Ruby Tuesday

Ralph posted photos of the Memorial Day Parade for Ruby Tuesday, but these are two that he didn't use!

I doubt he would have used this one that I took of him watching Sunday's parade go down Main Street. :-)

See many photos featuring a little or a lot of red at Mary T's Work of the Poet blog.

May we never forget their sacrifice

I wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day holiday today.

Shadow Shot Sunday

How lucky was I to see these shadows just as we pulled up at the restaurant where we went for dinner after our daughter's graduation? Pretty lucky!

You can see me in the side-view mirror. I didn't even realize I was capturing myself as well.

You will find lots of shadowy pix for Shadow Shot Sunday over at Hey Harriet, hosted by our awesome Aussie friend, Tracy!

Yard art ~ a friend's garden

On Wednesday morning I met a friend and we took a walk. Luckily I also took my camera along, because I gave her a ride home and ended up taking pictures in her backyard sanctuary. I sepia-fied one of the photos here.

Lots of flowers and yard decor!

See many more fun photos of Yard Art at Mary T's Work of the Poet blog.

Sepia scenes - a friend's garden

Took a walk today with a friend and visited her garden after we walked. I snapped lots of pix, and decided this one looked good in sepia.

Join the fun and see many more sepia scenes at Mary T's blog of the same name!

Floral fun

I bought this plant today. I like the yellows and oranges.

I keep having ideas for how to spruce up the yard. The problem is they all cost money.

So, should I just pull out the credit card? I'm thinking that's what I should do.

After all, we want our property to look nice. All the neighbors keeps theirs neat and tidy around here. Well, we do too, but I think we need more FLOWERS and yard art. More exterior decorating!

We must all "cultivate our garden" as good old Voltaire said way back in the 18th century. I tend to agree with him.

Ruby Tuesday ~ flags and flowers

These red flags are being carried in the recessional at our daughter's commencement ceremony last week at the University of Hartford. It was difficult to see the grads. There were so many people in the audience!

The weather was perfect, with plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

This is the University of Hartford flag flying next to the state of Connecticut flag on campus.

Some geraniums I spotted on campus. I immediately thought Ruby Tuesday when I saw them. ;-)

See many photos featuring a little or a lot of red at Mary T's Work of the Poet blog.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Our daughter Allegra graduated from the University of Hartford last Sunday. I already used this photo in one of my many posts this past week about her graduation, but Ralph's shadow was too good not to use for Shadow Shot Sunday, so here it is again.

~ After the festivities were over.

I snapped these photos as we were walking back to the parking lot. Allegra says she still can't believe she has a bachelor's degree, almost a week of decompressing later.

Now if she only had a job.

See many more shadow-filled photos at our awesome Aussie friend Tracy's Hey Harriet blog and join in the shadow shot fun.

Um, orb?

I was rather surprised, to put it mildly, when I put this photo taken after Sunday's commencement ceremonies on the computer and took a look.

Of all the photos we took that day it is the only one with an "orb" in it. Now I realize a lot of people don't think that orbs are spirits among us, coming by to say hi.

But it is interesting/fun to consider it, right Linda?

My immediate thought was that it was the spirit of one of Allegra's three late grandparents wanting to be a part of the celebration. It was a happy family event, after all!

Looking at the sky on Friday

I haven't participated in Tisha's fun meme for several weeks, and needed to return to see what kinds of sky photos people are capturing!

I snapped this through the windshield Sunday for Ralph (Airhead 55) as he was driving and thought I'd share.

It's straight out of the camera.

Yard art ~ aerial view

It's Libby!

Our favorite feline neighbor Libby may not be a lawn decoration, but she is posing between our goose and one of my many gnomes that are definitely yard art.

Libby lives across the street and often stops by to say 'hi.'

See lots more yard art photos at Mary T's Work of the Poet blog each Thursday.

Sepia scenes ~ bear with me

I took this picture in West Hartford, Ct. and was thinking of using it for Thursday's Yard Art meme. But it came out well in sepia, so here it is.

The bear was on the lawn in front of an art gallery where our blog friend Linda had a photograph on exhibit in April. Ralph and I went to the reception and you can read about our afternoon here.

This was the scene in front of me moments ago as I was writing this post. Somebody wants his supper. He is making little squeaky noises at me.

See many more sepiafied photos at Mary T's Sepia Scenes.

Our son works at graduation

Cameron, Kid Two, worked the technical stuff at his sister's commencement ceremony Sunday. The main ceremony was streamed live on the Internet, and Cam was an integral part of that coming together.

He will be a junior at the University of Hartford in the fall and we are as proud of him as we are of Allegra! Here he is onstage with a variety of dignitaries.

On the right is Jennifer Rizzotti, the university's women's basketball team coach, who was selected as the commencement speaker. She joked that she realized it was unusual for a sports coach to be tapped as commencement speaker.

But not to worry. She was a perfect choice, and had a great message for the grads!

Rizzotti is such a wonderful role model for young women. She was a star player on the University of Connecticut's first national championship women's basketball team in '95 and has coached at the University of Hartford for 11 seasons. I can tell just by watching her interact with students that she truly cares about them.

Allegra loves her. She saw her in action with the basketball team as the pep band that Allegra was part of traveled for tournaments to places like Louisiana, upstate New York State, Baltimore and more.

Next to Jen Rizzotti is the Most Rev. Henry J. Mansell, Archbishop of the Hartford, who was one of the honorary degree recipients. Not sure about the others...

I think I am done posting about the graduation. But who knows?

Graduation Day 2010 ~ wrap up (I think)

I've been going on and on about our daughter Allegra's graduation, but I had a lot of photos so I decided to split them into several posts. So sue me. ;-)

This is Allegra with her friend, Scott, who received a master's degree in psychology on Sunday.

The cool thing about Scott is that he was the first University of Hartford student Allegra and I met when we visited the campus. He was a sophomore when he gave us a tour of the school, when Allegra was a senior in high school. He was (and is) funny and personable and she and I both liked him immediately.

When she started there as a freshman they became friends, and have been friends ever since.

And he now has a master's degree! Way to go, Scott!

He is going to be a school psychologist, and has an internship lined up at a high school near where we live, coincidentally enough.

Sunday was a long day, but a good one. That is, until something really strange came upon yours truly, as I was sitting with my family having a celebration dinner.

Maybe God was punishing me for ordering a mixed drink. Maybe Patti the Good is not supposed to order mixed drinks. (I usually will just get a glass of wine with dinner.)

But I wanted to toast our daughter in style, so she and I both ordered a Cosmopolitan, something we had never had. It was made with cranberry juice and was delicious.

While we were eating and I was sitting there minding my own business, I got a shooting pain in my left ankle bone. It was horrible. I never had anything like that happen before.

I couldn't get comfortable. Even sharing tiramisu with Ralph didn't help. It hurt. I had to go out to the car and relax, but I could barely walk out of the restaurant. Putting weight on my foot was painful.

When we got home I immediately laid down and elevated my foot. I decided to take a pain reliever; I did and promptly fell asleep. Two hours later I was fine and it didn't hurt any more.

What happened? I haven't a clue.

My only thought is that I walked a long distance in sandals (although they are almost flat heels) and I pulled something. I should have just gone barefoot, I guess. Here you can see that Ralph and Cameron were a bit ahead of me. By that point I had given up trying to keep up!

Ruby Tuesday ~ graduation reds

We is proud! Our daughter Allegra graduated cum laude Sunday from the University of Hartford. Woo hoo!

You can read about it here, and here. ;-)

We took lots of photos, and I'm going to write one more post about it.

Here she is with her dad the day before graduation at a reception. Notice red balloons in background.

I spotted this floral decoration planted in front of the stage for the festivities ~ the school's colors are red and white.

And this pansy planting has some red in it as well.

And of course the program.

See many more pix featuring a little or a lot of red at Mary T's Work of the Poet.

Graduation Day 2010 ~ Part Deux

I am continuing my reportage, as it were, on Sunday's commencement at the University of Hartford.

Here's our dapper Ralph trying to determine the whereabouts of Allegra, before the morning festivities got under way.

And this is when he found her and they were chatting...

Not only were Allegra and Ralph seeing eye to eye on graduation day, they were also seeing foot to foot. (Actually that makes no sense. The picture was just an attempt on my part to be artsy).

Allegra sure was animated. She's usually quite quiet.This is similar, but not exactly the same, as a photo in the previous post.

And now it's afternoon, outside the sports center ~ Reich Family Pavilion, to be precise. The College of Arts and Sciences, which has the most students, held its ceremony inside the gym. That's when the students received their diplomas. It was a rather loud gathering!

I have more, but that's for another day.

We've got us a cum laude graduit! (sequel to Friday's post)

Proud. Sad. Tired. Sunburned ... but mostly, Proud. I am trying to put into words what yesterday was like for me, and for Ralph.

We watched Kid One, Allegra, graduate from the University of Hartford. I'll write more than one post, because we have lots of pictures that I am sorting through ~ and I'm also trying to recuperate today. Please stay tuned!

We didn't know Allegra would be a cum laude graduate, but we sure are happy it says that on her diploma.

Daddy and daughter before the main ceremony ~ before we all got tired, and hungry, and sunburned! It was perfectly glorious weather. We couldn't have asked for better.

And here are the three of us. One of the security folks offered to take a photo.

Cameron, Kid Two, was asked to work at the commencement. He ended up on stage, in the background, working on the logistics of having the ceremony stream live on the Internet. Allegra has a photo of him working onstage, but it's on her camera, and she's asleep so it will have to wait.

Ralph took this as I was off looking for my mother and our close friend so that we could sit together...I found them and brought them over to our seats.

We all got equal amounts of sunburn on our faces, because we were in the direct sun for about two hours. It suddenly felt like summer here in Connecticut.

Well that's it for now...need to take a break from the computer!

Shadow Shot Sunday

It was such a beautiful morning Monday that I was able to snap some shadow shots while doing this story about a flagpole (see top photo) local veterans had installed in the Olde Derby Uptown Burial Ground in Derby, Ct. to honor veterans from centuries ago.

The veterans' groups place American flags on the graves of veterans throughout the area every Memorial Day weekend, but the problem is many of these centuries-old gravestones are illegible, and so it is unclear whether the person was a veteran or not.

The flagpole was placed there to honor all veterans interred at the site.

If you click on the link you'll see the headline on my story on the Web site is missing a letter - it should say "all" not "ll." I didn't do it!

This beautiful historic cemetery, situated on a sloping hill near the Naugatuck River, is said to be the oldest public cemetery in the United States.

See many more Shadow Shots at our awesome Aussie friend Tracy's blog, Hey Harriet.