Christan, I'm with you. Those tastykakes are might tasty, all of them! After Linda got to talking so much about them last spring, I ordered a box of them to try out, and I've been wishing there was an outlet here in Michigan ever since. Now, this is for all of you who knew me last year. Tomorrow, November 30th, is the 1st anniversary of the accident which took Paula away from me. It's been an extremely rough year, but you've all been a great help in getting me through it all. You've put up with a lot, encouraging me and providing some big shoulders to lean on the whole way. The Day started looming in my mind even more a little over a month ago, driving me to distraction and a lot of mood swings, as Linda can attest to. I was thinking that I'd be a complete basket-case by this time, but I'm doing okay. I've been listening to a lot of music today, wrapping Christmas gifts, making out cards for Kym's Secret Santa Seed Swap, and just generally quietly enjoying the day. Anyway, knowing all of you wonderful people and how much you care, I just wanted to let you know I'm okay. It's kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way, that the one song that's helped the most today is by Savage Garden. Savage Garden also did the song "Truly Madly Deeply", which was the theme song for Paula and myself. I guess it's kind of fitting that today I find myself turning to the same group, and their song "Crash and Burn". It says a lot about the friendships I've found here in the threads of the GW, and about the relationship I was lucky enough to have with Paula. here are the lyrics... "Crash And Burn" When you feel all alone And the world has turned its back on you Give me a moment please to tame your wild wild heart I know you feel like the walls are closing in on you It's hard to find relief and people can be so cold When darkness is upon your door and you feel like you can't take anymore Let me be the one you call If you jump I'll break your fall Lift you up and fly away with you into the night If you need to fall apart I can mend a broken heart If you need to crash then crash and burn You're not alone When you feel all alone And a loyal friend is hard to find You're caught in a one way street With the monsters in your head When hopes and dreams are far away and You feel like you can't face the day Let me be the one you call If you jump I'll break your fall Lift you up and fly away with you into the night If you need to fall apart I can mend a broken heart If you need to crash then crash and burn You're not alone 'Cause there has always been heartache and pain And when it's over you'll breathe again You'll breath again When you feel all alone And the world has turned its back on you Give me a moment please To tame your wild wild heart Let me be the one you call If you jump I'll break your fall Lift you up and fly away with you into the night If you need to fall apart I can mend a broken heart If you need to crash then crash and burn You're not alone Everyone Have A Good Week Peace. -Dan

Mellen, good to see you and Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas here. They say it may snow this evening and into tomorrow. If so, South Carolina will be excited and wild, too, with those who don't know how to drive in winter weather! LOL I didn't said anything before but I thought I should let you know. My older daughter is expecting triplets in the Spring! I doubt that I will be participating much here with OBF early in 2011. She lives all the way across the country and we have a baby shower to host there in January. I'm sure a few more trips will happen when the babies arrive - so I can see them and help out a bit. I think my 2011 will be off to a busy and expensive start - and oh, the hassle of airline security this days - what fun! April, your snow showed up before ours. It is snowing in upstate SC. Maybe ours will show up soon, but I don't think we will get much. I just love to watch the snowflakes fall though. It's rare here and how special to have some snow on Christmas! Jeanne

Garden art? Hummmm, now I'm perplexed. I guess so, but only to the extent that this poor misplaced bird is stuck in my garden. But wait! Is that a garden or just a planted area along the side of the house? Let's see; there is a rhubarb that will reach two to three feet in a few months or so (it will end up in my strawberry/rhubarb pie late this summer), a tall bearded iris that will reach four feet by May (beautiful golden standards with an orange/rust colored beard highlighting a bright yellow fall), a Forsythias that will lose it's lovely golden flowers by months end and explode in to a brilliant green canopy, a small patch of reddish-green sedum, a terra cotta pot with a stunted lilac (white, sweet, flowers), a grey, cement container (just now showing blades of purple and green that will transform into four feet of variegated fountain grass), and some glover pushing through the shredded cedar bark trying to survive the frost. Pay no attention to that patch of dirt I'll cover it later. Yup, it's a garden area, the penguin is art (I'm told), I guess it is garden art? Just kidding! I just couldn't resist detailing the small area along the side of the house but I noticed the first picture didnÂt show the placement in the garden so I'm posting a new one but it doesn't show all the plants.

Siobhan - If you haven't read Moggach's other works, then you are in a for a true treat. She is an excellent writer, all her books are unpredictable (important for me), and just good reads. Plus there are quite a few of them... I haven't read a bad one yet. I have just finished up Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy which I enjoyed. I do think I had had been asked to read this during school days, but tbh, I remembered nothing about it except countryside descriptions. Was good though. And then, for my NF read, I whizzed through a new release called The Power of Habit by NYT writer Charles Duhigg. An interesting science-based book about why we have the habits we have, what they look like from micro- to macro-scale (organizational habits etc.) and then how to break them. Not a self-help book, but more along the lines of a Malcom Gladwell type. Good and fast read for me. And then, I am reading an African feminist coming-of-age book which has been recommended by a friend who works in an NGO in Ghana. It's called Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga and a first-person narrative of growing up African in 1960's Rhodesia. Fascinating and the author has an extremely wicked sense of humor. :-)