Summertime and the Living is Easy

Yesterday was Paul's 22nd birthday and I made him this lovely chocolate cake.  One of the many things I appreciate about Paul is that he is very kind and thoughtful.  On this occasion he wanted to share the cake with his workmates, many of which are Vegans, so he asked me to make a Vegan cake.  Ummm....well, sure, Paul.  And how do I do that?  Turns out that applesauce can substitute for eggs, Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks can fill in for butter, and cocoa used instead of chocolate.  I'm waiting for a report on  how it tasted, but you can see that it sure looked tasty! 

Our weather was hot, hot, hot for quite a while but for the past few days we've had thunderstorms most afternoons which have cooled things down.  I had Turbo up in the park the other day after a storm and we caught sight of the this beautiful rainbow.  Today is another day of high 80's instead of 90's and almost every one of the people on our Meals on Wheels route this morning volunteered that they were sure happy to have some cooler weather.   

I flew out to Cincinnati for a short but super visit to see my two brothers and a niece and nephew who live in that area.  I saw one brother last year but hadn't seen the others since before COVID hit, and it was way past time to catch up in person. 

Here I am with my niece Vicki. I love her outspoken posts on Facebook and admire her plans for her upcoming "empty nest" years.  Because her husband works for the state of Kentucky, the family gets a hefty reduction in tuition for state schools and he expects that once their younger child is out of collage he'll take advantage of this wonderful benefit and get his bachelor's degree, probably in history.  And once he's done, Vicki wants to enroll as well.  Pretty adventuresome for 40-year olds!   

Vicki's father is my brother Glenn, who has Parkinson's and can no longer do political and community activist work for the issues that he feels strongly about.  He received a special award from the Cincinnati government for his advocacy of LGTTQ rights, which gives you and idea of how he was using his retirement years before he was diagnosed with this horrible disease.  As you can imagine, it was hard to see him struggling, but we both enjoyed our visit.  Glenn's wife, Jan, is always a pleasure to see and for a special treat I got to see Glenn and Jan's daughter, Amanda, who had just come home from a tour of Ireland.  

This great pose was struck by my great-niece,  daughter of my nephew Daniel.       

...and here is Daniel and his family posing with me.  Well, most of them are posing!  Reminded me of how hard it is to get kids to cooperate sometimes when the camera comes out.  I was so happy to visit Daniel and have a chance to really sit and talk after several years of just occasional texts.   

And here is my other brother, Jim, with Daniel's little cute son.   It sure was nice of Jim and his wife Kathy to drive down to see me, and I loved catching up with them. 

Ben has been hiking more 14er's, two in just this month.   You can see from these photos how sparse and raw it is way up there above tree line.  Yes, that is a mountain goat!

The arrival of the sour cherry harvest came around again.....could a year have gone by so quickly?....and several hours were devoted to picking, cleaning, pitting, and freezing the yummy fruits.  This year my friend Lolly joined me, so it was more fun and less work.  And the other day I made the first muffins from this year's harvest. 

Ben suggested something new this year, a little celebration of Bastille Day on July 14th.  We invited our next-door neighbors, Jack and Cathy, over for champagne, brie cheese, rich butter, a baguette, and an elaborate dessert from a local bakery.  The dessert wasn't identified but we all agreed that it certainly looked French and we all thought that Bastille Day was a perfect excuse for enjoying such delicious food, drink, and companionship.   

I decided it was high time that I did a bike ride that is a classic here in Boulder, the ride up the big hill to NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  The ride from our house to the base of the NCAR hill and back is about ten miles, but the climb itself is about 1.5 miles with a grade of about 6% and an elevation of 512 feet.   It's considered a great close and short training ride and I've avoided it.  But when our friend Raymond did it on his new eBike, I got the bug and decided to give it a try.  So early one cool morning I joined all the other cyclists chugging their way up the hill.  Even with an eBike, it was a challenge..you do have to pedal all the way up... and I was quite proud of myself.  I took a triumphant photo at the top with the NCAR building in the background....

...and a couple showing the views on the way down.

It was fun and I'm adding it to my repertoire of rides.

One of these days I'll have to get my act together and show you my recent fiber art work.  Always seems by the time I've finished something it's too much additional work to write about it!