Joanne

Today’s learning session on Blogging 201 is “headers”, and as I’m very happy with my current header, I will be leaving it as-is for now. Day 2 of Writing 101 requires students to write a list….

Well, I’ve been writing lists constantly this year, most recently for the wedding of my handsome son Adam, and his beautiful bride Mary, so I don’t think I need any more practice in that department! So, what better day than this to show off a few more wedding photos. 🙂

You may remember in my last series of photos, the wedding rehearsal had taken place the day before the wedding, tables were set, chairs for the guests all fancied up, wedding favours prepared and in position, flowers arranged, and Mary was almost ready for her grand entrance.

Just a little bit of help was needed with Mary’s stunning wedding dress though, so Emma did a wonderful impersonation of a woman from the 1800’s, looping the length of thin fabric through the loops at the back of the dress and pulling it tightly together.

Mary chose a dainty headpiece of Baby’s Breath to decorate her hair, so once that was in place, she was all set.

What a picture Mary looked! She was so beautiful, she is beautiful, and she positively glowed on her wedding day.

Meanwhile, in another room at the front of the house (where the bride and groom wouldn’t accidentally bump into each other!) the boys managed to scrub themselves up quite reasonably as well.

On the very last minute, I remembered (thank goodness!) the single roses that needed to be added to the boys lapels. Each button-hole was sewn closed, of course, so out came my glasses and quick-unpick. I could never have imagined how tedious it would be, slitting open a button-hole, just minutes before the wedding ~~ I was all fingers and thumbs!

Mary’s gorgeous little flower girl, Koa, looked pretty fabulous as well.

One last shot of the girls and page-boy Bailey, before the wedding began. So much work had gone into this moment, when everything had been prepared, every detail put into place, and the bridal party, both the men and the women, were all finally ready for the event of the year.

Just one more photo of Mary though, I couldn’t have been more proud of my soon-to-be daughter-in-law if she were my own daughter. ❤

And speaking of being a proud mother, here are my two sons, Adam the groom and his best man and brother, my eldest son, Ben.

The wedding ceremony began with page-boy Bailey directing his little cousin, flower-girl Koa, out the door and along the aisle, where Adam patiently awaited the appearance of the girls.

I can honestly say though, the only girl Adam saw was Mary, the love of his life, who was about to become his wife.

I’m getting goose-bumps just remembering the day, showing the photos, writing about the events and the people who made the day one of the most wonderful days ever, and a day we will all remember with love in our hearts forever.

My next series of wedding photos will be of the ceremony. 🙂

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“A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” – Roald Dahl

The month of November in the blogging world each year brings forth challenges, writing challenges to be specific, usually in the form of something along the lines of NaNoWriMo, which I joined once, way back in my early days of blogging. It gave me confidence, I met other novice bloggers (and some not so novice!) and learnt some about the World of Blogging.

A few days ago I signed up for a month of daily November learning sessions, offered by WordPress ~ Blogging 201, which I am hoping will help me to understand the technical side of WordPress blogging more fully, ie ~ how to make all of those little widgets and gadgets work in my dashboard area, and Writing 101, to encourage me to write each day, a practice of which I have been extremely tardy of late!

The task today in Blogging 201 is to discover a new feature that you never realised you had, connected to the theme chosen for your blog. That was an easy task, as I had been wondering if my theme, Twenty Ten, offered a drop down box option option below the header. It does, and I have combined my other websites into a drop down option, when the computer mouse is hovered over where it says “about” ~ give it a go, it works, and takes away some of the clutter at the top of my page! I have something else in mind to add there, a new idea though, which will need a bit more thought before I take action.

Today’s task for Writing 101 is the purpose for today’s post, in which students are asked to tell why they write. It will be interesting to read how others have answered this question (or completed the sentence, whichever way you wish to look at it) as for me, it’s a moot point ~ I have always written something, poems, letters, cards, fiction and non-fiction. I need paper, pens, pencils and books to keep my world spinning, and the world of the computer, and the internet, simply enhance my literary world. Why? I don’t know. Writing, words, are a part of who I am. Whether the words I write, when strung together in sentence form, are regarded as good, bad or otherwise is of no consequence. And as long as my sentences continue to make some sense, I will continue to write.

This November challenge arrived at just the right time for me. I remembered something recently, a forgotten dream, from over twenty years ago. When we lived in Sydney, with two young children and another on the way, planning to build our dream home “up north”, I saw my future home as one in which I would relax my soul and find a snippet of quiet time in every day. I had, and still have, a beautiful desk at which to write, and I dreamed of sitting at my wonderful desk and writing down all of the words I had wished to write during recent years, when my children were young and taking up all of the time in my days, and my writing was limited to the occasional letter.

My desk is still waiting for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have spent countless hours sitting with head down and pen in hand at my desk, writing business letters, or adding numbers into columns for the tax man. I’ve written out cards for various occasions, notes to school teachers, checked homework, even written out cheques back in the old days, and in more recent years these tasks have been promoted to another larger desk, complete with computer, printer, scanner….when all I really wanted was my simple desk, a pen and some paper on which to write the words told to me by the voice inside my heart.

So, I write because….I can, and in the hope that my words may hold some meaning to another soul who finds my words and reads them.

I write because….it is often easier to write than to speak. Forming written words clears my busy brain and has even answered questions to problems which I have imagined were insurmountable.

I write because….there may be something that I say that will be significant to a future generation, which is why I write down the information I have discovered, and the stories I have remembered, from past generations.

I write because I love to write. I write from my heart, I know of no other way. And I will continue to write.