Happy 4th of July!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

We spent the majority of the day in Yakima, Washington, at a cherry orchard before meeting up with our family friends for a good old fashioned BBQ  =)  It was an all day long event--starting at 7 am and ending well past my bedtime haha--and that's why I didn't get to blog yesterday.

Anyway, the orchard we visited is called 'Barrett Orchards', and it was a pretty large orchard with a nice pick of cherries.  The only thing was that we had to rent one of the step ladders that were $5 because most of the cherries on the lower branches were already picked over.  It was free admission, and you could eat as many cherries as you want for free there, but the ones you wanted to bring back were priced by weight.  It was fun getting to pick them off the tree, and I swear the cherries we ate at the orchard tasted better than the ones we brought back!  haha  So here are some photos from yesterday!

Into the forest we go!!

It was actually pretty chilly when we started because it was pretty early in the morning,,,  but of course, once we started picking fruit and the sun started coming out, it warmed up nicely!  I know, I know, I'm not wearing red white and blue. I thought I would wear the tank top I made from an old T-shirt for the orchards because I thought I would get sweaty, then change for the BBQ  =)  The tank top was so easy to make, and I will be posting a tutorial soon so if you like how it looks, you can recycle your old T-shirts too!

pick and eat.  repeat.   

helping daddy with the picking while he climbed up the ladder.  but mostly, eating cherries that he handed off to me  haha

Look at these beauties!!!

Mommy even got in the action  haha   She couldn't climb of course, but we were able to find a few trees that had cherries at her level =)

It's one of the strangest things.  You look up at the cherry tree, and you see so many cherries, but then as soon as you get on top of the ladder, they disappear!  It's the weirdest thing.  So you always have to use teamwork lol  one showing and one picking  ;)

so sunny..

Towards the end of our picking spree, we noticed these lovelies at the very top of the tree, and we could only reach it if we got on the very top of the ladder.  And guess who got the job of climbing to the very top? me.

This may not look very high, but let me tell you. hooo boy!  It was a pretty tricky business.  but completely worth the effort!  the cherries up there were SO amazingly sweet!  I guess because they get all the sun?  All I know is that they were the best cherries I have ever tasted!

Our hard work  =)

It was such a fun day, and we definitely had a blast out there, but it has also made me realize just how much work goes into getting the fruit to our tables every day.  I mean, I was so tired after only a couple of hours!  I can't imagine how difficult it must be for people to do it for hours on end.  So thank you, farmers, for all of the work you do! =)

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th, and have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

4th of July!

Hello everyone!

Happy Independence Day!
I hope you are enjoying this holiday in true American fashion--you know, parades, fire works, etc etc.

For me, it doesn't really feel like it's Independence Day at the moment because I am at Foulger Music Festival.  There are no fireworks going off, no one seems to be in patriotic clothes, there isn't any parade near the Keane University where the festival is held... but the biggest reason it doesn't feel like it's a national holiday is because we are still working like dogs today!  haha   I'll post about my daily schedule tomorrow, but from the moment I got up this morning until now I've only been away from my violin to take a shower! (I couldn't even eat breakfast or lunch!  dinner time can't come fast enough)

What makes it all worth while is the chamber music group I am playing in right now, the Brahms Piano Quartet in g minor mentioned in this post.  It's with Alex Beyer-piano-who is a fellow like myself, Allison Eldrege-cello-who is the artistic director of the festival, and Hsin-Yun Hwang-viola-who is a beast of a violist, really incredible.  I can't tell you just how wonderful this experience is, and I am learning so much playing with these amazing musicians!  Our concert will be this coming Sunday at 3 pm at the Enlow Hall .  It would be wonderful to see all of you if you happen to be in New Jersey (it's also really easy to get to from NYC), it should be a great concert.  Also, it is going to be streaming live here.

Hope you are enjoying this holiday in true Independence Day style!
--Janny