Rubydo

Our exciting purchases arrived in time for the rubydo on 11th August, but before that, we had a trip to the Edinburgh Festival to see the 3 Chinese Tenors,  made some new gardening contacts and celebrated Emily and Richard’s first wedding anniversary by lighting the unity candles. The day was doubly celebratory when a scan confirmed that they are expecting their first baby.

Meanwhile, preparations for our rubydo and Jo’s wedding were keeping us busy. There was painting and general tidying in the house but most attention was paid to the garden where we hoped to have a short ceremony. We’d built the retaining wall for the flower beds and tried to paint it white. It doesn’t look quite the same as the one at the Floriade but with enough coats it will work both as a retaining wall and a seat.

I then tried planting a willow screen with honeysuckle, clematis and sweet peas growing up it. First of all the deer ate the clematis and honeysuckle, then the sweet peas just didn’t grow (but neither did Monty Don’s!) so the willow still looks a bit pathetic. But the plants from various sources are gradually filling out the colour coded beds. They hadn’t reached their best by the 11th August but gardener’s know they have to be patient!

Similarly the radishes and lettuces for the rubydo salads either went to seed or were eaten but the greenhouse is full of tomatoes, cucumber, gherkins and squash which we hope will provide us with crops soon. We’ve been weeding and weeding the veg garden and lifted the first potatoes for the fish pie.

After a dodgy week, the sun came out for Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday allowing all our visitors to see the area at its best. Things kicked off with a barbecue for the campers and some of the visitors on Friday night, and we put them to use peeling potatoes. An accident on the A83 held up some of the Saturday travellers but eventually everyone gathered in the garden (nearly everyone wearing red somewhere or other) and Kathleen called us to order. We based the ceremony on 3 questions, How did you meet, Why were you attracted to each other and why/how did you stay together? We sang our replies to the first question to the tune of “I Remember It Well” from “Gigi”. John talked his way through number 2 and Suse read a song that she had written 40 odd years ago. Number 3 was a joint effort and then the singing started. We have some of this on video. (Old school, I’m afraid so we we’ll need to convert it before we can post it.)

First off was Neil Macdonald who sang “A Red, Red Rose” with Katie Evamy following with a Gaelic song The Boatman. The Fynesiders then gave their renderings of: “The Story of the Rose (Heart of My Heart); Loch Lomond; Unchained Melody and finally Susie.”  Elizabeth Henderson rounded things off with a Scots song. After a few much appreciated words from family and friends we cut Emily’s wonderful rubydo cake and Nick proposed the toast. Thereafter, the slow drift to the Village Hall began.

Behind the scenes, lots of people had been doing an amazing amount of work. Thanks everybody you made the day! Steve, Sharon and Richard worked their socks off preparing the food, organising parking and sorting out the Hall but Dave, Katie and Fiona were also much in evidence keeping glasses and plates filled. Once again, thanks to everybody especially those who braved the A83!

Needless to say, the food (mushroom pate, melon, fish pie with and without shellfish, chilli meat and veggie and Zoff’s delicious cheesecakes ) was well received and surprisingly we didn’t run out of drink! On this subject, thanks to everybody who gave us some lovely bottles of wine and especially the Ruby Port. Thanks also to Andrew and Rosie of http://www.landscapes365.com/ for photographs.

The ceilidh dancing prepared and called by Neil and Dorothy Hounam went down a treat. There was a full hall of people having a lot of fun. Well done N & D! Cabin Fever’s two sets impressed a lot of people. If you like good music, sweet Soul Music then http://www.facebook.com/CabinFeverArgyll is the band for you. Thanks guys especially for the Sam Cooke stuff.

Finally, the aftermath. The hall was cleared by about 0030 and we retired to Larick House for a few more drinks and some songs and were up and about making breakfast for the campers on Sunday morning feeling not too bad at all. Gradually, people drifted away and we were left to ponder everybody’s kind words and the good feelings we both had about the event.  Our biggest problem now is how to turn all of the mementoes into a mosaic!

Thanks for the cards and good wishes. Double click the image on the left for an enlarged version.