19 July, 2015                    Born at the right time

Today’s Evie’s birthday! And Evie loves gladiolas! And a gladiola blooms in our backyard in mid-July – she was born at the right time! I cannot tell a lie – I got the title of this blog post from the title of a song by Paul Simon. I strongly recommend you listen to it here: Born at the right time

Here’s the biggest surprise for Evie’s birthday: 

Evie, Jackie and me – The Tavern – our first meal together!

Evie’s sister Jackie appeared as if by magic at our front door Friday evening! Best surprise ever! The magic was performed by our gracious neighbor Lee who picked  her up at the train station and delivered her to our door. I was so happy I didn’t have to keep that secret any more!

I’m taking precious time off from our visit (and rudely typing while we visit our friend Ariel) so let me put together a few pictures and rejoin the fun.

This is the gladiola from our yard the first time it bloomed this summer. I took this picture a week ago today:

Gladiolas from the backyard to the windowsill in our kitchen:

And here – I cannot even believe this timing – is an infant gladiola. I’m not even kidding – I snapped this picture at 4:17 this afternoon – on Evie’s birthday – it’s being Born at the Right Time! It’s just perfect!: 

This gladiola’s just like Evie – born at the right time!

The Birthday Girl and Jackie and Mackey and Turner and I picked up our friend Yuki and headed (predictably) for Pony Pasture. Where we (also predictably) had a fantastic hike. We took a little selfie-break around halfway. Here’s me, Jackie, Evie, and Turner (brown), Mackey (black) and Yuki (white) with the mighty James River in the background:  

Birthday Pony Pasture dog hike

Evie had already picked out Perly’s for Saturday night – I just had to make reservations for three while she was out of earshot! Since we’d made reservations they gave us a choice table: 

Me, Evie and Jackie at Perly’s – in the best seat! 

We did a lot of walking after that – besides being delicious, Perly’s meals are huge. First we went down to the Virginia War Memorial overlooking the river. Here’s the two sisters walking down the hill: 

My two favorite sisters who are not related to me:

Here’s a picture of the  War Memorial itself:

Our beautiful War Memorial

We still had a little bit (a tiny bit) of daylight left so we went down the hill and across the foot bridge to Belle Isle. Daylight was fading fast and we were walking fast but I squeezed off one quick view downriver; that’s downtown Richmond on the left: 

Looking east (downstream) on the mighty James River; that’s downtown Richmond on the left

Ariel had us over for a relaxing breakfast this morning (see above) and the girls went for a swim while I typed. And Mackey and Turner and Yuki sat in a semi-circle at my feet, hoping in vain for another hike. But not today – still too much to do! I’m about to sign off – but I have a few pictures to include first. 

The clouds when we were walking downtown yesterday evening were glorious:

Beautiful birthday-eve sky

I saw the hawks twice at the beginning of the week but they’ve been out of sight since Tuesday. This is one of the  last pictures I took – maybe the mockingbirds finally chased them off!: 

I don’t know how those mockingbirds ever eat, they spend so much time harassing the hawks.

And I’ll close with not one but two pictures from our final wonderful meal of The Birthday Weekend. Evie’s choice for tonight could not have been any better – we went to Can Can in Carytown. First me with my two favorite sisters who I did not grow up with:

These two make any picture look great!

And finally me with the birthday girl! Have a great week!

Yay! Happy Birthday! We were both Born at the Right Time!