Wendy, I love the shot of Halls Harbor at low tide-something about the perspective make them look like little toy boats ! Kathy in Napa Wonder how you say WALAT in French ?

Personally, I find the premise of the book to be suspect, at best. There are gardeners that are caring, nuturing people. There are other gardeners who are happy to spend 500 dollars on the latest, newest hosta but cannot be bothered to go out of their way for anyone else. My sons are about to turn 15 and 18. They enjoy looking at my garden, but at the moment, neither of them are garderers and I don't know that they ever will be. I do know that at the age of 2 1/2 my older one came to me and announced that "we have to do something to help poor and sick children". A few months later he participated in his first March of Dimes walkathon. He just recently completed his 16 walkathon and has raised thousands of dollars to help prevent birth defects. My younger son spends several hours a week playing with a younger boy with cerebal palsy. He's been doing this for a few years now and the two of them are now very close. This arrangement was completely my son's idea - he heard about the organization that sets up these visits and he told me that he wanted to participate. To me the most important quality we can install in our youth is compassion for others. If my kids never pick up a trowel, if they can't tell the difference (or care) between a rose or a peony, I would still feel that I managed to wind up with two amazing kids.

we had a cat--it was a wonderful thing, except for my daughter, who was allergic. We were in denial about why she coughed all winter, every winter--until the cat moved to a dear neighbor's house. We have had quiet winters ever since, and I feel terrible that I did not do something sooner. But it was a wonderful thing, having a cat. We shut her down in the basement every night, and hardly ever had a problem. We are working on getting the basement tightened up, for energy efficiency too. But I had to do the spot crisis work. I did the same thing in our cereal cabinet and we haven't had issues in months. I hear that mice cannot stand the smell of mint, so I might get a mint fragrance diffuser for the basement. Worst case we just have a nice smelling basement, and mice. Worthy, you always crack me up! Try looking under the shelves on the floor of your local drugstore, like CVS. My kids figured out that there are literally hundreds of mousetraps parked under the displays at our local. Better that than the alternative.

Oprah said,"After three days, the sky was bluer, my brain was no longer fuzzy, my memory was sharper. I was literally singing and had a skip in my step." On the show, Oprah had her own word of warning for the medical establishment: "We have the right to demand a better quality of life for ourselves," she said. "And that's what doctors have got to learn to start respecting." I don't know what she is doing but she seems to like how she feels. Time will tell though. As far as the medical establishment, I feel there are some good family doctors and quite a few that become complacent and uninformed. Just keeping up with all the new drugs is time consuming. I personally don't think enough doctors look at women as a whole and try to find out what each woman needs to feel healthy. I went to a PA a few months ago when I had various symptoms and by the end of our conversation she said, could you pick one thing out that bothers you the most? Hmmm, should I pick the racing heart or the fuzzy memory or should I pick the ear ringing? She made me so mad. Eventually my doctor called me at home because I made the comment to his wife/nurse that they were in it for the money. I told him what I thought of about his PA and the "pick one thing" attitude. A month later he had me in again and FINALLY made the statement that my heart shouldn't be racing for so long. I could have hit the roof about then. I'd been telling him for a few years but they kept shrugging it off and by now I felt quite a few other symptoms. My eyes bugged out and my jaw dropped when he acted like he had some kind of eureka moment. I felt like pooping him in the eyes with my two pointer fingers like one of the three stooges. I agree with your last sentence Lydia. Oprah might be going to greater lenghths than most of us to keep a certain quality of life but I think she is on to something by telling us we need to look at the whole picture.We should Find out what each person needs, to feel better. I kind of wonder, since Oprah is rich, single, and childless, if this doesn't give her more time to ponder and explore unconventional ideas. I'd like to see how she is doing in a year.