With Mizuho’s mother and sister arriving in late July, most of the month was spent preparing for the visit. Her sister and Mother visited us 10 years ago and her mother came for a 2nd visit 5 years ago.

I started and finished a stone walkway and a short stone staircase, fixed a couple of 8 year old benches and the rose trellis, trimmed a great many branches and tuned up my chain saw. I also had time to create 4 art installations out of wine barrel rings.

Work slowed when a fire broke out off the road below us. It was quickly suppressed by 4 fire departments, 2 helicopters and two tanker planes, but not before the neighborhood was evacuated. Thankfully, no houses burned and we were back home that evening.

On the fruit side, M canned, froze or made into jam our neighbor’s cherries and blueberries and our apricots and raspberries. And we have been eating lettuce, shishito, daikon, shiso, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, peas and garlic from the garden.

The visit has been great and included lots of chatting and eating, some sewing projects and fruit picking, a few wineries and a steam train ride, a visit to the sports centre where Mom and Sis swam laps for an hour and M and I splashed around, and a long visit with our farmer friends, the Ojis.