Wedding Crasher or Proxy?

Banek wedding

Today I attended a wedding of people I had never met before. Strange, huh? I'm not really that desperate to attend weddings, but this was a nice one. I attended this wedding as the proxy of Ma Hoyt who asked me to stand in for her and Loren at their nephew's wedding since I live in Dallas, where the wedding was held, and they live in Iowa. Many of the folks at this lovely wedding were relatives from her husband's side. The family resemblance was striking between Loren and his younger brother Mark. I marched right up to Mark and said, "You must be a Hoyt."

I couldn't really put captions on these photos since I forgot all their names as soon as I met them. But I will say that I very much enjoyed meeting these folks and they were very welcoming. Aunt Elizabeth was a sweetie, I could tell. And Ardith, your cousin Bethany said, "Oh, yeah, do I know Ardith." I was especially struck by the words of the maid of honor, "Don't feel like you're crashing a wedding. It is always good to have someone from the body of Christ witness a holy marriage."

Scarlet Flax

At Ma's encouragement, here is yet another wildflower photo. These were planted all around the propane tank, where we had sunflowers last year. Actually, I think there are two sunflowers coming up on their own in the midst of the scarlet flax.

In other news, the neighbors have gotten two new dogs, named Boomer and Sooner (guess which state they're from?). I've heard the dogs bark a few times at night and also when I visit the compost pile, but they haven't kept me from sleeping.

Mutant Mexican Hats

We have the usual Mexican Hat flowers (left)in our wildflower garden this year, and an all yellow variety (right) that is not that rare, too. But what's up with the multi-layered one? There is one plant in the garden that has many blooms of this strange variety.