Diamond Wedding Anniversary

My husband’s elder sister and husband have now been married for sixty years, so yesterday I attended the lunch they had to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.

The function was held at the St Kilda Café in Cambridge, where the staff and chef did themselves proud, and then several of us went back to the house for the evening.

There was a table of memorabilia that included photos of the wedding, as well as congratulatory cards from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, our Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and the parliamentary Minister for Seniors Tracey Martin.  These cards are not sent automatically but must be applied for, which the family had done, to honour this special occasion.

I was amazed that the wedding dress was still in existence after all these years.  It had been folded up and placed in a small suitcase, and then never touched again!

The dress was made of heavy satin with a lace upper bodice decorated with tiny diamonds, and was made by the bride’s mother-in-law.   The head-dress was used to hold a veil in place.  The bridesmaid’s dresses were a vivid fuchsia pink, with a very large bow across the front bodice and another across the derrière, but none have survived the years.

I checked on my new vegetable garden this morning and was happy to see the seedlings all have their heads up.  The new lawn beside the garden is almost ready for sowing and will look good when it grows.

I have planted rhubarb, spring onions, celery, spinach, silver beet (chard), mini cauliflowers, mini broccoli, mini cabbage (this is how they can be planted so close together), garlic chives and lettuce.

I am taking advantage of the hollow concrete blocks that form the wall and planting in them as well.

Late morning I went shopping (again!) and came home with an electric omelette maker (I will have to write about that another time) and topped up our supply of fresh vegetables. 

The supermarket was chaotic, with the carpark being full and the shop packed with people.  No one-metre clearance zone around people here!  I believe crowds like this often happen over the weekend, but it was obvious in the supermarket that things had been moved around in an effort to hide the large gaps on some shelves.  It is becoming difficult to tell when people are just responsibly stocking up or simply panic buying.

I really enjoyed catching up with everyone yesterday, including family who had come over from Australia.  Many people refrained from the traditional hug-greeting (because of Covid-19), which was understandable considering many of the guests were in their 70s and 80s and some already have major health issues.  I wonder how long it will be before we are no longer able to even gather together like this?

Margaret.