Goodbye Party For The Ketchum-Wiggins

The invitation was bittersweet:

One Last Hurrah in the Orchard!!!

Please come and join Hail(ee) and our family in saying a sad good-bye and in celebrating our move to Southern California!

Dear Friends,

As most of you know, our family will be leaving June 10 for Southern California. None of us can imagine leaving Northern California without saying good-bye to the many wonderful friends we have here—so—we hope you can join us for one last party in the orchard!

BRING: a picnic blanket and/or lawn chairs and we will provide food, drinks (non-alcohol) and music…showtunes of course!

But the party itself was really wondrous.....

There is a kind of California idyll that has common features:

• A beautiful home;
• clear, beautiful skies;
• the most pleasant company;
• food, music, song;
• an emphasis on creativity and the arts.

The details can be different - a redwood forest, or a ski chalet, or a sunny beach - but the California idyll touches very deep chords in the human soul and is the touch of grace that makes us happy to live here.

The Ketchum-Wiggins party was in an almond orchard in Winters, the Central Valley variant of the California idyll. The place was amazing - unusual and interesting house, a peacock strutting around, a trampoline, an inflatable toy castle, Rocky Horror on DVD, Erik Daniells on Keyboard, various members of the Musical Theater community singing and laughing. Paradise on Earth. Achingly beautiful, really. (and my digital camera discharged!)

We will miss the Ketchum-Wiggins, but it is likely they will return often to our area, and for that, we will be grateful!