A Destination Wedding

"Google enhanced" view from our cabin

We are back from the mountains of Tennessee, where it was almost cold at night, warm and sunny in the afternoon. and perfect weather, really, for everything except sitting in the sun in nice clothes (suits for the men!) for an outdoor (5PM) wedding.

The young girls wore bare dresses with lots of flesh exposed. But someone my age is not comfortable with that! So I was a little warm. The printed wedding program had a handle and served as a fan--a very nifty idea.

We all stayed in spacious log cabins with air-conditioning for the days and hot tubs for the nights. The deck was high above the ground, but an animal of some sort left scat by the hot tub. Yes, there are bears in the Smoky Mountains. And fires were strictly verboten.

We had the best mountain view out of the three cabins occupied by our other family members. We had booked for three nights. Our whole family of 7 was in attendance, as well as all of the husband's siblings. and many from the cousin generation. Son-in-law G. demonstrated his new drone, filming us watching it on our deck.

The husband took relatives touring a bit in Smoky Mountain National Park, including Cade's Cove. I visited a cool pottery shop in Pigeon Forge and joined in some tablet Jeopardy in the cabin. Time dragged on both days, but I was okay with the relaxing. For instance, Friday I was up around 8 and the BBQ was from 6-8, so there were many hours to fill.

Getting ready for the trip had proven tiring and trying--trying to get things done and then having my car stall in the middle of it all. But I managed to work in a haircut at 8 PM the night before.

The wedding activities were all pulled off in great style. The buffet wedding dinner was delayed longer than we old folks could stomach, and then some took the shuttle home early--before the table of donuts (cake donuts?) was brought out and before the Mellow Mushroom pizzas were delivered! The open bar remained open, but I was not much in the mood for drinking.

The flower girl stole the show, with her poufy dress (below), the guitarist played impeccably and the mountain views were spectacular. There was a table loaded with candy to snack on or take home in pretty bags.

So besides being an unforgettable mountain setting for a wedding with many cute touches, what was really different (in my experience) about this wedding? It was filmed professionally by drone!

Also unusual was the fact that I did not get out my camera phone once on the wedding day. Plenty others were taking photos, including this one:

Cuteness!

Summer Food and Folly

Because the summer has dragged on long and hot with few days away or even days for elective fun, I decided to indulge a bit, going out to eat and drink multiple times during restaurant week, even though the week has been rather hit and miss in the past.

I took photos of some of the food and posted them on Facebook. The first night of restaurant week I persuaded the husband to join me and picked a spot where he could be comfortable--Slows BBQ at Downtown Market. We each selected a draft from their list (not a brewery) and ordered a sandwich each, for the 2/25 price that was featured. The deal also included a cheese dip with toast points that was delicious. My Yardbird chicken sandwich was scrumptious, better than the BBQ beef sandwich. We ordered a side of potato salad as well and it was all more than I could finish. We had a lovely young waitress and sat by the window in the uncrowded Wednesday evening venue. Even though it was not a gourmet menu made special for restaurant week, it was satisfying, with reliably palate-pleasing basics.

The week ended up being as much about the brews as the food. My interest in craft beer ebbs and flows, but I went to two new breweries and felt compelled to sample their stuff, even reverting to a flight of four samples, like back in my year of beer!

Flight at Big Boiler Brewery

So at Slows I choose a Left Hand Brewery milk stout on nitro that went down smooth. The husband enjoyed a brown ale from Trailside in Allendale, brewed especially for Slows--Don't Slow Me Down.

Lunch at Rose's with J. and O.

I also went to lunch at Rose's (lunch not included in restaurant week) with friends and was intrigued by the "sunken piano" ale which was featured on the draft list, which falsely claimed it was from Founders, but actually was brewed for "A Taste of East Grand Rapids by Saugatauk Brewing Co. and was featured in 3 or 4 EGR restaurants. I am trying to expand my palate, with gose beer and even some IPA's! I have come to enjoy Founders Green Zebra, a watermelon gose which is great on hot summer nights. I am told that there are some interesting New England IPA's that should be explored.

Is there really a piano at the bottom of Reeds lake??

On Friday afternoon J. and I enjoyed the shaded area of the upper level garden patio deck at Rockwell Republic. downtown. Parking was tricky, but the restaurant gave out vouchers for the parking garage nearby. They also had a good draft list and after several overly-generous samples from our waitress, I choose some kind of stout--I think it was the barrel aged milk route stout--but I have almost no memory of it! (No photo: it didn't happen.)

Then there was a funeral memorial service... I took J. out for a late lunch in Lowell at another new brewery which featured special restaurant week menus for both lunch and dinner.  It was not busy in the middle of the afternoon and the manager and waitress were friendly and accommodating. Also, the food was actually tasty. I had clam chowder and sampled J.'s flash fried risotto balls in a marinara sauce. My main course was a large salad. And I had the flight pictured above.

Melt in my mouth Filet Mignon at Cygnus

Also, we were invited to a retirement dinner on Saturday night for Judge J. It was the first Saturday night of restaurant week, but the menu was pre-selected for the venue. The filet was so tender and the dessert so pretty. But the small room up a floor from Cygnus was hot and crowded and never really cooled down with 35+ bodies in the tower in the sky.

So fancy!

I visited one more new-to-me brewery, with O., on the second Friday night of restaurant week with again, an interesting draft list from a Detroit brewery transplant, Atwater. I had a (slightly) sour and salty What Gosearound that was a refreshing and easy-drinking 4-percenter.  O. tried a Whango (mango) fruit beer but couldn't detect much mango in the Whango! The food was mostly good and the husband enjoyed the leftovers, but it was nothing that special for their high priced restaurant week dinner choices. We stopped at a cone shop for a single dip of Hudsonville ice cream on the way home and that filled all the remaining spaces in our culinarilly-disappointed stomachs for the night.

And so it is time to eat (and drink) less--and simply, at home (for a few days!). Yesterday we had crock pot beef roast with store-made mashed potatoes ... and it made the husband very happy.

A Deathly Smell in the House

Signs of trauma and torture on this trap! I soaked it in baking soda for 3 days to remove all odors!

I think I still have a pretty good nose for smell (but who knows). The kitchen and refrigerator are the worst breeding grounds for bad odors in my house ... rotten veggies, gunk in the disposal, a dish rag that has been wet in the sink too long, or a tomato that has gone bad at the bottom of the bowl.

And I think I have a pretty strong tolerance for smell. I grew up on a farm, after all! The ammonia level in a chicken coop in the wintertime is enough to knock your socks off (or at least make your eyes water)! And of course ... all the pig manure on the farm. My brothers teased me when I was little for going barefoot (always) and occasionally "stepping in it". They called me Pig-manure Rosella! I haven't ever forgotten it. I think they chanted it to torment me.

Who of my sheltered city-raised children has any notion of that level of stink?

And it is I who chose to stand in a long line recently, and then chose to stick my nose over the spathe of the corpse flower at Meijer Gardens, in order to get a good whiff of its deathly odor!

Anyway, for a couple days this week I noticed a smell in the kitchen. I ground a lemon rind in the disposal and removed the rags and sponge from the sink--but it was worse than that, and pervasive.

I eventually discovered it was a mouse--dead in a trap below the sink. I don't ever catch a mouse in the summertime, so it was not expected. And it was ripe! The peanut butter on the trap had been untouched for at least 6 months but I had just left the trap under there.

It was so bad (once disturbed and removed in a bag to the outdoors) that I imagined the smell of it all day long--I couldn't get it out of my nose (or perhaps my imagination).

Another recent odor is that of skunks. I am careful at night in the yard. I have even seen a cute white skunk in the yard. They should not be living in our city neighborhood! Their scent lingers and sometimes drifts in through the dryer vent in the basement. Some people enjoy the scent of skunk. I do not!

The worst smell ever? I have a candidate for that! That time we came home from a family trip to Colorado during the summer after I graduated from college ... and checked on the husband's parents' house in Cicero. The smell was detected (and bad enough) as we opened the front door, but when the husband opened the basement freezer door looking for an ice cream bar, the odor exploded in his face!

What was it it? The freezer had died--for some time. His parents had recently stocked the freezer with beef, including lots of liver! Blood was dripping out onto the basement floor, with maggots developing. The meat was hot and steamy with decay.

We did manage to remove that mess. I will spare you the gory details. It involved a lot of Lysol, improvised nose masks, trash bags and a hockey stick! Needless to say, that freezer was never used again!

(I may have mentioned some of the above before in this blog. But who of you remembers, really?)

A Shower at the Lake

Cuteness from the Lake Michigan beach

A Saturday shower in South Haven by the shore was a smashing success, but sadly the shower was a bridal one, with no rain included!

It was hot--tolerably so--with lake breezes ... while I did nothing but sit, sit, sit. sipping adult summer beverages under the canopy of  trees. I could see the lake but I didn't even go down to check out the beach. I will do that some moderate September day!

The take home gifts (made by K.) were the little rock sculptures above and sea glass candy in a tiny mason jar. I am inspired to make bigger rock sculptures, ones with no glue--just artful balancing!

I'm Going all Chemical Ali!

Taken August 1. Last daylily of the season  ... in my shady backyard.

Last month my friend O. said she was going to war (my word) against her garden weeds with Roundup, a controversial herbicide and possible carcinogen, touted for years by Monsanto to be safe.

 I kidded her that I was going to call her Chemical Ali. She didn't recall the reference.

Ali was the military officer, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, who was responsible ultimately (and eventually hanged) for his role (along with other war crimes) in the gassing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq. He was dubbed Chemical Ali.

Well, lately I have become Chemical Rosie! I just had summer weed control applied by TruGreen on my lawn and the whole place smells like chemicals. I also had the property sprayed for mosquitoes for the first time. I didn't detect any odor from that.

So far at church I have not used Preen (pre-emergent control) or the herbicide Round-Up. I did use Bayer 3-in-1 on the Knockout roses this Spring. I use Milorganite and Osmocote and Miracle Gro fertilizer and spray with putrified egg solids for rabbit and deer deterrence. I throw bleach in the fountain weekly, which assures no children will be infected if they play in the water. In fact, all that stuff is pretty safe ... and nothing has been noticeably nibbled.

I am allowing a few cherry tomatoes to volunteer as weeds in the petunias unchecked. Snapdragons are happily volunteering all over the place in one section of the garden. Volunteers are important in the church, and especially in the garden--with me being the chief volunteer!

At my uncle's property chemicals have been strictly verboten because of the visiting grand dog--until this year. The sweet dog has passed on. So now I am adding algeacide to the pond and I used Roundup the other day on some weeds in the rocks. Charlie, the resident dog, has been exhibiting symptoms of skin cancer for over a year now and is quite old, so I'm not as concerned about him anymore. Also, I think weed control has been used on that lawn this year.

Wasp nest fell out of patio umbrella when brave hubby opened it. He got stung on the elbow! I killed them with Dawn dish soap! I was concerned about the table, so I used a safe insecticide in this case.

In other news, where are the bees? Few bees (except a few bumbles) have been seen on the drumstick allium or the (invasive) variegated porcelain berry vine. The good news is, I have not been stung this year. The bad news, of course ... the loss of the honey bee.

While I prefer not to use any unnecessary chemicals (even taking the time to spread my coffee grounds in the hostas to deter slugs), this year's weed crop (that seems to be flourishing in spite of the drought that is turning the lawn brown!) has driven me to extreme measures against the weeds. And bugs are always unwelcome. I am at war!

But please don't hang me (or even expose me) for my war crimes against the environment!