Wordless Wednesday
Month: September 2015
An Unusual Visitor
After dinner tonight, I let Forrest dog out for a run, and before too long she began barking. She barked, and barked, and barked, way down the back of the garden. And Forrest doesn’t bark for no reason. She may bark because she can’t find her ball and wants help finding it; and she’ll bark at the cats if they don’t want to play with her (which is usual!) and she’s a good watch-dog too, so will bark if someone knocks on the front door.
Forrest is Adam and Mary’s dog, but they had gone out for dinner tonight, so Ben, also thinking the amount of barking was rather excessive, took a torch down the back to see what the problem was. Ben worried that it could be a snake that had Forrest in such a tizzy!
The good news was that it wasn’t a snake. The not so good news was that Forrest had a poor, scared echidna baled up, under a tree!
Forrest didn’t harm the echidna at all, I hasten to add, and I’m sure all her ruckus was an attempt to get this new friend to play with her, but still….you hear stories…..
Sybil, my lovely blogging friend from Nova Scotia, told of an episode where Sooki, who looks very similar in appearance to our Forrest girl, baled up a porcupine, after which the photos of Sooki were not pretty! I had shown photos of Sooki to both Ben and Adam some time ago, complete with “quills” protruding from her face, and this was the first thought that Ben had tonight, as he remembered the Sooki incident.
Ben had a torch with him, and also his mobile phone, so armed with these two items, he managed a clear enough photo to show you the poor little chappy, trying to hide ~
I did a bit of a Google search and found some clearer photos, along with some information about these beautiful mammals, on the Australia Zoo website. Australia Zoo is only a couple of hours drive north of here, and the home of the Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin. Here is a link to the Short-Beaked Echidna page on the Australia Zoo website. I can only assume that our backyard visitor is a short-beaked echidna, as his “beak” was tightly tucked away from Forrest!
Another walk down the garden a short while later revealed no further sign of the Echidna, so we can only assume that he managed to find his way back out of the garden….based on the fact that he found his way in! Hopefully he has a good sense of direction.
Tomorrow when Forrest goes out into the garden, one of us will have to go with her, until we are satisfied that the Echidna has realised that ours isn’t going to be the quietest garden on the block to take up residence in.
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Before The Wedding.
During the week before the wedding of my son, Adam, and his beautiful bride-to-be, Mary, the house was a virtual hive of activity. And so was the garden. Each weekend, for a few months prior to the wedding, husband had spent every weekend, often with a team of helpers, dismantling and reconstructing a large retaining wall, and relaying the paved area at the back of our house.
The party hire crew were due to arrive on the Tuesday, so the pavers all had to be fully laid by that day. When the three adjoining marquees were constructed, suddenly the garden was transformed into a beautiful wedding venue.
This was all becoming very real!
I loved the folds of white fabric, with the fairy lights shining from behind, and the chandeliers lighting the “rooms” of the marquee. The venue would offer a very romantic atmosphere for the wedding, just the way we wanted it to be.
On Thursday afternoon, our dear friend Therese arrived. She is a marriage celebrant and has known Adam for his entire life, so there would be no other person more appropriate to marry these two young people. Most of the wedding party were available for a rehearsal, and Therese had everyone organised and in their places before too long.
Well, almost everyone was amicable to Therese’s organisation. Miss Forrest was just there for the hugs and pats!
And the bride, bridesmaids and maid-of-honour had spent a girls day together, which included lunch, shopping, manicure and fake tanning treatment. They all loved their nails. Champagne, anyone? 🙂
So, back to Therese having everyone organised ~ men to her left, women to her right, Mary and her step-dad in front, Adam awaiting instructions….
Young Bailey, the pageboy, had a very important role to play, and he took his responsibilities very seriously, listening intently to everything Therese told him that he had to do. He was as pleased as punch with himself!
Now girls, have we got everything right here? Who’s doing what? No, I do that! Oh, I thought she did….so what order do we stand in….?
Adam, hold Mary’s hands….here you will repeat after me…..how many words can you remember at a time….?
Got it? Got it…I’m sure you do, Adam! You do, don’t you? Of course you do!
Once the whole party had “got it”, it was time for more organising, with the big day only a few hours away.
But first, a photo of my three kids….don’t they all look happy? 😉 Get used to it kids, by the end of the wedding, your cheeks will hurt from smiling!
The wedding day arrives, and an old school friend of husbands, who is a very talented caterer, supplied us with the most beautiful cup cakes for the occasion.
Aren’t they pretty? She had quite a large range of decorating options available, but Mary liked the butterflies the best. Husband collected the boxes of cakes on the morning of the day, and each cake was then transferred into tiny individual cake boxes.
As a special “thank-you”, each guest would be receiving a cupcake and a jar of personalised candy.
Our lovely florist, Lindy, arranged flowers which matched the bouquets, in fish bowls along all of the tables.
Mary chose hessian runners for each table, which was also decoratively tied around each peach coloured candle.
The tables were all set by the busy bridesmaids, chairs covered and big bows attached.
Mary even found time to help Lindy decorate the arbour, with the most beautiful array of flowers. If you missed it before, go back and have a look at the stunning flowers Mary chose, and Lindy supplied for the wedding. They were absolutely superb. I called it A Floral Extravaganza, and it really was!
And where was I whilst all of this activity took place? Taking photos of it all, of course, although the last four photos here were taken by our lovely photographer on the day, Sally, as later in the day I could be found rushing from one of the house to the other and back again, tidying, dusting vacuuming, getting myself dolled up, after which I made sure that all of the boys were in perfect order for the ceremony.
I now have so many photos of the wedding, between those I took, Sally’s photos, and those taken by other people, so I can see there will be another three posts added here, at least, before I get through them all. 🙂
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Silent Sunday
Wordless Wednesday
In My World 