Cleans up rather nice...

The Husband...disguised as a distinguished Southern gentleman. 

And they were SO HAPPY!

My new sister looks like a princess, doesn't she? 

San Francisco

...before rain. Before the sun came out gloriously on the day of Jim & Maddie's wedding. 

Two more

The pink one is Russelliana, the red one is Granny Grimmets. They are even larger now, about a week after I took the photos, and the former really started growing all over the place. 

Another Old Rose, Souvenir de la Malmaison

Very pink, double and cupped flowers, intense fragrance...it stays low and just keeps blooming. 

Gardenblogging!

This is one of my climbing Old Roses that kind of exploded this Spring, and looks like it will continue in this vein. Very fragrant and pretty, almost white pale pink flowers. 

Habent Papam.

Prayers are in order.

It was eerie watching St. Peter's Square, especially as a medievalist...the whole procedure with the celebrating crowd, the waving pope-elect, the screams, the flashing lights...it weas almostlike a rock concert. As a Catholic co-worker with whom I was watching Foxnews's coverage has remarked: "And look, they put up his stats there, just like a baseball card!"

Hard to tell

So: I finally break down and subscribe to photoblogging apparatus so I can dazzle my Dear Readers with the brilliant images from our trips made and yet to come, on possible cute cat images, pictures from the garden that is blooming so wonderfully now...and then what? No one is interested?
::sniff,sniff::

Well, at least I have it for eternity now: for my glory or shame. It is my blog. With pictures I chose and I put up, with posts I could sneak in in my copious free time :-)it's a blueprint of (kinda) who I am and who I will be as I move down on this road of life. I am reasonably sure I will look back a year from now (just like I look back now to entries a year ago) with disbelief...but I think that this little corner of the Web actually has helped me to become who I am today, and will continue to be the repository of various ramblings, musings, cries for help, quiet laughter, eager questions, angry rants and pretty pictures...just like our soul is.

Even if no one else reads it, or agrees with it.

Yet More Trip Highlights

The Husband and Bob has climbed to the top of the hill by Devil's Lake while Kristi and I took the lower path around, admired the inviting armchair-tree and discovered some snow still lurking in the shadow. They took this picture of the lake from the top; rather stunning, and makes me feel really sorry that due to painful knees we missed the view. 

Photoblogging!

In case you haven't noticed yet, Dear Reader, I am photoblogging our weekend trip to Wisconsin, parallel with The Husband's blog. This thing is addictive, sharing your pictures and memories...off to select some more...:-)

More Weekend Trip Highlights

Me on a horse, slightly nervous. Whee! Kristi is such a great teacher...and Loki, her horse is wonderfully patient. Horses are such perfect mix of power and grace, one can never have enough of them--unlike poor me, who got her allergies up from sawdust (guess who did not pack her Allegra for the weekend?) Now, of course, we need to seek out a decent horseback-riding facility in our area, because both of us REALLY want to do this on a regular basis. 

Death by chocolate!

Ah, and the finishing touch for a perfect evening...chocolate covered fresh strawberries sitting on a bed of heavy whipped cream and a raspberry sauce. I weep just to remember. 

Food for thought

In a marvelous Castillian restaurant where Bob and Kristi, our hosts took us Friday night, this was the best scallops ever...Seared over wood fire, with a deceptively simple fire-roasted red pepper sauce. And this was just the tapa for a truly sumtuous meal; see Boxing Alcibiades' blog for the main entree. 

Weekend trip highlights I.

As inviting as this tree-chair was in Wisconsin this weekend, we did not sit in it. There were many cool things to see at Devil's Lake, which, despite the foreboding name, was very peaceful...the name actually is a mistranslation from the original Native name which was Spirit Lake. 

Speaking of which...

As a citizen of a former Communist country, I ask you to please read Peggy Noonan's article summing up the Pope's visit to Poland a long time ago, and please say a prayer for all those who lived under the heel of the Soviets and could never see that sunny day in 1979.

Is it just me...

or the fact that the late pontiff, John Paul II
gets his own (albeit partial) solar eclipse for his funeral day is kind of creepy? After all, this is the man about whose job my family often says: 'he believes that the whole universe is a conspiracy--in his favor'...
The link above has the details for where the eclipse is most visible--it's on the Southern hemisphere, where during JPS's papacy the Catholic Church has flourished so much. Old Europe'd better watch...