BUSY BUSY BUSY.....

As per usual, I woke up early and felt like I pulled every muscle in my lower back. Ended up taking a couple anti inflammatories and went out to the barn. Left the water buckets and wheelbarrows for Gar.
As soon as I got in the house I called our massage therapist and she was able to get me in by 10:20. Of course there was a steaming hot shower first and it really helped. By the time she was done, there was quite an improvement in the way I felt.
These are the fish that I photograph whenever I am there.
Next I went over to the Sr. Center for a chicken BBQ prepared by Bob Ryan (who owns a local grocery store).
The front garden was loaded with Iris.
Not a bad meal for two bucks! Actually, the Association subsidized most of it.
The weather was perfect and people started to sit outside.
I drove home via Park Avenue and wanted to show you (again) a piece of public art that was commissioned by a committee I was on. One of the neighbors planted the garden around it.
That was a huge effort...thank you Pam Ketchum! It looks great!
Gar has made some serious progress on the barn...looks pretty wild.

I could hear the rooster crowing across the street and went over to take some photos.

Here are two of the Corgis. One of the others had 8 puppies last Monday.
Below is Paula's older dog and I keep forgetting her name. I think it is Sprout. She let me know that she did not want me hanging around.
There are still many tulips in her yard.
This is her view of our house....
I buy fresh eggs over at her place...they are so much better than those at the store....even Wegmans.
The garden at the end of our driveway looks like something that belongs in "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Gigantic growth spurts.
The pups were in and out all afternoon, soloing much of the day.

At 5:15 we were down at the concert site dropping off goodies and props for the evening.
We started running through our music, then the high school chorus arrived.
We needed to rehearse the songs we were singing together...and were still doing it when many spectators showed up.
There's my pal Madonna.
Above is Liz Banner, the Director from the High School. We taught together before I retired.
You can't imagine how sweet it was to sing with these kids. Both groups enjoyed each other.
We finished rehearsing just before 7 and the place was starting to fill up.
What a difference, having a drummer and a bass player.
I attempted to take a few portraits.
I think these kids really appreciated that fact that we were still singing...something they can continue to do for the rest of their lives.


Brenda and Al showed up. Remember them? The carver and the watercolorist? We get together monthly for dinner....

Ruth and Bing had to sit up in the balcony as it was pretty full downstairs.




Jenny agreed to record one of the songs we sang with the High School...I hope you will listen to it at the end of this post. Just remember to turn off my playlist.
Tonight we really had a lot of audience participation...there was even some crying over the beauty of the sound....sweet.

Below is our director, Maryellen Geise. She has taken us a long way....baby.
Our Barbershop Quartet (times 2) sounded better than I have ever heard them sing. Outstanding. As a matter of fact, our entire concert was dedicated to Jim Savard (who passed away last month). He was the inspiration for that group and sang with us for years.

After we were finished, everyone was invited downstairs for goodies and drinks. A nice touch.

Maryellen brought these flowers to the concert, and I took them home.

It was a long day, but the music made it very special.

Our combined groups are singing Loch Lomond in the video below. I hope you are impressed.
There were seniors and "seniors" in this group....and some Juniors... maybe some sophomores. It would be so great if we could sing together more often. Talk about being good for the soul.