Fruit update

The pear tree is getting very weighed down with fruit. No color on them yet, but the tree is covered, including the broken branch that didn't completely sever from the tree.

The blueberries arrived seemingly overnight. One day there were some fruit nubs and yesterday I noticed bright blue berries. Pretty cool. The birds have not yet set on them, so I know they aren't ready to eat yet. And I know I have just a few short days to get the bushes covered with netting. I'm going to try to pick up some stakes to support the net, rather than just throw it over the bushes like last year. We'll see.

The apples are starting to show a little bit of color. They tend to grow in bunches which leads to crowding later on. I might try to thin them, but I can only reach a relatively small portion of the tree, so it seems rather a lot of work for not all that much gain. I may try it on a few branches, though, just to see what effect thinning the fruits has on their development.

Veggie update

This is the (almost) last of the lettuce. The plants have gotten very leggy, and they are trying to flower. But we had several good salads from them, including a large salad of greens,

strawberries, walnuts and blue cheese, topped off with a dressing made by my brother, Greg and my mom. We assembled it for a Memorial Day gathering of the church staff at our house. You can also see some of the nasturtiums Libby planted along the garden fence. So far no critters (other than slugs) seem to have invaded the garden. Tonight we had corned beef and cabbage, the cabbage coming from the garden. It was quite good considering that we made it authentic peasant -style, with canned meat!

Wounded (again)

This time it was Calvin. He was playing with the fire extinguisher (of course). He had pulled it off the wall rack it's mounted on. That went fine. But then he took it over to Libby to show it to her. After that I didn't see exactly what transpired. But somehow it managed to smack him, but good, on the chin. Double bruise, but no real bleeding. But plenty of screaming. He's fine, and just a little proud of his battle wound. But you can imagine the incredulous looks I get when I explain, "he got hit with a fire extinguisher." Kind of had to be there, and kind of have to know the Barker boys.

The picture is several days later at breakfast when I asked him to show me his chin.

Wounded

Briggs has discovered the thrill of riding down the cross street and slewing into Old State Ten on his scooter. Last Sunday he wiped out. He drug the scooter into the yard and then started crying and limped inside. We cleaned him up easily enough: nothing but a couple of scrapes. But they hurt, and he really, Really, REALLY wanted bandages to make them stop hurting. (He's had a bandage fetish for years.) But I told him "no," that the wounds need to be able to breathe, and that bandages would not take away the pain. He was thoroughly ragged out by the whole experience and by 715PM, this was him. Please notice how the elbow and knee are positioned so that they won't get "re-injured!"

Lettuce

We planted six lettuce plants about 6 weeks ago. We've been able to have many salads off of them. About 10 days ago I picked all the junk off the base of the plants. Tonight I noticed they had all shot up and had many, many small tender leaves on them. Salads for lunch again this week! We've also got folks coming over for a pot-luck this weekend, with us signed up to provide a big green salad. Hope the lettuce holds up so we can use it for that meal also!

Our weekend

I've been sleeping and breathing songs and dialog from the children's musical The Troubabble of Zerubbabel for months. Our performance of it on Sunday evening went really, really well. The kids nailed their songs and their lines; the band was awesome. The crew did great with set changes and props. Our costumes were stunning; our "Adversaries" brought the house down! Here's one picture, but you can view a slideshow of the dress rehearsal and reception following the performance at the church's music blog. Thanks to all the kids, all the parents and everyone who helped make it happen.

Briggs knows most of the music and dialog because he had to be at the last five (long, intense) rehearsals leading up to the show. He brought a copy of the score home last night, and even carried it to school today to share with his chums. This morning at breakfast he reported that he couldn't get the music out of his head.

FWIW: Libby played flute in the band and Eli was one of the crew. If it wouldn't have offended a bunch of other siblings I probably would have stuck a keffiyah on Briggs and let him do the show. As it was, he watched with Calvin in the audience. But it won't be long.

Obama visit

President Obama and the First Lady vacationed in Asheville a few weeks ago. One of the things they did while in the area was visit Billy Graham at his home in Montreat. This took place on a Sunday morning. The motorcade was due by the church right at the end of church. We had a nice crowd of church folks lining the block in town. This is a pic of Briggs that afternoon.