Recorder Concert and Cactus Fruit

 

I forgot to take pictures of these until just now, but Saturday on State Street I bought a couple of crystals.

They are black tourmaline and sodalite. Here is another thing I finally took a photo of - my rick rack cactus blooms now and then, but it's been looking crispy lately, and my plant app said it was getting sunburned. Makes sense, I guess, since I moved it to a spot in a south-facing window where it gets direct sun all day long. I moved it into my plant room with the east-facing window, and I discovered this:

It's making a fruit! I guess some bug in our house must have pollinated it. These fruits are supposed to be edible and very delicious, closely related to dragon fruit, so I'll see if it ripens. Honestly, I just got this plant because the leaves are so cool, but with its showy and fragrant blossoms and now maybe tasty fruit, it has far outlived my expectations.

Today I worked from home, since the cooling system is out at work (now they say for at least a month), and many buildings - including mine - are closed. Hopefully my plants at work are okay - I'm going to check on them tomorrow, since that's the usual day I water them. Of course the AC had to go out right during the heatwave, so we were all told to work from home. It's like a mini-pandemic. 

Travalon didn't have to work today, so he went to Portage and swam in Silver Lake. From there he saw a couple of trains go by. Then he went to the Dells and saw this train.

Isn't it cute? Here are some photos.

And this is a former Sinclair station in the Dells that still is called Dino-Stop.

Then he kindly drove me to Adoration and walked down to the Union while I was making a Holy Hour. Outside the Union he saw this tiny bunny.

Then he even more kindly drove me to the church where I often go to Baroque concerts to see my former choir mate play with her recorder ensemble. They played some Baroque and Renaissance stuff, some shape note tunes, some Polish folk tunes, and a Welsh tune. I had forgotten my sunglasses (the ones I just won at the Alumni Party) at my bandmate's house, and I said if we met there, she could give them back to me, so we sat together. Afterwards there were make your own sundaes, and I sat with my bandmate, my former choir mate and her husband, another choir mate who had come to hear her, Pete the Sailor Man, and a woman they all know and I met a few times years ago. It turns out she and her late husband were both rail fans, so when Travalon joined us, we talked about trains, among other things. She's also on DuoLingo, so if I can find her, we can be friends. I have tons of friends on there I've never met in real life, so I might as well have a few (besides Seabird and my former choir mate's husband) whom I've actually met in person.

Famous Hat