Okay, it just got really dark and windy outside. Creepy at 9 a.m. I'm just back from running out (yes, on foot) for coffee — and dodging raindrops (an impossible task) — during which time I was thinking, "Good thing I've got some sunnier images in inventory." I do. Lots of them. I don't even have to think back very far. Only to Saturday, May Day, when Mr. Betty came home from getting his own cup of coffee and said, "You ought to check out the Maypole."
It wasn't much of a Maypole, actually; it turned out to be a wedding prop. That's one thing there's plenty of in Newport, in any season, but especially from May through autumn: weddings. Even Mr. Betty and I got married in Newport ... a long time ago. Anyway, the Maypole was at the Elks Lodge — a beautiful spot, once the site of the U.S. Naval Academy — where rows upon rows of empty chairs were set-up on the lawn in anticipation of festivities to come. A pretty little girl was spinning in a pretty flouncy dress with a pretty pink bow in back and flowers on her head. A flower girl, I presume??
Once I realized it was a wedding and not a May Day event, I felt like a party crasher and left ... though I wandered no farther than across the street, into Touro Park, where I was rapt by the pink flowers seemingly wrapped about Commodore Perry's feet. Everyone is gaga, or so it seems, over these pink trees currently in bloom. Dogwood?? Crabapple?? Cherry?? What are they?? They're not my favorite, if I'm being honest: too pink-and-green. I know this is Newport, but pink-and-green really isn't my thing. Or maybe it's the shade of green, more of a brown, that throws me. Or maybe it's the pink-and-coppery-brownish-green against a blue sky that seems to clash. Or maybe pink isn't my favorite. Who knows — or cares, for that matter??
I do know that when my attention finally turned from the scene surrounding Commodore Perry's feet back to the park, the wedding party was gathering (not far from Reverend Channing's feet, at the other end of the park) for photos. And, as I walked by, I couldn't help noticing that there was a second flower girl. With great shoes ...
