Twin Lupines and Twin Thoughts

Recently in the very wild weedy gardens, a Lupine had twins. Of course I photographed them. They began as one bloom and then something happened probably during the bud development, and two flower stalks formed where one is the norm. I used to know all the technical terms, after reading for some time, and just short of getting out some of my old textbooks I gave up and said "So what..forget the why, and enjoy the darn flower." Lupin or Lupine ( North American) ..both are correct spellings..at any rate they are beautiful plants.

Twins were on my mind this morning, and I really didn't know why, until I looked at the calendar. Jen made me a special calendar this year, I like to keep track of birthdays, and anniversaries, so she made me a calendar that has photographs of special people and their special days. Two little very different faces occupy this day on my calendar. Five year old today faces, of my great nephews, fraternal twins, both look very different, both are unique individuals. The party is on Sunday!

I have an Uncle and Aunt that are twins, my Grandmother gave birth to them two months after I was born, they are as different as night and day. I have twin cousins, they are not identical, but close enough that most people cannot tell them apart. Most people tell them apart by their wives, one married a blond, one a brunette. Far Guy's parents had twins, a boy and a girl back in 1942, they were born and died on the same day. It was very sad, and was not something they talked about very much. They lived in Omaha at the time, so not many relatives can even fill in the blanks. Our daughter Trica finally wrote and got their birth and death certificates.. we always wondered where the twins were buried. We still don't know, as the hospital took care of all the details. I guess years ago, they just did mass burials of babies that were born too soon. Far Guy's Dad got to see them, and he told me once that he held one of them, Far Guy's Mom was not awake, this was back when most Mother's were rendered unconscious for the birth of their children in hospitals. Philip Leroy lived for 2 hours, Elizabeth Ann for 6 hours and 13 minutes. Not nearly long enough, their dashes were short. Their dashes were hardly recognized, they were not listed when Far Guys Dad died, but the hand written obituary that Far Guy's Mom left behind included them.

Abra a blogging friend, came up with the "dashes" she once wrote that it is what you do with your dash that is important, not the dates at the beginning or the end:)

The twin Lupines are on the left in these last two photos, as usual click on them to see an enlarged view!