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One evening after dinner in Port Clinton, Ohio while we were walking back to the car I spied a clock tower rising above city, so I said to He-Man I wanted to go check it out…he knew I was thinking Thursday Doors.
I was expecting to see a church, but it’s Ottawa County Courthouse, officially Ottawa County Court of Common Pleas. It’s beautiful. I loved the stone, the grounds, and especially the clock tower. Built in 1898-1901 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect Wing & Mahurin and contractor was Caldwell & Drake Construction of Columbus, Indiana.
“The building faces west and is a three story brown colored sandstone and concrete structure. The building is located on spacious landscaped grounds in the center of Port Clinton. The building has North Amherst Sandstone and pink colored Tennessee marble. The square tower, located in the center of the roof, rises to 132 feet above the ground. The top of the tower contains a belfry for the clock chimes, and the clock faces are located in gables similar to, but smaller than, those below. In the interior, the building is constructed around the central stairwell that rises to the second floor and forms a vault. Four scenes depicting Ottawa County are painted on the walls outside the courtroom: “Quarrying,” “Farming,” “Fishing,” and “Fruit Growing.” These four original industries of the county also define in large measure the significant immigrant groups that settled here. The French were the fishermen, the Danes were the farmers, the Germans were the fruit growers, and the Slavic peoples worked the quarries. The chandelier, hanging from the middle, was taken from the courtroom when it was remodeled and the ceiling lowered. The building houses the County Court of Common Pleas – General, Domestic Relations, Juvenile and Probate.”
It was closed by the time we arrived, but I did peek in through the doors and saw the staircase and chandelier, They looked lovely.
I think these are the front doors. I loved that entrance cover. I think it’s copper by the way its patina is coloring.
They’re fun to see ridden but, they were fast, and dangerous. With the exception of the railways nothing was faster on the roads.
They were dangerous because the risk of falling was great. Heading over the handlebars was problematic. So makers tried making the handlebars so riders knees could clear them. They had design changes that included reversing the large and small wheels but, that proved dangerous as well by being thrown off the bike backwards when going uphill.
It got its name from the size of its wheels-the front was large like the British penny, the smaller back wheel was the farthing.
The Penny-farthing fell out of favor when the safety bicycle was invented in the 1890’s.
I saw this bicycle and a few other odd ones in Sonoma, CA back in 2011.
In truth I rarely see one. The most common Warbler we have here is the Yellow-rump Warbler which I see just about every time I go birding.
When He-Man and I were in Santa Barbara last month we took a wander around Goleta Beach heading north into the University of Santa Barbara Campus up to Beach Point then around the Lagoon. It was while on the trail on the west side of the lagoon I heard and saw this Common Yellowthroat.
It was a treat to see, and he wasn’t skittish. He sat there while snapped a few images then he continued on with his morning song.
I might be much slower getting to your blogs over the next several days. Janet from https://wordpress.com/reader/users/sustainabilitea is arriving today for a visit so if the weather is good I’ll be sharing my little corner of the world with her. We have rain forecasted this week-end though. I hope it’s not a lot so we can get outdoors.
I hope you have a lovely week-end and fair weather!
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This week I’m sharing a house with a pretty door that I’ve wanted to photograph for ages. While shopping in downtown Gardnerville, NV a few weeks back I finally turned down Ezell Street to make a few photos of the Jensen Mansion.
This mansion was built by Arendt Jensen back in 1910. In the year 1887 when he was just 28 he arrived in Gardnerville, NV. There were just two houses in town.
There’s a plaque on the tree out front telling us a little about him and the house.
The Plaque says,” Arendt Jensen had this beautiful mansion constructed for his family in 1910. Mr. Jensen owned a general merchandise store in Gardnerville that became very prosperous. He later established the first bank in Carson Valley. The Douglas County Farmer’s Bank.
An advertisement in the Record Courier newspaper in 1906 stated at the “A. Jensen store you can buy anything at prices that are right.”
Meticulously restored, the Jensen Mansion has been a bed and breakfast in the recent past. The home and grounds also appeared in the movie “The Wizard” staring Fred Savage, and Beau Bridges. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.”
There’s some interesting information on the Clairitage site. There’s a photo of the brick Mercantile building that Jensen built there, and the 3 arched building is still in town. The 3 arched building is a huge antique store that I love to poke around in. My last stop in I scored a lovely duck decoy that now lives in my bedroom. 😊 Okay let’s get back on topic. The door!
Introducing the Silver State Standard: The Nevada DMV mandates that all vehicles must be painted silver by January 1, 2026 according to the Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/ut7jukn6
Clicking on the link opens a page that says, ” Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act
Please ensure your vehicles are painted silver to adhere to the state’s mandate.
What is it?
In an effort to reinforce Nevada’s proud identity as the Silver State, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles is declaring the Statewide Vehicle Color Standardization Act, taking effect on January 1, 2026. Under this new initiative, all personal, commerical, and government-owned vehicles registered in Nevada will be required to be painted silver.
The purpose of this act is to promote state pride, improve traffic flow aesthetics and create the country’s first color-coordinated highway system.
The DMV encourages customers to begin painting their vehicles silver or purchasing vehicles that follow this guideline to avoid violation fees.
In Case You’re Still Reading
We cannot enforce a statewide vehicle color compliancy. We hope we made you laugh. Happy April Fool’s Day!”
I thought it was pretty funny and thought I’d share it since it was the most unique pun I saw all day. It had the most comments and likes I’ve seen on a Nextdoor post in my feed.
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Last week I mentioned He-Man and I went on a not so spontaneous trip down to Henderson, NV. Not so spontaneous because I have been wanting to go down since December when the Long-tailed Ducks were first reported being seen there. They have wintered there since December! I needed two-three days with nothing planned so we could go down.
Henderson is just the next town south of Las Vegas. The ducks were continuing to be seen and we finally had a couple of days free to go so off we went on a little road trip.
There were 3 Female Long-tailed Ducks staying in the ponds at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. We arrived on Sunday afternoon after the Preserve had closed, so our plan was to get there when it opened Monday morning at 7AM. We arrived just a few minutes after they opened, signed in, spoke with the person working there about where to start in the preserve to see the Long-tailed Ducks. They gave us great pointers.
We didn’t see them on our first pass of the pond they were being sighted at so we moved on and explored some other ponds. There are 9 ponds in the preserve.
On our second pass by pond 5 He-Man spotted one! I moved to get better light and there they both were!
Here’s the second one. They were easy to tell apart because their bills are different. One has some pink on it and the other one has an all black bill.
The female tails are much, much shorter than the males, but still they’re so cute. I was so excited to see them. The male remains on my “hope to see” list.
I saw 4 other new to me birds while there which I’ll share in future posts.
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