Yeah I've made numerous changes lately(seems like my 'off-days' lately have been two hours of work outside, come in get some rest, post here' two more hours of work, repeat, etc. I've removed many of the 'dwarves' in my front drive bed with mini's and 'smaller' dwarves, dwarves that grow 1-3" a year tops. There are still a few larger ones, even a few that might be classified as intermediate(picea mariana aereovarigiata), but for the most part, the bed is mini's and small dwarves. I will undoubtably have problems anyway, but it is going to be much less now then it was. If things aren't really crowded until twenty years from now I will conider that a victory.

Hi jbrig! Good to hear from you. I haven't been around here much, thanks for asking! Yes, my husband died unexpectedly when we were vacationing two years ago in Canada. It's been a devastating loss; I waited a long time for him to retire and we had just one year of empty nest. We still had projects to finish here at our retirement home, decorating and landscaping, so I've been busy taking care of the place and handling business, basically everything he did, and everything I did. I'm just now getting my "bearings" so to speak, if you ever can do that, and finishing some of those projects around the house. If I ever get around to doing them, I'll post some updated photos. I'll post a photo of my work island once it's finished, I hope it turns out to be as functional and useful as I hope. I'd love an update from you! So many people I recall still here, and many old names gone, and new ones. I love hearing the Christmas lists, though, please post more!

I have just been lent as a 30 year loan my neighbours Christmas present from his Massachusetts S-in-L. It is The Encyclopedia of New England. A huge volume that could be used to underpin the foundations of our house. I weighed it on my new all-knowing full of electronic wizardry Xmas present scales and it claimed the book was 6ft 1 inch, whereas my old, trusty scales recorded 7½ pounds. This tome tells me more than I need to know about everything/body in NE even unto the 10th generation in teeny-tweeny print.

My very favorite gift was from a friend who can cook quite well, that went to the trouble of sending it to me via post. In nice containers too. My son and I would try one each night. Maybe even two. Or three. It was nice to enjoy! List? Not really. My work gave me a turkey (already eaten), my boss gave me a check, my workmates gave me some really cool pop them in the microwave booties that can warm my toes, mom gave me a check, nephew gave me cash, and my sister gave me shiny baubles. I did buy myself an incredibly cheap tablet. So cheap, it is a 10 inch screen, but it came with a keyboard case and stylus, all for $100. I'm not kidding. That's how cheap it is. I have figured out, I only use the tablet for games and magazine reading. I rarely even surf the internet with it even. I'm just glad anyone thought of me at all.