summer! finally.

Did it.
Garlic scape and basil pesto with walnuts and lemon juice. Didn't have any parmesan but it was fine without it. It is fun to make food out of what you forage in the garden.

Landscapes, thoughtscapes, garlicscapes

My day began at the Concord Art Association where my yoga teacher leads a class on Sunday mornings. In summer we move to the terrace outside and gaze up into trees, feel the soft wind brush by, listen to planes fly overhead and church bells ring wildly for five minutes at ten o'clock. Clearly the powers that be at the Unitarian Church across the street let the children pull the  thick rope attached to the bell. I thoroughly approve.

When I practice yoga I find all kinds of ideas and thoughts are dislodged as I move. I always mean to bring my notebook along to record some of these gems. Sort of like having a dream journal to write in when you wake up. But then I get so absorbed in my practice that I can't stop to write. I didn't do any writing after all, but noted the still life quality of my little spot on the terrace. I often photograph my writing notebooks in different settings. Today it was next to my yoga mat. My teacher is a writer as well and has taken my class, so she didn't bat an eye when I uncurled myself from pigeon pose a little early to take a few pictures.

On returning home I found David puzzling over the garlic scapes. These exotic curly cues need to be cut off from the top of the plant so as not to drain the energy from the bulbs forming under the ground. What to do with them once they have been cut from the plant? They are a delicacy it turns out. Sort of like fiddle heads. An acquired taste. I could not find scapes in any of my cookbooks probably because they are not sold in stores and are available in the garden for a few days only.

I found a recipe for garlic scape and basil pesto on a food blog that I follow. They are also tasty sautéed with onions. But what isn't?
If you know someone with a garden, see if you can get them to give you some. We all have more than we know what to do with.

Another party at 4 Moccasin

Carrie and Tim made dinner for us on David's birthday on June 9.

Carrie recorded some highlights on her iPhone. 

Here is a glimpse into the amazing meal and great company.

Wish you were all here!

New England Oysters!!!

A toast

Tim shucks the oysters. Is that a wedding ring I see on his left hand?

I get to celebrate too. I am holding Carrie's Sauvignon Blanc while she takes the photo!

I haven't had any yet. That smile is just pure joy. The party came to us.

Candles in the oysters. Make a wish!

Dinner of swordfish, corn on the cob, green tossed salad with fresh strawberries, quinoa with beets and asparagus, mango salsa and more. Dessert was a selection of pies that were served at the wedding but that none of us got a chance to eat. We really loved the blueberry!

Happy Birthday, Susie!

This woman deserves a party! Many thanks to Susie and Jessie for arranging the bridal party flowers for Carrie's wedding. They were spectacular as the wedding photos will show. Wish you were still here!

Maid of Honor Speech

May 19, 2012

So great to see all of you, both friends and family, and new faces as well.  My name is Eliza O’Neil, and I am the sister of the bride.  Thank you all for being here.

Tim Facebook Anecdote

Shortly after I met Tim, I “friended” him on Facebook.  Carrie had introduced him as someone important in her life, and I had the feeling he’d be around for a while.  He and I had hung out on the giant couch in my parents’ living room and watched TV, played board games (the requisite O’Neil family initiation activity), and ate chips and salsa together.  He even asked my opinion on a pair of corduroy pants he’d recently purchased.  Based on the aforementioned activities, I think you’d all agree that this degree of intimacy certainly warrants a Facebook friend request.  I felt pretty confident about my decision, and knew Tim would be thrilled by this gesture.

Days passed.  Must be a busy guy, I thought.  Maybe he lost his computer.  Or forgot his Facebook password.  Maybe he’s injured… though I probably would’ve heard about that from Carrie.  Soon, reality set in.  I lost hope and settled on the only explanation possible in such a scenario: Tim hated me.  I wracked my brain for interactions I’d had with Tim that I’d potentially misread – I’d offered him goat cheese at one point, even though I later found out that he hated goat cheese… but certainly that couldn’t justify a friend rejection.  I did get a little aggressive during our game of Scattergories.  Yeah, I guess I can see that he would resent me for that.

Finally, I cracked.  I was riddled with self-doubt and had to get to the bottom of Tim’s blatant unwillingness to have me in his life. The next time I saw him, I asked him, trying to sound as breezy as possible, whether he had received my Facebook friend request.  Unfazed by my question, Tim answered that he was more interested in establishing a real friendship before basing all of our interactions off of sarcastic and impersonal one-liners through the Internet.

It was then that I was first exposed to Tim’s philosophy around the relationships in his life.  He doesn’t accept surface-level interactions, but rather asks thoughtful questions that indicate his genuine interest in my life, passions, and ideals.  He is a great listener, and he remembers everything.  I value his investment in the people he cares about, and the fact that he is committed to building truly meaningful relationships.

Carrie

Cut to Spring 1992.  

Carrie’s desire to create strong, high-functioning communities started with a big box of wooden blocks and about a dozen troll dolls, all with different colored hair and belly-button gemstones.  Though we would create make-believe community and interpersonal dysfunction, we would always find a way to resolve it – often by having the particular trolls who were fraught with intense personal animosity step aside and talk through the issue at hand by using conflict management strategies with an interest-based relational approach.  Is anyone surprised she ended up doing what she does for a living?

But Carrie’s constant desire to make everything okay applied to her everyday life from an early age.  As a young kid, she would turn around in the booth of a restaurant and introduce herself to her neighbors, making sure not to leave out the exact address at which she lived, her birthday, and her favorite ice cream.  By the end of the meal, every other person dining would know everything about Carrie there was to know, just short of her social security number.  When our family car, Mobenzy, got hopelessly stuck in a giant patch of mud on the way to a family cabin in northern Maine, it was Carrie who initiated trekking through the woods with our Dad to find help, while I slept in the backseat and our Mom held down the fort.  As a child, if I was sad or angry, Carrie would shut my bedroom door behind us and work through the issues before finding a way to make light of the situation.  We would always be laughing hysterically at the end of the day.

Carrie – you make everything more than “okay.”  You are a fiercely loyal sister – passionate, loving, and committed to my happiness and success just as much as your own.  It’s either because of your influence or your support that all the wonderful things in my life have happened, and I am forever grateful to you for that.  I love you so much.

Both C+T

So, it’s no surprise that Carrie and Tim work so well together.  They both care about relationships… they care deeply about the people around them, and I know every single person here knows what I’m talking about.  I’m so happy you two found each other.  I know you will thrive as a pair not just because of your shared passion for exploring, thinking, and making the world a better place, but because of the weight you place on the people you carefully weave into your lives, and the powerful, supportive communities you build around yourselves.  I feel lucky to know you both separately, and even luckier to be a part of the next chapter with the two of you together.

And in case you’re wondering, Tim and I are now Facebook friends.

Congratulations, Carrie and Tim!  (Raise glass)

May 19, 2012