Here we are! Our friend Sarah took this one last month when she was visiting. We are standing in the back courtyard with the porch behind us. It's the first photo since our wedding. John is getting ready to go play golf and has his Wisconsin shirt on, given to him by Kim and Todd.

OUR WEDDING (PART 3)

The miracle of a wedding can be the way it brings together and unites people around this new union.. and ours was no exception. Our old friends and new friends and our children and siblings and even a parent, John's 89-year-old father, were all there to witness and join in the celebration. We had gone through the things of meeting each others' significant people, by traveling here or there, or inviting people to our place, but this was the first time that so many of our precious ones were in the same place at the same time. Here is my son,
Deron, talking with John's father, Charles, with Todd, Brian and Kim standing inside the door. And that is Kim and Todd's oldest daughter, Natalie in her flower girl dress.

Here are Sarah Rosensweet and Nick Saccomano...John's best man and my matron of honor. They had never met before the wedding. Yet it was just one of the sweetnesses of this gathering for us to see them talking and getting to know one another a little. All of these meetings seemed like a beautiful tapestry being woven that would give us a stronger sense of coming together as one family.

Sarah is one of five friends, including me, who have known each other for 20-some years and who have gotten together several times a year and spent a weekend together. Since my father died in 1999, I thought of my girlfriends when it came to the question of who was going to "give me away" . So the four of them walked me down the aisle and said a loud "WE DO!" when the preacher asked "Who gives this woman...?"

In the back of the group is Susan Braccio, then Dolores Korotie, then me, then Sarah and then Dale Genovese (bending over to address the concern of one of the flower girls). I will always be grateful for their coming down to Franklin for the occasion. It made it seem really complete that each of them was with us.

We just had our first anniversary and all of them except Dale have been back. Both she and her husband Bill, are dear friends of ours and I hope they get down here soon!

OUR WEDDING (PART 2)

This is the church, The Hillsboro Methodist Church, where we were married. It is a little old brick church that sits about a block off of the two-lane highway that runs through Leiper's Fork.

John and I met officially when we were in the seventh grade at Wilson Jr. High in Eugene, Oregon. We had probably seen one another before that since we lived only a mile or so apart, but we were in different grade schools. John played the trumpet and I played the violin so we were in the Jr. High Orchestra together. We didn't know one another well, but we both remembered the other some 40 years later when we became reacquainted. So I guess that somewhere in each of us there might have been a recognition of a connection we had, although neither of us guessed what it might be and that we would be celebrating our marriage so many years later. The funny thing is that we both lived in Connecticut or New York (me) since the early 70's and didn't know that the other was there.

Here is an inside view of the church. Aren't the windows pretty? People are just starting to gather. We had the best time with the little flower girls. There were five of our grandchildren between the ages of three and five. They spent the morning with Joyce Schmidt, wife of Pastor Steve, decorating their baskets with ribbons and filling them with flower petals. Due to the girls' age, we opted against a rehearsal and decided that whatever they did would be fine. These four are Hannah Dirlam, Josephine Lawrence, Chloe Lawrence (in the back) and Natalie Schatz. They each approached the job with their own style and distributed the petals perfectly, one way or another. Sophia Lawrence, the fifth flower girl was coming down with the flu and was barely able to participate, however she got to wear her pink dress. Shortly after the wedding, she and her mommy returned to the motel, where they spent the next two days until Sophia made a little recovery.

John and I have six children between us, and 14 grandchildren! And more on the way! It is a bit overwhelming to realize, but all in all, we feel so very blessed to have such wonderful families and now to have this life of ours together.

Our big fantasy is to have the entire bunch together someday. It almost happened at the wedding but not everyone could make it. It was a good beginning. They are all wonderful families and we can't believe our good fortune!

OUR WEDDING

We were married on May 28, 2005, right here in Tennessee. With the help of friends, we found a small sweet Methodist church in Leiper's Fork and had a very simple, beautiful wedding. The night before we were married, we substituted a night of music for the normal rehearsal dinner. So we brought about 60 family members and friends to Puckett's Grocery in Leiper's Fork, for dinner and a songwriter round, which included Tony Arata, Danny Flowers, and Marshall Chapman. Here's Tony sharing a smile with John.

Puckett's really is a Grocery Store and they just push the shelves toward the back of the store and unplug the coke machine (which creates a nasty hum) . There's a little stage in the very front of the store where the musicians sit, and they serve either ribs or salmon dinners...both excellent! That's John's father, leaning over in the center. He came out for a week and partied with the family non-stop. Not bad for 89. He's now 90 and still going strong! Charles Dirlam from Eugene, Oregon, who has built a windmill in his backyard which he runs power off of!



Anyway, people came from all over, and got a little taste of Tennessee. It helped to answer the question of why two people who grew up in Oregon and then lived in Connecticut and New York for most of their adult lives, decided to move to the Nashville area. There are two reasons: people and music. Both incredible.

OUR FIRST COURTYARD GARDEN.

While I am on the garden theme, let me continue with showing you the former courtyard garden. It's a lot different from this one we have now. The space there was very different, being a long narrow rectangle along the entire side of the house. A small covered breezeway runs along the center of the strip and it is also the access from the garage to the living room, plus it had a door and windows to the master bedroom.
So I wanted a courtyard that softened the straight lines of the space. John and I picked out a natural Tennessee flagstone called Crab Orchard, and had it laid in an irregular pattern with curving lines and spaces.

This made for a much friendlier look that the original rectangle box. The other situation that required a solution was that the neighboring house that provided the perimiter wall of the courtyard across from our house, has windows overlooking the space. And in order to block the view, a tree needed to be installed in a space where the distance between houses is only ten feet across. This clearly excluded most tall trees which have a girth wider than ten feet. This led us to discover the beauty of bamboom and we are both so glad we did. Not only does it provide good tall screening with a very narrow diameter, it is also one of the most pleasing plants one could experience. When the breezes blow, the leaves of the bamboo make the sound of a gentle rain, and the tall stalks dance in the slightest wind.

We eventually planted more right along the wall behind the bamboo in this photo, and it all has multiplied beautifully this year and has created a wonderfully mystical space.
It seems from the comments we have got, that people are quite afraid of bamboo and believe that it will simply take over. However, we found that if you don't want a particular shoot of it, you can easily get rid of it by stomping it over onto the ground. It dies, and that is that. Also, we have been told that in August you should root prune the perimeter of the space in which you want it to grow. It will send up shoots inside that line. We shall see.

This garden was the scene of many wonderful gatherings in the short time we lived there and John and I both have very fond memories of the space.

When I recall being at that house, I think of the garden.

OUR NEW COURTYARD GARDEN

After learning how to do this blogging thing from the web guru of the family (son, Charles) we decided to give it a go.. It may be a good way to keep in touch and I love that we can put up photos! So here goes. We have been spending a great deal of time in the garden. Here it is just after we installed it. The raised beds have been working out really well because we get good drainage under the stone and garden soil and have not had to plant anything in the solid clay that is underneath.
John and I designed the patio and layed the pavers and the wall stones ourselves, with the help of Austin. We then dumped 300+ bags of topsoil and compost and peat moss into the beds. It is all set up with automatic sprinklers so that when it gets very hot here, or when we are out of town, it will be watered adequately. Normally I water by hand. It keeps me in touch with each plant .. more personal.
The other view of the garden is toward the house, which has a large covered porch surrounded by french doors on three sides.
Although we moved into this house in late October, we only put in the courtyard and garden this April. Finally it seems like we really live here! A home without a garden doesn't quite feel like home yet.

We are loving this space!
Patricia