Picnic Day!

Apple trees in the springtime

No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, nor have I been hibernating.  I’ve been doing lots of things, none of them photogenic, and most of them not interesting to anyone but me.

But my work unit had a picnic at Carkeek Park on Saturday, and it was both fun, photogenic, and fascinating to one and all, I am sure.  I was really looking forward to it, as I work with such a wonderful group, and it is lovely to get together with them when all is not the rush-rush, hustle-bustle of patient care.  I was not disappointed.  You can see the cute dogs, adorable kiddies, good food, and a few of my fabulous colleagues  by clicking here!  Unfortunately, I was terribly interested in dogs, food, visiting, and hence, not really on the ball with picture taking, and so I missed 90% of those who attended.  

 After lunch and the beach, when things were winding down, Laura and I decided to take a hike to Piper’s Orchard, a lovely relic of former farming days.  When the Piper family moved, orchard became neglected and disappeared into a muddle of brush and bramble, until it was rediscovered in 1983, and restored by both the Park Service and an army of volunteers.  It has a huge variety of apples of the sort popular a century ago, along with several varieties pears, quinces and nuts.  It seemed to be windfall season, but most of the apples on the ground appeared to have been previously sampled by the tiny inhabitants of the park, or else seriously bruised in their fall.  Thus – they were pretty icky.  Laura and I were pleased to hear a “plop, plop,” behind us.  We turned and saw a couple of apples and pears dropping to the ground - fresh and unnibbled on. We chased them down and rescued them before they were ruined by the forces of nature.