With just a little more than 3 weeks left in Summer 2022, I’ve been tidying up the Edible Garden, pulling down the dead or dying or done plants (cucumbers, yellow squash, basil) and babying the oncoming second crop of tomatoes, bell peppers, and – Yay! canteloupe and watermelon.

The Peace/Bird Garden is rockin’ with birds – hummers kamikazi-ing through, cardinals and sparrows sharing the feeder, and finches plucking the coneflowers, voraciously eating the seed-heads, having already reduced the black-eyed Susans to little more than skeletons. I’m cutting the Susans back as soon as the birds are done and they have to be divided, so I’m dreaming up a new arrangement for next year.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a message from my fb friend, Bob Walker, a UCC minister. He knew that I had been a church organist in one of my past lives and asked if I’d be interested in subbing at his church. I visited Christ UCC last Sunday, met their organist and it looks like she’ll be happy to have a reliable sub to call in when she needs a break. The services are still traditional and that’s just what I’m looking for! The church is a small one and reminds me of Concordia Lutheran-Missouri Synod when I started working there back in 1987. Anyway, I had figured I was done with the church-music work after 2011, and I was as far as the Lutherans were concerned. (okayokay, Redeemer did try to seduce me back, but Concordia Not) I did do some subbing, and UCC churches were the only ones who called me! Since Casey’s retirement, I haven’t been available much, so it’s been 3-4 years since I played for a church. I’m pretty excited about it. I got up in the attic and brought down my old music, marked up with the dates and services for which they were played, and felt like I was opening an old diary. I’m so excited to play all those sweet tunes again, and very grateful for muscle memory.

On a somber note, Wink is just going downhill every day, drooling, incontinent, sleeping, although he eats well and does not seem uncomfortable. At 18 — 88 in cat-years — he could hang on for a while, but he worries me a lot. We’ll be gone for ten days in early October, down to Disney World with Jr’s family. Usually Michael takes care of Wink – and Wink dearly loves him — but he’ll be with us. I just need someone to come over and feed him his wet food, (we leave out a ton of dry food), make sure he’s got enough water, etc. talk to him if he feels like it, and just check on him… We’ll have to see how the next five weeks go, but if you could help, let me know, thanks.

Have a Great Week! Don’t miss a chance to make someone smile!

Peace