ON-GOING HOOPLA!

That would be birthday hoopla, Reader Dear (remember?!)
I'm a week behind the eight-ball, but here it is:  A day with good happy-birthday-wishing friends!
We went to Longwood Gardens, with the trees and the flowers and the fountains (you know?)
The weather (which was forecast to be A-one) was merely B-one (cloudy, cool) but it didn't dampen the day for me (no torrents of rain, whoo-hoo! Yippee-yay!)  The friend who neglected to bring a jacket got to wear the fleece blanket pulled from the trunk of my car (the blanket, the tarp, the neck pillow, the atlas, the flashlight, the fleece sleeping bag...I finally feel justified for carrying all this insurance!)

First thing to set the Happy Birthday mood--the fountains!
Followed by the food--a vivacious veggie mix, with birthday cake (disguised as plain oatmeal-raisin) on the side!

Then, of course, the flowers!  The flowers!  The flowers!

 



 



 

(Flowers showcased by happy-birthday-wishing friends [let me tell you, Viewer Dear] are the very best kind!)

 

 














......

So, then...
moving along (as we, the birthday-celebrating trio are moving along [and we were actually celebrating two birthdays, believe-it-or-not, since one of these  fantastic friends had a birthday exactly eight days prior to mine!)

We decided to visit the pipe organ that Pierre had built for himself in the 1920's.

 

We followed the guide to this impressive sight!

 



Pierre DuPont.  He was the man!  He had the organ built for himself, but also for generations of folks to come (at least two of whom got the Hallelujah Chorus played for them [perhaps] in honor of their birthdays!)!

Still following this bunch, Dear Viewer Dear, we next paid a visit to the Vegetable Garden,
where we got permission* to have a teeny-tiny Happy Birthday sample. 








And then it was just as we were heading for the end of our visit to the gardens that we passed a group of  women whom I noticed all had a strong resemblance to one another. "Are you all sisters?!"  I asked. "You ALL look alike!"

They laughed.  "Ha, ha. Yes, we do look alike!  Five of us are sisters!  The other three are our cousins.  They're sisters, too!"

 

And then, what do  you know, Listener Dear (after a few minutes of chatter), these eight female relatives all burst into song!

 

Other than the fact that my camera battery died, and I couldn't get the ending, it was certainly a perfect ending (to this Happy Birthday excursion)!
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*Well, one of us boldly helped herself!
She it was who gave permission to the other two.
"Look, this stuff is rotting on the vine!  It needs
to be eaten!"  Uh, huh.