Scutt Pics

The final leg of the grand US tour; from Bend, up over the Cascade mountains, via the cowboy town of Sisters between Mt Washington & 3 Fingered Jack & on through appalling weather to Eugene. From there, leaving winter temperatures behind, a flight down to Las Vegas for a few nights of high rolling (12th-15th).

And so, via an overnight stay with Rennie in Portland it was south to Bend & a return to Snowgoose Cabin for a few days (9th - 12th) Though the construction work is complete, there were still a number of snagging items (or the punch list as our American friends call it) to sort & of course all those finishing & furnishing details - bedside tables, a TV for each bedroom, pictures to find & hang, the stove to install and of course a new clock for Sean to hang in the kitchen. A brand new ladder set got Ren excited as at last he could clean up the high great room windows.

November 2007 and its back to North America; but this time we wanted to go touring with our good friends. Sadly they couldn't make it, so we went with the Nearys instead ! We've known Sean and Eva for many years; we were at their wedding & they were at ours (its always useful to keep witnesses handy) First stop Vancouver, and a few days (4 th to 6 th ) in this lovely Canadian City with sites such as Gastown , Grouse Mountain, the Capilano suspension bridge & Granville Island. There can be few Cities to rival Vancouver's stunning setting; with a backdrop of mountains, forests and the deep blue waters of the English Bay & Burrard Inlet - every office & apartment window seems to enjoy a great view. Best day ? enjoying the sunshine, unusual snacks & quirky little shops on Granville Island ... or was it Eva's face as she negotiated the swaying suspension bridge. Thence by train to Seattle for a couple of days - it should have been a spectacula...

The Women’s Land Army (WLA), colloquially known as the Land Girls, was formed at the outbreak of World War II to work on the land, freeing the male workers to go to war. By 1943 there were some 80,000 young women working in every aspect of agriculture to feed the nation. With their uniform of green ties and jumpers and brown felt slouch hats, they worked from dawn to dusk each day, milking cows, digging ditches, sowing seeds and harvesting crops. My Mum, Irene (Penny) Pannett, was one of these Land Girls. The WLA was formally disbanded in 1950. After a long campaign by the Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps, the Government announced in December that their wartime efforts would be recognised with the presentation of a special badge commemorating their service that can be worn on Remembrance Sunday and at other ceremonies.

Funny what you turn up sorting through the junk in the loft (I think that will be the attic for our US readers). These photos are of old rugby club chums Tony (Orville) Greenwood, Geoff (Bubbles) Burgess & I on a sailing weekend out of Southampton. We think it was back in May 1995. Both Tony & Geoff became keen sailors, both gaining Royal Yachting Assoc. qualifications as Coastal Skipper & Yacht Master. Orville is still believed to wear bell bottoms, but seldom goes near water these days, Bubbles is still a regular old "salt", crewing in the Fastnet race last year & regularly "splicing the main brace"

Back to Oregon in May and this time I went too. From Seattle we drove south on I5, with stunning views of first Mt. Olympus to the west, then Mt. Rainier to the east - at 4,392m this peak really dominates the landscape. I'm possibly the only person that hadn't realised the logic to Interstate numbering - odd numbers run north/south, even east/west. As we followed and then crossed the mighty Colombia River, the familiar sight of Mt. Hood welcomed us to Portland, glowing a beautiful pink in the evening sun. As we drove the last leg to Ren's home in Gresham I was reminded that this is where they grow many of the plants for America's gardens - fields of flowering shrubs; rhododendrons , azaleas and of course, roses. Portland is known as the "City of Roses" and we missed the Rose Festival (which runs through June) by a week ! The City is also know as the home of t he Dandy Warhols & countless micro breweries, but we missed them too this trip. And so down to B...

March 2007 and we are almost finished. Trix popped over to Oregon to spend a week hard at work with brother Ren and the last of the sub contractors. Tiles for the kitchen, sheets for the beds, timber and more timber. There's a snaging list (or "punch list" as the American's call it) as long as your arm, but with any luck all will be complete by the time we go back for a holiday in May. The bonus room above the garage, temporary dorm for the workers.