I brief good morning to my virtual friends. The animals stories are great. We saw a lone turkey hen neatly picking her way along the edge of the south lawn this morning. She carefully headed off between the emerging ferns without inciting any response from Wrecks. Every morning I see evidence of the "night shift"... usually a turd/two left in a conspicuous place to let everyone know that someone claims this piece of ground while the "owners" slumber. I like that. Jack Frost stopped by briefly on Monday morning. Tender growth on the Kirengeshoma was nipped as were the buds on the tree peony. I've long been underwhelmed by the latter, so this year I will likely look on it with greater dissatisifaction that usual. ;) I have yet to finish cleaning any of the garden areas entirely but nonetheless I am filled with a sense of calm and ease about it all. Where does that come from, I wonder? Same feeling I have about work, actually. Not that the general tension and periodic unpleasantness doesn't bother me, but somehow I seem to be more able to shrug it off quickly with a wry smile. Perhaps it's because I know I do a good job, I know I am present for the hours I'm able to work, and that when able I will go the extra yard to help out. I am an employee, not a green recruite recently inducted. C'est ca. Thoughts of hives, chicken rescue, and your industry in your gardens warms my heart periodically. Know that. I think of you often over the course of the day. Wishing all well and now about to pay some bills, toss some laundry into the washing machine and think about dealing with returnables (a "ride" for the huge one!) and a trip to the bank.

Hello, All! Hope everyone had a nice holiday season! Like Rosey, I managed to suck up all the local germs while visiting my kids and grandkids... the younger of which are walking virus factories interacting daily with all manner of other neighborhood children and schoolmates... and came home with a nasty chest cold/flu combination. The old guy and I are both sick. I'm glad for things like Vick's VapoRub and antibiotics! I'm a believer in modern pharmaceuticals, as long as I know what they contain and how they work, and whether or not there are more side effects than good effects! My grandson was full blown sick while we were there, complete with fever that makes your ears red and hot, a horrid cough from a tight chest with infection, packed sinuses, runny nose, chapped lips, the whole nine yards. It's the kind of sick that makes your skin hurt! You know you need to eat, but you can't stomach anything. We felt so bad for the poor little guy... and now that we have it, we know what a trooper he was! I'm off to a bad start with the new year... my monitor burnt up, I got sick, and to top everything off, I managed to leave my camera behind when we packed up to come home. I think I did, anyway... I can't find it. On the positive side, H. "Minerva" has kindly waited for me, and is just now starting to open her large buds! And nothing died while we were gone, meaning that my orchids hung in there with the watering I gave them before we left for Christmas. I also have a Gloriosa vine growing tall and looking to bloom, I think. I had thought the corm died in the pot, but when I gave it a small drink to moisten the medium a bit, it began to grow! It will be interesting to see if it does bloom, as it's growing in an east facing window. Nice photos, everyone! Josh, that is such a wonderful Catt! Well... trying to get caught up with reading and posting, taking my time through this cold. I sure hope no one else gets it... it's a nasty one! Talk at ya all later!

One thing that helps with cutting down on how much space Outlook takes up is to empty the Deleted Items folder -- if it's trash, you need to get rid of it altogether. Also, if your aunt sends out messages and attaches anything (photos, documents, etc.), she should delete that message from her Sent Items folder (or at least delete the attachment from the sent message). She's got the "original" on her hard drive, so she doesn't need another copy of it in Outlook. Then, be sure to empty that Deleted Items folder again! Your aunt can create a new Personal Folders File (also known as an Outlook Data File) in which she can store the messages that she really, really wants to keep. These files have a .pst extension and can only be viewed from within Outlook. Once the .pst file has been created and messages have been moved into it, you can move the .pst file to a jump drive (also known as a thumb drive). You will have saved important messages while at the same time cleaning out the mailbox and reducing the size of Outlook on the hard drive. If you need to get to those messages again you can insert the jump drive again.

Random placement: I haven't had that problem, but I always make sure my curser is at the bottom of the page when I start to upload a photo. If you've clicked outside the message box, the curser sends the photo (or link) to the top of the message (or where ever the curser is in the message.)