A fire burned 80 acres in the hills about 7 miles east of us, starting Thursday. An evacuation order was issued, and some people had to spend the night away from home. It was 70% contained by Friday, and everyone was allowed to return.
As fires go, this was small potatoes–but not to the people who might have lost their homes, some of whom are people we know.
We’re reviewing our evacuation plans this weekend.
The photo is from Thursday around noon, from our upstairs deck.
These photos are from late June.
Our two Santa Rosa plum trees went crazy this year and gave us more fruit than we could handle. I picked 8 or 10 boxes, gave some to the chickens, and left a lot on the ground.
I canned for a week (a batch a day was all I could handle) and then had to move on to other things. There are still boxes of plums in the refrigerator a month later.
These plums were big, juicy, and sweet.
They clustered so thickly you could pick half a dozen while barely moving your hand.
Of course, Chester had to supervise the picking.
These are the two weeping Santa Rosa plums, one on each side of the pergola.
Weighing the plums before canning.
Boiling them down.
The result (along with two jars of apricot sauce from earlier in the month).
… because you may get it.
Hoping for a fence full of morning glories, for the last two years I’ve sowed seeds on the other side of the fence (the one you can barely see) — with only middling success. This year, I planted nothing, and volunteer morning glories have taken over the fence and the bed, and are working their way towards the house and the pool.
In case anyone wonders what last week’s musical photos were about —
Arlin and I spent the week at the annual chamber music workshop at Humboldt State University (http://www2.humboldt.edu/cmw). For three weeks, amateur musicians get together to play chamber music with professional coaching. Everyone spends 5 hours a day rehearsing and then 5 minutes performing at the end of the day. It’s exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.
Arlin was not officially part of the group, but they gave him a name tag (labeled “non-performing spouse”) and welcomed him. We stayed in a dorm and ate in the dining hall, along with everybody else. You can’t beat it for a cheap vacation, since room and board are less than $400 apiece, and it’s a beautiful campus in the redwoods of the north coast of California. (Of course, I had to pay a workshop fee as well.)
This is what I played on each day (we only play 5-minute excerpts, because there are 17 or 18 groups playing each day):
Monday, July 11: Trio (clarinet, cello, and piano) by Nino Rota (yes, he wrote the score for The Godfather)
Tuesday, July 12: Piano quartet no. 3 (violin, viola, cello, and piano) by Beethoven (written when he was 14)
Wednesday, July 13: Paso doble, from 3 Pieces (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano) by Vladimir Dukelsky (also known as Vernon Duke, composer of April in Paris)
Thursday, July 14: Topaz (flute, oboe, and piano), by Hieronymous Z. Bienforte (this is the actual composer’s name on the music; everyone thinks this is a pseudonym but no one knows who it really is)
Friday, July 15: Tarantella, op. 6 (flute, clarinet, and piano), by Saint-Saëns (a fun piece — you will enjoy this professional performance on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirMPxPYzRE )
… a normal winter of rain makes. We have grapes this year!
Phil playing with the quartet he rehearsed with throughout the day.
Dragonfly Ranch 