North Pacific Region is growing!

Left to right:  Ron MacDonald, Bob & Tricia Bourdeau, Mary MacDonald, Rachel & Charlie Turner, Pat & Tom Morgan, Joe McDonald, Chieftain of the Games.

 

                      Montana joins the NPR!

Yes, this is the big news I promised to post about...front page news in the Signal! And the main reason for getting the Signal out later than usual...had to wait for the new membership lists and pictures and such. But since I got it out the door at the first of this week, I can finally share it here!

So, a great big welcome to the State of Montana!

Clan Donald was the Honored Clan at the Bitterroot Scottish Festival this year, the second time we made Honored Clan in 2013!

I will get the Montana Games listed in the Calendar and links added this month.

Kate

Address to a Haggis - by Robert Burns

 

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye worthy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis

All Clans Fall Banquet - Photos by Bob Boudreau

A view of the Silent Auction tables

Blue Cloud Celtic - Awesome band!

Armadale Cake

The singing of the Anthems and Toasts

Bonny Knee Judges

C Fred MacDonald having his knees judged

The lovely table set up

All Clans Fall Banquet - Blurb

I just uploaded photos from this year's All Clans Fall Banquet, hope you enjoy them! I will be posting some photos that were sent to me by Bob Bourdeau, the Regional Membership Chair...I heard that he even got video of Larry Hollums doing Robert Burn's Address to the Haggis. Maybe I can cage a copy for posting here...Larry does an awesome job! I did get one rather dark photo of him during the address, I will post it along with the poem in a day or so.

Kate

All Clans Fall Banquet

Mary MacDonald, NPR Regional Commissioner

Den Jenkins & Erik Martin manning the sign in table

Christmas table with ornaments for sale

The silent auction tables

Beautiful table settings

Such a grand hall

June Thompson, C. Fred MacDonald & Mary MacDonald

La Grande more pics

Celtic Festival and Clan Gathering - La Grande, OR - pics

New State Chaplain

Meet our new State Chaplain, Ivan MacKillip. Ivan has been a Eugene Convener for us for several years and a member on Clan Donald for even longer. We are quite pleased that he has accepted this new role with the clan. Look for an occasional post from him here on the blog...he has a lot of clan knowledge and is an all around great guy. If you would like to contact him, you can find his contact information on the Officers page here on the blog and in the 'Signal'.

Busy, Busy...

Hello again, things are hopping around here. We just got back from the All Clans Banquet this last week end, I will have a post with pictures soon. We went up early and helped with last minute prep and of course, set up. We had a good turn out for the event. If you haven't been...join us next year...we have lot's of fun!

Ivan MacKillip, who has been a Eugene convener, has accepted the post of State Chaplain. Watch for a post soon on that also.

Sharon Goff, the Idaho State Commissioner, did the Celtic Festival and Clan Gathering in La Grande, OR this year. I do have pictures to post for that event. She had so much fun that she has agreed to do it again next year! Along with the Athena Caledonian Games. This is a real help for us, as we have trouble making each event in the State...we can get spread a little thin sometimes.

And we as a Region, made every event in the Region this year! Go us!

We also have big news about the PNW Region...I will be posting on that also.

I am busy getting the Signal ready to go out...we have held it back because of the big news mentioned above.

I am also trying to get some artwork done for setting up our own Café Press store...this will not hold the Regional & National items that we sell at the Clan Tents. We are working on getting an online presence for those items, but the National folk move slowly. We will have new items in our store...geared for our Region. I will post when I have got it up and running and will add a link to it for ease of use.

And now back to work I go...

Kate

Edna MacDonald

Edna MacDonald is Oregon's oldest convener...being 100 years young! She has a beautiful home in Redmond where she spends part of the year. She travels to Arizona during the winter months, where she lived a long time and has many friends. She is sharp as a tack and has many stories about Clan Donald and it's members...shhh! I have been sworn to secrecy on those...

We visited with her for several hours on Saturday and then returned to have lunch with her before leaving on Sunday. Todd declared it a conveners meeting and picked her brain for ideas on events to hold and on increasing membership in the clan. She reiterated my thoughts on needing younger members in the clan to keep it vital and alive. We truly enjoyed our time with her.

Douglas County Scottish Festival

Clan Donald was represented by Tammy Soto and Tyler Brotherton at the Winston Highland Games August 17^th and 18^th.  The day started off a little chilly with some dew on the ground and moisture in the air, but it soon warmed up to the usual hot and sunny day. 

 

Tammy manned the tent with her husband and two grand-daughters Brianna age 10 and Peyton age 6.  Both Bree and Peyton felt very important being part of such an event.  Peyton was “in charge” of applying the Clan Donald stamps to the young ones booklets, which she enjoyed very much. 

 

We heard rumors that this was the first year the athletics’ competition included some National competitors, but not being able to leave the tent, Tammy couldn’t confirm.  By the cheering coming from that direction, it was probably true! 

 

Winston is a smaller venue but that just adds to the charm of the whole event.  You can get traditional Scottish food as well a the American choices of BBQ, hamburgers and hot dogs; there was even a coffee cart there.  Tammy and Peyton’s favorite was the Hawaiian Shaved Ice, which was just across the green from the Clan Tent in the line of sight and tempted them into a couple servings that day J  

 

Tyler and his family took over the manning of the tent on Sunday which was very much appreciated, so that Tammy could spend time with her sick brother-in-law.  All in all, the weekend was a success and hopefully more Clan Donald members can make it down in the coming years.

Oy!

Life has been busy! We did not make it down to the Douglas County Scottish Festival, but we had several awesome conveners who covered the games for us...so Clan Donald was present, even if Todd and I were not. I have gotten a small write up from one of them that I will post tomorrow. Unfortunately they did not have a chance to get pictures.

We did manage a trip to Redmond last week end and got to spend time with our oldest convener...Edna MacDonald...I will have several pictures to post from that adventure.

I am busy with getting the next Signal put together and out the door in a few short weeks, it should be full of pictures from all the different events from around the region. If there is anything you would like to have added...just drop me a line.

Kate

High Desert Celtic Festival - pictures

Clan Donald & Friends

Diane & Frank

Ginger!

Mike McCormick

NW Scots Guard

 

 

SCA Tent

High Desert Celtic Festival - Todd

Clan Donald attended the 2013 High Desert Celtic Highlander Festival location at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo.

 

Great conversation and support with Mike McCormick, Ginger, William Wallace and other assorted visitors to our Donald Tent.

 

Definitely Celtic spirit was flowing in music and drink. I personally attended the evening Ceili to hear Tara Amadam and got to play a few tunes. Fearless Ale sponsored the beer tent with some whiskeys of various kinds. Darkness soon entailed us all as dancing and music continued into the sliver of a moonlit night. A real close old ways gathering full of well-dressed Celts and poets and jesters.

 

Band breaks of wicked sorts of tattoos, breasts, knobby knees contests. All in good fun as we retired to the grounds to sleep in our tents. A very wonderful scent upon waking of juniper and sage.

 

 

Todd

High Desert Celtic Festival

I did not make this festival...but Todd did! I stayed home to take possession of a hospital bed for our newest resident, who moves in today. From everything Todd has said, I missed a very good time!

Todd was late arriving due to an emergency here at home late Friday night. But he did get up and head out as early as he could. He came back full of tales and pictures...I will keep after him to put them in writing so that I can share them here. And watch for a picture post soon thereafter!

Kate

Portland Highland Games - pictures

close up of tent arrangement

Kate helping someone at the tent

 

 

Tammy Soto

Kate taking a break

Portland Highland Games

 

The Portland Games were awesome this year! The day went by so fast...with so many old and new folks dropping by our tent. The morning started off rather damp and cold and ended sunny and very warm.

Thank you to all who stopped by, if you signed our sheet your formal thank you letters will find their way to you this week. We signed up 2 new members yesterday and have quite a few that are interested in membership that got more information from us. You are the ones that make this a joy to participate in. We also had a former member or two stop in, who are interested in rejoining! We are looking forward to serving you again.

A big shout out goes to Tammy Soto and her family that helped in the tent, we really appreciate the help! It gets tough trying to handle it all ourselves, so ALL help is worth its weight in gold. Corbin Bingham, Tammy's son-in-law, and Ivan MacKillip, our new State Chaplain, and I had a delightful conversation when we found out we were all book & movie geeks and Joss Whedon fans...you can imagine that conversation! I found out that Ivan is a Sean Bean fan...those who know me, know that he is my favorite actor and Ivan and I had an enjoyable discussion about our shared joy in the Sharp series, among other favorites. Ivan also gave me some information about the only kilted regiment in the civil war...the 79th NY State Militia...which I will be doing research on...and reporting back to you about.

Tammy's niece's fiance, Justin Jefferson, discovered that he is also a Donald and is looking forward to becoming a member...he would have joined yesterday...but he spent his money on a Donald kilt...money well spent, we think! He is also talking about getting the clan crest as his next tattoo...love it!

The only downside to the day was that we forgot our camera...so we do not have a bunch of pictures to share...we did manage to get a few with my cell phone though...I will post them tomorrow, but I am not sure of the quality of them yet.

We had a nice turn out for marching in the Parade of Clans, lifetime member Alan Bonny carried the Commissioners flag, Ivan carried the Clan name, plus we had Frank Cross and his daughter, Morgan...who has recently become engaged, with us. Also with us was new member, David McDaniel, who did the kilted run after the parade...I didn't get to hear how that went for him...hope he did well!

We could hear the athletics announcer from our tent although we couldn't see the actual events...someone broke the world record by 15 feet...not sure for which event...but the announcer was over the moon! And congrats to whoever did the deed!

All of this is just the highlights that I can remember...
Thank you again to all who participated and to all those to came by the tent!

Kate

Athena - more pictures

Clan MacGregor

Clan Hope

Clan Donald - with our new banner

Clan Anderson

Clan row

                          The most beautiful park ever!