ASTORIA, OREGON

We didn't take this picture there. I Googled Angus' Folly, Angus McCain, Angus McClain, and Oregon vegetation and came up with zilch. But I heard about him twice today on a tour.

Our tour guide was very verbal, very knowledgeable, very able. In great detail he pointed out the bright yellow vegetation that grew in clumps, climbed hills, huddled by the roadside and gave a great color to Astoria, Seaside, Nehalem, Cannon Beach and other burgs we ventured to. Angus' Folly was brought to America by a Scottsman and it took off. Much like blackberries, if harvested or cut out, they merely spread. It's not harmful like the choking plant in the South whose name always escapes me as I want to call it chahula, which isn't even close.

But after Marc, our guide, had talked at length about it and constantly made reference to it, a little old lady among a bunch of little old ladies on this tour asked "What are all those yellow flowers?"

Unless you were there, you couldn't imagine the biggest silent but collective "Duh" unuttered by every other passenger on board. Marc explained again like a patient teacher.

But the rest of the tour was really good. it included going to the biggest WWII Air Museum in the country at Tillemook Air Base. Outstanding details and planes and jeeps and a tank housed in a hangar. Lots of memorabilia including unknown to us a display about the Japanese blimps and submarines that shelled the northwest coast. One balloon bomb killed a pastor's wife and some Sunday School children who were out for a picnic after church. There was even a plan for the Japanese to blow up the Gatun Locks at the Panama Canal to delay the US arrival, but it was canceled. All new to us.

But my wife and I were in the same boat never having studied WWII in high school or college. And I have a minor in history. But ask me about Vasco Degama or Jamestown and I can enlighten.

We also learned that deer cannot tolerate eggs. So if they are eating in your vegetable or flower garden just beat some eggs and mix with the seeds and the deer will be repulsed. I suppose it would also work with tulip bulbs, which our daughter-in-law likes to plant next to the house, but the deer are so tame or have such a hankering for them, that they munch the pretty flowers anyhow.

A final thought due to the tour. But Tillemook cheese and if you can find it ice cream and fudge. Delicious.