Celebrating with family

This summer brought another family wedding, this time of my cousin Aaron and his wonderful wife Jen. The extended Gallogly clan converged on a lodge in the Pennsylvania hills to celebrate, and being all together "in the middle of nowhere" was brilliant fun. There was even a total power outage during a thunderstorm after the reception, and we all huddled together by the glow of iPhones with bottles of wine in our rooms like afterhours at summer camp.

Introducing (the very happy) Mr. and Mrs Gallogly

Andy and I flew into Pittsburgh from Baltimore (see previous post on my birthday shenanigans) and were scooped up by our parents and driven to the Foggy Mountain lodge. Following the wedding rehearsal (Andy was a groomsman and mom and I were readers in the mass) and a delicious rehearsal dinner, many of the family congregated in the lodge common room to sing happy birthday for me and have cake (aw shucks).  Thank you very much, Aaron and Jen, for providing a wonderful excuse to see everyone.

The next morning, with the sun peeking through, we all got dressed up and headed to the church. I have never seen my cousin so happy, and I am thrilled that Jen is now an official part of the family. I think the best bit of being asked to do one of the readings was that I got the opportunity during the mass to see the faces of the bride and groom... thank you again to the newlyweds for the opportunity!

My parents, looking rather good, no?

After the wedding, we headed back to the lodge for the reception where I was introduced to an unusual western Pennsylvania tradition: the cookie table. For months, nearly half a year, Jen's family has been baking. Maybe two batches over a weekend, one during the week; her mom, her grandmother... it all added up slowly but surely. Freezers stockpiled cookies, of all shapes, sizes, and flavors, and then all defrosted and revealed for the reception. Every guest had a box to take away as many as they could carry... probably three dozen or more per person. Absolutely delicious tradition. (And of course I left my box in the hotel when we left... whoops)

It was a great party, complete with a photo booth, balloon animals and hats, and school dance music that had everyone enjoying themselves. I've put up many more shots from the wedding in this album, I hope you enjoy!



Come Sunday morning, we got back on the road towards Long Island, with Bill and Tracy following our family out in their car. We brought them into the city one day ( and certainly made them walk... er... a lot ), but New York was at it's sunny summer best and I hope they had a good (albeit slightly exhausting) time. The next day Andy and I hopped on a ferry to the Fire Island Pines. We both hadn't been there in nearly two decades, and we had forgotten about the stunning beaches that you can see from the end of our street. Besides the jaunt to the beach, we rode bikes and even painted the garage. We drank wine at vineyards out east. Mom and I went kayaking one morning. We ate fruits and veg straight from the garden, and we ate them outside in the sun (and with a few bugs, unfortunately).  And there was plenty of shopping, both necessary and unnecessary. It was, in short, Summer at its finest, and sitting in chilly rainy Wales I am missing it dearly.

How summertime meals should be

Gazing back at Long Island from across the Great South Bay

Dad enjoying wine out east

Many more shots of the city, the beach, and home in general can be found in this album.

Birthday in Baltimore

I think I've been subtly brainwashed. Growing up, our kitchen had pictures of my parents eating crabs. With friends, with family, and with great enthusiasm. So now, as an adult, I associate celebrations with eating crabs. And thus, a slightly random idea was hatched for my 30th birthday.

I think I can say that I know how to eat a crab now, without someone putting it into cake form for me. I love food that comes with a weapon and protective clothing.

Where does one eat crabs, if possible? Why, in Maryland of course! I knew I would be flying solo to the US for a family wedding, to occur the day after my birthday. I also was running under the assumption my parents would be off camping in the wilderness during that period. So I arranged (in the vaguest sense of the word) to head down to Baltimore for a few days and see some of my most darling of friends to make the most of this slightly awkward scheduling.

Ashley (on the left, below) was my closest confidant in Cardiff before she relocated to John Hopkins, and Tracy Jill (looking fierce on the right, below) was my closest confidant at the NIH until I traipsed off to the UK and she left DC for Baltimore. My life is ever so slightly less for not having them physically nearby, and this visit was a much needed reconnection.

To our surprise and drunken delight, Baltimore was hosting "BronyCon" ... a large annual meeting for Bronys. What are Bronys, you ask? Well, I have learned that they are men who are obsessed, proudly, with My Little Pony. I'm sure they are lovely people, but en masse it was a very very surreal addition to our little pub crawl

I stayed with Ashley, and upon arrival we promptly drank a bottle of wine (followed by another) and caught up on the necessary gossip. The second day we visited her lab at Hopkins; her colleagues also moved there from Cardiff, so I had a nice mini reunion along with a tour of 'the sights.' (Highlight: I had just finished watching season 3 of the wire right before this trip, and we got to walk through the market where McNulty has his kids trail Stringer Bell.)

As an aside, I did feel Baltimore was somewhat strange, as a city. I can't tell what was a real impression and what was a pre-conception based on watching the Wire and hearing about Bodymore, Murderland, but it was genuinely interesting and occasionally unnerving how the city stopped and started. But for my birthday celebrations we stuck to the highly gentrified Fell's Point area on the harbor, so my parents didn't have to be worried.

You may have noticed that Andy featured in the first photo. "But Molly," you may be asking, "doesn't Andy live in Japan?" Well yes, yes he does. But he is also an absolutely amazing brother who flew into JFK and went straight to get an Amtrak train down to Baltimore to join in the evening fun. He was jetlagged, he was travel-weary, and yet he faced down crab picking and Bronycon pubs for ME. Well, the intercontinental travel was mostly to go to our cousin's wedding, but the extra bits were all mine.

So we ate crabs and went to a bunch of pubs. I drank too much and we stayed out too late, and Andy had to help me stumble delicately to BWI the next morning to get our flight to Pittsburgh. And we saw a goat wearing a diaper in the airport (no joke, but sadly no picture).  It was a damn fine way to usher in the next day/month/year/decade/whatever.

Feeling a bit blurry; I'm not as young as I once was...

Special thanks to Ashley (and George), Tracy Jill (and Matt), Nick (and Gemma), and of course Andy for giving me this present :)

And as usual, more photos can be found HERE.

An Oxford wedding

July brought us another celebration: our friends Dan and Rosie got married on a sunny summer day in the glorious New College chapel. We know the couple through music, which may help explain the absolutely fantastic trombone archway for Rosie's entrance...

The ceremony had beautiful music, with excellent organ and choir, and our bench of orchestra friends sang the hymns enthusiastically (and occasionally with harmony). We then trickled outdoors to greet Mr. and Mrs. McGowan in the grassy courtyard of the New College cloisters. Unfortunately, Dave and I did not manage much time with the bride and groom, but it was a wonderful reunion of Oxford music friends. A few of us occupied the afternoon with pizza and pints in a new gastropub before making our way to dance at the evening reception and ceilidh.

Please note my shiny new fascinator... Dave suggested I take the plunge and buy one, so we purchased this gem on the walk to the church. I was fascinated with it, to say the least.

Many congratulations to the happy couple; all our photos can be viewed in this album, enjoy!