ABC Wednesday: "M" is for...

Well, naturally --

MOTHER!!!

And today, it's even more definitely for Mother, Mom, Mamma, Mommie because today would have been my mother's 91st birthday. I miss her so much, and this is one of my favorite photos of her. She was probably about twenty (or maybe younger) in this one, and the photographer must have said something really funny to inspire that grin -- generally, she hated having her picture taken.

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Blue Monday: Springtime Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I've really been neglecting this blog again. No posts in March, and this is the first one in April. Not very happy about that, but STUFF just keeps getting in the way of my blogging. And I've been concentrating on my book blog lately, so Joysweb has had to take a back seat.

But spring is here, and I'm feeling a little surge of blogging energy. And we're having a really spectacular spring around here -- abundant blooms everywhere, and lots of unusually warm sunny days. Soon our condo community's outdoor swimming pool will be open for business, and I always think of that as sort of the unofficial beginning of summer. Last week on one of our walks around the place, M and I stopped off and checked out the pool area and I took a few shots of the pool and the gazebos above it (used for outdoor parties when the pools are open).

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Not the best of photos -- I'm still learning how to use a new camera. But I loved the two different shades of blue in the pool and sky. Now if it would just stay like this until next fall, I'd be absolutely content.

Blue Monday: Fire!

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

A couple of months ago, we had a fire in our building, in the condo right above ours. Fortunately, no one was injured, although that upstairs apartment was pretty heavily damaged by smoke and the water used to put the fire out (our place escaped without any real damage, also fortunately). Everyone had to evacuate the building for several hours while the fire department did their job, and during the wait, I took some photos with my cell phone camera. Hadn't really even looked at the photos since then until this weekend -- and when I did, I was surprised by how well they came out, given that it all happened after dark. These are a few of the shots, and I'm amazed at how blue the sky looks in all of them -- in reality, it was pitch black. I guess my flash is more powerful than I realized.

Saturday Snapshot: Mom and Dad

I wrote this post several years ago for my family history blog, which I've mostly neglected ever since. But as the anniversary date has rolled around again, I figured I'd recycle it for Saturday Snapshot.

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This would have been my parents' 70th wedding anniversary. I wanted to put up a photo in honor of the day, so I went searching through my albums. I knew I wouldn't find a wedding photo because there weren't any. My mom and dad were married in 1942, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and just before my father enlisted in the Navy. It was a sudden decision, with the ceremony performed at the county courthouse – no fancy trappings or guests. And no commemorative photos.

But just finding a photograph of the two of them together was a challenge. Neither of them really liked having their picture taken, so they rarely sat for professional photographers. This shot is one of the earliest I found – taken in 1939 when they were high school sweethearts. They "went together" for a number of years before he popped the question. According to my mom's version of the romantic tale, he told her if she'd just get a job they could get married!

Well, she never got that job – her only ambition was to be a housewife and mother. And it took the uncertainty of a World War to push my father into action. They were happily married for fifteen years – until he died of heart failure a few months before his 37th birthday. My mother outlived him by forty-four years, and never remarried.

Yes, he was very tall – unfortunately, his height is something I didn't inherit. And although in this photo my mother looks like she's dressed herself from Salvation Army bins, she ordinarily had a much sharper fashion sense!

I miss them both.

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Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."