I am tired tonight

We had lunch Tuesday after the temple with a long-time friend, Sharon Henderson.  We met her as a brand new member of the church in Columbia in the early eighties.  She was instrumental in the purchase of the set of blue willow dinnerware we have because they were offered at a discount price by Nowell's grocery store if a certain amount of groceries was purchased and we never shopped there (being Aldi shoppers from the first year we lived in Missouri) so Sharon bought the dishes and we paid her back.  Eventually, she and her husband and family moved up to Paris, Missouri so we only saw her occasionally at stake functions through the years.  She divorced her husband a few years ago and lives again in Columbia and she works at the temple Tuesday mornings which is when we generally attend.  It was so nice to catch up with her and her family.

We had some rather warmish temperatures for April and here are the dogs enjoying the sunshine on our driveway...

We caught a Canada Goose family (plus one - who is he, the bodyguard???) in the Aldi parking lot on Friday when we were out with Larkin who came to spend the day.  We were on a mission to find a dogwood tree - which we bought at Walmart for $30 instead of the $99 one at Lowes (!!!), thorn-less blackberries - and we found two at a lovely nursery nearby, and asparagus starts at that same nursery.  I got so many asparagus starts that I am having to move the compost spot to a new location to make room for twenty-five asparagus plants!!!  Those things are an exercise in patience as I won't be able to harvest any until the third year they have been growing.....

Here are two other fun photos - Linus with Lexi, one of my music students and Larkin and me Friday morning.

 

It was the final week of Saint Louis Civic Orchestra for the 2021-2022 season ending with a concert this afternoon.  As the music director is retiring this year, we held a reception in his honor after the performance and that was a lot of work for many individuals including me.  I was in charge of coordinating the food (cupcakes) and beverages (punch) and I had nine orchestra members each donate 24 cupcakes (I also did 24) to make 240 cupcakes and I also got volunteers to bring ginger ale and cranapple drink.   On Thursday night, I made up six double-batches of buttercream icing and on Saturday evening, after the dress rehearsal, a team of us decorated all 240 cupcakes!  If you look closely, you can see that the black dots on top are actually tiny edible eighth notes.  

I was in charge of getting the card signed and collecting donations for a gift as well.  Here is Ed Dolbashian with our orchestra president, Colin, at the presentation ceremony at the reception.  

Interestingly, I first played under Maestro Dolbashian's baton at Mizzou back in the eighties when I went back to studying music part-time.  He was a brand new professor of conducting at the time (having been a professional oboist before that) and it is kind of cool that I got to be in his orchestra at the end of his career, too.  He retired from MU a few years ago but continued to conduct the community orchestra as he lives in the Saint Louis area.  I confess I am glad to be taking a break from orchestra for a few months.  It will be nice to have my Tuesday nights free again. But I will miss the ladies of the cello section. (me, Jayne Hanlin, Naomi Urnes, Nancy Klemm, Maggie Madsen)

Saturday morning, Steve and I took the free architecture tour of the Saint Louis Central Library.  It is over 100 years old and was one of the hundreds of libraries built by funds from Andrew Carnegie.  It is a truly magnificent building in the Beaux Arts style.  

Notice this by the clock?  Hopefully you can see the wings.....

Every room was magnificent with beautifully crafted doors, shelves, walls, and the ceilings were incredible.  This one was painted....

The next two look like carved wood but they are actually made of plaster to look like wood ceilings from famous European locations (I can't remember where, though)

Apparently, this fireplace was never meant to actually be used.  But look a the craftsmanship...

Saturday afternoon we went over to Ed and Mona's place (the one where they actually live, not the one next door which they are working on) to help Mona celebrate her 70th birthday.  It was SUPER windy and the gazebo decided to blow away.  Happily, it was retrieved from the neighbor yard and tied down more securely.  It was to cover the live band hired for the occasion.  We had to get Steve to a stake meeting so we couldn't stay to listen...

Here is Ed with Steve.  Don't you love his shirt?

 If you have been keeping track, you will note that we did the library tour in the morning, the birthday party in the afternoon, and a rehearsal in the evening.  Today was stake conference in the morning and the orchestra concert in the afternoon.  You KNOW I am completely wiped out this evening.  So, I am heading to bed.  Good night!

Easter!

Easter week kicked off with Steve, Emily, and me driving to Columbia on Palm Sunday afternoon to watch the Columbia Stake Easter Cantata performance.  Elise sang in the alto section.  Assorted family members have sung in this cantata throughout the years and it is a wonderful yearly tradition.  I am so glad Elise carried it on in 2022.  The drive was long but made enjoyable with the one-on-one time with Emily.  And, it was great to see so many dear Columbia church friends after the pandemic and moving away....

Another Easter week event was our ward's Maundy Thursday observance.  People came to the chapel for an hour to meditate and ponder the last day of Christ's life and I, along with two other musicians,  was asked to provide some quiet, reverent background music.  I played my cello.  

Otherwise, the week was full of typical weekly activities - working on finances, attending the temple and orchestra rehearsal, grocery shopping, pottery, lessons.  I had my yearly physical exam on Wednesday and I got a clean bill of health - yay.  The doctor's office has an aquarium full of little fish in all colors of the rainbow:  pink, purple, yellow, magenta.  

Typical April weather brought warm, chilly, rain, and sunny throughout the week.  Steve mowed both lawns.  I have started my morning yard work and currently, a lot of it is pulling up the weed henbit.  I planted more creeping phlox in the front flower bed by the road.  And, we have visited the mulch site twice already for compost and mulch.  We will be going back many times in the next couple of weeks, I am sure!  On Friday morning, it was overcast but not rainy when Steve and I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  

These last flowers are ranuculas.  I remember my mother growing them - maybe in El Paso???  I have tried to grow them in the past with no luck.  I hope to try again here.  

Lucy turned eleven on Tuesday and below is Emily's masterful cake!

Here is a photo shared by Emily of Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin hunting Easter eggs Saturday morning in their back yard.  Steve and I stopped by the Southerlands later in the morning after our work in the temple baptistry but the kids were gone by then.  Noah was on a young men campout in Nauvoo.  Joe had taken the other three to the science center so it was just Steve, me, and Emily.  I split up a couple of hostas in their front yard to plant in my back yard.  And, we visited Papa Bear's Popcorn and it was such a delicious place.  SO many varieties of popcorn that it was hard to choose but I ended up with a bag of caramel cashew and Steve chose chocolate mint.  

 

Violets are a weed here in Missouri.  But, such a lovely weed.  I picked some for my bathroom sink.  Sadly, they don't have a fragrance like the ones my mom used to grow in El Paso.

We watched two movies checked out from the library this week.  Friday night it was "My Blue Heaven" and Saturday it was "Ghost Town".  The latter was a bit crasser than I remembered but it had a lovely message and I got a couple of tears in my eyes towards the end.  The former was just hilarious.

P.S.  photos from Easter dinner at our place.  Fred Olver, our neighbor and Sam Carpintero, a friend from church joined us.  Ya like the bunny wall hanging doing the photo bomb?

Busy week

Wow, where did the week go?   It was so full of errands - helping Beckie with her car repair (dropping off/ picking up), getting our oil changed, getting more dog food from Open Door (that is a 30 minute trip one-way), buying groceries, teaching lessons.  We had the temple Tuesday morning, I had pottery Thursday afternoon.  Each day seemed non-stop.  I guess I should be grateful we are healthy enough to do all that we do.  

Saturday was a fun day with the Southerlands minus Emily who had two photo shoots.  We want to eliminate some of our front lawn and plant ground cover instead.  Removing sod is quite a task and I found a DIY YouTube that looked "simple" enough but it also required manpower so I enlisted Joe and Noah to help.  And, of course Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin came along.  Quinn also proved to be quite helpful.  Steve and I compiled all the necessary supplies and we thought we could make light work of this sod removal project.  Ahem....well....we didn't plan on the fact that our sod would be so hard to cut through with the circular saw that the YouTube video said to use.  Mud and grass kept getting clogged in the blade so ultimately, the sod had to be cut with a flat shovel hand tool we happened to have (thanks to Virgil and Iola's garden tools we inherited!)  It turned out to be quite challenging and we only were able to cut a fraction of what we wanted to do.  But, at least it was a start and now with weather getting nicer, Steve and I will just have to to it slowly throughout the next couple of weeks.  I was able to give Noah, Lucy, and Quinn piano lessons, they stayed for homemade pizza and a fun time in the backyard with the firepit and eating s'mores.  We had an old tattered American flag that needed to be retired so Noah was quite happy to do the task.

In spite of the fact that last Friday was VERY COLD and we had snow flurries, things are starting to grow.  I gave Kyle and Micah some peonies from our Columbia house before we moved and then, when they sold their house here in Saint Louis, I re-collected them for my backyard here and I am delighted that they survived the second move and they are coming up!

Spring brings back birds.  Canada Geese, however, are with us all year round and Saturday morning, when Steve and I went to help clean the meetinghouse, there was a goose honking at us from the roof!

Silly goose...

I really don't have much else to write about.  Steve and I watched the Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we both decided we should read the book to compare and contrast that movie with Willie Wonka.  We also watched a sweet movie on Prime called Running For Grace last night.  We are driving to Columbia later this afternoon with Emily to hear Elise sing in the Columbia Stake Easter Cantata.  Looking forward to that!