busy weekend

I think when I was gainfully employed, all my weekends were frantically busy. However, since I retired, weekends tend to be times for relaxing because most of my activities are on weekdays. Not true this weekend! Yesterday Patty, her mother and I drove up to the MD/PA border to pick apples at Shaw's Orchards. It was a lovely drive, through rolling hills and farmland, with more and more fall color in the trees as we drove north. At the orchard, we picked Cameos and Nittanys - both good eating apples. Picking was sooo easy - we filled our baskets very quickly. The trees were small, so we could reach nearly all the branches.

Years ago, my DH and I took the kids (Kate and Steve) apple picking in Virginia. Those orchards had full sized apple trees, the kind where one needs a ladder (or an adventuresome child) in order to reach the best apples. Since we had two adventuresome children, we always got the apples from the top and the kids had fun. All except one trip where the orchards were full of poison ivy. It was even climbing up the trees. Steve was not allergic to it, but Kate was very sensitive and got a nasty rash. My DH and I were fine - I think perhaps we were more careful about where we stepped, and of course, we weren't climbing the trees.

Before we left Shaw's, we took a quick browse through their shop, where we bought "goose gourds". They are large green gourds that have a round body and a long neck which curves over. They really do look like geese - if you can imagine green geese! After we packed up our apples, we drove a bit further into Pennsylvania to the town of Columbia (near York) where there are some really good antique stores. ('really good' for us is a store which has a large selection of inexpensive items). We also ate lunch there - at an old-fashioned drug store, which has a restaurant in it. This store (Hinkles) is amazing. They have many gift items and seasonal decorative stuff. A small room in one corner had nothing but Halloween decorations! The food is great too. I had a made-from-scratch chocolate milkshake with my sandwich. Mmmmmn!

After lunch, we hit three more antique stores and then drove back toward York to go to a store called the Christmas Tree Shop. None of us were ready to consider buying Christmas items in October, despite all the local stores having them on display already. However, this shop has all kinds of seasonal items as well as home decorator things, linens, canned and packaged food products and more. It was an experience just to wander around the aisles and see what was for sale. By this time it was 6 PM, so we ate dinner and headed for home. It was such a fun day, but by the time we got home, we were VERY TIRED! My bank account was somewhat lighter too.

Today I had to be at church by 8:30, because the church library was having a used book sale. We ask for donations from church members and then sell these books in order to have money for new books. Tables for the books are set up in the lobby between the two sanctuaries (this is an interfaith center and we (Methodist-Presbyterians) share the space with two Catholic congregations). By the time people were leaving from the first mass, we had all the books displayed and ready for browsing and (we hoped) buying. We usually make several hundred dollars on our book sale, so it's worth doing, despite all the work of sorting the books the week before, putting them out on the tables, and boxing them up after the sale. Unsold books are donated to various local thrift stores. I got home about 3:30 today - pretty darn tired.

However, no rest for the wicked. Tonight, I'm going to a dinner theater with some friends. We have season tickets and attend four or five shows a year. The show tonight is "The Producers." I don't know the music or the plot, but probably I will recognize some of the songs. I don't keep up with teenage popular music, but I am pretty well acquainted with show tunes. I know it'll be fun, but right now I'm so tired that I wish I could just stay home tonight. Hope I can stay awake during the show!!