This week’s list for Carole’s Ten on Tuesday asks for 10 things you did on the weekend. Mine was a busy one, but most of my photos are from the last part of the weekend. It was a three-day weekend in the U.S. although mine started on Friday and spans four days!
1. I walked with my friend, Debbie, from Pittsford to Bushnell’s Basin (about a 5.75 mile walk) which we end with breakfast at the Coal Tower.
2. Friday afternoon I picked up my pots for the patio. For the last three years, I’ve taken my three biggest pots to a local garden center and have them planted. It’s proven to be very cost effective, and I’m always pleased with the results.
3. Although I have photos from my very special evening on Friday, they aren’t ones I can post on the blog. The agency where I volunteer once a week has conducted a year-long project funded by a generous grant for the fourth and fifth grade girls. They’ve had the opportunity to visit a college, attend etiquette lessons while having a tea party (their favorite activity), go rock climbing, and visit local businesses. It expands the horizons of girls who are growing up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Rochester. The culminating event was a very fancy dinner at one of the nicest hotels in the Rochester area. The staff acquired fancy dresses for all the girls, and transported them. The girls chose the menu, picked out the color of the napkins, and created a lovely invitation. I was lucky enough to receive one of them. The girls loved every minute of the dinner, and everyone received a diploma for “graduating” from the program. The staff has applied for another grant for next year, and I hope they get it. It was such a positive experience for everyone.
4. Saturday morning was hot and humid. Not a great day for cooking for a crowd in a kitchen with no air conditioning, but that’s what my Dining Room Ministry team did. The food is always appreciated and I work with a great group of people from elementary school age to over 90 years old from my church. Our church hosts a lunch every Saturday (even on Christmas if it falls on a Saturday). We serve 80-90 meals each week. There are 10 teams, and we rotate throughout the year.
5. When I got home, Tracy and I went to visit our friend, Bob. Keep your prayers coming. The chemotherapy is doing some good, and he is feeling stronger. He was able to enjoy visits from both his daughters, and from family who was here visiting from California this week.
6. Late that afternoon, we attended our final performance at Geva Theater, our wonderful local repertory theater. The play, The May Queen, takes place in a small city in the Hudson Valley, just a few miles from where I graduated from high school so I was familiar with all the places that were referenced. It was an odd play (neither Tracy nor I know quite what to make of it), but it was well acted and the staging was great—as always.
7. It had cooled down considerably by the time we left the theater so we treated ourselves to dinner outside at one of our favorite restaurants on Park Avenue. It’s a Lebanese restaurant, and the food is always excellent. Watching the folks parade up and down the street adds an element of entertainment to the dinner.
8. Sunday, after purchasing some plants for the front circle and our vegetable beds, we went off to Home Depot to buy a new shower head for my bathroom. On the way out of the store, we happened to find a sale on a wonderful new umbrella for our patio. Sarah had recently found a solar-powered, lighted patio umbrella which we loved. We hadn’t had any luck finding one that was affordable online or in the one or two places we’d previously looked. This one is rectangular so provides a lot more shade for our rectangular table. It was the final touch to setting up the patio for the summer. I turned on the lights for the photo, but I’m sure it will be more charming in the evening. In the background you can see Tracy’s lush shade garden. It’s really in top form this year. We still need to set up the fountain, and do some transplanting, but it’s ready for use. We’ll be eating breakfast and lunch out here regularly. If it’s hot, we usually choose to have dinner inside since the patio gets the strong afternoon sun. This photo was taken about 7:30 at night, and then it’s great for reading and having a glass of wine.
9. Monday was Memorial Day—a day to remember all the veterans who have given their lives in far too many wars over so many years. One way people commemorate the day is with parades. Matt and Betsy’s neighborhood has traditionally held a parade for the kids (and their parents) in the neighborhood. After a short speech to help the kids understand the reason for the holiday, a fire truck and police led the parade through the neighborhood. Ella and Skylar were all ready for the event.
Skylar rode her bike which she and her dad had decorated.
10. Betsy’s father recently moved into a new house, and he hosted a huge picnic for family and friends Monday afternoon and evening. The girls absolutely love his new pool. Ella is amazing as she floats around the pool (adult close by). She couldn’t wait to get into the water.
Skylar and two of her friends spent a LONG time jumping into the pool on the count of three, climbing out and jumping in again. It never lost its appeal and finally, the parents told them it was time to get out of the pool. Miss Skylar is the one closest to the camera.
In between all this activity, I managed to get some reading, planting, and organizing done. I recently completed a free four week online course hosted by InkWELL Press. I’d already cleaned out a lot of the areas covered in the course, but still had some things I wanted to clean up in our bedroom. Spurred on by Honoré’s book sorting, I redid the book shelf in our bedroom, purged some volumes, and reorganized all the rest. Let me just say, I have enough books on those shelves alone to keep me busy for at least another year or two!
