A Day Out with Mum and Garden
I've had a nice weekend. On Saturday night my husband and I went to a Quiz Night - the first in about 7 years. We helped the table to second place! Now, if they'd listened to me and written down the time it takes for the sun's light to get to Earth as 8-9 minutes (instead of the mathematician at the table who, after complex calculations insisted it would take 0.5 seconds) and one or two other questions, we might have won! Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun.
Today we took my Mum to a School Fete to celebrate the Centenary of the primary school that she attended between 1920-1926. We had paid for a brick to be inscribed with her name and the years she had attended. My brother also had a brick inscribed - he'd spent one year at the school before moving away from the area. They were set in the brick-paving in the school yard along with dozens of others similarly inscribed.
Amazingly, some elderly ladies came up and spoke to her. When she was told their names, she remembered them (she has dementia). One lady, who was about 85 years old, had lived across the road from her when they were children. Mum had a lovely time. One of her brothers, another sister-in-law and some of my cousins were also there. I even saw one of my old friends, who I hadn't seen for a couple of years (she was one of my bridesmaids). It was great to catch up with her.
Finally, after we got home, both of our sons called in unexpectedly. It rounded off a great weekend.
I've been playing with my camera, and finally worked out how to use the macro feature! I think they could have been a little clearer, so I'll have to practise a bit more. Here are a few pictures I took this weekend. The originals were very large and detailed, but having to reduce them to fit on the page has diminished the effect.
This is a lavender flower (a species of French lavender)
An unfurling fern frond (the fern is in the shade and the flash was a bit bright).
Another bottlebrush-type flower. This flower is difficult to see - it hides inside the shrub, so you have to pull the branches aside to see them.
These are flower buds on our grape vine. Within the next week or so, they will begin to bloom. They're usually out on or around my birthday. Several years ago our neighbour commented on the perfume of grape flowers. I looked at her, puzzled. I'd grown up on a vineyard and I had no idea what she was talking about! Anyway, when the vine began to flower I bent to smell them. I was instantly transported back to the birthdays of my childhood! I'd lived among flowering vines for twenty two years and had never consciously been aware of the perfume that had permeated the environment in late Spring! By the way, it's a beautiful, delicately sweet perfume, very different from other flowers. The grape variety I have is a Muscat, which produces beautiful eating grapes.
