Sunday's Psalm--Pentecost Sunday

R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!

How manifold are your works, O Lord!
the earth is full of your creatures;

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works! Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
All photos for this psalm were taken at Mt. Rainier National Park last weekend, in the forests near Ohanapecosh and from the Eastside Road.

I never saw that before

An "Odd Shot" is one taken from an odd angle, or something odd that occurs, an optical illusion, an odd juxtapostion of objects in an image, or just something that seems odd at the moment. Find the details about playing with us by clicking the Odd Shot Camera logo in the sidebar. If Mr. Linky is present, link your post there. Since he has been uncooperative of late, do leave a comment as well.

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So, last weekend as we drove along Highway 123--the Eastside road of Mt. Rainier National Park, for what has to have been the hundredth time in the last few years, I spotted this:

Do you see anything odd? Do you just see a road through the forest? Well, I had never seen anything but forest there either until last weekend when I spotted this.

This little storage/?/maintenance building blends so closely into its surroundings that even we frequent travelers along this road had never noticed it. I had to step off the road into the forest to get this shot to actually show it to you.

When was your last "Where'd that come from?" moment?

PhotoHunt--Theme: Books

I'm headed off in a bit to my book club meeting. We gather once a month for a casual discussion of a book chosen by consensus. This month it is Stolen Lives: 20 Years in a Desert Prison. A book club gives a good opportunity to discover books and authors you might not otherwise be drawn to. It also gives a good chance to browse in Inklings, an independent bookstore in Yakima.

Other PhotoHunters looking at books this week can be found at TnChick's blog.

Cable Bridge

A bridge under blue skies. Find other skies at the SkyWatch site.

Yesterday was the first time I'd crossed Pasco's Cable Bridge.

We had full blue skies for the day's outing, and the bridge gives some graphic lines for a drive by photo session. I'm glad I wasn't driving.

ABC Wednesday--S is for...

Continuing the tour or Russia, S is for St. Petersburg.

Sometimes known as the Venice of the North, St. Petersburg has a network of canals which provide water navigation through parts of the city. Here we are looking along the canal to the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The elaborate architecture rivals St. Basil's in Moscow, which was in last week's post. The name commemorates the fact that the church was built on the site of the assassination in 1881 of Emperor Alexander II.
The Russians build churchs to commemorate some interesting things. This one was built to celebrate a battle won.

The nobles sought a cool respite from city life in the summer. This is the Catherine Palace, the "summer cottage" of Emperess Catherine the Great outside the city.

...with it's chapel topped by five golden domes. I do not remember the significance of having five domes, but many of the Russian Orthodox churches and cathedrals have five.

St. Petersburg was Czar Peter the Great's city, and there are a number of statues of him there. This one may be less famous than some of the others. Maybe it is because his head is so small?

While we were in St. Petersburg, we attended the opera. We saw Carmen. Our balcony seats, purchased the same morning, left something to be desired for seeing the stage, but made for interesting people watching before the show.

The Cathedral of St. Isaac comes from a different architectural style. Imposing, but less elaborate on the outside...

...the inside included lots of gilt and mosaics.

I seem to be missing some photo files from this segment of the trip. I will have to scan them from the snapshots sometime. they would include the ones I took when we climbed to the top of the cathedral dome. Yikes! What was I thinking? I'm always climbing to the tops of things. Maybe I was so petrified that I didn't take any shots.

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This shot of the spire Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul at the fortress of the same name was not taken from the top os St. Isaac's, though I am sure we were able to see the island it is situated on from there. This is a later structure, and is the final resting place of Czar Nicholas II and his family.

ABC Wednesday, started by Denise, is winding down to the end of its fourth round. You will find other ABC celebrants here.

This doesn't usually grow here.

Odd Shots is hosted here. Leave your link if you have an odd shot this week. Details are always found by clicking the camera logo in the sidebar.

Workers have been affixing the twines to the hop trellises the last couple of weeks, and this week started training the vines to climb the twines. I don't think this is a normal part of the procedure.

Mr Linky is having problems today and is being worked on. If you can use it, do, but I suggest that you leave a comment as well, since some visitors are not seeing it.

Sunday's Psalm--Seventh Sunday of Easter

R. The Lord has set his throne in heaven.

Bless the LORD, oh my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.

Indian Church on Yakima Reservation

Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits.

Cathedral domes, Moscow

The Lord has set his throne in heaven.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.

Tatoosh Range, Mt. Rainier National Park

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he put our transgressions from us.Tonto Bridge, Arizona

The Lord has set his throne in heaven.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.Zion National Park
Bless the LORD, all you his angels,
you mighty in strength, who do his bidding.

meadow wildflowers, Mt. Rainier National Park

The Lord has set his throne in heaven.

Psalm 103, 1-2, 11-12, 19-20

Strange skies

We saw these strange clouds on our way home from the Olympic Peninsula last month.

Clicking will enlarge the photos. Other SkyWatchers can be found linked at the SkyWatch site.

R is for ...

Continuing my travels through the alphabet, R is for Russia.
It was eleven years ago that we traveled to Russia. The trip had to do with family matters--a wedding that we missed, meeting our son's fiancee and family. Our Russian travel contact told our local travel agent that "these people are going to unusual places." But we did the tourist thing as well. St. Basil's Cathedral above is the best known landmark of Red Square. The building below houses the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.
The unusual places we were going to were in Siberia. No one we met in European Russia could fathom any reason to go to siberia. It is as distant to them as it is to us.
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But without going to Siberia we would not have seen this shrine at the site of the death of Czar Nicholas and his family in Ekaterinberg.

We traveled by way of the Trans-Siberian-Railway, and at each station where the train stopped, there were locals on the platform selling things. Mostly food--pastries, perogies, fresh berries. In on city where there was a glass factory, you could buy a chandelier on the platform. Factory workers received part of their salaries in goods.

Betweenn cities, the railway passed through the Taiga forest, made up mostly of birch and pine. This bit of forest was in the Akademgorodok--University District--of Krasnoyarsk, the city where our son studied and met his wife.

Our daughter-in-law's father was on the University faculty, and the friends of our son that we stayed with managed the computer science department. Touring one building we saw this sputnik.

We enjoyed meeting the people--our son's friends, internet friends, our homestay hosts, and folks we met along the way.

Find other ABC Wednesday posts linked at the ABC Wednesday blog. Denise started it all.

Odd Shots--I found this one odd, what do you think?

Click in the side bar logo for odd shots details.
Link your odd shot here and comment.

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Does anyone else find the concept of a solar flashlight a bit of an oxymoron?

Sunday's Psalm--Sixth Sunday of Easter

R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.

Sing to the LORD a new song,

for he has done wondrous deeds.

Ptarmigan, Mt. Rainier

His right hand has won victory for him,

his holy arm.

Zion National Park

The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.

The LORD has made his salvation known:

in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.

lighthouse in Inside Passage to Alaska

He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness

toward the house of Israel.

bear grass

The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.

Zion National Park

Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;

break into song; sing praise.

cruise ship piano

The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.

Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4