Rehearsal Dinner Slideshow

Hi all!

I just got around to posting the slideshow I made for Carrie and Tim's rehearsal dinner on YouTube!  It was such a pleasure to make (great material), and I was thrilled that it was so well-received by the party-goers, who were hooting and hollering between bites of orzo salad and freshly roasted pig.  It was a festive spring evening event chez O'Neil - the perfect way to kick off an unforgettable wedding weekend.

Click on the following link to watch the wedding slideshow:
Carrie and Tim Wedding Slideshow

For those who couldn't be there (especially Sarah, John, and Brad), I hope this helps you feel like you were!

With love,
Eliza

not wedding

 Oops, I didn't mean to download this photo, but why not?  This is part of the fall window replacement project. Yes, those windows are new and yes, I stood on a ladder to paint around them since our hired painter didn't want to be up that high (we got  a good price but she had her limits.)  So while I was up there I thought, "wouldn't the Saito woodcuts that mom bought in Japan look great up here?" So David held them up  (not light) for me to see. Yes, they look great!

On to the garden.

New Englanders know that Memorial Day weekend is the first time it is safe for planting gardens. It is the first weekend with no threat of frost. So we went for it. We planted tiny organic seedlings that we bought at a near by farm. Eggplant, peppers, basil, dill, parsley, cherry tomatoes, beets and more. My favorites are zinnias and nasturtiums. Why? asks David. You can't eat them! They are pretty I say. (and you CAN eat nasturtium flowers.)

Wedding photos to follow I promise.

We had a wedding!

It was a blast. Thanks to everyone who came, sent best wishes, danced up a storm and  showed up for Carrie and Tim in this next step in their life together.  We are so grateful for our family and friends. It takes a village to give a wedding and we felt the support all along the way.  More on all of it in the upcoming days.

tent up

Here is a tent story.

The deal at the Pierce House is that if you use the same tent as the party following you, you can split the cost of the tent with them. The tent company leaves it up all week so that saves them time and money.

David did not want to use the usual tent that stays there all summer. It's too large, too long and is supported by poles that run down the center of the space. In short, it is ugly. That will never do for someone whose life has been about beautiful structures! So he found an alternative tent. This tent has a ridge pole (kind of like a barn) is wider than the usual one and no poles!!

Now to convince some stranger who was holding a party next weekend to sign off on this tent. He is a guy who travels a lot and is "out of the country" a lot and clearly not thinking about the tent he will be using. He didn't return phone calls, the tent company needed to make plans, the guy who runs the Pierce House was skeptical and wished David would just use the perfectly good tent that is usually there.

Months passed. Too many people seemed to be involved in what was actually a simple thing. And then the pieces all fell into place. So when the tent went up on Tuesday, we went over to see it.
Being inside this tent is a completely different experience than being in the other one. It feels spacious yet holding and makes you want to dance!

Somehow David could tell this by knowing the dimensions, making a drawing and seeing it in three dimensions  in his mind. What a difference it makes. How lucky we are to have an architect on board!

blooming!

As I headed up the hill behind the barn yesterday, I saw this Moccasin flower quietly blooming. No fan fare. No drawing attention to itself. It is a wildflower that likes acid soil and damp woods. It cannot be transplanted because it depends on a complicated chemistry of things to exist. It likes it right where it is. That's kind of how I feel about this two acres on which we live. A long history and many years of being here have caused my tap root to go deep.

Because David saw a snake slither under the foundation when he bought this house, he always thought our street was named after the snake. Not so. Our street was named for the rare wildflower that grows quietly in our woods, trapping bugs in its pouch, who then pollinate it as they climb out. Also known as a Lady's Slipper, it is a member of the orchid family.

My brother Don just sent me this painting that our mother, Martha McLean,  had  done of a Moccasin flower in 1997.  I like to think she was inspired by the ones growing here, but then again, I'm sure they thrived in her damp woods as well.

wedding update

Hi All
This is a really special time leading up to Carrie and Tim's wedding.
I have gotten the advice to enjoy every minute of it.
So many months in the planning and now we are days away.
How special this time feels.

The list gets shorter and shorter.
Here is today.

Wedding dress picked up in Watertown. Check.
The wonderful Armenian seamstress who altered it saw me to the door.
"Zeeper down!" she demanded, meaning to lay it in the car (where back seats were flattened to create a suitable surface for this important cargo) zipper side down so as not to crush the front.

David's tie dry cleaned and picked up at dry cleaners in Concord. Check.
The woman who works there was relieved to hear that David had bought a new jacket. She refused to clean the one he had saying the lining would fall apart. It was a hand me down from his business  partner 20 years ago. It was clear that a visit  to the Andover Shop in Cambridge was in order. The men who work there, who David has known since grad school, took care of getting him properly outfitted. NO brass buttons on the blue blazer, thank you.

UPS truck arrived with Eliza's shoes. Check.

Universe and all planets in alignment for good weather. Check.

Tent is now UP at the Pierce House. Check.
The Pierce House is one mile from our house. We have driven by it almost every day since we have lived here. On the way to school Carrie and Eliza would notice a tent going up. I wonder who is getting married we would all wonder. A friend emailed me today and as she drove by it dawned on her, CARRIE is getting married!  WOW! It's a real Lincoln fixture and it is a strange feeling to realize that this time, the tent is for US!

Stairs to the barn loft built. Check. (David's way of dealing with a wedding)

Lay out of tent including location of  band, tables, bar, dance floor done thanks to David's excellent spacial skills. Check.

   tie

gown

shoes

wet dog and flowers

Safe travels to all who are headed this way. We feel so happy to have friends and family coming together from near and far. AND the rhododendrons are blooming!

Lincoln weather

Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 81. West wind between 3 and 11 mph. 

Tonight: A slight chance of showers after 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. Southwest wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Monday: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 73. North wind between 3 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. 

Monday Night: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 55. Southwest wind between 7 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. 

Tuesday: A chance of showers. Areas of fog before 8am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 66. South wind between 9 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. 

Tuesday Night: Rain likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 2am. Cloudy, with a low around 54. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. 

Wednesday: Rain likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Cloudy, with a high near 75. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Wednesday Night: A chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 73. 

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. 

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 76. 

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. 

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 73. 

sun at last!

a full tank of gas

I am compiling a collection of writing. The class I teach on  Wednesday mornings has been meeting together for years and so I thought it time that they be published. They each submitted a few things. What about me? Yes, I should be in this collection as well.  Remember my road trip? Well I guess enough time has gone by so that I can write about it. 

Hemingway wrote about home when he was in Paris  and wrote about Paris when he got home. Ideas need time to gestate, images to blur, stories to form. So here is something I wrote in class inspired by the topic, "a full tank of gas." Thanks, Rue, for the prompt which you sent to ME having done it with your Portland writing group.

A full tank of gas

 Across Massachusetts and into New York State all the way to Buffalo. Feeling the thrill of the open road, I headed west a few summers ago. Alone. I drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. Colorado was the end point. Billboards advertised wineries in New York State. The sky was huge in Iowa. Corn and soybeans grew right up to the edge of the highway. Food was growing as far as the eye could see but there was nothing to eat along this road but sandwiches from SUBWAY.

I drove my daughter’s Subaru west, hugging Rt. 80 the whole way. She needed her car in Leadville by mid August and I had plans to visit my brother in Boulder and to attend a writing conference in New Mexico. I was happy for the excuse to get in the car and go. For five days the author Alice Munro read to me from shiny discs inserted into a thin slot in Eliza’s dash. For five days I listened.  I barely spoke a word. The images viewed through my windshield blended with the characters and landscapes in her stories. The family drama, the dangerous stranger, the bleak existence all blended with sunset, cloud, cargo truck, rest stop and white line stretching out ahead of me.

A green sign announced the Mississippi River. I couldn’t see it as I barreled over the bridge checking my rear view mirror for trucks. Next thing I knew, I was at Council Bluffs. I found a coffee place in a mall there. Council Bluffs. I imagined a tribe of Indians having a meeting overlooking the Missouri River under a big sky. They are wearing skins, feathers, and moccasins and sharing a peace pipe. I bought coffee in a disposable cup in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Leaving behind flat farm fields and mighty rivers, I crossed into Colorado where I didn’t need a state line to indicate that something had changed. I had entered an arid landscape. Soon I saw mountains. The Rockies at last. Having made good time, I arrived at my brother’s house a day early. No one was there. I went in, got a beer out of the refrigerator and sat on his deck looking out at a golf course.

I had made it across the familiar map of the United States. The one my sixth grade teacher pulled down like a window shade in front of the blackboard. In a few weeks I would travel east, headed home. By plane this time. It would take me three hours with a tail wind.

baby crane

A tiny brown crane arrived in our mailbox to join the 950 plus that have roosted here.
The wedding must be soon! Thanks John and Sylvia!

location location location

19 days!

It is May 1st everyone! May Day!

I remember in my youth making little bouquets of flowers, secretly picked from  gardens up and down Oak Ridge Avenue, tying them with ribbon and leaving them on the doorstep of houses in the neighborhood as a May Day offering.

The part that my friend Gay Parker and I liked best about this was ringing the doorbell, leaving the "gift" and running to hide behind a tree across the street to watch the reaction of the recipient. The unsuspecting resident would come to the door look around and hopefully look down to see this sweet little sign of spring. More often than not, a woman would come to the door angry already that the neighborhood kids were up to something and they were fed up with it (not seeing the flowers on the doormat at her feet).

Fact is, she was right. We just liked ringing doorbells and running away and May Day somehow make it legitimate. Here's a fact about the early 1960's hidden in this story. There was someone home in most houses any time of day to come to the door when the doorbell rang. We didn't just wait for May Day, it was one of the many things on our list that made life fun.

But the inspiration for this post is that May is wedding month and we are counting down!
Great things ahead!