How One Woman’s Vision Created Beauty from Ashes

Donna Wichelman North America

Butchart Gardens is one of my favorite places in the Western Hemisphere. These spectacular gardens on Vancouver Island, British Columbia are a horticultural delight that must not be missed, and their history is equally remarkable. My husband and I first visited Butchart Gardens in the fall of 2004 during our twentieth anniversary trip to the Northwest, and then again in …

Discover Where Dublin’s Literary Treasures Come to Life in Illustrious Color

Donna Wichelman Europe

A number of images come to mind when people think of Dublin, Ireland—from Guinness Ale to musical pub crawls to clam chowder to four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, and St. Patrick’s Day. Many Americans go to Ireland to discover their ancestral roots. Some people have romantic notions of rugged shorelines and pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. While these …

Have They Really Found the Prison Where Peter and Paul Were Incarcerated Two Millennia Ago?

Donna Wichelman Europe, Uncategorized

The unsuspecting tourist visiting Rome may not know that at the north end of the Forum they have just walked past one of the most revealing archaeological finds in the city discovered a little over a decade ago. Since Medieval times the Mamertine Prison, also known as the Carcere Tullianum in Biblical times, was hallowed as the prison where Christians …

When Finding Family Roots Digs Into Deeper Soil

Donna Wichelman Europe

Have you ever had a strong desire to discover your roots—I mean, where you hail from, the place where your grandparents or great-grandparents once called home? It seems a lot of us have. Ancestry.com claims more than 15 million people are currently in their network, and more than 16 million have gone through their DNA analysis. Sometimes, the results are …

Where Transportation is Concerned, It Seems Some Things Never Change

Donna Wichelman Carriages and Cars, Uncategorized

As a person born in the latter half of the twentieth-century, I entered the modern world with its motorized cars, having no experience of transportation modes in earlier centuries. Later I married a man who reads car magazines, like Road and Track, with voracious interest. Yet, as a woman intrigued by history, it’s an exciting find to walk into a …

Merry Christmas Blessings

Donna Wichelman Christmaas, Holiday, Uncategorized

Merry Christmas and many blessings to all who’ve spent time reading and responding to my blog over the last several months. You are appreciated more than you know and in my heart and in my prayers. May you know God’s light and love as you move into 2021. Stay safe and healthy! Good people all, this Christmas time Consider well …

Why Christmas Came a Little Early This Year

Donna Wichelman Holiday, Uncategorized

Like me, you probably noticed the Christmas season started a little early this year. Shattered and shuttered by COVID’s impact on our lives, the symbols of Christmas sprang up across our community almost immediately following Halloween. Perhaps even you put up your Christmas tree and hung lights before Thanksgiving. According to a Denver Post article on November 19th, home decorators …

What Is This Christmas Celebration Called Advent About Anyway?

Donna Wichelman Uncategorized

Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought it only fitting to give tribute to the season and why we celebrate Christmas. So, I’m switching things up for the next few weeks. My emphasis is on the history behind Christmas and its celebrations. Today, I’m looking at the Christian Church’s celebration of Advent. Celebrating Advent has been a family …

3 Facts You May Not Know About The Titanic

Donna Wichelman Uncategorized

No one can argue the significance of that fateful night on April 14, 1912 when the Titanic went down in history as one of the most tragic ship wrecks of all time. The enormity of it—the sequence of events, the intricacies of the lives of those who survived and those who did not, the dynamics of how the ship sank—has …