How true, how true . . . And all I really want to do, Is rootle and delve and grub with you. Five days of snow. Preceded by hoar frost: "Cocktail 1934" From our own correspondent (BERLIN, Oct. 19) After 73 mixers from 11 countries had produced 170 different varieties of cocktail, the International Bar Mixers' Union in its rally at Frankfurt chose as "Cocktail 1934" a mixture known by the name of "Hoar Frost." An appearance of hoar frost is given by rubbing the glass with lemon juice and afterwards in sugar crystals. The ingredients are 25 percent each of gin, curacoa (triple dry), and lemon juice, 10 per cent of grenadine and 15 per cent of Jamaica rum. Hoar Frost Cocktail 25% Gin 25% Curacoa (Triple Dry) 25% Lemon Juice 15% Jamaica Rum 10% Grenadine Shake with ice and strain into glass. Belonging. And protection. And...Home. ...and, before they went to bed, they put the crumbs out on the windowsill. For the birds. Have a wonderful time, errant children. Play nice:) Jon

Several things keep me at home in April: my nine year old daughter; our budget; my own garden. When we go to the U.S. it's during summer vacation and we go to Florida where my family is; and as long as my aged father is with us, to Florida we will go. We have wonderful vacations there, in the small town in north Florida where I grew up, seeing my siblings and nieces as well as my dad; and the swimming is wonderful. I've had a plan in the back of my head for some time. When my daughter has finished middle school, say, if I can come up with the money, I might take her on a summer tour of the U.S. We could fly out to Washington state, work our way south, visiting rose forum friends, if I may call you so, along the way, and then zigzag across the country back to my home state. My girl has never seen any of the U.S. except Florida, and that would be a good time, I think, for her to become better acquainted with her other native country. Meanwhile, while you folks are working on Dirt Day, I'll be out digging my own soil, which certainly badly needs it. We have six tons of oldish hay arriving this afternoon--HALLELUJAH!!! we were nearly out--and I'll be able to resume digging it into the clay which constitutes our soil. Five years of this kind of thing are showing results: the soil is becoming friable, and is loaded with earthworms. But we have a long way to go. So, you all have fun, and we'll meet one day. Happy Spring! Melissa

It was a splendid sunshiney respite from the welcome rain of the following few days. Just seeing Phillip up and about was wonderful.Paula is not one to toot her own horn but she brought an apple pie made from her own apples that was purely wonderful.Joanne's husband brought an enormous bag of the sweetest oranges any of us had ever tasted. Dare I say cauliflower is extra wonderful cooked in such juice with a dab of pesto...Pam brought Paula and me two of her beautiful heads. Mine is hung to great advantage over Bishop Darlington and I moved the other ones I own out into the garden where the garden is vastly flattered. That garden is such a gift to the rest of us--I always feel so saved when I leave, sounds funney but 'tis true my dear ones and I hope it can happen to you too. As usual we all thanked Gregg for letting us weed in his garden. la

As many of you know the Friends of Vintage which is a group consisting of anyone interested in helping maintain the biggest collection of rare and antique roses in the country. That pretty much means if you are, you belong. And if you want to participate, join us on the 3rd of October in Gregg Lowery's garden where we shall dig and delve for about 4-5 hours and have a splendid California style potluck, talk roses until we're blue and help with a very good cause. I've met most of my dearest friends here after the initial christening at Garden Web on this very forum. The map is on the Vintage site. We start between 9-10. Love to see you all. la