28 Years

28 years ago, the weather was pretty crappy. I remember it quite well: Mt. St. Helens erupted 3 weeks earlier and dumped billions of tons of ash into the sky. Weather forecasters used that as an excuse for why spring was loathe to warm up and turn to summer. In later years, they used El Nino for an excuse. But 28 years ago, I wasn’t concerned about the weather or how depressing the long grey days were. I had a wedding to plan.

My soon-to-be brother-in-law, Don kept looking at the weather and shaking his head: “Are you sure you don’t have an alternative plan for your wedding?” (Everyone in my husband’s family was named Don: His uncle, Donovan, his grandfather, Don Roberts, and his brother-in-law.)

“Nope,” I said (cheerfully), “God wouldn’t do that to me: the 7th will be beautiful.”

And it was. The sun came out for the 7th and the 8th, then the rain came back. God didn’t rain on my outdoor wedding.

28 years later, I happen to know that this weather can be typical of the Pacific Northwest: we don’t need a volcano to erupt or El Nino or whatever for an excuse. We have the Portland Rose Festival. It rains.

Whatever. It’s cold and it is grey and I need sunshine desperately. There, I’ve whined.

Don just left for the weekend: he’s going to go work on trails for the USFS with some friends. He can’t get the garden planted because of the cold & rain, so he’s going to cut brush instead. He left Murphy here to watch me. Or me to watch Murphy. It’s OK, we celebrated our anniversary yesterday.

We went out for a little wine tasting at Vino’s (Bruce was showcasing Syrahs) with some friends. Then we came home and unpacked packages. Don was a busy bee the last few weeks. He ordered a set of china (place settings for as his 25th anniversary gift from his employer and that arrived yesterday. Mikasa Calla Lily, if you’re curious. We did get the serving set as well.

But there was another box. I figured it was probably some stamp item or oddity he found on eBay. I was partly right, but mostly wrong. It was a beautiful blue vase:

Makes you wonder if he reads my blog! He doesn’t, he’s just been married to me for 28 years.

It’s very attractive with some of my rain weary peonies. Come to think of it, my peonies have never bloomed past the 1st of June: they’re long done by now. This year, they have another two weeks of life left in them. The yellow double tree peony is still blooming – now there is a record!

I just wanted to share what I got for my anniversary. Another vase. An especially lovely vase.

It wasn’t an especially lovely June 7th here, rainy and cold and dreary and grey. Oh well, at least I got a nice sunny day 28 years ago. And the best Donald of the bunch. I rather think he’s a keeper.