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| Today is the first of May, the start of the tenth month of my 366-day photography project. I am finally into the fourth season since the project began. In a few weeks, I will visit Buckhorn Island State Park to take pictures of spring in the wildlife sanctuary. Below are the images of this past week. |
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| The main flowers that I see at this time of year are daffodils and hyacinths. Tulips are blooming, too. Where I live, there are fewer tulips and more daffodils, due to the deer population. Deer consider tulips to be a real taste treat, but they don’t like daffodils. So we grow lots of daffodils here because they aren’t going to become the main course for a deer banquet. |
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| On Sunday, April 24th, there were two children baptized at Saint Martin in the Fields Church. The children were a small boy and his infant sister. Here, Father Earle is holding the little girl, who is just five days old. She slept through the baptism. Her brother, on the other hand, was fascinated by everything, especially the water. |
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| In the afternoon, I went with Mary Stewart to the Grapevine restaurant to celebrate our friends’ wedding anniversary. Jean and Paul Leiner have been married for fifty years, and friends and family gathered to celebrate the anniversary of their big day. |
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| The Grapevine restaurant has a number of aquariums, with large fish swimming in them. It was quite a sight. |
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| This is Paul. He’s a librarian, and he describes himself as being “semi-retired.” |
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| This is Jean. She is a retired English teacher. She enjoys jewelry making, cooking, baking, and reading. She is quite a voracious reader, and likes a wide variety of authors and genres. |
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| Here is Paul and Jean, with their daughter, Betsy. Paul and Jean’s son is Paul. |
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| This is Jean and Mary Stewart, who is a photographer. During the party, she photographed every single person there as a gift for Paul and Jean. There was, however, one person whom she did not photograph. So I took a picture of Mary, with her friend, Jean. |
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| This is the cake that was specially made by a family member for the celebration. |
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| This is the lovely swirly pattern of the frosting. |
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| This is Paul and Jean’s four-year-old great grandson, Jonathan. He let me know that he had a change in name that his new name was “Gecko.” So I called him “Mr. Gecko.” He said, “Just call me Gecko.” “OK, Gecko,” I said. |
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| Table decorations add ambience to the scene. |
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| This is one of two special gifts from Paul and Betsy to their parents. |
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| This is a closeup of the anniversary plate. |
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| Memento of the day. |
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| On Monday, I was having fun with the camera settings. I placed a glass in the dishwasher and took the same picture with different settings. Below are all of the images of the same glass in the dishwasher. |
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| This one is called “watercolor,” which is odd because it is so pale. I think that my watercolor paintings are more vibrant than this!!! |
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| Mmmm, raspberries!!! |
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| For my A to Z blogging challenge, I took pictures of these lovely spoons. I needed pictures of spoons for the “utensils” post. |
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| Scrambled eggs, with onions and cheese. |
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| On Tuesday, I went to the band concert at Huth Road Elementary School to take pictures for the PTA. The concert was very enjoyable. Two bands performed. They were the fourth and fifth grade beginning band, and the fourth and fifth grade concert band. Also, seven students, who auditioned for and who were accepted into the all-county band, performed as small groups. |
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| Here are some of the students, their teacher, and their student teacher, who came back from his second student teaching placement to conduct the students in one of their songs. |
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| On Wednesday morning, I went to visit my dentist, Dr. D’Arrigo. He loves photography as much as I do. The waiting room to his office is filled with photographs that he has taken in a variety of places. This is a very healthy amaryllis in the dentist’s waiting room. |
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| This is a closer view of this magnificent plant. |
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| On Wednesday evening, I went to Kaegebein Elementary School to take pictures of the school’s spring choral concert for the Island Dispatch. The garden outside of the school looked very lively. |
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| Several choral groups performed at the concert. They were the Third Grand Choir, the Fourth and Fifth Grade Concert Choir, and the Show Choir. |
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| Renee Michki is the Kaegebein music teacher who directs the third grade choir and the show choir. |
This is Christine Clendening. She teaches music to kindergarteners and first graders at Sidway Elementary School. After school, she goes to Kaegebein once a week to direct the fourth and fifth grade choir. She invited the first graders in the audience to come and sing one of the songs that they are also learning for their upcoming concert.
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| This is Carolyn Laskey and her family. Carolyn wrote a song called “My Grand Island.” That was one of the songs performed at the concert. |
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| Some people see dandelions as weeds and others see them as little pieces of sunshine in the ground. Still others see them as very nutritious and worthy of being cooked. They are a little too bitter for me but I think that sauteeing them with other ingredients may take some of the bite out of the dandelion greens. |
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| I took this picture mostly for my Y is for Yellow blog post… lemons, lemon juice, and a yellow knife. |
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| Ground cover is starting to come back. |
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| Here are some lovely tulips that I spotted in a garden in Lockport. |
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| Flowering trees and shrubs, truly the joy of spring. |
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| Here are some more tulips from the same garden.
Next week: Bishop William Franklin visits Saint Martin in the Fields Church, painting at Stella Niagara, and more. |
Oh, those are stunning flower pics!! I loved them! And I think it's neat that there is so much life in your week. My days have a lot of rinse and repeat in terms of what we do. My mind is busy, but my body does the same things each day, for the most part. 🙂
What a fun mix of photos. I'm always amazed that some couples stay together for 50+ years. Of all the photos, though, one caught my interest most…yep, that heavenly looking cake.
Be well, Alice.
Spring is such a beautiful time for a 50th wedding anniversary celebration. I laughed about the photographer not getting her picture taken. That happens to me all the time and I will thank you for stepping in. In fact, at the last birthday party I attended I just sat back and didn't take any family pictures – and the world didn't end. Enjoyed your flower pictures. Finally spring in upstate New York!