This evening I am heading to a hotel near the airport and will be flying off in the morning for my vacation in Turkey.

But first, it was time to stop by the orchard for lunch after church services this morning and then an afternoon of making sure I have everything ready for the trip.

Today was a beautiful day in the Central Valley. A nice blue sky with only a few clouds and not too warm. Only in the 70’s today.

Of course I was met by my buddy Tarragon. He always has to come say hello to me and claim some of my attention.

We had a nice lunch of enchiladas and rice. I am sure that I probably won’t get any good Mexican food for the next two weeks. However, I am sure that I will have a lot of new foods to try. I am looking forward to sampling the Turkish cuisine.

I also took the time to walk through the neighboring orchards. One of the neighbors has a cherry orchard and the trees are full of fruit that is slowly ripening.

Across the road is an apricot orchard. Here the fruit is not as ripe, but you can see that it is starting to change color. However, they are not much changed from when I wrote my Bees + Blossoms = post last month.

Then it was back home to finish packing, clean my kitchen and finish all those little things that needed to be done before the trip.

Shortly I will officially start my trip by driving to a hotel near the San Francisco airport. I have an early morning flight to start off a long day that will end in Turkey.

Steven