Local Flavor: Maple Flavor, Super Busy

Mud season is here, finally! This winter has been excruciatingly-long, but it's been in the 40F and 50F range the last few days, so the snow is almost gone, now, and the kids are out jumping in the mud. It was raining this morning but because I was making dough for quiche, anyway, I threw an apple pie in the oven as well. This fulfills a blog reader's recent request for more pie pics. If I'd only known, I could've given you a veritable stream of pie pics over the last few weeks!

This isn't the prettiest pie (lately I've been a little lazy about making them pretty as I'm in a rush), but it was delicious -- lots of apples, plenty of maple syrup, and a tiny bit of cinnamon.

As far as other things go, man -- it was slamming the last few days. In-shop traffic was absurd.

On Friday Mr. Hugh came over from Maine and we had a whole day's worth of excellent repairs. Saturday continued to be nuts. I wish I'd snagged photos! Memorable instruments of his and others in for service over the last few days include:

• 5-string "mandonator" but we strung it GDGCF low to high starting at octave mandolin's G
• Dell Arte (US-made) mandocello in the Django/gypsy-jazz style
• 1980s? Greek 8-string bouzouki, strung in octaves for GDAE tuning
• older high-quality oud
• huge-rim Vega Tubaphone tenor banjo for uke GCEA tuning
• huge-rim Lange tenor banjo for octave mando GDAE tuning