gettin' hitched at the farm

Z., painting the stage (and her shoes)

This was a weekend of hard work, in humid hot weather, under a beautiful cloudless sky in woods teaming with life -  human, insect, plant...Our wonderful friends, Jen and Michelle, chose this weekend to have a commitment ceremony, and their community flocked to their hill to help celebrate.

Clearing spots for tents

Setting up tents

Making signs

watching rehearsal

Don't get me wrong - there was plenty of just hanging out with some beautiful people!

 

8:00 am dance party - note the cup of coffee in the picture? Mmm hmmm.

ghost stories in the tent

finding some quiet

so festive...

the wedding monkey

gettin' purty

some serious love

I have no photos of the ceremony, as I had the honor of standing up with our friends.  Watching them walk up from the house, with Jen's daughter, Ari; seeing the delight on the faces of their friends when they busted out with a musical number to open the ceremony;  having them take a moment to turn to look at the community they'd pulled together for this part of their journey...these were some of my favorite moments that I'll just have to remember.  The ceremony ended with the couple and their community sawing through a log....which was quite the feat, but had everyone laughing and jumping in to help.  (It was a great metaphor for working together - and having flexibility, as someone finally ran to get the chainsaw to finish it off!)

The best part of the weekend were the people.  The old friends and new friends becoming friends, the effort everyone put towards making it all happen - the food, the performance after dinner, the laughter...it was so lovely.

baaaby beluuuuga, oh, baaaaby beluuuuuuga

It was beautiful. And there were soft fuzzy chickens to hold.  It was a farm wedding, after all...

multiplying funnies...

For those of you who might be finishing up school this week...

Elphaba Multiplying (with great glee) - by Eliza

So happy, she melted. 

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And speaking of melting, we are having 90 degree summer weather!  We'll be camping this weekend for the wedding of dear friends - have a wonderful and safe weekend, and Welcome to Summer!!!

the season of OUT

We are officially into the season that sends us out and out and out...the laundry, the dishes, the cooking, the beds....ech, who has time?!?!?! All the girls want is out, so we do our best to balance that with everything else...It's meant bike riding to the garden to swing and plant and read our first Herb Fairy book (hm - there is no direct link to this anymore, but these are the folks who wrote them - more on those later).

small visitor on the page

It's meant hiking in the woods. For a bit. And then turning around because the poison ivy was just way too daunting, encroaching on the path and finally blocking it completely. Bummer.

Sassafrass

(A woman asked if Eliza were a hari krishna.  Funny, it was a woman who followed krishna who gave her this wrap she was wearing! She looked joyous and beautiful out on the trail.)

mating gold-backed snipe flies

tiger swallowtails enjoying the minerals from some bird poop. mmmmm.

trash. we left with a large bagful of cans and plastic. ugh.

 And of course every day has been peppered with "can we go swimming? how about a swim? when are we going swimming??"  So far our swimming has been impromptu - as in in their unders 'cause we didn't bring the swim bag  - and I realized that I am waiting for the sea of students to leave before committing to swimming season.  It's just not very pleasant (12 games of frisbee and football, large bodies launching themselves erratically about the beach, mug of booze in one hand, the other outstretched for a catch, cigarettes, lots of posing and posturing and conversations I'd rather my kids not listen to - kinda get the picture??), and I feel grinchy for not wanting to take them, but it'll just be another couple of weeks before they're all gone and the beaches are more or less ours again.

This worked the other night, though, and I heard Eliza continue to marvel at how a written note had brought about results.  I'm a sucker for a well-timed note.