On my birthday, last month, Lin posted on her blog, The Beauty of Seasons.  It triggered an idea in my head about the seasons of beauty.  I hope you mothers can forgive this guy when I say, babies are not beautiful.  The only possible exceptions are my sons, my granddaughter and your children.

All youngsters are beautiful.  Each in their own way.

Some folks say that women hit their peak beauty in their teen years.  I don’t agree.  There was a teenage gal I met whose beauty stunned me and she had a charming personality that won me over–completely.

Sylvia said, “I’m almost 15 going on 16.”

It was the smile and those words that convinced me that I wanted to know her better.  For the next week, I couldn’t get Cynthia off my mind.  Then I found out her name was really Sylvia.  That’s an important thing to remember.

September 9, 1961

There is nothing more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day.  Have you ever noticed that?  It took me decades to come to the realization that the reason is an overflowing joy that comes from love.

Twenty-five years later

I thought she was a beauty in her teens.  That beauty was still in the bud.  It blossomed during her twenty’s and thirty’s.  Still stunning in her forty’s.

Can you believe at age 55?

I think even the bride was a bit jealous of Sylvia when we participated in this Puerto Rican wedding.  (Yes, the bride was beautiful.  All brides are beautiful.)  Sylvia’s beauty just kept growing.

The hair may be a lighter shade, but beauty doesn’t fade

An ancient king (Lemuel) wrote of the virtuous woman (Proverbs 31).

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
    She is more precious than rubies.
Her husband can trust her,
    and she will greatly enrich his life.

He must have known someone like Sylvia.  Today we celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary.

We talked about renewing the agreement at 50 years, but decided that our agreement was “until death do us part.”  That’s good enough for this earthly existence.

Happy anniversary my love, my life.

Vee, of Very Verla ♫ joie de vivre, lamented in a comment on Vanilla’s post that while she loved hollyhocks, she rarely saw them growing in people’s yards these days.  I replied that ours were no longer blooming or I would post a pic for her.  Sorry, Vee.  I was wrong.

Hidden from view from my office window I found these:

Well sheltered, these blossoms still persist

Sylvia planted two or three, but they are quickly taking over the area.  That’s okay we like these beauties.

Vee, did you ever make dolls from the blossoms?

Beauty surrounds us if we will but open our eyes to see.

The new TV has supports that are 36″ apart.  The stand is 26″ wide.  So the purchasing agent went to the home improvement store and bought a 6″ lazy Susan and a finished shelf.  Then she put me to work.

The lazy Susan is securely fastened to the stand.

It’s not quite as easy as it looks, but not very difficult either.

The completed project is “shelved.”

Set to go.  I finished our anniversary gift to each other on my birthday.

The recent and startling revelation that Hello Kitty is not a cat has triggered a wide range of responses.  Some said, “I knew it.”  Others, mostly young girls, broke down in tears.  Some of the more cynical reacted, “Who ever saw a third-grade girl with long whiskers and ears on top of her head?”

A spokesman for Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates in a brief statement issued a news release confirming that Snoopy is actually a beagle.

Curse you Red Baron!

He may have visions of grandeur, but what would you expect from a beagle?

It’s a rare day when I turn on the radio or TV to hear or watch the “news.”  All you’ll be told about is the bad stuff that happens.  Too much suffering and too much politics.  The important matters of life get little to no coverage.

In order to escape the looney left and the wacko right, I go online.  There, I can take my time to peruse the headlines.  If I blink or am distracted, nothing is missed.  Then it’s read only the stories of interest.  Should take about 30 seconds. :rolleyes:

Where else will you find the story of the 40th anniversary of “Hello Kitty?”  Sanrio (the company that “owns” Hello Kitty) has turned this into a marketing marvel.  It’s all so sweet and innocent.  If you think that H K is feline you are wrong.

Sanrio has told us more about her:

• She’s British.
• She is a Scorpio.
• She loves apple pie.
• She has a twin sister, and is a perpetual third-grader.
• Her actual name is Kitty White.

Sweet and innocent, right?

You can believe that as have others. :hkitty:

There is more to this story.  I wrote to you about this a couple of years ago.  You can read that story here.  (Please understand it’s meant as humor and is not factual.)

It has been a week since my last post.  A very busy week it has been.

There is no Wordless Wednesday post here today, but I’ll show you a couple of recent photos.

Saturday late afternoon

It’s not another spectacular sunset.  However the cloud formation turned the sky into magic.  (At least it seems that way to me.)

The scene is constantly shifting

A couple of minutes later, and the sky has changed.  That second photo makes me think I’m standing on a mountain looking down on a lake to the left.  Truth is I was standing on our front deck and that “lake” is just another cloud layer.

Life is like that some times.  What may seem obvious at the time, in hindsight becomes obviously wrong.  Has that ever happened to you?

This past week, Sylvia spent a lot of time in the garden.  Most of her time was spent tending to hail damage from the big storm.  She removed lots of leaves and stems from zucchini and cucumber plants.  Ditto for tomatoes, where she pruned many severely damaged branches.  Hail had stripped a multitude of tomatoes from the vines.

Saddest for us was the state of the rhubarb.  The leaves looked like lace doilies and the stalks were badly bruised in many places.  Sylvia trimmed away the damaged parts and it looks very healthy again.

Fortunately, the jalapeños suffered minimal damage.  We did test that last night with some yummy poppers for supper.  We also had some super-good coleslaw with fresh cabbage that didn’t end up in the [now fermenting] sauerkraut.

A head tucked underneath his arm . . . Two cabbages with combined weight of 16 lbs.

I can’t find words to describe how incredibly delicious Sylvia’s slaw was.  (I had two very large helpings. :food: )  Life is good! :woot:

How can a guy call himself a blogger and only post once in an entire week, and it was someone else’s video to boot.  That would be me, and the week was last week.

Oh yes, Sylvia returned home after ten days of vacation with her dad.  That was also after the flood.  She kept me busy for the first half of the week.  Arthur Ritis (aka arthritis) kept me hurting for the rest of that time.  We did get a lot done.

Monday, we met our Bryant, Barbara and Briana (aka the 3Bs) for a fun evening together.  We were celebrating Briana’s return from RN internship in Iowa, Sylvia’s return from vacation, an upcoming birthday and an upcoming anniversary.  We went to Chez Olga in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids.  The restaurant is small, but the food is fabulous.  That is if you like creole (Haitian) style cuisine.  I had the Curry goat with #3 heat (scale of 0 to 10).  I had been warned.  That was one of the finest dishes I’ve eaten in quite a while. :food:   Next time I’ll go for the #4 level.  (That will leave left overs that are too hot for Sylvia.  On second thought . . . no changes.)

Briana has her clinical assignment for this fall semester.  She’s assigned to the surgical oncology (fourth) floor of the Lacks Cancer Center.  I’m excited about that and so is she.  That’s where she visited me after my surgery last October.  (Nine months later and still cancer free.)

Here’s my small offering to help you get over the hump.  Enjoy.

I’ll add the usual caveat. Don’t try this at home.

Hope you are having a good week.

This past week has been very busy.  I had intended to put up a few more posts, but life got in the way.

Sylvia returned last evening after ten days with her father.  We (Sylvia, Nellie and I) were all glad to have her home once more.  Before she left, we had wrapped up this project.

The back side of the entry way

This was the final step in beautifying the garage and entry way (formerly called mudroom) and erecting barriers for burrowing critters.

This morning, Sylvia worked in the garden, cleaning up hail damage.  My project was to dispose of carpeting from the basement.  Mission accomplished.

Did you hear about the tragic fatality this weekend.  Here is the video.