Written by Esther
Hello folks,
It has been a while since you heard from us.
A few days ago, the humming birds finally arrived! They had been coming regularly since we moved to the apartments three years ago. Our beautiful flowering plants attract them.
Well, it seem days are coming and going so fast. Ben had to take off recently but now is back to work. Fortunately, what we were worried & concerned about turned out to be a negative. The "bleeding" he experienced is considered a "false positive" and we are thankful to God for His continued mercies. The cancer had not returned for eleven (11) years now.
The past weeks, we visited our Amish friends to learn of their spring & summer activities. Late spring, watched them gather maple syrup, tend the bees, milk the cows, cut and store hay, plow and plant the garden and their vast fields.
We help picked delicious strawberries and brought home 20 quarts last week, to freeze and to share some to our friends and neighbors. The strawberry smoothies I make seem to be one of the favorites of our Amish friends, especially during these hot summer days.
We are learning more about bees. Last week, Milo put ten (10) queen bees in the honey-comb boxes. The queen bee was ordered & delivered with few worker bees in each small box. A waxen plug at one end is chewed-up by the new bees & a day or two, the queen and the bees get out of the small box to join the rest of the bees. The queen is then tended by the swarm of bees. Yes, they are busy gathering honey at this time of the year. You should taste the fresh honey direct from the comb. Fresh, deliciously sweet, of course!
Our grandkids are with us for a few days. They also love visiting their new Amish friends who taught them how to ride a horse. Rosie brings them around the farm to pet their animals like farm kittens, chicken, ducks and ponies. They look forward to visiting their friends again.
We (especially Ben) need some greens to increase our hemoglobin. The garden is really doing well. We were able to harvest some lettuce and tomatoes and soon broccoli, cauliflower, squash, peppers, eggplants & ampalaya. Today, our Amish friends gave us asparagus, cauliflower, sugar beets, and radish. They knew that the sugar beet leaves are one of Ben's favorite leafy-vegetables.
Three weeks ago, we attended a wedding in Cincinnati, a rare Indian celebration. Ben's partners, Drs. Dahlsuk & Ila Madia gave away their daughter, Sonali to Nemesh Patel. It was a three (3) day celebration. We were fortunate to be one of the thousand guests that attended. A joyous and solemn celebration of two young couple starting a new life together.
We hope you enjoy these pictures:
