We had a lovely slow start to the day, with breakfast around 9 and some catching up on work and on uploading photos for Judith and Michael, who came to spend part of the day here around noon, after a weekend camping trip, while Imke was watching their cat, who is very funny–he is normally an outdoor cat, but can only be outside at Imke’s house on a long leash that is tied to the patio door, which he cheerfully accepts as his limit. Once Ju and Mi (as they like to abbreviate themselves) were here, we had a great time–Imke had made a delicious meal with a soup and several salads and a casserole that I like especially well, which includes bread, tomatoes and cauliflower. We went for a nice walk after this late lunch (even though it was almost a little too hot for a walk and we deliberately picked a shady route through the nearby forest to the lake), and when we came back, Imke’s old friends, Wolfgang and Maya, had arrived. They’d come to congratulate Judith and Michael and to see us at least this once before we leave again, and we all had coffee and Imke’s fabulous dessert together. Another friend and neighbor, Elisabeth (who, like Wolfgang and Maya, has been a family friend since the mid-1970s) joined us as well. Ju and Mi took off around 5, with many hours of driving still ahead, while we had a pleasant evening with a modest dinner and a big thunderstorm system moving through, which cooled things off rather pleasantly, although a couple of hours south of here, caused major damage last night–thousands of trees were uprooted and blocked train tracks and roads, and 6 deaths have been confirmed, all caused by falling trees!