It has been a busy week!

Preparing for our trip out west where we will be actually camping (!) for three days, we set up our tents (Elise’s and ours) in the back yard Monday evening to make sure all the parts were present and in working order (ours had a strap that needed mending) and to check to see if our air mattresses fit inside.  Elise’s tent opening can accommodate the full-size air mattress but ours cannot SO I ordered two twin-size air mattresses that very evening.  Temperatures that night and Tuesday night were perfect so Elise slept out in her tent.

 Our pie cherry tree has just had another banner production year.  Total amount picked was probably about 6 gallons.   

 

Steve and I picked for an hour Wednesday morning and then we made two batches of cherry jam!  And, since we were in the jam-making mind-set, we also made two batches of blackberry jam.   

 We picked the last of the fruit yesterday morning. Thank goodness!

Remember my visiting teaching sister who almost died?  Well, she came home Friday morning.  Here she is heading to her front door! 

Neither she nor her son can drive (license restrictions) so I was glad that Betty, my VT companion, was available with her car because our truck was in the shop Friday morning – it had been leaking power steering fluid. 

I substituted in another wedding yesterday up in the Moberly area.  I was with a different string quartet called Heartstrings.  It was an outdoors event and the setting couldn’t have been more lovely 

 except for the heat wave we have been experiencing since mid-week.  Thankfully, the musicians got the trees and shade gazebo.  

Sadly, the guests and wedding party did not.  They had full sun with a minister who didn’t shorten his homily at all and a bride and groom who had to dismiss their guests row by row.  Yuck! 

Steve and I visited Sarah’s new apartment yesterday.  It is quite roomy and very nice.  We took over Trissy’s old dog house and one of our wading pools for Bones and Lilly to enjoy.  The yard, though, needs a lot of work and we helped haul off two truckloads of branches throughout the day.  

 I did, though, get to have some fun this past week.  I did pottery Thursday afternoon – I cleaned up my pie plate and threw two big bowls, a tall vase, and a plant pot and tray.  Thursday evening, the Missouri Symphony put on a free concert at the Stephen’s Lake Park amphitheater so Sadie and I went.  

Two of my music students and their parents also joined us.  

Temperatures were hot by that time of the week but we were up on a hill which provided a breeze and the sun was on its way down so it was surprisingly pleasant heat-wise.  

 I did some sewing and I watched Brooklyn last night and Steve and I watched A Bug’s Life Friday night. 

I will end with a photo of Tonks perched on a stool I had brought down for one of my bass students.  Silly cat!