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.

Two weddings and a Poplet

This summer is full of weddings... everyone told me this would happen at some point, so now I'm officially in "that stage" where one by one my friends and family get hitched. It's a lot of time and money and travel, but also absolutely lovely to share in all the bubbling happiness.

First up this year was the wedding of Dave's brother. Peter and Mari have been together since the equivalent of high school, have spent many years of university apart while Peter was in Oxford and Mari in Cardiff (sound familiar?), and everyone was thrilled to see them make it official. The wedding was held in a register office and then guests walked to a nearby italian restaurant. It was smaller than other weddings I've been to, and everything was personal and laid back.

Not sure what Peter was saying here, but I love this photo.

Dave and I did have some jobs to do during the day... in addition to Dave being one of the witnesses, we were both drafted in for a slightly unusual musical ensemble. For the recessional, Dave, me, the bride's sister, and a friend of the couple played an arrangement of the Queen of Sheba written for four oboes. Odd? Certainly. But it was fun and made everyone smile (even the four of us). It's not too often that four oboes can get that reaction :)

Oboe quartet. And no, I never look attractive while playing the oboe.

More photos from the day can be seen here.


We also were invited to a wedding of two musical friends of ours that have played for years and years in the Oxford Millennium Orchestra (OMO, the one Dave conducts and that tours in Europe every summer). Natalie and Alex had a lucky burst of sunlight as they were married in a charming English village church near where they grew up, a little drive outside of Oxford.

During the space between the ceremony and evening reception, four of us drove our hired car to a nearby village where we had a few pints and an excellent meal at a gastropub. We rejoined the wedding party as the ceilidh band was starting up. If you don't know what a ceilidh (pronounced cay-lee) is, think of it as celtic/gaelic square dancing or line dancing. A caller takes you through the steps, like 'strip the willow' and the slightly dangerous spinning 'basket,' and the general feeling is of giddy dizziness. The effect was, I admit, amplified by the free-flowing wine :)

After a quick night's sleep, Dave and I headed out again, taking our trusty hire car to visit our friends now a few hours drive away. Laura and Tim Popkin were hitched sometime last year, and quickly started getting down to business by buying a house and having a baby. We were overdue to see both house and baby, and we found the most perfect day to visit.

James (still known as Poplet, which is what we called him long before he had a proper name) was adorable and quite patient with the two interlopers. Dave and I didn't mess things up too badly. Laura and Tim were delightful hosts, providing a BBQ feast in the blazing sunshine. It gets harder and harder to keep in contact with friends as they do the marriage/house/baby thing, but it is definitely worth it.

For more pictures from Nat&Alex's wedding and our visit to the Popkins, the full album can be seen here.

The Great American Family Trip of Autumn 2013

This September, Dave and I trekked across the Atlantic for the best of reasons... my uncle Bill got married! After two flight transfers we were scooped up by my cousins Emily and Lizzie at Indianapolis airport and deposited into a Holiday Inn full of my extended family.

Bill and Tracy Gallogly got hitched on the most spectacularly sunny of days, and looking through the photos you will see just how happy we all were. The bride looked gorgeous (bride and groom looked TAN), and everyone was smiling. This visit I especially liked reconnecting with my cousins; I think some of us naturally drifted apart over the last decade or so, as people moved away, got new jobs, got married, and got busy lives, but something in that process has stopped or even turned around. We're all still very different, but I loved the easy-going family thing that we seem to have aged into. The other excellent bit was how easy it was to drop Dave into the middle of the family chaos. I think he knows more names of distant relatives than I do, and I didn't have to worry at all when I wandered off and left him to fend for himself. So yes, bravo Dave, and bravo rest of family, you all work out nicely.

USA trip September 2013

After the wedding weekend, Andy headed back towards Japan while Dave and I joined my parents for the long drive home to New York. There we ate a LOT (it turns out I actually do like dry rub BBQ ribs), drank a fair bit (wine tasting out east at Channing Daughters winery), and enjoyed the sandy beaches and pumpkin farmstands of Long Island in the fall. One glorious day Dave and I invaded Brooklyn to gossip with the lovely Kate Stocker and putter across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. It was perhaps my best visit home yet (having Andy would have been icing on the cake). I was sad to leave after only a week, but while in transit at Dublin Airport we managed to catch Bill and Tracy on their way back from their Ireland honeymoon. Not even a week of driving on the wrong side of the road could dim their newlywed happiness :)

A Very Bright Christmas 2012

Christmas was perfect... it was good to be back home after a year away. Hopefully 2013 will find me back in Bayport more than once!

Our tree!

Our family tradition is to extend Christmas morning as long as possible. This used to be done with lots and lots more presents, but now with two "adult children" (as mom now calls us) this is done with many breaks for baking, coffee making, and eating. Now, I really love this in principle, but this year we were a little ridiculous! At one point I had to lay down the law and demand a continuous string of 4 presents in a row. Then I ate another sticky bun.

Before anyone could have known I would be a music nerd,
my Christmas stocking had three musical Santas

Christmas begins on Christmas eve of course. First we have the neighbors (plus a few almost-neighbors) over for brunch. This year I realized that Emma, the one actual child that comes to this event, has been going to this her entire life. It feels rather special to know that this new tradition, which I remember being created almost 10 years ago, will be one of those things she always associates with Christmas.

I usually open one present before midnight mass, which inevitably ends up to be something I can wear to church. This year I had a festive red scarf to go with my new little black dress (Yes, mom and I had an impressive pre-holiday shopping adventure that resulted in multiple dresses. If you are going to go shopping before Christmas, it is important to go with the person who has bought most of your presents so that you avoid overlap!)

Midnight mass was at 10 pm, obviously. The actual service was preceded by half an hour of music, and it was the usual suspects of assorted instrumentalists (plus Kate Stocker! Yay!) joining the massive choir that emerges from the woodwork for this one holiday and this one holiday only. Us musicians, well, we don't exactly rehearse for these gigs, so we can all be pleasantly pleased with how decently it comes together for the performance.

The next morning, before presents even begin, the sticky bun dough made the night before and left to slowly rise overnight is stretched and pounded into shape and rolled up into perfect parcels of cinnamon butter delight.

The family tradition of sticky-bun making on Christmas morning

Mom looking lovely in front of stockings hung by the chimney with care

Presents were stretched out into mid afternoon, across many sessions of sticky bun munching and general fuss in the kitchen. I also had to slip out to make my challah bread dough to fulfill my part of the family Christmas culinary traditions:

My 8-stranded braid of challah bread... baked it twice this holiday!

Barbara and Charlie from across the street joined us for our evening feast, making Christmas dinner about half the work it normally is and adding twice the company.

Mom and Barbara give a wave on Christmas day

What I don't have pictures of is the rest of this very relaxing visit home. Andy arrived late in my visit, as he was sent on a last minute business adventure to Japan this year. At least he made it home! Still, he displayed very entertaining jetlag, and often took over my dad's job of randomly dozing while the rest of us watched Smiley's People. As an extreme example of his condition, on his first night he was fading fast at 7pm. Knowing that it is important to power through, I put him to work icing cutout sugar cookies until 10. Andy.... icing cookies.... while half asleep.... this year's batch was "varied" to say the least :-p

I caught up with old friends as well. Cailin Wilke and her mom came over for a mother-daughter (and red wine) viewing of the movie Brave. Kate Stocker, following her impressive debut at Our Lady of the Snow, met up with me at Starbucks, the local reunion spot of choice, for a Boxing Day Lattay™. The next day I returned to Starbucks to see Glenn Dengeles, whom I hadn't seen since high school (ten years!). I know that I am not particularly attached to the Bayport community at this point, but coming home and reconnecting with people felt wonderful.

So family, friends, food... what more could a girl ask for? Merry Christmas everyone!

Bringing a bit of Wales to my New York Christmas

An absolute nightmare to get off the baking tray, but when else do YOU get to eat the DRAGON?

Andy in Wales!

This Thanksgiving, Andy booked a flight to finally come visit me in Wales... between his amazing long-awaited business trip to Brazil and the last-minute business trip to Japan (he's flying back as I type), he spent over a week traipsing about the southern Welsh coast in the wind and the wet, puttering about Cardiff while I spent a few token hours at work, and helping pull off one of the most ridiculous Thanksgiving feasts I could dream up.

Here are two albums from his visit. First up, a documentation of our day trips to see castles and coastline cliffs. For one day (and one day only) we had epic British weather. The blue skies smiled on our visit to Caerphilly Castle, which sits a 20 minute drive north of Cardiff but that I had yet to go see. Sometimes it takes a special visitor to get you out there! The rest of the week was less weather-friendly, as Wales and England were hit with record rainfall and flooding along with gale force winds. We still managed to stop by Tintern Abbey (a family favorite, it would seem, and featuring earlier on my blog) and Raglan Castle, which was possibly even more awesome for the fear of seriously being blown off the crumbling turrets. Finally, we dropped down to Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula to see the "Worm's Head" (Worm from the word Orm meaning Dragon... I told you we had dragons in Wales!).  We couldn't cross the causeway to the Worm's head like Dave and I did on our visit with my parents because it was high tide.  Instead, Andy and I went both up to the top of the nearby hill--where gorgeous views and horses made the muck and the incline worth it-- and down to the white sand beach, where reflections of clouds in the setting sunlight were surprisingly well-captured by our little point and shoot camera. Enjoy the album!

Andy's walks in Wales

At the end of the week we hosted Thanksgiving for my Cardiff friends. Instead of a typical Turkey, I decided to attempt a multi-bird roast. In our case, a five bird roast: a partridge inside a pheasant inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, all sewn up, covered in bacon, and roasted for many many hours. I have an album of the construction of this bizarre masterpiece, and from the merry feast that followed. Quite merry--- we went through large quantities of booze and guests left in the wee hours of the morning, leaving Andy with only two hours before he had to get picked up by a taxi on his way to the airport!

Thanksgiving Cardiff 2012

All in all, a fantastic visit. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!

A month for family

The last month or so has been a surprising mix of the terrible, the hard, the wonderful, and the relaxed.  I finally left my job at the NIH... I have had "going away parties" on numerous occasions for each extended trip I took over to Oxford, but this was the big last goodbye.  Dr. Bright packed up all her earthly belongings, put them in the brave little minivan, and headed precariously home to New York.  In the end, I think that I will sincerely miss my lab at the NIH; despite some tough times, I came to really appreciate the people and the place more than I expected, and I left Bethesda on very good terms, with an NIH sweatshirt, a card signed by all my colleagues, and a rather large gift certificate for John Lewis (a UK department store).

At the same time, my family was coping with a tragedy.  My grandmother suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, spent a few challenging days in the hospital, and was eventually brought home to Lake George for home hospice care.  About the time I arrived in Indiana, she was coming home.  My mom was amazing.  My whole family was amazing.  Somehow, a tragic event was almost beautiful, and my grandma passed away in her own bedroom with all her children holding hands around her.

After the funeral, I drove the little mini cooper up to my brother's house in Ann Arbor, where I proceeded to do very little.  I initially intended to stay for the weekend.  Then I stayed for a week.  Then 10 days.  Whoops!  But I had much needed downtime, and puttered about the garden between walks into town for posh coffee.  Pansies, espresso drinks, cooking with Andy... no surprise I stayed so long :)

Andy completely remade the front porch of his house, and I was fortunate enough to watch it all come together.  With no  help from me (but at least without my clumsiness ruining too much), Andy put up the finished railings.  As a finishing touch, he created a trellis for the north side, in the same style as the trellis on our grandparent's porch that we found in old black and white photographs.

The handyman himself, relaxing on the porch swing he refurbished.

I had been worried about the pansies, since when I left they looked like this.

Andy recently emailed me this updated photo of our pansy project... "resplendent" indeed :)

When I finally started to be bored with my life of leisure, I took the little mini home to Long Island.  For kicks, I opted to drive via Canada instead of Ohio (although they are equally boring stretches of North America), and spend the night in the very, erm, bizarre town of Niagara Falls.  Although the falls are rather impressive, the budget hotel I picked out of my data-roaming-charged-smartphone was in the middle of an off-season theme-park/freak-show/fun-house/wax-museum neighborhood that was rather Norman-Bates creepy without the throngs of whiny eight-year-olds that I assume flood the streets in the summertime.  But, I survived the night, passed through customs, and took fun two-lane twisty roads most of the way back to the NY metropolitan area.  Like the commercial says, "Mini cooper... handles like a go-cart."

The falls.  At night, they are lit up by big spotlights that change colors.

After getting some wanderlust out of my system, I settled into a cozy routine back at Casa Gallogly-Bright.  The newest addition to the family fleet, two banana yellow pedal kayaks, were a highly enjoyable addition to the weeks at home.  Good work mom and dad!  After a little foray up to Montreal (for another post), I hunkered down to pack up my entire life into boxes to be shipped in a container ship over to Cardiff.  I will only post about that process when/if I get all those boxes delivered in 4-6 weeks time!  And, simply because it wouldn't be a blog entry without entirely random pictures, here is one from a trip to the North Fork with Mom and Barbara to see alpacas.  Yes, alpacas. 

Yup, Mom and Barbara and alpacas.  They were both doing their best to convince the other to buy them.  "Never need to cut grass again!"

Equally random pic of my dad, preemptively celebrating our stuffed bell peppers :)

I knit now

At Christmas I learned how to knit: my neighbor Barbara valiantly showed me the basics, and equipped me with way-nicer yarn than she should have (oh so cozy). I departed on my first project: a rectangle. Then, when complete, I put the ends together to make a tube which I dubbed "leg warmer." Then, a few weeks later, I got tired of wearing just one leg warmer-- the fashion was NOT catching on-- and a second one was made to complete the set.

Next up, actually trying to follow a pattern. I am not very good at obedience to instructions, but I am good at counting, and you-tubing when help is needed, so I figured I might as well try to learn provisional cast on, ribbing, cables, grafting, and stitch counting all at once. I found a gorgeous pattern for an infinity scarf online, and off I went.

The best part is, my grandma joined in the fun. She is currently making an identical one, which will no doubt have far fewer mistakes than mine will, and unlike me she will probably be super generous and give the final product to my mom. Who is excited to receive it I think :)

Now I just need to keep count... row... um.... which row am I on again?

Family time for birthdays

For my 26th birthday, conveniently falling on a weekend this year, I made a rather impromptu decision to trek up to Long Island for some quality family time.  Considering the majority of my blog audience IS said family, this is a rather unnecessary post.  Still, there are pictures at least!

I called Mom to make sure they would actually be home that weekend.  Then I called Andy to randomly ask if he felt like coming out too.  And, because he is the bestest sibling ever (or *really* wanted to spend oodles of frequent flier miles and enjoy the lovely Delta experience), he made a quick late night decision to book a ticket and come too.  Suddenly my birthday was, well, fantastic.

Arrived on a slow moving bus from Bethesda (a few blocks from my apartment) to Penn Station (importantly, adjacent to a Starbucks... I had a caffeine withdrawal headache after the extra hour of Lincoln Tunnel traffic), and was picked up in style by the parents in the Prius who had scooped up an Obama-Detroit-visit-delayed-Andy from JFK en route.  Mom has named the Prius "Slick" before dad can come up with another PT Cruiser Porkchop equivalent, although "the Beep-Mobile" may catch on.  We glided silently and fuel-efficiently down to Chelsea, parked, and walked over to the latest and greatest addition to the island of Manhattan: the Highline.

A decaying, grisly ghost of an elevated train line running along the eastern avenues of NYC has been looming over the meatpacking district for ages now. Someone had the good sense to turn it into a pedestrian only elevated park, with wild and natural plantlife and spectacular views through, around, over, into, and beyond the buildings it navigates.  I don't have too many experiences being able to see the Hudson river, which is suggested in the glow of the setting sun in the nice family photo taken by a Droid-savvy passerby.

Following a nice walk along the finished section, we traversed the trendy meat-packing district (which does actually still have a sausage making plant or two amid the ultra hip restaurants!) and found our Zagat recommended mexican restaurant.  Some Margaritas, guacamole, and AMAZING FOOD later, and we waddled back to the Prius, er, "Slick," and drove out the island to home.

Saturday we spent the whole day in relaxed food preparation mode, with fresh corn being shucked, marinated chicken bits being skewered, cornbread being "set," and lots of goodies facing the outdoor grill (BBQ maestro Andy in charge).  Barbara and Charlie came from next door, bringing even more food, and we ate an epic feast of birthday deliciousness.  And I blew out four candles (four years until I'm thirty!) set into glorious rhubarb cupcakes with burnt butter icing.  Utterly perfect.

The next night we had presents.  Pictured is Andy, with his belated birthday presents from the parents.  I headed back to the Penn Station bus with lots of kitchen goods: my family knows me well :)

Well, I am clearly rambling on here to avoid working on my latest thesis chapter.  Tsk tsk.  Did I mention?  Dave's present to me is a visit this September, so I need to have lots of thesis done by then!