woke up, it was a Chelsea wedding

Home. Even after four days away, it feels like paradise here. I thank the gods, the powers that be, whoever is up there, out there, for my house and garden, roof, floor. It's so good to be safely back. I've just spent half an hour checking the garden - there are four gardenia blooms out, so the air is scented; I've picked the bugs off the rosebush, checked the birdseed and the veggies, listened to my neighbour Rob doing his daily exercises to hard rock. Yes, I'm home.

Cannot complain about the journey to Ottawa and back - Anna timed it so her son was worn out and fell asleep shortly after we left both ways, so we had an hour of peace. Then when he woke we had CD's blasting, we sang songs, we kept him busy. His vocabulary is increasing daily, and his newest words are "OUT! NOW!" when he'd had enough of the car seat. But he had to wait till the next rest stop.

We went to Ottawa for my brother's 60th birthday party, held in his big house near Chelsea, Quebec. His partner of nearly 10 years, beautiful Emilie, mother of their son 6 year old Jake, had invited all of his old friends, and his homies, his best friends since the mid-sixties, appeared from near and far, including Jeff Mannering who flew in from Fort McMurray. My brother had a band then called Rion and the Zircons, and the Zircons were nearly all there. Mike was Rion. They played later, but I'd gone by then.

And then the surprise - after a few hours of mingling, just before we began to eat,  Mike called us together, dropped to one knee and proposed to Em. We all knew she has wanted to be married for a long time; he, the bachelor dad, was not ready. But now he was. They'd planned this as a surprise - almost no one knew. A JP was waiting to do the very simple ceremony, conducted in both English and French, as Em, though 100% bilingual, is Francophone. There were tears, many of them mine. At one moment, my brother looked so much like my dad, it took my breath away.
Click to enlarge.

The homies gather.

 Just after the proposal.

 During the ceremony, with Jake

 Les mariés.
I found a harmonica in Mike's music room (an incredible basement hangout full of guitars, amps, drums, instruments of all kinds) and showed it to Eli, who immediately started playing. A friend of Mike's who'd brought his guitar started to play, and the two of them jammed. And then we feasted and ate the Frank Zappa cake.

 Eli's first jam session with harp and guitar

 The cake, for the groom who's a Zappa nut.

Next day - two, thirty-three, ninety-four.

Family - you can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.