The photo that started it all

Dee and I left the meeting at lunchtime today to drive to Wilmington, North Carolina to walk along the river and just have some time together. As we were walking, I stopped to take this photo and a man spoke up behind me “ I have never seen anyone take photos of dead plants. “ they were Phil and Ailine ..We told him and his wife that I do it all the time and then I explained the concept of wabi-sabi to them. We kept talking and found out they were from South Carolina originally but lived and worked in North Carolina. We kept talking with them and ended up at a wine bar for a drink and then they invited us to see their home just up the street from the wine bar. So we walked there, talked more,then decided to go get supper. I asked them where the closest hotel was and Ailine invited us to stay in their spare bedroom. We discussed and declined and discussed and finally we agreed. I paid for their meal and we got our car from where we had left it parked earlier and went back to their house which is a really nice little house. Phil said he worked on it for 3 years.

We spent another hour or so just talking and laughing! They are such nice people. We have had a really fun time with them and probably will stay in touch.

All because I took a photo of some dead plants.

Tomorrow we have to finish our walk in old town Wilmington since we mostly sat around at one place talking to our new friends!