Travel has its costs

That is, besides the literal monetary costs.

When we were gone over June/July, my beautiful little meyer lemon tree withered and died. Now I'm currently morning over the death of more of my plants (They WERE being watered, but maybe it was too hot in the house while we were gone?) .
Goodbye beautiful little CA valley oak.
Goodbye salvias.
Goodbye little maple tree.
Goodbye redwood sprig.
Goodbye parsley (and good riddance, I never really liked you very much).

A few favorite images from the wedding

Our Vows!

Chris's promise to me
I, Christopher, love you Jennifer, and choose you to be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love.
I will cherish our time together and love you more each day.
I promise to encourage and appreciate you, and to be patient, even when it takes you forever to take a photo or to choose the perfect rock.
I promise to journey with you into high mountains, snowy winters, and foreign lands.
To laugh with you in times of joy, and to comfort you in times of sorrow.
I look forward to growing together.
Together we will share each others' dreams and goals.
I promise to be a true and loyal friend to you.
I will trust you and respect you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face.
I give you my hand, my heart, and my love.
These things I give to you today, and all the days of our life.

My promise to Chris
I, Jennifer, love you Christopher, and choose you to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love.
I will cherish our time together and love you more each day.
I promise to inspire and encourage you, and to be understanding, even when we have to stop every 10 minutes to look at another bird.
I promise to journey with you into flowery deserts, tropical islands, and cloud forests.
To laugh with you in times of joy, and to comfort you in times of struggle.
I look forward to celebrating life together.
Together we will share each other's dreams and goals.
I promise to be a true and loyal friend to you.
I will trust you and respect you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face.
I give you my hand, my heart, and my love.
These things I give to you today, and all the days of our life.


And the rings
With this ring, I give you my promise that from this day forward, you shall not walk alone.
May my arms be your home. And my heart be your shelter.
May you always feel deeply loved, for indeed you are.
I give you my heart. I have no greater gift to give.
I thank you and I love you.

Yay!

It's so nice to be back in CA with the "family." Dancing, music, singing, feasting. In the first two days back, we had Solstice dancing (and I got to dance out!), party, practice, and party number two (yay for Mark's birthday). But it also makes me nostalgic. Life goes on here without me, of course. I just wish I had more BerkMo throughout the year. Every few months is not quite enough.

In other realms of life, there's a wedding to organize. I've decided that there needed to be more crafting involved, so I've taken another project upon myself. Yay! And, bonus, it will require me to collect rocks!!

Many things to do. Running low on time. I love all my friends, and feel so privileged and honored that people are willing to help out in so many different ways with our wedding. Yay everyone!! and thank you.

Pick your own; poison ivy

Well, I've had my first experience with poison ivy! It doesn't so much itch, as is a bit painful and really yucky looking. Luckily it's only a small patch on my ankle. It's kind of hard to avoid the plant around here. It's everywhere, and doesn't stand out as much as p. oak does in the west. Oh well! Here's a portrait of the offender.

That was last weekend. This weekend the plants were friendlier. There's a large farm nearby that hosts pick your own things throughout the growing season. We're in the midst of strawberries! So we harvested our own flat (10lbs.). "One for the box, one for me. One for the box, one for me." Time to get baking! Coming up there's peach season, apple season, blueberry/blackberry season, pear season . . .

It's kind of interesting to me, this idea of eating "in season." I come from a place where most things are in season all the time.

Reuse Party Favors

Itty bitty (big enough for 2 See's Candies!) boxes from old calendars. Thanks to all who gave me their old pages! 130 down and 70 more to make.

Wedding Prep

Here are some views of where we'll be getting hitched at Wildwood Acres.
1. View of where the tables go. Different levels of brick terraces. Dance floor to the far right, at the lowest level.
2. Garden scene.
3. Looking up into the small bay tree- lined canyon. Altar, or whatever, goes here!