Father of two Brides

Two daughters. Both now married. Mixed-feelings. Thankful they are responsible young adults making their way in the world vs. missing the little girls I use to give wheel-barrel rides to. Today was the wedding of our 2nd daughter. A summer wedding, done in orange and hot pink against white, it was a pretty affair. Married by the Bishop of our Ward, accompanied by his good wife, our ever-constant friends, the ceremony was, like them, warm and kind. Our granddaughter was the cutest flower girl I've ever seen. The centerpieces, gold fish swimming in rose bowls of pink seaweed, were fun. The meal after the wedding was, like the wedding itself, small in numbers and intimate, but very, very nice. I enjoyed our eldest daughter's Matron of Honor toast a great deal, it was sweet and from the heart. And I especially enjoy her husband's comments at the end of the meal wherein he suggested that given the fact that we all have the cell phone numbers of the newlyweds, we call and wish them congratulations, say around 10 p.m. to midnight. He was not only fabulous help before, during, and after the ceremony, but he brings to our family a sense of humor and goodness that I cannot imagine being without. Our own son was likewise a big help and we enjoyed having him home albeit for a short time. And so, we're thankful for family and friends whom we can depend upon, whom we lean upon, and whom we love. I hope you enjoy the photographs.
Be well. Do Good.

Monet's Kitchen

Monet's Garden is well known. Those of us that like landscape design and architecture are well aware... But, less familiar is Monet's Kitchen. Google it. Image it. I'm a fan of the delft blue tile and copper. So.... for the longest time I've had plans to build a small weekend-get-away cabin/cottage. For years I've begun collecting things for this place.
Years ago, in the small Danish town of Dragor, just outside of Copenhagen, I stayed in a great old farm Bed and Breakfast. A retired couple from Minnesota was staying there. Daily, at breakfasts, we began talking of their weekend cottage that they had build in their retirement years. That experience, coupled with the great little ochre colored cottages of fishing-village Dragor, overlooking the Baltic Sea toward the west coast of Sweden, gave rise to this dream. Some of my future posts will be devoted to the fruition of this dream.
Be well. Do good.

River Walk

San Antonio, Texas has a wonderful River Walk. Great place. Indianapolis, Indiana has one as well; it's great fun to run along it, even in the winter. I like both places well enough. But I remember reading The Pueblo Chieftain years ago. One elderly lady, a mover-n-shaker kind of gal in Pueblo, was spear-heading this dream project of converting part of down town Pueblo, Colorado into a sort of mini-San Antonio, complete with a River Walk. Pretty ambitious for a city as small as Pueblo. But I watched with interest because I really like anything related to landscape architecture. (Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of Central Park and scores of other civic parks, campuses, etc., has long been a personal hero of mine.) I don't remember her name, but now as I walk or run along this amazing little River Walk area, I always think of her with appreciation. The Pueblo River Walk, an area where the Arkansas River is briefly diverted, is one of my favorite places. I regret that we have to drive 2 hours to be in a city, but, once in Pueblo, I always enjoy going to the River Walk. It's peaceful. Olmstead would have approved.
Be Well. Do Good.

Summer Nights & Summer Reads...

On Independence Day I like to take in a city Symphony Concert followed by a great city fireworks display. But this year we opted to stay home, watch A Capital Fourth on PBS, live from DC; Macy's New York City Fireworks on the Hudson River Parkway, a great place in and of itself, on NBC (and no one, except maybe Disney, does Fireworks like Macy's); and the 1812 Overture by the amazing Boston Pops on the Charles River (a GREAT place to run) in Boston, on CBS. With surround sound, we've enjoyed great music without the crowds and traffic. Our first "empty-nester's" 4th of July Cookout was fun: brats, fruit salad, deviled eggs, etc. We're also really enjoying a surprise find this summer: Fine Irish murder mystery books and British Television's "Midsomer Murders" on dvd. From the library we check out 5 at a time and watch one nightly. Take Agatha Christie, Murder She Wrote, and Diagnosis Murder, tweak 'em together and put it on a bit of steroids, and you've got this really great series, "Midsomer Murder". We began watching them before our Ireland trip, but while there British t.v. channel "TV1" showed episodes, so we felt at home.
For fellow history buffs.... David McCullough's latest book "The Greater Journey: American in Paris" deals with American's in Paris from 1830 thru 1900. Charlie Rose interviewed him tonight on PBS. Great next book to read. If anyone else plans to read it, let me know: let's plan on doing book talk emails, chapter-by-chapter
Be Well. Do Good.

Ireland & New York, Two Trips in One

An early summer trip to Ireland followed by time in New York City.... a lot of fun. Ireland was cold in mid June, but green and beautiful. It's rolling hills, quilt-like with fences made not by wood nor wire, but rather, green-growth bushes, makes for a unique pastoral beauty. Dublin is a large city with fine public transportation. With their Irish accents, the people are warm and helpful. "The Book of Kells" written in 800 A.D. was unique. Housed in famed Trinity College (which felt very much like we were in a Harry Potter book/movie) in Dublin's City Centre, this unique work of biblical art, influenced by Celtic culture & design, was worth seeing. Also, a unique Viking Tour of Dublin was worth our time. Unsuspectingly, we were allowed to go deep into underground crypts, seeing not only coffins, but leather skeletons. In fact, we were allowed to touch the hand of a Crusader. A train trip to southern Ireland's Cork region was especially fun. There on Ireland's southern coast we enjoyed a fine Museum "Queenstown Story" that highlighted the last place where the Titanic ship had taken on passengers: many of those 3rd class Irish immigrants featured in the movie. "Cove" is the English translation, from the Gaelic, for this little Celtic village with such rich history. Cork was also the site of Blarney Castle where the Blarney Stone was kissed, albeit lying down, head back and kissing this stone of historical significance, at the top of the castle. I was thankful for bars to hold onto as well as a man there that held me so that I wouldn't fall down, head first, to the ground so far below, where a beautiful garden lay; but dark, because it was a Poison Garden: all the plants growing therein were poisonous. Seems the keeper of the castle liked to have ready-available poisons in the event that an evening dinner guest ticked him off.

A fine meal with Irish music and storytelling was enjoyed one evening at Ireland's oldest pub, dating back to 1198. That my plundering & traveling Danish Viking ancestors may have been at this very pub back in the day was not lost on me. (I prefer to think that my Viking heritage is from one of the tribes that did not raid, but rather, stayed in Denmark where fishing for herring and agriculture pursuits were preferred over murder and theft. Of the 5 different Viking tribes, three were peaceful and opted to stay at home.) The Viking Splash land/water tour was a lot of fun too.

The River Liffey is a fine river that divides Dublin in two sections: the south side and the north side. I loved all the pedestrian bridges that span it, especially the "ha penny" (half penny) bridge. On a Sunday evening, (the sun didn't go down until 10:30) I took a nice walk thru a residential area and enjoyed unique plants and although very small, some very nice manicured yards. Irish wool mills were wonderful places to see hand woven sweaters. The country was strong financially in the 1990's, earning the nickname Celtic Tiger years. But now.... the country is experiencing extreme difficulties related to the worldwide economic recession beginning in 2007. Things are very, very expensive, and one pays, literally, for everything. To my surprise, they are dealing with an acute problem of Senior Citizen suicides. The country's economic problems have depleted the retirement accounts of the populace, and so those that had worked hard their entire lives are now left without retirement funds. This, understandably, has left them very bitter and angry. Also, religion, in general, is largely questioned. Bishops in the Catholic Church have been caught in lies and scandals leaving the populace distrusting and loathing religion. There is a faction of the population, in fact, that opts to relinquish all Christianity and return to the rites of the ancient Celts.

We enjoyed watching "hurling", on t.v. at nights. NOT the hurling game where my young daughters would fake throwing up, but rather, this most amazing competitive game where men compete in a kind of LaCrosse/Baseball/Soccer/Football sport. It is an amazing and wonderful sport. We really enjoyed this. It's fast paced, and requires great skill. Google it. Learn more about it. Hurling. A great game! One of my favorite parts of the trip was finding the Irish National Stadium and track where I was given permission to run at daily. It was a fine, fine track.

But....my favorite place to run is Central Park in New York, and it was there, upon our return that once again I ran over the many beautiful stone and wrought iron bridges and arches. For a unique treat to yourself, google these words: Bridges of Central Park, and then look at "images". What a fun place to run. We took in the opening night presentation of the ballet Cinderella by the American Ballet Company at Lincoln Center. I love that place. Yes, Broadway and the theater district where we stayed is always fun, Times Square is fun. But it is Lincoln Center where rich culture lives. We again attended a session at the Manhattan Temple across the street from Lincoln Center. I love how all the door handles there are brass motifs of the liberty torch on the Statue of Liberty. Simple, but very classy. And so being back in New York again was especially wonderful.
Be well. Do good.

BYU Singers at Sacred Heart Church

So I'm reading today's mail, in particular "The Mormon Times" newspaper, and I happen to look at happenings in Colorado, when I see that listed for our area, tonight, is the BYU Singers, a fine choral group in the chamber-music style, that I've liked for the longest time. Luck? I think not. I NEVER check that section because it doesn't apply to me; usually it's for Young Single Adults, so I stopped looking at it long ago.

Long story short: I went to the concert. My wife had Church meetings and could not go. I managed to get a last minute ticket and then wormed my way up to the 3rd row and asked if I could sit there in a spot that was vacant. 3rd row.

To my surprise it was a joint concert between BYU Singers and my local college/alma mater, Adams State. I've performed under the direction of the Adams State choral director, Beth, just a couple of years ago in our Community Chorale when we did Mozart's Vesperae Solemns" a difficult but beautiful requime. So I knew she was good.
And I've long admired BYU's conductor Ronald Staheli. And here there were, together in our little area, in this wonderful catholic cathedral with fabulous acoustics in a stained-glass nave. Both conductors were cordial and warm and complimentary of one another's respective choirs. Staheli paid tribute to our valley, the beauty of it, and the privlege of performing in this Catholic church with it's murals of Jesus. Good will and warmth, not snobbery nor snide slurs, was the mood of the night. The concert was flawless. Staheli had his group perform a piece by one of my favorite British conductors, John Rudder, "The Wings of the Morning", complete with flute and violin accompaniment.
One expects this kind of music to be sung in both English and Latin, but the BYU Singers performed beautifully in French, German, and Russian as well. Their repertoire was amazing, including a Celtic Invocation, a selection set to the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson (There is Sweet Music Here by L. J. White), and a new-to-me "When Summer Sets" (Jay Matthew Butler, born, 1981), that includes in it's text these poignant words: "God hears my prayer. I know He is there, and I am at peace." A beautiful hymn by Johannes Brahms, done in German had these English-translated lyrics:
"When we are in greatest distress and know not what to do, And find neither help nor counsel even when we seek it early and late, Thus our only consolation is to implore Thee together, O faithful God, For rescue out of anxiety and misery. Look not at our great sins, but speak to us out of mercy. Stand by us in our misery and make us free from all sorrow, So that we can afterwards thank Thee from the heart, And be obedient to Thy word."
All music was beautiful, all chords true. It was sublime. Extremely sublime.
Be Well. Do Good.

Easter in Oregon

The Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon is a great place to see rolling hill-fields in mass colors. It's also a great place for a grandpa to take his granddaughter on a Cow-Car Train ride on Good Friday. What fun we had! And being with our granddaughter on their porch, as she opened confetti eggs, and hearing her say: "Wow Wee Neat!" was the best thing that's happened to me in ages.
The suburbs of Portland have lots of great Easter Egg hunts on the Saturday before Easter. Again.... more fun.
Be Well. Do Good.