Togetherness

After lunch on Sunday, we walked around the Notre Dame campus for a bit to take pix and Edward was his usual humorous-teasing self, something about asking Maria how she would rate the dome and could she make a spreadsheet of all the domes she has ever seen. Just like old times. Maria can handle it.






This was not even posed.


This painting was from Valladolid where Maria stayed when she went to Spain.

After the Storm

“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Georgia O'Keefe

Father's Day

We went to South Bend to see Edward at Notre Dame and ate at O'Rourke's Irish Pub.  It seemed fitting.




Edward & Maria had vegetarian boxties which are made with Irish potato pancakes.


It felt like a beautiful European day eating outside with our son who uses a fork and knife.

Flash Back Friday

Cape Cod, 1988

Love Thursday

John planted this perennial last year and we're not sure what it is, but we love it!

The Celebration So Far

We decided to plant a new peonies plant for our 25th anniversary yesterday.  We ceremoniously plopped it in a hole in the earth next to our light pink one.  This one is "red", more like a dark pink, and came with a blossom on it already.  The wonderful thing is, these flowers always bloom around or right before our anniversary.

Happy 25th Anniversary!

So every day
So every day 
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth 
of the ideas of God,
one of which was you.”
― Mary Oliver

It really has been 25 years!  I thought I would be old and silvery by now, but something about us together is keeping me young at heart.

Peonies, Again

Such


an


AMAZING


flower!

Flashback Friday

Edward & Maria with Grandma Bouman, April 1992

Love Thursday

I think of this poem every year at this time because it helps me enjoy these flowers before they are nothing forever.

Peonies

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
   to break my heart
     as the sun rises,
        as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open--
   pools of lace,
      white and pink--
       and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
    into the curls,
      craving the sweet sap,
        taking it away

to their dark, underground cities--
   and all day
      under the shifty wind,
       as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
   and tip their fragrance to the air,
     and rise,
       their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
    gladly and lightly,
      and there it is again--
        beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
    Do you love this world?
      Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
       Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
   and softly,
      and exclaiming of their dearness,
       fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
    their eagerness
      to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
        nothing, forever?  -Mary Oliver

Out in the Garden

Rose buds


Mallow


Violas


--- and just a few bleeding hearts this year.
“We don’t have to go far to find the treasure we are seeking. There is beauty and goodness right where we are. And only when we can see the beauty and goodness that are close by can we recognize beauty and goodness on our travels far and wide. There are trees and flowers to enjoy, paintings and sculptures to admire; most of all there are people who smile, play, and show kindness and gentleness. They are all around us, to be recognized as free gifts to receive in gratitude." -Henri Nouwen

Lying Down in Green Pastures

Color Burst

Flash Back Friday

Maria, 2010


Edward, 2008