I already sowed 2 trees and 1 shrub - Fringe Tree (Chionanthus virginicus), Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Silky dogwood (Cornus amomum). The Fringe tree requires warm then cold stratification periods and usually takes 2 years to sprout. Hoping to condense that to one year, I cleaned off the purple flesh, sowed it in a milk jug early September and have kept it in the house since then to get the warm stratification. Soon it will go outside for cold stratification and join the Dogwoods which were put out in November. This will be the first time I've tried sowing trees and am very curious to see what happens. If lots of them sprout, I am not sure where the heck they will be planted! I collected the seed myself from specimens in the local area, when the fruits appeared to be fully ripe. Here are pics of the "Mothers" of my future babies - Flowering Dogwood in front of an office building - Fringe tree in front of a school - Silky Dogwood in a local wetland, berries turn a pretty blue

My grandparents would "pop-call", as they called it - ALL THE WAY FROM PHILA, TO MD!! My mother would get so annoyed. The house was usually "lived-in", but never a real mess. Still, that would get her going, every time. Now, I have a neighbor that does that, all the time. It would be OK if she didn't talk about people all the time. She is very nice/responsible/extremely helpfu and thoughful. But, she is also obsessive about how other people live their lives. Whether I care about how you live your life or not, I won't say anything about it unless it is harmful - to you or someone else, and even then, I probably wouldn't. We all kind of just chat, and give hugs and shoulders. But I've had her come to my house and talk about how one neighbor only talks about her problems and what's going on in her life. A few days later, she was in the person's house. It's so bad that I used to dread being home and wanted to move. I always have a sigh of relief when she goes on VAC!! Now though, I must have really made her mad - by not saying anything, and she is noticeably avoiding me. The bad part - her house is always clean/neat, although, since having a youngster now, it's not that way all the time. My house - well, it's my house; some days good, some days, not so good. Oh well, she'll get over it.

Hope you feel better soon Stacy. For the first time in a month I'm aware that it is Friday... well very early Sat morning now. My lay-off has come to an end for now and I go back to work on Monday. I didn't know how bad I needed an extended break. I'm alive and living again! A rather strange day. New bartender and I struck up a friendship. Alas she is less then half my age so it will be just friends. She had guessed I was "not older then 33" which puts her off by 11 years. Still it was so good for my ego to have an interested gal being friendly. Just took a walk down my drive as Dolly had been barking at something. Nothing out there to be found but it is one beautiful night out there. Out here in the Thumb we don't get much light pollution so the stars are very clear. The Milky Way makes a neat white stripe across the sky. Some lightning flashing out over Saginaw Bay which is 30 miles north of me. Probably rain by morning but clear and cool right now. Not in the mood for alcohol or I'd take a bottle and go have a sit in the moonlight. My outdoor cat Tippy got into a bad fight and came home all bloody. Thought he might lose an eye this morning. Patched him up and put some boric acid eye drops on his wounded eye. Must have felt good because he didn't seem to mind my putting stuff in his eye. Happy to report the swelling is way down and he looks better tonight. Going to buy a storm door in the morning. Only one in stock a couple weeks ago and I need to get another. The garage didn't really need one but both doors are on the front of the house and it looks funny to only have one storm door. Dad said I should close off the porch but I don't know if I have that much energy. Grew potted tomatoes and peppers instead of flowers the last couple years and don't know if I want to lose the porch space now. So it goes. I need to take some cyclobenzaprine so I can get back to sleep. Doc gave it to me for my back problems but it makes a pretty decent sleeping pill. Way better then ambien but not as good as some opioids. I'll feel buzzed all day tomorrow from it so I only take it when sleeping is otherwise impossible. : ) lyra

I get pickup groceries through the Walmart grocery app, because I work from home anyway and with schools closed I am also doing homeschooling supervision for our 4 kids (the mister is considered an "essential employee" as are all salaried workers at his job - so he goes to work M-F as he normally does...but this gets him out of the house more, and we've had to do some adjusting so that I'm not completely bonkers by the time a weekend arrives - more or less full responsibilities for the kids on Sat/Sun for the mister while I get to relax a bit more than I usually do on weekends, and he's also doing more of it when he gets home from work when I need him to do so). Taking that short trip to get groceries and going to Costco all on my own while the mister is with the kids (there has to be an adult present until they get a bit older) is a lot more relaxing than I expected, but I'm not going to complain! ;)