DAY 1 - JUNGLE FRESCO

We are just beginning a project with two artists to do a fresco of a jungle scene on the walls of the patio. The walls are opposite the glass wall of the living and dining rooms. All of the Bedrooms also have glass walls with sliding doors overlooking the patio with its soon to be jungle scene. There will be birds, butterflies and a monkey in a tree. The fresco is going to be spectacular. One of the artists is local, Gerardo de la Barrera, and the other is a friend of ours, Stuart Brandt, who with his partner have just bought a house to remodel here in the center of the city not far from us. Click on Stuart's name and you will be taken to his Studio web site with incredible examples of his work.)

This is Gerardo and Stuart's first collaboration.

Here is Gerardo mixing natural dyes with lime.



















Color samples on the wall.

WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT

Earlier this summer Ed and I made plans to join an AARP week long cruise in September on the Danube. Since the flight to Europe leaves from NYC we will first spend a week visiting my mother and family in Berne. As you might have read, a couple of days ago the Massachusetts legislature passed a law that for the first time allows gays from out of State to get married there. I proposed to Ed that while we are in Berne we drive to Mass. and get legally married. He accepted my proposal, (even though it was not on bended knee!). The wedding will take place at the historic Village Inn in Lenox. My mother, siblings, aunts and uncles, and respective spouses will attend the ceremony. Then we will return to Berne for a reception attended by the my extended family at the pond house on my brother Ralph's farm, the location of many family celebrations.