DH has been working too hard around the homesite lately. With his bad back and painful gut he doesn't need to be laying rocks! But he's doing it, because he loves to play with rocks and is good at it. The muddy morass between the back of the house and the old rock wall which contains the flower bed will be all ROCK. Spring is trying to be here..the dogwoods are just coming into bloom. The daffodils are all gone, the creeping phlox is going wild, the rhubarb is up (pie, soon) and maybe..just maybe..the berries will do something this year if we get enough rain. The peonies are full of buds. I hope we've had our last freeze. I need to mow the grass. That's my job, by my choice, because I don't like the way DH does it; and he's hard on MY lawnmower! I love driving the mower around, with the suicide knob on the steering wheel, and amazing all onlookers with my sophisticated pattern which leaves no blade unmowed without ever stopping and backing up. Tomato and pepper starts are living under the fiberglass leanto outside now, getting strong before moving to the garden. We've had too much wet in the past few days, so the garden area is untillable, and it's still really too early to plant. I planted two rows of Swiss Chard in the middle of the newly-cleaned out strawberry bed, with a row of radishes between the berries and the edging. Why not combine? It's close to the house, and I might even water it. I have rhubarb in the front flower bed, with the butterfly bushes and forsythia. The weather has been weird! A couple of warm, dry days..then two or three days of rain. The plants love it, that's for sure..but it cramps my style when I have to work on the only days that are sunny and dry. Planning a trip in August to the west coast to see kids, grandkids, and old friends. Haven't checked on prices yet, and am prepared for sticker shock. Haven't told DH I'm going, either, but he will support me in my need to connect with family and friends. It will be a busy, busy, trip; I dare not stay with DS and family for more than a week, or we would certainly NOT stay friends! Just too different! I just walked around the yard, and some asparagus is up! Spears the size of my thumb..but not enough to make a meal. I hope they do better this year than they have done in years past. I am getting creative urges..so it SURELY is spring! Replaced a wicker seat in a bench for a friend, and have been looking at my old basket books. Another friend wants me to paint an old window for her for her exercise area, so she has something to look at besides a blank wall. I have the window, and the paint, now all I have to do is do it!

Annie.... Ashley was just asking a logical question wasn't she LOL! But it's so true that tourists....often strong German men.....underestimate the strength of the undertow on the open Atlantic and there are drownings here, of either swimmers or people being swept off rocks when they get closer than they should. I just came back from a little walk down to a lookout point near our house and as it's late in the day, I caught an evening cloud over the volcano, as well as a look over the edge to one of the downtown beaches. Here's the volcano,and here it is 6 minutes later, taken from another vantage point. The clouds have totally changed formation. (Click will enlarge.) Here's the view looking downtown to one of the beaches and the developed pool area with nightclub in the centre of the artificial lake, all together called The Lido, then a closeup of same. (Click will enlarge.) In the second photo you can see that the waves are still very large here as the islands are all on 'orange alert' which is one step below red alert or extreme danger from the seas. And in a calmer note, I decided to make better use of the lovely little two-tiered Moroccan cake plate I bought at Laura Ashley, since we buy cake one piece as a time, so I put it into the little tree outside my computer room window where the birds congregate every day. I filled it with dry cat food and set my camera up on my desk. Only had to wait a few minutes before they noticed that their food was now up in the tree! I hope to get some wild bird feed for the smaller birds and wild canaries as they also abound here. They came to check out the cat food but the biggies chased them away. The kibbles are too big anyway for small birds. (Click will enlarge.) SharonCb

>I'm rereading all of Robert Asprin's Myth series. Oh I loved that series. BTW he edits a book of stories called Theive's World. Its much like his Myth books, but each story is by a different fantasy writer, using the same charcters and setting. Great fun >Stephen Ambrose His Undaunted Courage, about Lewis and Clark, is well worth the read, btw. >Stewart reminds me a little bit of Gaiman in his ability to balance humor with dark fantasy elements. Ok, you've sold me! (I love Gaiman) Now reading The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley. I bought this book about Katrina and NOLA soon after hearing him on NPR last year. With the second anniversary of the hurricane this week, and the horrible conditions that many of the refugees still live under, I thought it finally time to read. Stayed up way too late last night reading. If you want to know what happened and why it happened, learn some history of the area along the way, check this one out. Don't be daunted by 600 pages - its very readable (except when I have to put it down in frustration)

Hi hi everyone! I'm so sorry; I responded to all of you last night but fell asleep before I hit "send," and of course it disappeared by morning. llucy, great to see you too! Yes, it was wonderful to help someone in need. This morning at church I shared our new neighbor's situation with our congregation (United Methodist). After the service, people were tripping over each other to come ask how they could help. So next Saturday is our annual rummage sale. We never put price tags on anything--it's whatever you can afford, or even nothing. Well, we made arrangements, and Saturday Joy and I are picking the neighbors up and getting there a half hour early so they can "shop." I told them there will be no charge for anything, and I can shuttle the mini van back and forth as many times as necessary so we can get everything they need/want that's available. Its heartwarming to know there are so many generous people in this world! And I know all of you here on this forum would do the same. :-) And to everyone, yes! I will share photos soon. Since we're a few years away from the big kitchen remodel, we've decided to do a "refresh." A new coat of paint, new towels, some pictures, and curtains. I'm going to keep the colors/theme a surprise. ;-) We decided since it's somewhat temporary to get fun and whimsical! Hopefully the painting process will start this week, but it depends upon how the rest of the unpacking goes (yikes!) Caroline--you sooo get me! Joy and I are really minimalist when it comes to decor and stuff in general. But you'd never know it to look at the house right now, haha! We definitely have a rule, if something comes in, something must go out. Now that we're combining the stuff left by the hoarders, Joy's household, and mine, it's really overwhelming! But Joy and I are really on the same page, which is nice. We have very few attachments to things--there are a few things that were my dad's or grandpa's, but that's about it. And we're very OK with letting go of things, even if they're very nice--I mean, how many spaghetti claws does one household need, even if they're top of the line? (The answer is either 0 or 1, lol!) We'll be making several trips to Value Village thrift store! Chris, thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers! Has anything been done/resolved with sis and mom and the hoarding situation? If I hadn't seen my friend's (now my) house, I wouldn't have believed people really do live in hoarding conditions. It is a tragic illness. I'm so impressed and proud of you for getting to your weight loss goal and now having maintained it! You've been one of my inspirations this past year! Wow--size 8! I'm almost ready (I think) to step down from 16 to 14. And yes, I agree, keeping moving is the key. ((((HUGS)))) back to you and hubby too! How is he doing? murraysmom, thanks for the encouragement! Some days are easier than others to see the vision of what could (and will!) be, but most days it's there. :-) Steph! I've missed you too! Wow, I can totally see how a "new" and clean range on CL for $125 beats cleaning someone else's mess on/in the old one. Wish I'd thought of that, haha! Yep, it's the bending over and twisting around that would have done me in. The young couple who came and did it did such a fantastic job, I barely recognized it as the same oven! How are you doing? I hope you haven't had any falls lately! And how is Jed doing? Thank you all again for the warm welcome back! I really appreciate it! :-)