Good Morning All; I discovered even more seeds in my package, not too bright!! What amazes me is how well Chris cleans her seeds and marks her packages. I am not that good. I leave a significant amount of chaff in some of my smaller seeds. There was a time when that was recommended as it is easier to sow them if they do not all fall out of the package at once. At least that is my rationale and since I am challenged at cleaning seeds, "that is my story and I am sticking to it. What that means is that I have sent Chris seeds but they will need a final cleaning before she can plant. She certainly seems up to the task but I feel bad about it. Sorry Chris. By the way the DC for your package is 01038555749656910378. I did not realize Monday was a holiday but there really is nothing that will rot overnight. Enjoy. diene

i just wanted to also mention that friday Jared is finding out if he is cleared of his mrsa, so i am praying that the good LORD has cleared his whole body of that nasty stuff!! so he can finally hold his Anna marie!! i know i so worry so much about that stuff, but with antibiotics ya never know, and i have been reading on it, and ahhhhh***sighing*** i just worry. LOL i'm his sister/mommie, LOL ya know the whole half raised the little guy, LOL ok, 1 more day closer to my next niece, so hubs was looking on the net today and found daddy's girl by red sovine, LOL we do like his songs, there's a few of them that are really great!! :'>> ummmmm.....one of the dad's was a truck driver, LOL and hey becky it was nice to see you post again!! haven't seen you in ages!! :'"" i know ya been busy!! the kids's winter sowing prject i told ya about, OMGoodness!! its doing great!! more than half did great!! some cats got on my porch, uhhhh not my cats, and knocked some of them over, i'm NOT happy, they were in heat. seed starting in the bag, not good for me, kinda sucked, so i started it a different way. BUT cuttings in a bag, now that's a WHOLE different story!! that is SOOOO working for me!! the roots are even great!! i love it!! just fill the bag up with your breath and zip, if ya feel better, change it once a week or so, with your new breath, but it works great, but not with roses!! LOL Hugs Medo

ok sorry about that, i'll clean out my cache and cookies again, LOL that'll probably fix it?? awesome!! talla will love it, she's so happy about her fairy garden. we have to start on the other one in the actual garden. where all the crabgrass is. LOL that sounds like an awesome box emily/april :')) an aweful lot to plant!! LOL HEE HEE i bet your gonna have some amazing fun!!!! LOL i know that these guys are gonna have some fun pretty soon with their planting. i'm absolutely out of that now, just the transplanting only. they do the rest now. its much to hot/humid for me. and we've been staying up to late. i got a lashing (not really) from the prison guard (ol man) LOL (that's what he does in real life so i tease him about it LOL) but on the other hand the house has been getting cleaned up some more and i am so happy and it has been getting some organizing to, this is what i'm NO good at, in fact my kiddo's are better at it than me. LOL it would seem that i have taught them something after all. LOL hmmmmm imagine that!!! LOL HEe hEE EhE LOL how is this gas problem affecting everyone else?? my mom said she had heard from somewhere that by the end of the year it will be 7 bucks a gal. so hubs is trying for a job 15 miles away. we are praying that the job pays a decent amount, at least enough to pay the bills. i will be happy. :')) i'll start making LOTS more homemade stuff!! LOL i definately don't have a prob with that. the laundry soap was the biggest saver and the laundry rinse was the biggest saver. ok that's all i can think of now, so your prob thinking now, WHEW get her off the soap box NOW!!!! LOL **big grinn** many big hugs Medo i hope ya'll have a great day!!

Bad Hermit, bad Hermit.... First, I need to make an apology - unless my forgetfulness had me forget that I already mentioned this? Karen - I think I forgot to also thank you out here in front of everyone for the OTHER set of chimes as well? I was really struck with them (but I think I forgot to mention them because I got all mucked up in the overflowing emotions - but that's not a bad thing, I really did need a plug-puller to get the bulk of those emotions OUT - but I feel bad that it might have caused my forgetfulness in respect to the others).... Karen also included a lovely earthenware or pottery-type chime (a friend of mine is a sculptress and she'd whoop me if I didn't attempt to define between china, bisque, earthenware, ceramic, pottery, etc.) that is bell-shaped, glazed a nice - how to describe this hue? - a muted purple - not vivid, not bright, but neither is it pastel... almost an earthy yet distinct purple glaze WITH a Dragonfly raised motif on the surface. (the irony here is that awhile back one of my twins got me a dual-glass/one set inside the other - votive/tealight candleholder that is green with dragonflies - on the inside, the outside cup/holder is frosted glass - looks really neat when lit up) Part of my forgetfulness was because the moment I saw this bell-shaped chime - and duly noted what appears to be a brass "hammer" that moves to ring the bell, and is weighted with a grean ceramic leaf suspended from it - I knew instantly that it and the candleholder my daughter got me should go "together", so they both got placed in the "garden tub" (of a trailer/mobile home - not so upscale as my dream garden tub - but I'll get there!) - the candleholder went onto a cedar shelf I have in there and the dragonfly windchime I suspended from a wire "planter" that I've never lined for plants but instead mounted on the wall to suspend my favourite "relaxing" things from and put various bottles holding bath-related "stuff" in.... so each time I kick back for a hot soak (which is frequently with my screwed up back), I get to set the chime in motion and slide down into the hot water and it is suspended in just the right position where I can visually focus on it with ease and relax. I wish I could explain how "perfect" the colours are - and the tone - it's not flashy or glaring and the tone doesn't "demand" from the ears - it's just the perfect meditative piece. A little additional irony is that while I don't think I mentioned it while intro'ing myself or in my other babbling on the ongoing threads for this swap, I do "dig" dragonflies. :) It's pure coincidence that when our first Rottie passed, while I had "just the gazing globe" already ready, the first 'stand' I picked out for it was one with dragonflies and chimes suspended inside it - unfortunately it didn't fit my globe (smaller globe) and never got to be used before I discovered the stand/pedestal was too cheaply made to endure the elements here. So - across the board unconsciously - dragonflies and chimes have also been "tied into" things with the dogs... perhaps because of all the times I used to spend with them down at the creek "chasing" dragonflies of different types trying to get a good zoom/macro "perfect" picture (to no avail - I'm convinced dragonflies are a creature of this world best enjoyed as they come and go and without trying to capture them live or on film - some pix turned out okay, but just never had that brilliance that dragonflies do to the naked eye). You all have to promise me that you won't "close up shoppe" on this thread until photos are posted AND until I get Melissa's second parcel sent to her! I really want you all to see what Karen sent me - and for the same reason Melissa/HNB has not yet received her second box from me - I haven't gotten photos taken. I had been, if you will pardon the phrase, sick as a dog for awhile now. I thought I was getting over it, but I either relapsed or got a new strain or it mutated on me. I get "the crud" every year - I'm usually sick as a dog in bed every Thanksgiving since 1984- there's only been three exceptions 1) the year I had my twins - they were due in October but I had them in September and that year I got sick 2 months earlier than usual 2) the year I had my youngest (who was born just under an hour before it officially became Thanksgiving that year) I got sick in late September thru early October, and 3) the year my beloved Kerridwen passed, I started getting sick in October and had just cleared it mostly by the time she whelped ON Thanksgiving and we lost her just after midnight that night. Sooooo... suffice to say, I'm hoping that getting sick "early" with "the crud" this year isn't a portent of anything (definitely no more childbearing on my part) good or bad and just coincidence that the kids were exposed to medically confirmed stuff from a cousin/family they spent a good bit of time with combined with hubby now being "exposed to the public" with the work he's picked up (yes, he got a job! Once we get caught up it should pay the bills, but his humour is dry when he commented that he worked himself up to six-figures a year all the way back down to almost minimum-wage - mind you, the job he got, is with a man/company that knew him back when HE was in high school and some of his coworkers are from his "old friends/acquaintances" category from back in the day) and after two years of being really-really isolated from the public "germ-pool" he's no doubt bombarded with stuff we haven't had to contend with for a long time. ANYWAY, I haven't been keeping up with the messages or even my own personal email on a regular, much more daily, basis because I really have been "that sick" - like sleeping anywhere from 12, 14, 16, all the way up to 36 hours, not eating (no appetite combined with not being able to REALLY smell food, much more taste anything - it all seems the same and that doesn't do anything for building an appetite, ya know?), off/on fever, and well, I'm sure you all are familiar with one variety of another of "the crud" that just sucks the life-energy right out of you, ya know? My biggest meals have consisted of a half-cup of yellow/saffron rice with a 'jerk sauce' that has scotch bonnet peppers in it (pro-capsicum for anything sinus or bronchial) or crackers with some peanut butter (protein) and apricot preserves dabbed on for flavour, or four cubes (1"x1") of chicken sauteed in butter with tons of garlic (go garlic as a cure-all! well, it works better if you actually have more intake of it... but at least I could taste the garlic). Sad to say, I haven't even had more than a cup of tea over a period of every four days. That "blah". Sleep, sleep, and more sleep seems to be the only thing really helping to combat this strain, strains, or mutation(s) of "the crud" this year - but on the plus side - and not to gross anyone out - at least the mucous involved has remained normal in colour - no sign of infection. Again, ANYWAY, Melissa/HNB - I had every hope of having your second parcel en route to you no later than two days following your birthday, but it just didn't/hasn't turned out that way. I didn't forget your birthday. In fact, it was at the forefront of my thoughts once you told me in email while we corresponded with my other delays for just getting the first one out to you. I do hope that it was a very good day for you on some level. As for grey hairs... don't look for them. :) I saw my first WHITE hairs when I was like 27... for sure anyway, I suspect they were there at 26 but I easily overlooked them as platinum blonde at the time since they cropped up in an area on my head (top/forward but further back that "forelock" or "bangs") that at the time got a lot of sun exposure and areas like that my hair naturally sun-bleached out for the platinum blonde strands/individual hairs to mingle in with the natural mix of other shades in my 'mane'. I didn't cry when I saw them WHITE though. I actually thought it was pretty cool. To-date, I still don't get grey hairs, one by one strands just totally lose all pigment and go stark white. I keep hoping that given where most of them are showing up, maybe I'll get one or two of those really cool streaks where I'll have solid white locks on either side/towards the front and I can flaunt my white. Of course I'm utterly convinced that my white hairs are a direct result of stress... like the stress that comes on because of typical life with having/raising kids :) And the flipside is, for every stark white hair I get in front, I get an equally and totally opposite undeniably BLACK strand from the opposite area of my head (sides but towards the back or from "underneath")... Maybe I'll get to be "salt and pepper" like a Miniature Schnauzer? The only downside to the white strands is that I see a parallel with the "not feminine" whiskers emerging on my chin and the once platinum blonde, fine body hair that was once "normal" and "natural" and "not even noticed", has decided to darken over my upper lip and some of the emerging whiskers on my chin prove to be just as tough as Rottie hairs. Hrmm. Maybe I'll turn into a Rottweiler? :) For what it's worth though Melissa, whether it's a whisker, a darkening of hair where once-feminine begins to resemble a masculine mustache (I haven't yet worked up the nerve to wax it - too afraid it will grow back twice as thick, ten times as dark, and really become a self-consciousness issue for me), or some new stark white strands riddling my mane when I brush it back and put it up in a ponytail - I find I notice several to many more things around me - in the natural world - for each one of those things, that are I never noticed before that really take my breath away. I kinda stopped celebrating my own birthdays a long time back after other people (immediate family namely) pretty much forgot "it was my birthday" and then that got me into the mindset that as a mother, a wife, and a caretaker of animals in need, and plants, and all that... that my own birthdays are "just another day", BUT, I like to wish other people a happy birthday (or belated or early, depending on what all is going on in my own life at any given time) and try to, well, embrace the milestone in life... it is just a day, but at some point or another, I hope that "happy birthday!"s to other people will get them to take pause to maybe see the wonder(s) around them on any other day and perhaps even make it a habit, so that every day is special and from there every moment unique. I figure for most people it either takes really tapping into spirituality (not necessarily religion, but for some they go hand in hand), a taste of mortality or knowing one's number is about up, or simply with age, because it's never too late to start to really (and pardon the cliche) "stop and smell the roses". Space aside HNB/Melissa, the reason I sent you that windchime before the other (commercial) one (the custom one will speak for itself) wasn't so much because of the chimes - because it's sound is limited - but because of the symbolism and I really really hoped that given your colour preferences and that particular chime, you would have the opportunity to see how the mirrors and "beads" (with their different shapes and colours) would catch the (natural) light as we were right on the verge of the Autumnal Equinox (when it was sent) and I hoped that you and your family would be able to enjoy the changing lighting effects of the Sun as relected and refracted as we move into this time of the year... Spring sunlight is nice, but still smacks of Winter, Summer sunlight can be overwhelming - even if we have plants that thrive in it - but the sunlight of Autumn? And those colours... well, I hope you and your family get the chance to enjoy them and they warm your heart and souls. As to the cocoas - I couldn't resist the ones with Bunny Marshmallows! I hunted high and low for a permanent marker/sharpie because I wanted to write Hazel Nut above the "Bunny" much more blatantly. I thought your kids would enjoy those though. I was so totally "stuck" though on others - I personally *adore* the White Chocolate cocoa 99.9% caffeine free, so it's not a cocoa that will wind you up when you're trying to relax and it just feels so smooth in the mouth and going down. I didn't know if you liked DARK chocolate or not though - and I can't remember if I included a "Dark Chocolate Sensation" cocoa for you or not??? If you like Dark Chocolate and I didn't send you at least one of those, please let me know and I'll include one in box #2. I knew you liked coffee - but that doesn't necessitate liking dark chocolate. I tried, to no avail, to find a particular coffee for you that my few coffee-drinkers around here like (we don't get it often, they like coffee but don't drink it on a regular basis) - hopefully I'll find it available before box #2 goes out. The other cocoas - Let me know which ones you like and which ones you don't? BTW, do you like Raspberry/ies or the flavour at all? Was it enough teas? Were some of them totally redundant to what you've already had in the past? I just didn't know! But at the same time I didn't want to send too much or too little... sometimes it takes more than one cup to decide... like whether to have it with sweetener or milk or lemon, hot or cold... OH, and there's another tea that I debated on heavily but ended up not sending, because I didn't know if you had any gall bladder or gall stones? It's an herbal tincture ("tea") that my eldest (who is so totally not into infusions in general - he keeps things on the simple side) SWEARS by as a remedy for his version of "the crud"... but I just wasn't sure if I dared send any or not - I didn't want to make anyone sick or complicate a pre-existing condition since I wasn't copying ingredients for every single infusion/tea... I know this is probably confusing for others here since you're getting "mixed swap boxes"... I did get some "root" plants in there though, even if they weren't bulbs per se. Provided there is room, I do intend to send you some more (for that mostly shade/2 hours-of-sun area) that was talked about in email. If that Purple Obedient Plant doesn't take for you - please let me know and I will do a better dig for you. It's mixed in with a Rice Paper Plant that was one of only six to survive for me - but didn't thrive - so I will be digging that RPP for transplant into a container for the winter anyway and when I do that, I will have better access to the Purple Obedient Plant's rootstock, i.e. being able to get to more substantial rootstock to send to you. Well, it looks like I have written a lot - but "not much" again... so I'm going to get this posted and try to use what wee bit of energy I've got left (wanes as fast as the sun in late afternoon here these days) to try and do a little domestic task I set for myself today.... if I can keep these two new-to-us cats out of my business. Thankfully the female of the two that are residing in our room, her kittens aren't old enough to be out wandering and getting into things yet. The mama-cat is a real lover (and the people told us she was totally NOT a housecat - this mama-cat has excellent indoor/household manners! And green eyes - just noticed that for-sure with good northern light to check by - green, not yellow or gold, but green eyes... cool, thought it was artificial lighting misrepresenting her eye colour before) and the other one... he's, we estimate, coming up on 6 months old and has a penchant for the laptop - he quickly discovered (and is quite proficient) at using the "pad" on the laptop in lieu of a mouse - complete with scrolling up and down... he thinks this laptop I'm borrowing is his personal toy and when not a toy, his bottom-heat spot for sitting or sleeping... Hermit - who has confused herself