Summer is winding down

This summer has been a roller coaster and I am not too sad to see it winding down, but it is not quite ready to be done yet.  We have had cloudy, rainy, cool weather lately but next week is threatening to be in the 80s again.  Plus, there are increasing talk of an early frost and another challenging winter.  We are in that schizophrenic time when it is fall one day and summer the next. 

This has kind of been a year of 'the good, the bad and the ugly'.  It has been pretty overwhelming and I am kind of tired of bad and ugly but I am excited to share the good.  So here is my list:

I had a milestone birthday.  That in itself is not a big deal, those happen all of the time but we did take a day this summer acknowledging that milestone by spending the day touring gardens.  In July, my kids and friends and family took part in the Hennepin County Master Gardeners home garden tour.  We were able to visit 10 of the 11 featured gardens.  Most were flower gardens or landscaping but there was one community vegetable garden.  It was educational so we saw rain gardens and pollinator gardens and one garden that was reclaiming land taken over by invasive species.  So inspirational.

My dad is feeling better than he has in several years.  I have older parents, both 81 this year on their birthdays and my dad's health is challenging and complex.  In February we nearly lost him.  He had a lengthy hospitalization that began with a near respiratory arrest and code followed by a couple of days in the ICU, a thoracentesis, 10 more days on the regular hospital unit, some medication changes and eventually discharge to home.  He lost a lot of extra fluid and has continued to lose weight.  His many medical conditions have not gone away but the symptoms are so much better and his quality of life is better.  He actually felt good enough to dance at the weddings of two granddaughters.

The wedding season was great.  My daughter, Caitlin, and niece, Ashley, were both married this late summer.  My daughter at the end of August and my niece two weeks later at the beginning of September.  Of course the shower season preceded the wedding season and that was fun too. 

The shower for my daughter in June allowed me to bring out my vintage china and glassware.  I have a fairly extensive collection and rarely have an excuse to use them so it was fun to haul them to the park and set them up in the log cabin shelterhouse.  It was a fun look.  We did not use the plain white or mostly white china.  I have another niece, Kaylee, who is also planning a wedding and she is thinking that she would like white china for her reception so we have kept them in reserve for her.  But the china with colored or patterned rims were used.  I had purchased a bolt of gray/white ticking and there was enough to make tablecloths for all of the tables.   Flowers and the bride's brass collection and her other vintage treasures served as centerpieces.  We had a fun lunch.  I didn't do any of the food, but it was beautiful and tasty.  Caitlin spent a semester in Italy so a couple of Italian favorites, caprese skewers and prosciutto and melon were on the menu.  There was also sandwiches and cheesecake in mason jars and other sweets for dessert.  It was a group effort and so much fun.

A month later in July Ashley's shower was held.  It was a brunch and the location was a church basement.  Very traditional Minnesota event.  Another group effort.  Her maternal aunts did the decorating  framed photos and lanterns on the table.  Her fiance's aunts helped with food.  We even played a bridal shower game.   This menu was juice and coffee, assorted huge muffins, a fruit bowl and a yogurt parfait bar.  Again, great food. 

In August Caitlin and Robb were married.  They had a ceremony in the church that Robb and his family attended.  The wedding party wore navy, both ladies and the gentlemen.  The ladies wore different styles of dresses made from the same fabric.  The men, wore matching tuxes.  The reception was held in a venue that was originally a vintage movie theater.  It was the theater that my siblings and I attended movies at when we were children so it is old!  It has the marquee on the outside and the buffet was set up in the lobby.  The head table was set up on the stage in the front where the movie screen had been at one time and long tables were set up on the gently sloping floor.  The back part of the theater where the projection booth was and the steeper sloped seating that was up the steps held narrow tables at a railing and chairs facing the front in rows like the old seating would have been.  The meal was a served lettuce salad followed by a buffet pasta bar, with both Alfredo and Bolognase sauces and breadsticks.  The cake was a centerpiece cake displayed on an antique mirror cake stand and featured a handcrafted version of Willow, their dog.  The guests served themselves mini  cupcakes, doughnuts made by my dad and Scandinavian almond cake slices from the dessert table. They had a bar set up and served two classic signature cocktails, the manhattan and the old fashioned, in addition to beer, wine and other cocktails.  Delivery pizza was a late night snack.  Three sizes of glass cylinders with floating candles decorated the tables. 

Ashley and Jeff were married at a lake.  The ceremony was outdoors with white chairs set up on grass just off of the beach.  It was cloudy and unseasonably cold even for northern Minnesota with a cool breeze blowing in off of the lake but at least the rain held off.  The ladies of the wedding party wore a steel blue dress, again, different styles of dresses made from the same fabric.  The men wore white shirts and leather vests, blue jeans and boots.  Between the ceremony and the reception the wedding party went for a pontoon ride, wrapped in coats and blankets.  The ceremony was beautiful but bittersweet.  Ashley's dad was my brother and he died in 2011 from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  His absence was very poignant.  There was an empty chair where he would have sat after walking her down the aisle.  It held a picture and his leather hat and a framed message in memorial.  Her brother walked her down the aisle and both cried as did most of the guests on the 'bride's side'.  At the dance in place of the traditional father daughter dance Ashley danced with her brother, both of her grandfathers and one uncle.  She had asked these four special men in her life to participate and all were honored to do so.  There were tears.  And when her brand new father-in-law cut in to dance with her I doubt there were many dry eyes in the room.  She had round tables with white tablecloths and white  coverings for the chairs.  There were three different centerpiece designs, more cylinders with candles, very tall vases with flowers and wood boxes with flowers and candles.  There were lots of large wooden spools for displays and rustic boards held up by pairs of whole wine barrels to serve the cupcakes and collect the gifts.  Their menu was a served lettuce salad and a two meat buffet with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. 

Lots of good stuff this summer.

Lorri