Tag: #amwriting

Lizzie’s Wedding Journal~The Venue

We met with Pastor Donovan this weekend and he seems as excited about this wedding as we are. He said he’s never heard of a proposal like ours and was touched to hear our story. I had forgotten about the prayer chapel we have on the campus. He took us to look at it after we finished talking. It’s perfect! He said it can accommodate 150 people and I can’t imagine we’ll have that many guests. There is a lovely stained glass of the nativity that made me certain this was the right place for our ceremony since it will be so close to Christmas.

Finding a place for the reception has been harder. There is an Italian-style country club outside Orlando that I loved, but they are booked almost two years out. It probably would have been a bit fancier than we want anyway. We must have visited close to two dozen places around town before we found something we both liked and that had an opening in December. The Avalon Grove Inn is beautiful.  Originally it was a small, family owned packing house for citrus. In the early seventies it was purchased from the family and renovated as an Inn. Some of the original grove is still maintained, but most of it has been lost to freezing temperatures over the years. The banquet room has hardwood floors and the rafters are all exposed wood beams in the same espresso color. When we were there it was decorated for another wedding, with white lights wrapped around the beams, and draped with white organza. The walls are a warm golden-yellow and at the end of the room is a fireplace surrounded by large stones. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this place before . We stumbled on it when we were driving around Winter Park. It’s less than twenty minutes from the church and has plenty of parking in an adjacent field where they had to remove a large portion of the original orange grove. Photos of some of the other places I visited are on my Pinterest board.

The catering manager is an absolute gem. She and I hit it off right away. I can’t wait to start working with her on the menu and the linens. She had some great ideas as soon as we told her our date. I think I will invite her to the next Concierge Club dinner, or maybe I should wait until after the wedding. She might feel uncomfortable mixing business and pleasure, but I know she’ll fit right in.

If I could just decide on who I can ask to be my bridesmaids, then I could start thinking about their dresses.

 The story Lizzie’s romance and proposal is chronicled in the

Seasons of Faith Series

Summer Storms, Winter’s End and Spring Dawn

available on all major online books sites

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Go West~Chapter 22

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Two

Aldon

 

The next morning, they led the horses down from the line cabin and got home in time to do their regular chores. Kenny put his horse away and went back to town to help his folks with their many enterprises.

That night, Aldon dropped onto his cot in the loft and slept like a dog. By five a. m., he was shaved and ready to meet Ellie in the kitchen. Today would be different. They would shorten their coffee time and head for the corral where he would show her how he trained horses.

He mentally thanked Molly’s Daddo (grandfather) from County Cork who had taught the Leitzinger sons about horses. Once they’d learned all he could teach them, he called them Sullivans after a relative of his, the first known horse whisperer in Ireland long ago. Aldon wondered who had come up with the words horse whisperer. A good trainer used the technique of understanding them by watching the ways in which they responded to people and other animals. American Indians had developed similar traditions since they’d been introduced to the horse by the Spanish. Aldon shook his head thinking about the horses that had been tormented and injured over the years in the name of breaking them when the gentle truly was the best way for everyone.

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Asking Ellie to wait outside the corral, Aldon went into the barn to get the horses. When he shooed them out, they trotted to the other side of the corral and stood shuffling their feet and looking at him.

He checked to see where Ellie was and was impressed with how well the golden color of the Palominos complimented Ellie’s blond beauty. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to stand and stare like a love struck youth, but he knew Ellie would rather have him get on with the job at hand. Suddenly he knew how important it was to make Ellie happy. Whatever she wants, he thought, she gets. Now and always.

Aldon took a long line from his pocket, and holding one end began tossing the end of it in the direction of the mare and foal. As it floated downward in their direction they began to canter around the inside of the corral trying to get away from it, their white manes and tails flowing in the breeze they created. Aldon knew that instinct compelled them to run before they looked back to see what was chasing them.

As he circled slowly and watched the animals, music began to play in Aldon’s head as it so often did when he was working. The song this time was, “The Emperor’s Waltz, a perfect three-quarter rhythm for the canter. He had learned it from one of the few records Nancy bought for the wind-up Victrola. No one else in his family had this strange quirk, but he enjoyed the tunes his mind served up, they always seemed appropriate somehow. It must be the sub-conscious he had learned about in college that caused it.

Never having been abused by man, the Palominos had nothing to unlearn. As he shortened his line bringing them closer to him in the center of the corral, the dam slowed down and started licking her lips and making chewing motions. She dropped her head which told him that she was looking for a friend now, someone to help her in a terrifying situation. It was time to put the line away along with his aggressive stance and became more approachable. He turned his back, let his shoulders slump slightly, and became a figure of welcome and comfort. The less attention he gave her the closer she came. He turned sideways ignoring her, but one of her ears twisted in his direction showing she was aware of his presence and valued it. The minute the mare stopped moving the colt began to nurse. She ignored him and touched Aldon’s back with her nose.

He shifted to make a slow turn to face the horse and then scratched the long bone of her nose and told her what a good girl she was. In a moment, he quietly asked Ellie to bring the rope halter to him. She nodded and came through a narrow opening between the gate and the rails to give him the halter. He slipped it over the horse’s head and handed the end of it to Ellie.

“She’s all yours, happy birthday. Walk her around,” he said. Ellie’s eyes widened and she gave him a delighted smile. He knew she couldn’t speak for fear of startling the horse, but it didn’t matter. He had a warm feeling in his chest knowing he had made her happy.

Go West~Chapter 21

Go West 

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty One

Ellie

Ellie and Aldon had fallen into the habit of starting their days together. The sun was not yet up, but it was time to meet in the kitchen for coffee and a chat. Aldon sometimes prayed and sometimes read a bit of the Bible to Ellie, but mostly they admired the sunrise and talked about their lives and their dreams.

“We’re going to catch Chief’s brother, this time around,” Aldon said finishing his coffee. For this particular day, June 21, Ellie’s birthday, he had invited Kenny and her to help capture some wild mustangs. “Chief was once the leader of the band. Bill and I caught him after I came back from the war.” Ellie saw Aldon’s excitement sparkling in his eyes. “Man, do I ever love chasing those beautiful animals and bringing them home to train.”

“But doesn’t it mean that you’re breaking up a family?” she asked.

“In a way it does, but after the colts grow up, they don’t seem to care whether they’re with their mothers, as long as they can be with other horses. And we’ve got to keep the herd culled so that it doesn’t over-populate the range. Any land can only support so many large animals or even small ones for that matter. For example, at one time we had too many rabbits in the valley. That caused the loss of whole species of plants, including some trees because the rabbits eat bark and root sprouts. They caused erosion because the topsoil became exposed, and blew away. The land hasn’t recovered yet. It could be even worse if we got too many wild horses, so I say let’s cull a few and give some people the pleasure of riding them. Or we can send them out to Hollywoodland. Bill says he can make them into movie stars and sell them to the studios for westerns and historical movies.”

After they’d left the kitchen as tidy as they’d found it, they went out to the barn. From there, they heard Kenny’s motorcycle roaring up the drive. They went out to meet him as he pulled up.

“Get a horse,” Aldon joked. Kenny waved happily and went on his way to saddle the horse he boarded at the ranch.

The three of them rode up past the line cabin to the first stand of aspens where Aldon expected to see the mustangs. As the trio paused in a copse of trees, the ranch horses were careful not to step on crackling sticks, or to whinny, or to make any noise at all. They had found a place where they were well-cared for, and their wild blood had been tamed. The first mustang Ellie saw was a palomino standing apart from the rest of the herd guarding her colt. Close by, with heads bent to graze, were forty or so wild mustangs in a variety of colors from sorrel to the browns, blacks, and whites of appaloosas.

“There he is, that black stallion with the main herd.” When Aldon leaned over to speak to Ellie, the leather of his saddle creaked slightly; and the horse raised his head and sniffed. As quick as the wind, he bolted followed by the herd, which made a river of horses flowing through the meadow and down the slope of the mountain. Aldon and Kenny took after them immediately while Ellie, stunned, looked on. As soon as she realized what was happening she nudged Ribbons with her boot heels and they followed not far behind the palomino and her colt who had fallen behind.

Aldon and Kenny, by driving them, guided the wild herd into a narrow box canyon at whose end the family had built a rough-hewn corral.

Before going into the corral, however, the lead stallion made a quick turn and led the herd back past their would-be captors. A wily old horse, Ribbons moved as close to the rock side of the canyon as possible in order to stay out of their way. When he palomino saw the herd coming back toward her she tried to turn too, but by that time the men had their ropes around her neck and their horses were digging in their hooves to stop her progress. Once she realized she was caught, she began to rear and twist. The colt danced to stay out of the way of his dam’s flailing hooves. They were both so beautiful as the sun bounced off their white manes and tails and highlighted the molten gold on their sides that Ellie breath caught in her chest. Back at camp the mother and colt went into a small corral, and Chief sauntered over to inspect them over the rails.

Ellie recalled everything Aldon had told her about horses. He’d said that they needed to be with other animals — almost any creatures from dogs to goats to humans would do. A human was preferable to no company at all. Ellie thought such neediness put the animals at a disadvantage, but the knowledge of it touched a deep place in her soul and she knew she was needy too. She could hardly wait to get to know the beautiful palomino better. Suddenly it became clear — it’s not just the company of a horse I need. It’s Aldon, too, and he’s my friend now. The thought gave her a fine, warm feeling.