My mother's day weekend was one of the nicest ever. One thing I like about the way we celebrate is Hubband's extension of Mother's Day to Mother's Weekend.

Friday:

Big Boy came over and spent the night. Great fun. Loved seeing him and he brought me flowers and a nice card. I got to hug him, as I'm allowed to only on my birthday and Mother's Day. Hubband had a talk with him regarding the possibility of him living with us during his college years (we're much closer), a refresher on the "don't get the girl preggers and screw up your life" conversation that we've been having since he was 12, and the news that seeing him twice a month for a couple of hours is just not acceptable. He seemed to take it all well. He and Hubband mowed and edged the lawn then we had pizza and fell into a carbohydrate coma in front of the TV.

Saturday:

As we had hoped, the weather held out for most of the day. The morning broke sunshiney and not too cool. The one thing I had wanted to do was to get out to the Wading Bird Nesting Grounds before it was too late in the season. Big Boy had to work so we hauled Little Boy away from the TV (he came with rather minimal whining - I was impressed) and drove out to the trail.

It is so beautiful at this place. We took more video shots instead of stills this time or I would post pictures. It's difficult to capture it, anyway. There is a trail that was created through the area from an abandoned railroad track. Hubband rides his bike along the trail, sometimes and once took it all the way to the end. What he found, about a quarter mile from the end, was that the trail borders a huge swamp which is a protected nesting area for wading water fowl. We'd been there before in the late autumn, after the birds had migrated South. But yesterday, oh. There must have been 50 nests, high in the trees, of Great Blue Herons. We stood there for an hour watching these graceful birds taking turns swooping through the water to bring food back up to their babies. Hubband got some great video of one of the nests and the four little babies peeping at their mother for a bite. The sound was beautiful and loud. There was even one nest of owls.

We toured the trails and saw several chipmunks, a dead snake, and a pair of American Goldfinch. A very successful trip. Then we left because the trail was becoming too clogged with joggers, bikers and power walking blabbers to enjoy the splendor.

Then it was home to prepare for my Mother Daughter Banquet at Stepmonster's church. I was impressed that instead of the usual pot-luck presentation, Stepmonster had actually prepared individual cold luncheon plates of fruit and chicken salad. It was so pretty and yummy. Of course most of the church folk had nothing but complaints. It was a little fancy for them to get their minds around, I think. But I thought she did a wonderful job. And I noticed going in that she had only her mother helping her, so I pitched in as well.

So much for your Christian Fellowship.

Afterward, I raced home and prepared to have our friends come over with their garden thinnings. They brought Holly Hocks, several hostas which I separated and planted in a border alternating plain and verigated leaves, yarrow, flax, spiderwort and a huge pile of daylilies. I managed to get all of them in the ground before the rain got too heavy.

From there we took in our DVD/CD player to have it looked at. It stopped working again. We'll be without it for several weeks, which will probably send Hubband into some sort of withdrawal. Then we came right home and spent a nice evening in front of "Trading Spaces" with a bottle of Riesling and some beers. (I've taken to the wine recently. I've found a couple of glasses can mellow me out in a very nice way.)

Sunday:

As usual, we spent the day apart, my family and I. Hubband and Little Boy went out to Niece's new house for their annual Mother's Day dinner extravaganza. My mother, grandmother and I attended the same buffet we had on Easter. Didn't turn out to be as nice this time. They were not prepared for the crowds. But the food was just as good. Then we went back to Grandma's and poured over old family photos. We wrote names and relationships and stories on the backs of the ones Grandma could remember.

I ended up confiscating several wonderful pictures. There are three I'm especially fond of:

There's one of my great-grandmother dressed in her red-cross volunteer uniform during WWII.

One is kind of abstract. It's taken from the passenger's seat of my great-grandfather's boat. I think the picture is supposed to be of the house on the other side of the river, but what I see is the reflection of his three packs of RedMan tobacco in the window, his left hand on the steering wheel holding a cigarette, tanned, wearing the watch that my mother has in her jewelery box. I see the blue of the dash and the glass compass attatched to it. I see the glossy wood of the bow through the windshield. He and mother and I loved that boat.

The third one is of my grandmother. She's pregnant with my mother and decorating the Christmas tree that my Great-Grandparents always put out on their 3-season porch. The tree is all glistening and shiney. My grandmother is absolutely glowing. She has a smile on her face that is so wonderful. She's wearing this gaudy, huge maternity blouse and she just looks so friggin' happy. I'd never seen a look on her face like that. It was taken about a month before my grandfather, her husband and my mother's father, committed suicide.

I also brought home a great picture of my great-grandmother. It was taken when she was in the 5th grade. She's looking all pissed and has her hand behind her back. Turns out she was eating an apple when the picture was taken and has her mouth full and the apple core behind her back. And I brought home many pictures of my mom in prom dresses and school pictures and her driving the boat at the cottage and a whole packet of pictures of the Morgan women (my great-grandmother and her sisters).

It was fun, pouring over them, but it was sad, too. Spending that much time with my grandmother, so easily confused these days. So out of breath by the slightest movement. So out of touch. I feel we're going to lose her soon. And that will be a loss because she is the sweetest thing.

Well, I must shake it off and get into the shower. Work today and then a big day full of graduation preparation tomorrow. Things are coming together nicely, but I've got to get on them.