Hello, All! Hope everyone had a nice holiday season! Like Rosey, I managed to suck up all the local germs while visiting my kids and grandkids... the younger of which are walking virus factories interacting daily with all manner of other neighborhood children and schoolmates... and came home with a nasty chest cold/flu combination. The old guy and I are both sick. I'm glad for things like Vick's VapoRub and antibiotics! I'm a believer in modern pharmaceuticals, as long as I know what they contain and how they work, and whether or not there are more side effects than good effects! My grandson was full blown sick while we were there, complete with fever that makes your ears red and hot, a horrid cough from a tight chest with infection, packed sinuses, runny nose, chapped lips, the whole nine yards. It's the kind of sick that makes your skin hurt! You know you need to eat, but you can't stomach anything. We felt so bad for the poor little guy... and now that we have it, we know what a trooper he was! I'm off to a bad start with the new year... my monitor burnt up, I got sick, and to top everything off, I managed to leave my camera behind when we packed up to come home. I think I did, anyway... I can't find it. On the positive side, H. "Minerva" has kindly waited for me, and is just now starting to open her large buds! And nothing died while we were gone, meaning that my orchids hung in there with the watering I gave them before we left for Christmas. I also have a Gloriosa vine growing tall and looking to bloom, I think. I had thought the corm died in the pot, but when I gave it a small drink to moisten the medium a bit, it began to grow! It will be interesting to see if it does bloom, as it's growing in an east facing window. Nice photos, everyone! Josh, that is such a wonderful Catt! Well... trying to get caught up with reading and posting, taking my time through this cold. I sure hope no one else gets it... it's a nasty one! Talk at ya all later!

I am so sorry! I posted this to the wrong forum. When I checked the forum I thought I posted on, this had "disappeared" so I thought it was removed for some mysterious reason. And now I find myself in Maine. Guess I'm not clicking on all cylinders today--sorry. Hope this drops off.

Thanks for all of the prayers and kind words for my granddaughter. I talk to my DD daily, and Zoë is making progress. She actually took a few steps yesterday. They are hoping before long that she will be able to get around without too much pain. I'll be going back to Baltimore in February to help my DD after my DSIL flies back to Hawaii. Hopefully he will be able to get the transfer!

I went to the Big Island in Feb of this year. The plants looked like South Florida on steroids. Amazing! I wasn't able to visit the botanical gardens since we were running out of time trying to make it to the lava at dusk but I did stop at scenic overlooks and some parks. We took so many photos that I have been too intimidated to try to put them all in albums. I finally decided to break it down to separate albums one for scenery, one for the volcano and lava, and one for the resort. I finished the scenery album so far. If you want to see some of the plants you can see for free check out my album. Here is a link that might be useful: Big Island 2005