EVENING PARADE AT FORT PICKENS

On the evening of April 12, 1861, following Lieutenant Worden's arrival in Pensacola, United States troops were landed at Pickens.  The fort was secured, thereby offsetting the loss of the other naval fortifications at Pensacola Harbor. Fort Pickens and the surrounding island remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War. While public attention focused on the shelling of Fort Sumter and the outbreak of Civil War, the relief expedition became a footnote in history, a relatively obscure "second" reinforcement of Pickens.

Bread ovens in basement of the Capitol When the District of Columbia became an armed camp at the start of the Civil War, many of the public buildings had to be used for military purposes. One of these was the Capitol building itself, where soldiers camped in the halls and bread ovens were installed in the basement. The ongoing construction project for enlarging the Capitol into the building we recognize today ground to a halt for about a year, but President Lincoln recognized that during war you must also plan for peace. He convinced Congress to provide the funding for finishing the construction, saying that, "if people see the Capitol going on ... it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on."

Galleries under the Senate chamber converted into granaries

CLAY BLUFFS ON NO MAN'S LAND

"No Man's Land" is an uninhabited island 612 acres (2.477 km²) in size, located in Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA.  It is the southernmost point of that state, situated about three miles (5 km) off the southwest corner of the island of Martha's Vineyard.

PART I

In his book, "Undaunted Courage," historian Stephen Ambrose sets out a compelling narrative of the extraordinary leadership displayed by Meriwether Lewis in taking a small band of men on a spectacular journey of discovery through 8,000 miles of untracked wilderness, much of it occupied by hostile Indians. Over the course of two years Lewis was required to be all things to all men--part frontiersman, part soldier, part medic, part naturalist, part geographer, part journalist, part diplomat.  He was handpicked for the job by none other than his mentor Thomas Jefferson, the ultimate renaissance man.  Imagine sitting at the same dinner table with perhaps the most fascinating man of the millennium.   Meriwether Lewis did--every evening for two years. Soon, the ambiance would be far different: "Our vessels consisted of six small canoes, and two large perogues," Lewis wrote in his journals. "This little fleet altho' not quite so rispectable as those of Columbus or Capt. Cook, were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and I dare say with quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservation. we were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden; the good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these little vessells contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves." The following entry demonstrates his scientific interest in the territory: "I found by several experiments that a table spoon full of water exposed to the air in a saucer would evaporate in 36 hours when the mercury did not stand higher than the temperate point at the greatest heat of the day ..." And this description of the Great Falls of the Missouri reveals the mind of a poet: "...irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in it's passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam... " And so it goes, scientist, poet, adventurer, renaissance man gushing forth in a creative stream that would mysteriously fall silent for weeks at a time.  Those strange silences would later speak volumes, but the eventual success of the mission all but drowned out any signs of trouble ahead. ...to be continued

Lewis and his men arrived back to heroes' welcomes, and Lewis himself became the toast of the town in Washington DC and Philadelphia.  But signs of strange behavior were creeping in.  He unaccountably kept putting off the publication of his journals, and drug abuse and deep depressions helped undermine his post as Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Still, there was no denying his hero status, and soon he would be returning once more to the open arms of his friends and admirers back east.  But he never made it back.  His mentor Thomas Jefferson was greatly saddened but not at all surprised: "Governor Lewis," he wrote, "had, from early life, been subject to hypochondriac affections.  It was a constitutional disposition in all the nearer branches of the family of his name, and was more immediately inherited by him from his father." There was no question in Jefferson's mind:  "About three o'clock in the night," he wrote, "he did the deed ..." But many historians have since taken issue: "It seems impossible," one wrote, "that a young man of 35 ... on his way ... to the capital of the nation, where he knew he would be received with all the distinction and consideration due his office and reputation, should take his own life." Wrote another:  "The Meriwether Lewis they knew did not lose his courage nor his head in times of trial."  And still another:  "By temperament, he was a fighter, not a quitter." But the plain facts tell another story, even if no one actually saw Lewis put the gun to his head.  In "Undaunted Courage," Stephen Ambrose notes Lewis' depressive tendencies, his odd behavior, and his deteriorating mental condition, including a reported suicide attempt and an army officer's precautionary surveillance mere days before. As to why so many who should know better simply refuse to face the truth, Dr. Kay Jamison in "Night Falls Fast" postulates: "...scholars and laypeople alike find it hard to hold in their minds the thought that a great man could have been deranged or that a courageous man could have killed himself.  But such men do.  And the same bold, restless temperament that Jefferson saw in the young Meriwether Lewis can lie uneasily just this side of a restive, deadly despair." In Jamison's mind, suicide was never a blot to Lewis's character--only a tragedy, the logical outcome of a deadly depressive temperament, one that can take down even the best of us, even a hero amongst heroes.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1995.  It is located next to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The memorial is made up of 19 larger-than-life statues of soldiers from each branch of the armed forces.

A 164-foot mural was is inscribed with the words "Freedom Is Not Free" and is etched with 2,500 photographic images of nurses, chaplains, crew, chiefs, mechanics and other support personnel to symbolize the efforts of the military operation.

The Korean Memorial has its own wall. Etched into the granite are ghostly photographs of faces taken from military archives.

The memorial honors the soldiers who were killed in action and the ones that are still missing.  There were 54,246 Americans who lost their lives during this war.  The words "OUR NATION HONORS HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO ANSWERED THE CALL TO DEFEND A COUNTRY THEY NEVER KNEW AND A PEOPLE THEY NEVER MET" are engraved on the Pool of Remembrance. The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when the North Korean Army invaded the Republic of (South) Korea. Three days later, President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops to help defend South Korea. Soon, for the first time in history, the United Nations created a United Nations Command to repel the attack. The war officially ended with an armistice roughly three years later, on July 27, 1953. A de facto boundary was drawn up at this time that still exists today, dividing North and South Korea. Approximately 1,500,000 American troops served in Korea during the conflict

WASHINGTON STATE KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL

It was in 1989 that the Washington State Legislature, at the urging of numerous veterans’ organizations, business owners, and citizens, authorized the first ever state-sponsored Korean War Memorial. The project was approved for two purposes: "to express the gratitude of the citizens of this state for all who served in Korea, and to project the spirit of service, willingness to sacrifice, and dedication to freedom in remembering those Washingtonians who lost their lives in the war." Roughly 122,000 Washington soldiers served in Korea, now often referred to as "the forgotten war"—532 of these troops were killed. Once approval was granted for the memorial, a four-year fundraising effort ensued. Veterans groups worked tirelessly to raise more than $320,000 in private donations needed for the $400,000 project, with the state contributing $70,000 in matching funds. Spearheading the fundraising effort was the veterans group Chosin Few, comprised of survivors of one of the war’s bloodiest battles at the Chosin Reservoir (November, 1950). Montana artist Deborah Copenhaver Fellows’ idea was chosen for the memorial after a three-month design competition. Fellows, whose father is a Korean War veteran, created her piece "as a way for people to reflect on war and the price it extracts from those who participate." Her two-ton bronze statue features three weary-faced GI’s of different nationalities huddled around a pile of sticks in the rain, with one soldier attempting to light a fire. Behind the figures fly 22 flags, representing each of the nations that joined the U.S in the war effort. In front of the bronze statue are stone tablets with the names of those Washington soldiers killed in battle. On either side of the memorial are plaques designed to educate viewers about the war. The memorial was dedicated on July 24, 1993, just days away from the 40th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Nearly 3,500 people attended the ceremony on the east campus of the State Capitol. Before arriving in Olympia, the statue made a number of viewing stops in Eastern and Western Washington en route from Fellows’ Montana studio. The memorial originally contained the names of 523 Washington residents killed in Korea, with more names added in 1994, 1998, and 1999.

Otis O. Lane Muscogee, Georgia Born 1920 First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Service Number O-1330326 Killed in Action Died September 3, 1950 in Korea First Lieutenant Lane was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in South Korea on September 3, 1950. First Lieutenant Lane was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

I was amazed when I searched the Web to identify the butterfly that I had photographed on one of my walks.  It is the male Adonis Blue.  It was very small and very lively.  I was really lucky to get these three shots.

The Adonis blue (Lysandra bellargus) is one of the world's smallest butterflies.  It has a wingspan of less than two inches.  Its favorite hunts include open, rough ground and sunny slopes.  The Adonis blue derives its name from its vivid sky-blue coloration.  The undersides are light brown to gray-brown.

What do you call a group of unicorns?  What do you call a group of kangaroos? ??? PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!

FLEABANE Ann Telling Photo

Field of Wild Mustard Ann Telling Photo

TROPICAL DREAM

Cashews are native to the Americas, but widely cultivated in India and Africa since the 16th century. You never see cashews for sale in the shell because between the outer and inner shells covering the nut is an extremely caustic oil. The outer shell must be roasted or burned off with the oil (the smoke is also an irritant). The kernels are then boiled or roasted again, and a second shell is removed.

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