Flowers for the Bride

We had both been gifted with fine presents earlier this year that were, at least in part, considered to be anniversary gifts. Sue had received an iWatch and I a new lens, so, no further gifts were either required or expected.

But I had to do something on the day and determined that flowers would be it.

But how and what exactly?

I thought of  traditional red roses. A dozen would be nice, but I wanted to tie it in with 50 somehow. Five dozen, one dozen for each decade, would have been quite something, or even just 50 roses, 1 for each year. But that would have been terribly extravagant, costing hundreds of dollars, for something very ephemeral.

I also thought of just 6 roses, 1 for each decade and 1 more for the future, but that seemed perhaps too paltry an offering for 5 decades.

What about 45 white carnations with 5 red roses? Very pricey and maybe not the best idea.

It was the lady at the florist shop who mentioned that some people fashion a bouquet similar to the original bridal bouquet. Sue's bouquet had been primarily pink and yellow roses. I found this photo along with the full bridal photo that I posted on my Golden post on Friday.

I sent Shauna pictures and asked her to take them in to the floral shop to see what they could do. I love the result.

Knowing what was coming, I had made a card with the floral theme but didn't present it until the flowers were delivered. The front has fifty roses: a combination of pink, yellow and white. So, she got her 50 flowers in some measure.

I carried over the theme, at least to some degree, on the inside of the card.

Anniversary Morning

What with my somewhat infirm, post-op condition, we didn't plan much for our milestone 50th anniversary. It was actually Shauna who stepped in to make it more special.

We woke up on Friday morning to a commemorative festooning of the front yard.

The view form the front door: pinwheels here and there.

A few other shots.

Over the garage door.

Hanging from the tree.

It was such a pleasant surprise.

Golden

Time does fly, and today we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our marriage. Crazy, eh?

When I perused old photos, I realized that I had scanned them and done some retouching 5 years ago for our 45th. I posted some of them here in my Our Forty-fifth post.

Now, five years later, I decided to adjust some of them just a little more, mostly by adding contrast although I had done some of this to somewhat faded photos 5 years ago.

First, I will show you the 2 that I adjusted the most.

Here are a few others that I did a bit with.

Sue and her bridesmaids: her two sisters on th left and Val on the right. Val is deceased.

With our parents: all passed, of course.

Sue and her family. Her brother also passed on a few years ago.

I don't think I did anything more to these two, but I think they must be included. They are 2 versions of the same photo.

A Bit of Sunset

With mom at a meeting, we had the kids for supper, The Voice, and a game of Sorry last evening. When it was time to drive them home, there was a very subtle but interesting sunset, so I asked Sue to drive by the park. It was almost gone by the time we got there, but a little of it lingered.

We stopped the car and both kids hopped out and headed toward the river. I only had my phone (drat it), but I captured this one of JJ running toward the sunset from my safe and dry position near the road. He's shadowy and towards the middle of the frame.

I shifted my position slightly and took two more shots. In this first one, I wanted to get the sun coming through that interesting tree.

This was more of an attempt to frame the sunset between two foreground trees but also two more distant ones.

The Preening

Back to the goldfinch, this time focusing on the pretty preening.

Meanwhile, our resident chipmunk was scurrying about. It moves quickly, but I manages to squeeze a photo.

Visitation

Sue called me down to the patio door with some urgency: "Bring you camera. There's a goldfinch."

I grabbed the one closest to hand that was suitable for the task and headed down.

Indeed, there was a goldfinch in the lilac bush (which thankfully isn't sense with foliage yet), and he wasn't in a hurry to fly off. perhaps he had just been in the bath, for he kept very busy preening. Unfortunately, he had his back to me.

I was ready to put the camera down when he finally turned around.

Of course, even with my longest lens, there was much cropping required.

But it was nice to have a photo op show up in my own backyard when I haven't been in a position to go out to seek photo ops. Our townhouse backyard is squidgy, and, with a busy road behind, not exactly a mecca for our avian friends, so this visit was greatly appreciated.

He came back today along with his lady friend, but there was no real chance for another photo, and if there had been, it simply would have been more of the same.

Happy Mother's Day

This was my silly card to Sue, or at least the inside was silly — but fun, I trust.

And . . . Happy Mother's Day to all to whom the wish applies.