The Perfect Wedding

The wedding could not have been better: the day dawned bright and cloudless, the preparations on the day ran smoothly (bar a little crying session from the Bouncing Baby), the traffic was minimal and everyone arrived at the registry office in plenty of time. The groom was immaculately turned out, as were the groomsmen who soothed his understandable nervousness; the bride positively glowing, looking beautiful in her empire-line pearl-trimmed dress, clutching a small bouquet of cream roses, purple lizzianthus twined with pearls and trailing ivy. Daughter #3 (a bridesmaid) stood tall in her pretty purple dress, with a posy that matched the bride's flowers. The Bright-Eyed Boy was smart in his co-ordinated mave-striped shirt and purple tie. Indeed, we were all smart - and happy. The ceremony was brief, as was the photography session, and then the wedding party made its way on foot through the Museum Gardens (pausing for more photos on the way) to the restaurant where the reception was being held. The champagne flowed freely, the food was delicious, the company excellent. The guests went their separate ways and later reunited in the newly-weds garden to continue celebrating with cake and more sparkly stuff until the sun went down. What a perfect day: may it be the first of many.

All Over Bar the Shopping

Nearly there.......the Bright Eyed Boy dons his shiny new uniform tomorrow and heads off to the start of his last year of primary education. Daughter #3 is making the most of the last few weekday morning sessions of rowing training before her return to school next Monday. The weather is distinctly on the turn now, the sun at a lower angle in the sky, the nights that bit longer, dawn that bit later.... I can get quite melancholic with the shortening of the days: I need a goodly amount of warm sunshine to keep me chipper. This year however I'm not going to get much time to brood as I start my full-time doctoral studies in less than a month's time! To tell the truth, I haven't given it a great deal of thought just recently - there was a flurry of admin to complete just before we went away (only a fortnight ago in reality), and since we arrived back I have been absorbed by general mucking-out, uniform buying, hospital duty (visiting Pa-in-law after his DIY tumble) and wedding hysteria. Daughter #2 is drumming her fingers waiting for her 'big day' to dawn. I haven't actually bought anything to wear to it yet, so that delight is for next week when I have a bit of peace and quiet - although it won't be either peaceful or quiet as the wedding excitement will have reached fever-pitch by then, and no doubt there'll be unforseen crises to attend to along the way. So you can see that anything academic has been severely backstaged. Looking at the blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis, I have to chuckle at the beard-stroking earnestness that allows some chaps (chapesses are conspicuous by their absence in certain circles: I guess they're 'surrendered' or what have you) to spend their summers reading tomes of epic proportions then critiquing them online. I wonder if anyone really cares.....
Although to a certain extent I am envious of those scholars who can devote swathes of time to their subjects, I am so glad that I have a life external to my studies. Real life - family life - tends to sort out the wheat from the chaff.