside the building.
My set below are some more pictures of Regents Park, London,
that I took during our June visit. (other Regents Park picture posts)
Now some June pictures of our English friend's garden.
They live north of London at Towcester (link), Northamptonshire, U.K.
This vegetable garden was not in England, but in the U.K, at Harwell, Scotland.
It was located adjacent to a church there, I don't know who owned it.
2. Week's Favorite: Mrs. Jim has found a toy Volkswagen Transporter that she liked. The Peppa Pig (previous blog link) creatures didn't seem to mind her riding with them.
It has to be my favorite because it is a Mrs. Jim Picture.
3. Bounce: My title, "Hang on, we'll bounce when we land".
When I found this picture at the Cracker Barrel in Baton Rouge last weekend (now you know why I'm so slow in answering your comments last week--it may happen again this weekend?) I had thought that the title would come out. Wrong.
4. A food picture: (due to popular demand)
"Breakfast on the Ship"
Believe it or not, I don't gain much weight, if any, on our cruises. One of the reasons is that I try to really enjoy my breakfast and make it large. The omelet is two egg, sometimes I have it one egg, with sausage, bacon, mushrooms, onions, spinach (a double helping)--for color, and white and yellow cheddar cheese.
Continuing clockwise is my canned fruit selection, two different types of link sausage, corn beef hash (almost as good as what the Army cooks made), a pile of ketchup, what's left of a hash brown potato patty, a lemon filled pastry, and a small pancake. Some days I also have a piece or two of raw pineapple or cantaloupe, watermelon, or all.
The cruise ship, Pacific Princess (link), is the Princess line's small ship with a capacity of only 680 passengers. It will go where other larger ships can't, we rode with it into the Black Sea in August, 2013. This cruise left from NYC, then we visited Halifax, three stops in Iceland, and two in northern Scotland before we finished at Dover, England. That was followed by a bus ride into London where we stayed a couple of day.
_ _ _ _ _
The Fine Print:
- Teresa of Eden Hills, (click) is running this meme, Friday's Hunt. Her rules are: "Welcome to linkup for Friday’s Hunt. It’s very simple. Anyone can participate. The link opens at 7pm Central time and will close Sunday at 7pm, so you have plenty of time to enter.
- Teresa of Eden Hills, (click) is running this meme, Friday's Hunt. Her rules are: "Welcome to linkup for Friday’s Hunt. It’s very simple. Anyone can participate. The link opens at 7pm Central time and will close Sunday at 7pm, so you have plenty of time to enter.
Labels: Food-breakfast, Friday’s Hunt # 02 - 2016, Friends, Jim Does, London, NYC to Dover Cruise, Travel 6
