I have been around Garden Web for many, many years but only off and on. Reason being I never felt comfortable with any of the groups. That is until I found this group last december. I saw you were doing a christmas swap and i asked if I could join and Kirk being the generous gentlemen he is said of course I could join in the fun. Well it has been uphill every since. I check in here daily and sometime i post and sometimes I don't. I do however smile alot. I love that I have found a *true* group of junk lovers. I dumpster dived and trash picked long before it was the thing to do so I am a recycler from way back plus I belong to several freecycle groups. I was always taught *waste not...want not!. This group has even helped convert my dh into a junker. Instead of saying why did you............he now says.........hmmmmmmmmmm I think I can use that in a project. :) I used to go to auctions every weekend and I have accumlated a lot of *junk*. I have tons of dishes, glasses, vases, and a lot of odd ball stuff i don't know what I am going to do with it but............ I am also a crafter, doing stained glass, jewerly, mosaics, gardening and woodburning. From these crafts I always have leftovers. If anybody needs some left over stained glass or beads or patterns please let me know i am more then happy to share. I do have one item I have tons of and hope someone can use some..............Rx bottles. They make great storage for seeds, beads, etc.but I have a ton so if anybody would like some pllllllllllllease let me know. My thoughts and prayers goes out to our members who are having trouble, whether it's medicals, emotional or just need a shoulder to lean on. We all need a shoulder once in awhile. I love this group, Thanks Kirk, Carol and all the members. Hugs, Chelcass

Ahhhhh..news like that doesn't get much better!! Praise the Lord for her and for serving for our freedom. Thank you Lord, for bringing her home to her family. I know that will be one teary-eyed smilin' face reunion with her family!! I am soooo happy for you. Hope you have a wonderful 50th reunion as well. I am sorry about your mom, I know that is hard to deal with, I pray that God will give you peace, understanding and strength. Give her a kiss on her sweet forehead from all of us, too! blessings-sherri

It was a confusing time for me as well. I had done the Secret Santa Swap and had also sent a few SASBEs to a few others. My son and DIL were here and since they live in Africa, it is a once a year thing. We were all going on a cruise for Christmas so I had a little too much going on. I also sent for some Hot Pepper seeds that had very specific instructions. You needed a bubble envelope, small envelopes inside that were labeled with the variaty you requested, postage, etc. I did all of that and mailed it before we left on the cruise on Dec 21st. It has still not arrived, but it also has not been returned to me. My experience with the post office this year has not been good. In the Santa swap they returned something. Then I got a call that said a package couldn't be delivered because I didn't have a mail receptacle. Then when I went to the PO to get it, they couldn't find it. They also told me there was no such house number on my street. Then they found the package and it was marked with two things, both wrong, but one said "address is a vacant house but they were home". Neither house is vacant, and "hello", if they were home why didn't you leave it. Could it be because you were at the wrong house? My mailbox is in the same place it has been for the past seven years. It is about a block from my house because they don't want to drive down my street since it is in the center of the loop they drive down. Last week I found a neighbors mail on the ground under the mailbox. I have two friends in this town with the same last name but are not related to each other. They live 2 to 3 miles apart, but get each others mail. If we pick up each others mail, or put the ones that are delivered wrong to us, in the right mailbox they ask us if we know that is illegal. I guess when I think of government waste, they are the first ones that come to mind. FedEx can find my house, UPS can find my house. Even Carnival Cruise got me to Cozumel and back befoe the PO can get a package from Oklahoma to Maine. Maybe one of them should carry the mail.

Allow me to share another gardening photo tour adventure with you ... Villa Montalvo Arboretum is about 5 minutes away from Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. As you head up the 9 toward Skyline Drive, in fact, you'll see it first and then 5 minutes later after passing through Saratoga, you'll find Hakone Gardens. Villa Montalvo was the home of a Spaniard named Ordonez De Maltalvo and he built into his estate buildings to house artists who would live and study there. The main Villa had rooms dedicated to them where they could work. Today, Villa Montalvo remains dedicated to artists and there is an Artist Residency on the estate where artists live and study. There is also a theatre and the last time I was at Villa Montalvo, I attended a concert by Boney James and Rick Braun, Jazz Saxophonist and Trumpet players respectively and they moved the whole crowd. There are expansive gardens and up behind the villa, Santa Clara's Montalvo Country Park is laced with trails that thread in many directions up the slopes of the mountain. It's a great place to go both to see some very large scale gardens, an Art Museum, live performances and just to go hiking around. Let's take a tour of Villa Montalvo and then some ... Parking down by the Artist's Residency, the journey begins on trails ... One of the resident artists apparently was quibbling with an idea and chopped up a wooden block trying to brainstorm it and give it form. Having left it lie, I have made it part of my art ... Thick Forest and the Gushing Sounds of a Creek ... Acacia? Wattle? Does anybody know what this tree is? The Villa ... These Olive Trees are attempting their own artistic expression ... Back to Egypt ... Then Rome? I find art in a wood pile and Montalvo's Junk Storage ... And a resident artist makes art out of folded newspapers ... Not as classy as the bridges in Japanese Gardens ... What is it? Is it something like the Blair Witch mystery? The Montalvo Witch? If your lost on a trail and you see this, you must be safe ... And if there isn't a Montalvo Witch, where do these steps lead? And here's the theatre ... Receding Rectangles ... The Montalvo Art Museum featuring Iraqi artists from the 1940s, 50s and 60s ... As part of the Iraqi art exhibit, Villa Montalvo brought an Iraqi Taxi Cab Driver's home from Iraq and reconstructed on the estate ... And that satallite disk is connected to this ... Elves! and they're up to no good ... Drops of a strange red fluid rise from the cauldron ... And we are finally near the end of our journey ... The elves have cast their spell and we are teleported to another location ... Suddenly, my camera is powerless to take in the sweeping vista... We are in a land of giants ... Examples of Redwood Burls ... The biggest ... Measuring time by tree rings ... The Automobile Tree. There's a picture in the visitor's center showing Ford Model T Truck backed up into that crack ... It's difficult to photograph such large plants with a digital camera, especially in a crowded grove of such trees. Big Basin is a wonderful park and some of it's hiking trails go all the way down to the sea, in particular, the skyline to the sea trail. These trails end at Waddell Creek Beach in an area of the park called Rancho Del Oso. Oso BTW is Spanish for Bear, thank you. If you hike down, it's best to have someone drive down and meet you. Else you have to hike uphill on the return trip. Waddell Creek Beach and Looking back toward Big Basin ... It used to be that folks would either surf or windsurf. But now look what they are doing at Waddell Beach ... The Sun is starting to go down and it's getting misty. This is Pigeon Point Lighthouse ... May good spirits light your way on your gardening adventures. I was going to find a seafood restaurant, but settled for something in a nice neighborhood, Willow Glen, a quiet little part of San Jose ... This place serves only personal size pizzas and they are wonderful. Soft bread-like crusts with excellent ingredients! Parking down by the Artist's Residency, the journey begins on trails ... One of the resident artists apparently was quibbling with an idea and chopped up a wooden block trying to brainstorm it and give it form. Having left it lie, I have made it part of my art ... Thick Forest and the Gushing Sounds of a Creek ... Acacia? Wattle? Does anybody know what this tree is? The Villa ... These Olive Trees are attempting their own artistic expression ... Back to Egypt ... Then Rome? I find art in a wood pile and Montalvo's Junk Storage ... And a resident artist makes art out of folded newspapers ... Not as classy as the bridges in Japanese Gardens ... What is it? Is it something like the Blair Witch mystery? The Montalvo Witch? If your lost on a trail and you see this, you must be safe ... And if there isn't a Montalvo Witch, where do these steps lead? And here's the theatre ... Receding Rectangles ... The Montalvo Art Museum featuring Iraqi artists from the 1940s, 50s and 60s ... As part of the Iraqi art exhibit, Villa Montalvo brought an Iraqi Taxi Cab Driver's home from Iraq and reconstructed on the estate ... And that satallite disk is connected to this ... Elves! and they're up to no good ... Drops of a strange red fluid rise from the cauldron ... And we are finally near the end of our journey ... The elves have cast their spell and we are teleported to another location ... Suddenly, my camera is powerless to take in the sweeping vista... We are in a land of giants ... Examples of Redwood Burls ... The biggest ... Measuring time by tree rings ... The Automobile Tree. There's a picture in the visitor's center showing Ford Model T Truck backed up into that crack ... It's difficult to photograph such large plants with a digital camera, especially in a crowded grove of such trees. Big Basin is a wonderful park and some of it's hiking trails go all the way down to the sea, in particular, the skyline to the sea trail. These trails end at Waddell Creek Beach in an area of the park called Rancho Del Oso. Oso BTW is Spanish for Bear, thank you. If you hike down, it's best to have someone drive down and meet you. Else you have to hike uphill on the return trip. Waddell Creek Beach and Looking back toward Big Basin ... It used to be that folks would either surf or windsurf. But now look what they are doing at Waddell Beach ... The Sun is starting to go down and it's getting misty. This is Pigeon Point Lighthouse ... May good spirits light your way on your gardening adventures. I was going to find a seafood restaurant, but settled for something in a nice neighborhood, Willow Glen, a quiet little part of San Jose ... This place serves only personal size pizzas and they are wonderful. Soft bread-like crusts with excellent ingredients!