My friend Dawn came with me to watch the Cherubim ride this weekend. She took some lovely pictures. 

This picture was taken at Affinity Farms in Aldie, VA. We’ve been riding there for years.

Now, I’m going to tell another story, but it gets back to the point eventually. We have a  wonderful plumber (from Your Plumber, Inc,) who once dug up our front yard to fix a pipe, allowing us to remove the tree that used to rain down liquid brown glue (in the form of small fruit) and put in instead a lovely Japanese Maple.

We knew we might have to do this before hand, but weren’t sure. The very day that it became clear we would have to dig up the lawn — a process that would cost $3250 for digging up the lawn and hauling away the tree — we received a tax return of $3250.

If this was not amazing enough, we then had to do something about the yard, which was now a mess. We didn’t have any extra funds…so, I sat and prayed: "God, you would not send the funds to dig up the yard and not have a plan for fixing the yard. "

Not ten minutes later, two nice young Mormon boys in their suits came by and asked if I needed help with my lawn. They explained that they did community service projects. I said "No."…then, I thought, "Hey…wait a second…"

So these nice Mormon gentlemen came three or four times and landscaped my lawn, dug down the huge mound, put in the tree, etc. The first two times they came in their suits. I wish I’d taken a picture. By the time I got out a camera, the last time, they came in jeans.

John, still an atheist at the time, asked me  jokingly: "So are you going to convert to Mormonism?" I replied, "John, if I pray to my [idea of] God, and he sends Mormons, I am definitely sticking with Him!" (John was more amused by this than I thought it warranted.)

Ever since then, however, our plumber has been very nice to us. He feels we paid our dues with the tree thing and now deserve kindness.

Anyway, back to the Cherubim and Affinity Farm. Affinity Farm is a lovely place, not fancy, a bit run down when you first drive up, but everyone there is serious about horses. John says, he’s never seen a man there, in the entire time he’s been there. Only women. So, I was mildly surprised to see a man who looked vaguely familiar come out of the main house…turns out, it’s our plumber. He lives there!
 

What a strange world we live in!