I worked with a woman like that. I liked her. I really, really liked her. She was a hard worker and down to earth but it was a compulsion to her and she usually went past her comfort level shooting down somebody who often knew what they were talking about. She also had this issue about being picked to head up every aspect of a job. The problem was, even IF she could do it, was that she was just one person........and nobody could multitask a big operation and run it all. But, her feelings were always hurt if somebody else got a promotion she wanted, but wasn't willing to give up her present job for. I guess she just wanted the offer? One of my bosses finally confronted her with that, and asked her if she had problems getting positive strokes from her parents. I'd have never made that association, but she admitted to him that she always felt she had something to prove. That runs through my mind, always, when I endure the endless 'corrector'. It would be sad if it weren't so obnoxious.

Oh, my is it time for Thursday Tea again already? I better get the kettle on. Sure need something to warm me up. I fell asleep in the chair awhile ago in front of the window with the sun beaming through, but my arms were cold when I woke up. I had the black and white checked throw over my lap. I think I'll go down to the bakery and find something special for today. Yorkshire Gold will be my choice of tea. I bought another tea cup on Ebay yesterday! It was on a whim, totally not necessary; but it's "Bluebell Wood" by Royal Albert, one in their Country Scenes collection. My birthday is in May, so I'll justify it as being an early gift to myself. :) Well, I'm headed to the bakery, might pick up something at the market for supper as well. Glad you got your sweet peas planted, Lass. I have a feeling my garden will go in late this year.

G.M., Thanks for asking. Mom is hospitalized, but my sis is supposed to bring her home today. No definitive diagnosis yet, but they still think it is cancer and more tests are scheduled. I'm hoping to stay home all day today and get gardening stuff done, but if my sister or brother calls and wants me to come down, of course I will drop everything immediately and go. Since it is planting season, I'm trying to split my time between here and there. Otherwise, I'd just pack and go and stay for a week or two. I was gone most of yesterday. As much as it seems like "spring is here", it has REALLY arrived in the D-FW metroplex. The bluebonnetse have started blooming down there. While on our way down there yesterday, a huge piece of steel came flying up off the roadway and took out our windshield on I-35 near Denton. So, first thing tomorrow a.m., the truck goes to get a new windshield. It's always something. : ) Steve LaNore starting talking yesterday about the potential for very severe weather here April 3-4, and the NWS sounds pretty serious about it also. So, everything I do I am doing with an eye on the weather. I just know we are due for a bad hail storm here at our house. I think the last one we had that really tore up the plants was in 1999 or 2000 or 2001, so we're overdue. (Marietta has had some damage since then, but not those of us out here in the middle of nowehere.) I had to water the plants a little yesterday morning too as the hot wind had dried them out. We had light rain droplets earlier, and a little thunder, but not enough rain to amount to anything. It looks like it is all going east of us today. Who know what we'll get tomorrow. Whatever it is, I hope it is something "good" like rain, and not "bad" like hail or tornadoes. Dawn

Kathy, The frog and turtle bed should be easy. Ours is a lily pond in the ground, NOT surrounded by stone. (To me, a whole lot of stonework popping up in the middle of the grassy prairie where we have NO native stone visible just seemed too fake, and I am into having a landscape that fits in with our native prairie....up to a point.) Maybe someday I'll get tired of weedeating back the bermuda to keep it out of the sedges at the water's edge, and maybe then I'll replace it with stonework. Our pond is earth-bottomed so the frogs can dig into the mud to hibernate. It has water lilies, which gives them pads to sit on....and they DO sit on them! (I can divide the water lilies in the spring and bring some to the plant swap in April if your water feature will have room for lilies.) It has tall spiky plants (pickerel rush, horsetail reed, cattails (have them and wish we didn't) for the dragon flies to perch upon. The pond has a log in it for the turtles to climb on for sunning purposes. One end of the log rests on the foot of the 2' deep pond and the other end rests on the pond bank. Several turtles can sun on it at one time. Native prairie sedges planted themselves in the soil at the edge of the pond and the bermuda grass runs right up to the sedges. The sedges give frogs and turtles on land some taller vegetation for protection, because the chickens eat frogs (oh, yes they do!) and so do a couple of the cats (or, at least, they try to). In a bed several feet away from the pond, I have lots of plants to give the frogs and turtles a safe place to hang out on land when they wish to--away from the pesky cats and chickens. This bed has fairly low-growing junipers (a couple of feet tall, but with room underneath for both turtles and frogs), a chaste tree (vitex agnus-castus), a chinaberry tree (we had one when I was a kid and I love it even though it is not the highest quality tree), roses, swamp mallows, and various annual and perennial flowers. I let the growth here stay pretty thick to give the little critters protective cover. I also have cannas and the giant green elephant ears nearby to give the pond area a sort-of tropical look, and to give the frogs something to sit on. They like to sit on the big broad leaves. The turtles like to dig into sandy soil to lay their eggs, so a patch of sandy soil that can be dug up is handy, but they will lay their eggs wherever they choose. We have all kinds of frogs and turtles and, needless to say, all we had to do was dig a hole in the ground (Elvis, the guy who put in our tornado shelter dug the hole with his backhoe the same day he put in the tornado shelter) and the frogs and toads and turtles magically appeared. Our 'water feature' is more or less round--I didn't want it to look too perfectly round--and about 15' across. It is two feet deep, more or less, and has sloped sides so any small animal or child that falls in can crawl out. There is not a filter or pump, just Mother Nature, and the water is clear most of the time although we get an occasional algae bloom after a big rainfall in hot weather. We have a few mosquito fish and goldfish in the pond to keep mosquito larvae under control. A frog or turtle bed sounds like fun. I bet you could find stepping stones in a turtle shape if you like that short of ornamental thing in the garden. Of all the various landscape features we have, it is always the lily pond with its frogs and turtles and dragon flies and toads and fish that gets EVERYONE'S attention. People just want to sit and stare at it. I guess there's a little kid inside of each of us, and that kid loves the fogs, turtles and other creatures. The only wild things not welcome in our pond are the great blue herons who swoop in to stand in the pond and eat every now and then. The guineas always tell us when the herons have invaded the pond by gathering nearby and squawking their heads off. Then, the dogs and I walk out the door about 15' from the pond, and the heron flies away. Then, Honey, our little blonde terrier mix, chases the heron for as long as she can--usually until it's flown several hundred feet away, and then she returns to us, all proud and excited that she has protected us from the dreaded Great Blue Heron. (Yes, it is ALWAYS a zoo here no matter what.) I also like to have a lot of night-blooming flowers (daturas, brugmansias, four o'clocks, moonflower vine, etc.) nearby so we can enjoy looking at them and also enjoy their lovely nighttime fragrance while sitting out by the pond in the evenings. And, too, I keep several tropical plants in large pots near the pond because the smaller tree frogs love to hide in their foliage. (Not all frogs, after all, are water lovers! The tree frogs are one of my favorite local creatures.) Dawn