Camera Critters

If you would like to join Misty click here


I took these at the Abbey Museum when we went to Mt Angel Oktoberfest. I am not very fond of people stuffing animals, and i sort of wonder why such a display would be located in a Abbey. I do have to say the man that did these did great work. Click photo for better viewing

So on a much brighter note here is Tom Tom enjoying playing with the hair brush


And here is Princess & Tom Tom after cleaning out his ears, check out T's ear bent

Sky Watch Friday

Join Tom, Sandy,Imac and Klaus for this weeks Sky Watch click here to join
On a Clear day you can look all around you. This was taken on the way to Silver Falls Creek
Trying to peek through all those trees and leaves
St Mary's Parrish At Mt Angel click here for the history of this beautiful church as I didn't get any photos of the inside, it is beautiful inside.

Mount Angel Abbey

I have always wanted to see the Abbey over the yrs and didn't know that you could take a tour. So going to the Oktoberfest was a plus to be able to go here, they have a museum also at the Abbey that i will share later on. I am not sure what the museum has to do with the Abbey.
Anyway we went to see the Museum to start with, but then when we got there and seen that, there was a bunch of people that was on a bus tour and Fr. Edmund Smith, O.S.B., Director of the Retreat House

Was doing a tour of the grounds, i am not sure if we were suppose to be there or not, but no one said we couldn't so we got a tour of the grounds with him telling us about the place, he has been there i think he said since 1953.

The Monastary

Mount Angel Abbey is a community of Benedictine Monks founded in 1882 from the Abbey of Engelberg in Switzerland. We maintain a monastic tradition that has been a vital part of the Roman Catholic Church for more than 1500 years. Responding to God's call to holiness and preferring nothing whatever to Christ, we dedicate ourselves, under a Rule and an abbot to a life of prayer and work. We strive to support one another in community, to serve God, the Church, and the larger society. We do this as we celebrate the Holy Eucharist together, pray the Liturgy of the Hours five times daily in choir, and devote ourselves to reading and silence.

Click on photos for better viewing

Mt Angel Seminary

Five years after establishing their community, the Monks of Mount Angel Abbey opened Mount Angel College. Two years later, Archbishop William Gross of Oregon City asked them to attach a seminary to the College. Over the years, with the increasing costs and complexity of school operations, the College and its associated high school have closed. The Seminary, however, has maintained continuous operation. Today it is home to 114 seminarians from approximately 30 dioceses, plus 40 candidates for priestly formation from religious orders. Counting 25 lay students working toward advanced degrees in theology, the Seminary maintains a total enrollment of just under 200.

The library is one of Mount Angel Abbey's principal works of Christian service. It has been made possible by the gifts of many people; its mission is to serve all who wish to use its resources.

The library strives to serve the scholarly and recreational needs of its patrons for reading, listening and visual material in many areas of human culture, especially theology, language and literature, philosophy and the arts, as well as social science and natural history.





To be continued:

Oktoberfest, Odd Shot Monday, Camera Critters

Sorry i am combining camera critters and Odd shot monday in one post as i have been gone.
This deer was at the Abby in Mt Angel wich i will be posting about soon
Click on Camera Critters on side bar to join Misty for this weeks critter shots
Please click on Odd shots on side bar to Join Katney in her Odd shots this week
I thought this was a fun Odd shot, the dog was dressed as a pirate at the Oktoberfest vendors


So this week end we took our trip to Mt Angel Oregon for there Oktoberfest, I have always wanted to go there, but never seemed to make it when they have it, and i have to say it was a wonderful time. 4 days of festivities. Pictures to follow but here is a question:
Do you know the history behind Oktoberfest? Being German myself I really didn't know the meaning behind it, so had to look it up, and here is what I found out about it.Very interesting.
Click on photos for better viewing

The Royal Wedding

Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on 12th October 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. The fields have been named Theresienwiese ("Theresa's fields") in honor of the Crown Princess ever since, although the locals have since abbreviated the name simply to the "Wies'n".

Horse races in the presence of the Royal Family marked the close of the event that was celebrated as a festival for the whole of Bavaria. The decision to repeat the horse races in the subsequent year gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.

The Oktoberfest continues in 1811

In 1811 an added feature to the horse races was the first Agricultural Show, designed to boost Bavarian agriculture.
The horse races, which were the oldest and - at one time - the most popular event of the festival are no longer held today. But the Agricultural Show is still held every three years during the Oktoberfest on the southern part of the festival grounds.

In the first few decades the choice of amusements was sparse. The first carousel and two swings were set up in 1818. Visitors were able to quench their thirst at small beer stands which grew rapidly in number. In 1896 the beer stands were replaced by the first beer tents and halls set up by enterprising landlords with the backing of the breweries.

The remainder of the festival site was taken up by a fun-fair. The range of carousels etc. on offer was already increasing rapidly in the 1870s as the fairground trade continued to grow and develop in Germany.

174th Oktoberfest 2007

Today, the Oktoberfest is the largest festival in the world, with an international flavor characteristic of the 21th century: some 6 million visitors from all around the world converge on the Oktoberfest each year.

And since the Oktoberfest is still held on the Theresienwiese, the locals still refer to the event simply as the "Wies'n". So "welcome to the Wies'n" means nothing other than "welcome to the Oktoberfest"