THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE

Marcy and Arthur enjoyed greeting neighbors, friends and residents of Chevy Chase during the Annual "Through the Garden Gate"  tour. Many Leland Street neighbors were amongst those stopping by for a cool drink and a walk through the Bearhouse garden including Doug and Melissa Gibson, Arthur is seen above showing aspects of the garden to Doug. Molly Strother and Nicole Ayaz stopped by in the midst of their busy afternoon as did Ann Lee, Anne Lippold, Florence Lloyd and Sally.


We also had visits from Mary Stuart, Miriam Daniels, Bonnie and Charles Duffy.


LELAND STREET NEIGHBORS ARE PROUD OF OUR GRADUATES! CONGRATULATIONS TO MAIA KAZIN AND HANNAH RUBASHKIN!
Horowitz/Kazin:
Following her graduation, Maia and two of her friends hosted a High School graduation party in their backyard. They invited about 100 friends. There was a DJ and dancing under a tent, which muffled the noise somewhat. As the sounds of celebration wafted up Leland Street, neighbors smiled with appreciation for the Horowitz-Kazin family's joy.


Rubashkins:
The Rubashkins are celebrating Hannah's graduation from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Happy Graduation to Hannah!! This summer, Hannah will take a five week intensive Arabic course a Cornell.


The other Rubashkin children have a special week too. Sophie was confirmed and sang beautifully. Jacob has a recital on June 14th.

Daniel/Wolff:
Miriam Daniel had a lovely lunch with Melissa Peppe in Bethesda. They recommend Assaggi Restaurant Mozzarella Bar – 4838 Bethesda Ave., especially the very healthy (not really) fried calamari appetizer. 


Miriam is madly planting Astilbes which she hopes to see again next year.  It is such a pleasure to look out at our wonderful garden planted years ago by the Kolkers and watch the cardinals happily eating the black sunflower seeds.  



We were so pleased to survive the heavy rain on Thursday -thanks to both the County for building a new storm sewer and to the Patchs who are being so careful to protect drainage from both houses during their home renovation.

Batemans:
Most of the Batemans enjoyed the beautiful day Saturday........Annie, Claire, Jill and Will spent time by the pool, taking in the sun.  Terry, however, unfortunately spent most of his day trying to get home from California.  The San Diego area was enveloped in fog and he sat on the runway waiting for it to lift. Hopefully, a redeeming round of golf will be in the cards for Saturday.  
Terry, Jill, Will and Claire recently spent time in Tennessee in Terry and Jill's home town of Mckenzie attending a high school reunion and visiting with Terry's parents.



Editor’s note: Terry Bateman took home a plaque acknowledging Terry’s as an inductee into the Caroll County Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Terry!



Plans for the summer are loose and free, hopefully including a trip to the beach before it's time to go back to school.  And, yes, we survived the rain......our backyard looks like a tropical rain forest!   
addendum to Bateman news.......Rugby is sporting a new haircut and now looks like a wire fox terrier rather than a sheep.  Also, the family recommends, for a quick lunch or dinner, a new little restaurant in Glover Park called Surfside (wonderful fresh fish tacos)!

Forrests:
The Forrests have had two weeks of neighborhood and community fun. Marcy attended the May Town Coffee in pursuit of chat and new acquaintances and was pleased to see Nicole Ayaz there, too.   Marcy welcomed Farrell Cosmas return from her trip to Boston as they resumed their thrice weekly jump and bounce routine at Curves.  Curves recently sponsored a complimentary self defense session which Marcy participated in. 


Later that day she demonstrated her new skills to Farrell, Vicky Taplin and  Bonnie Duffy.  In an attempt to show Bonnie’s brother, Stephen Hogue, Marcy quickly learned that it takes more than one lesson to be proficient.

Nicole and Steve attended the Washington, D.C. Humane Society 22nd Annual Bark Ball. It is Washington D.C.’s only Black Tie event that people can bring their four footed friends to. The poochies wore everything from tuxes to tu-tu’s. Nicole even found one pooch wearing a pink satin ensemble similar to her own gown. Nicole and Steve did not bring a pet to the Ball, but they came home with a topiary cat that served as a centerpiece.


Harry Truman once said: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." This event celebrates that credo! There were doggie hors d'oeuvres as well as a vegetarian dinner for humans. Nicole and Steve enjoyed seeing all the formal dog attire.


Zak and Chad took ZF Films to St. Louis, Missouri for Warner Bros. over Memorial Day weekend to film the alternative rock band Cavo at Pointfest, the all day music festival. It was a blazing hot day in the Verizon Amphitheater, but that did not deter attendance or enthusiasm.


Ayaz:
The Ayaz family took their first trip to Rehoboth Beach over Memorial Day week-end. The girls had a great time and we actually ran into a family that we had met on Leland Street one day when they were looking for a house to rent! We spent a great day with them on the beach and at Funland (which the girls adored!!!).


Tony and I were happy to finally have a chance to start exploring the beaches in this area! We are hoping to get to the Outer Banks soon. . . .
Before heading to the beach on Saturday we attended a graduation party for a friend’s daughter. She graduated from Virginia Tech and is headed off to France for a year. The girls swam the entire time and Tony and I enjoyed tricks by the magician/mentalist. We were happy to host Tony’s “Federal Team” of work colleagues for a BBQ the other week-end and are planning on hosting a neighborhood BBQ soon. I am going to sign the girls up for swim lessons this summer and we are hoping the floaties will no longer be needed by September! We hope everyone enjoys the summer!

Cosmas:
Since returning from Boston two weeks ago, my life has been filled with loving and entertaining friends! I really can't imagine a more embracing community than our own Leland Street. Fresh strawberries from the Vicente family, outrageous chocolates from the Delancys, a delicious dinner with my Leland Ladies at Bonnie Duffy's.


Memorial day dinner with the Lubans, a wonderful family dinner with Florence Lloyd, and last, but by no means least, airport pick-up accompanied by most fine Irish whiskey and on-going care, concern and entertainment that only dearest old friends can provide from the entire Forrest family. Thank you everyone.
  My most fabulous granddaughter, Jane, is now 2 months old. (I know all grandmothers brag and I now know that we do that for very good reasons.)  What fun it is to be so close by and watch Janie grow and giggle.  So my summer plans involve more trips north to see Bill and sweet baby Jane.

Martz/Davies:
The Martz Davies family has had an eventful spring. Stephanie's 96 year old grandmother died after a brief illness, but she had a very high quality of life for a very long time, including lots of visits to see the azaleas in the neighborhood. We will miss her terribly but are grateful that she truly didn't suffer. We are otherwise busy with spring hockey, soccer, a violin recital, and the start of swimming. A hodgepodge of camps are around the corner, fun but a little hard to keep track of. The most notable feature of Chris' work is that he has been home from India. For which we are all very thankful.

Stephanie has been working around the clock on the nomination of Judge Sotomayor, which she hopes will prove to be rewarding.

Fred and Dorothy:
For the past 2 years Dorothy has had great fun participating in Garrett Park's Annual Plant Swap. This has provided us with new plants for our garden --which has been at its most gorgeous this spring. (It's quite a pleasure looking out on our front and back yards, recalling that they were a sea of hard clay when we moved in.) We even came close to volunteering to be one of the hosts on next week's garden tour. But gardens are never finished, are they? Well, hopefully next year.

Editors’ Note: Marcy and Arthur enjoyed chatting with Dorothy and Fred when they stopped by the Forrest home for the Garden Tour.


Duffy:
We spent Memorial Day at the beach in NC with Bonnie’s family. The weather was beautiful and we all had fun playing on the beach with Matthew’s cousins. From there we travelled to Chapel Hill to celebrate both Charles’ and Bonnie’s Mother’s birthdays. A highlight of our trip was going to see a Durham Bulls baseball game, where the bull lights up and blows smoke after a homerun, just like in the movie. Our day at the Durham Bulls ballpark was in celebration of Charles' birthday. Matthew had his first taste of cotton candy, loved it!


Matthew is still beaming over his day at the White House and the chance to meet one of his favorite Steelers, Heinz Ward.


Boland:
The Bolands have enjoyed two plays recently: 


Arcadia at The Folger Shakespeare Theatre and Radio Golf at The Studio.  Arcadia, which has been extended, is our favorite Tom Stoppard play and we recommend it.  August Wilson's Radio Golf is the last in his 10 play cycle set in Pittsburgh. We thought The Studio's production well done. No graduations this year, but we will be attending Jimmy's 35th year Notre Dame law school and Leanne's 35th St. Mary's College reunions soon. 

Strother: William began caddying last weekend and was thrilled with his proceeds. He plans to do this four or so times a week throughout the summer. He is very excited to have exams over and is looking forward to vacation. Molly has three more subbing jobs at various schools and is looking forward to a relaxing vacation with trips to Rhode Island, Maine, and Charlottesville. She continues to work on her golf game and is looking forward to lots of reading and museum visiting. She and two friends went to the Cezanne exhibit in PA.


Fidler:
The Fidlers are grateful to Molly Gibson for babysitting Max and Jack so they could go with Jody's father (who was visiting from NYC) to listen to Mahler at Strathmore 
and to see Valerie Harper in "Looped" at the Lincoln Theater. The play is presented through June 28, 2009.


Both performances, though extremely different, were enjoyed by all.  The Fidlers are also thankful to Marcy and Arthur for introducing them to many new neighbors on Leland Street!

Gibson:


Bailey has enjoyed a week of special treats, in celebration of his 6th birthday.
The Gibsons are happy to wave goodbye to the scaffolding around the left side of the house and hello to new plantings (finally!!!)


We are now the proud owners of an apple tree, a cherry tree, a persimmon tree, a pear tree, 3 paw paws, 2 grape vines, 4 kiwi vines, 1 pineapple guava bush, 4 persimmon bushes, strawberry plants, 6 blueberry bushes, 2 red currents, 3 elderberry bushes, 2 espalier apple trees, 1 shitake log, and two raspberry canes. We were sad to lose all of our large trees in the backyard, but on the bright side (no pun intended) we now have enough sun for fruit. Molly and Gordon are happy that the school year is coming to an end. Gordon continues to enjoy his baseball team and Molly has picked up soccer.

Three Cheers to Leland Street Ladies for Community Involvement:
Melissa, Molly, Leanne, Farrell, Florence and Marcy donated over fifty articles of clothing to the Washington, D.C. "Dress For Success" organization. The clothing they contributed will provide interview and professional attire to women attempting to transistion from welfare to work.