Anyone familiar with “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss understands how important one little comma can be.

The story goes like this: a panda walks into a café, eats a sandwich, fires two shots into the air and runs out the door.

“Why?” asks the confused waiter. Then he sees that a book has been left open on the table, “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

Well, anyway, our weekend had no commas in it as we rushed from one splendid activity to another.

Let’s start with opera. Anyone lucky enough to have made it to the Oysterville Church Saturday early evening to hear Joyce Parry Moore, Espy Resident artist, does not need to be told how electrifying her performance was.

Her first song, “When You Walk Through the Storm,” had many audience members in tears from the beginning. Moore sang this moving song once, as she remembered singing it in high school, and then a second time, more triumphantly, as she had sung it as a woman of 30. Both renditions – startlingly different – were magnificent.

Then Moore put on a simple violet kimono over her pale-green floor-length dress and became Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, that 19th century Japanese courtesan whose heart is crushed by betrayal. The last three notes of the famous aria sung by Cio-cio-San sent flames up our spines.

Another crowd favorite was a selection from Cosi Fan Tutte (Women Are Like That) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Moore set the scene for those of us who aren’t regular opera-goers and found herself two of our very own Opera Hams. Michael Campellone and George Fox played Ferrando and Guglielmo, soldiers come back in disguise to woo the other’s fiancée in order to win a wager.

While fending off the hysterical and improvised advances of Campellone and Fox on and among the church pews, Moore delivered the pitch-perfect aria Come scoglio (Like a Rock). She chased Campellone and Fox around the chapel, never missing a high note. Barbara Bate, gasping for breath at the piano, supported her every step of the way.

What a pleasure it was to hear Moore’s clear, soulful soprano and look behind her through the church windows to the marvelous dusky-gold light falling through the alders.

We hear that Joyce is a seminary student and a formidable runner with a great sense of discipline. She went out for long runs almost every day of her residency, participated in the Beach to Chowder run, and trained for both endurance and speed, on separate days. What a gal!

Thank you, Espy Foundation, for this wonderful visitation.

As for the (comma) hams, Frank Wolfe reports that peninsula hams had a very successful field day at Port of Peninsula and Moorehead Park from 11 a.m. Saturday until 11 a.m. Sunday.

I heard tell that Frank had quite a stubble by the end but was thrilled at the number and range of contacts that were made throughout the 24-hour period. This is an annual competition between regional ham teams. We’ll let you know when Bob Cline (N7CVW), Field Day Chair, gets the competition results.

Wolfe writes, “Yes, we had a really exciting Ham Radio Field Day. We had three stations: the Morse Code (CW) station, the Voice station and the GOTA (Get On The Air) station, designed specifically for new hams and unlicensed members of the public. In fact, old salts like me can’t even use this station. We can only act as coaches for the others.”

“We also used our Amateur Radio satellites which act as relay stations. These satellites are in Low Earth Orbit and are constantly moving from our perspective here on the ground. When one passes directly overhead, it might be above the horizon and usable for only 20 minutes. A simple computer program tells us exactly where and when the satellites will be available from any point on the Earth.

“Using our satellites, we heard hams in California, Texas and other places. Amateur Radio is all about two-way communication, leading to new friendships and new activities.”

Last but not least was the amazing Garden Tour fundraiser for the Water Music Festival. We intended to pop into every garden on the map but there was to be no ‘popping.’

Our first stop was the elegant, restrained and beautiful multiple-level garden of Martha Lee in Klipsan. From the blooming blue cat mint swarming with honey bees to the purple garden tucked behind the back corner of the house, we enjoyed every inch of her palatial gardens.

An antique cannon ball holder from a ship was adapted perfectly to holding large clay pots with herbs in the kitchen garden. And the carrots have a view all the way to the ocean!

After walking the grounds, we now have a new love – David Austin English Roses. Also stunning was the hybrid rugosa Blanc double de Coubert (a double white), fragrant and spectacular against the weathered balustrade around her front lanai.

From Martha’s, we stopped by Lynn and Mike Dickerson’s expansive estate. Dickerson says cheerfully, “I’m trying to get it down from two hours to one and a half of mowing.”

Everything was picture perfect; every beanpole in place, every tomato staked on the south side and basking in the sun. The Bloody Marys were a nice addition too.

Hours later we headed for Ilwaco and entered into an uber-planetary oasis called Tangle Cottage, Skyler Walker and Allan Fritz’s gnomish Eden. Tea cups adorned curly willow. Quotes were clothes-pinned along the pathways. A small water wheel of tiny clay pots graced the patio of an abandoned single-wide, the first structure on the property.

Everywhere we looked there was a fascinating plant we had never seen before and Skyler would appear, as if from nowhere, to give us the name of it.

Strategically placed here and there were gardening reference books, in case anyone wanted to look at pictures instead of the real thing. No way!

“The main purpose of a garden is to give its owner the best and highest kind of earthly pleasure,” wrote Gertrude Jekyll, influential British garden designer, writer, and artist.

We couldn’t have agreed more.