Thanks for the positive comments, brom friends. Glad you enjoyed it - just sorry you weren't all there. LOL, Andrew, that 100% pay rise sounds good, but my maths is poor - what is 100% of $0? The alien hieroglyphics were most annoying. I now know that one should change the file to text only, when copying and pasting a Word document. The hieroglyphics substituted all the inverted commas, apostrophes, and dots...... which did not show in the preview. Lisa - I know nothing about why there weren't more Aussie hybrids available for sale. Probably distance to get them there would have been a hindrance. Shane Z was selling some of his hybrids, as was Peter T. I can only assume that due to restrictions on O.S. visitors' purchases, the sellers catered more for Aussies - the majority. And yes Gonzer, a splendid time was had for sure! Cheers, Kerry

Sushipup, The new menu is strange, at best, for a coastal New England inn. Who, pray tell, comes to Mystic for a Cajun roasted sweet potato??? Look what Irving did to our wonderful, local (as in 1/2 mile away) diver scallops. You've got to be kidding! Blue crab with sriracha aioli? Cripes! People could stay home & find that on a menu. It's not New England & especially NOT Mystic. The new menu looks just like any ordinary semi-upscale northeast restaurant. Even the menu wording is unappealing, to me. It reads just like 1,000 other places 100 miles west. Zip local character. The only thing positive I have to say is that the lobster crepes have been returned to the menu (Robert Irving removed them)! Those crepes are delicious & iconic to Mystic. By local demand, they never actually disappeared but after Irving was through customers had to make a special request to get their crepes. They were shortly returned to the printed menu. How's the food? To be fair, I don't go to restaurants anymore & take-out service wouldn't do it justice even if it is good. I just don't like the new choices compared to the old menu. Irving stripped all local flare so there's no appeal or reason to give it a try. Just another restaurant. You can see the restaurant, pre Irving, in the Inn's video. They also caught our home & boat in the video. We're practically spitting distance. It's a lovely property & will be a shame if it sinks. /tricia Here is a link that might be useful: New Menu - Floodtide

I had thought about including home canning on my list of things making a comeback. But then I wondered if it might be on it's way out again. I think its popularity will continue with those who make specialty items like jam, jellies and sauces: not so much with those canning large quantities of fruits and vegetables for economic reasons. I could be wrong if food prices continue to rise. I had the same reaction as grainlady to that thread on divinity. Is there an old-fashioned homemade candy trend developing? Today I saw a fudge "kit" at the grocery store. It's interesting to hear that there is still a crepe restaurant. For a brief time ca. 1970 they were everywhere. There was at least one chain of crepe restaurants. I remember eating at one in downtown Philadelphia -- Walnut Street I think. Perhaps cold duck and Mateus will not make a reappearance. American wine knowledge and tastes have progressed very far since the time they were in vogue. Tricia, that menu description makes me cringe. We need a "back to the classics" movement. Things are out of control. I think your husband could learn to make crepes. They are quite easy. Nothing tricky about them at all, IMO. Crepes can even be made ahead and filled just before serving. If I'm right that they were once a fad, it's a fad worth reviving. Jim

Southwold, Ontario (near London) has a 5-way "Stop" signed corner, Ron. Post office is small - about 20' on each side. There's a building that used to be a store, but now is closed. A truck backs up to the back sometimes and when I ask what goes on there ... they tell me that they raise bait worms. There's a trucking company about 200 feet south. The aboriginal settlement nearby is having a big furniture sale next week ... on Ball Park Road. They are not a reservation - part of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Oneidas bought their own land, many years ago. My landlord would explain how sod-farming works - he says that it takes two or three days for some companies to roll out a trailer-load of sod ... I think about 36 skids ... but his guys and he lay one in one day. I could show you my garden ... that I must clean up, now that snow's gone. While I was hitch-hiking to the "Old Farts (Senior Men's) Coffee Hour" at church yesterday, (a young aboriginal woman with a baby in the back seat gave me a ride) I found a lot of beer and pop cans along the side of the road. We can take a dozen garbage bags, you travelling one side of the road and I running the other ... ... at 10 cents a can recycling fee for beer cans and liquor bottles and about 2 cents scrap price for a pop can ... ... we could collect enough in an afternoon to go out to dinnner ... well, maybe lunch ... (coffee, maybe: if Starbucks, just us, but we could invite some friends if we go to Tim's). Then home to rub liniment on the sore muscles ... before bed. A bit short of space - there's another single in my bedroom (I'd have to clear the flying clothes off) and a double in the guest room. We could put up another single in the family room. If there's another person, you could have my bed and I'd use the sleeping bag on the chesterfield (couch) ... or the floor: I think that the air mattress still holds air. We could take a tour (about two miles away) of Toronto's new "landfill" (that's a double four-letter word for "dump") that's a couple of miles away, over by Highway 401, the Windsor-Toronto-Montreal Expressway. I expect that they'll build a new exit for the 140 or so trucks that will stop travelling to Michigan and drop their stuff near here, in a couple of years. Nearby London has Storybook Gardens, headquarters of John Labatt Brewery (used to be locally owned ... now somewhere in Europe). They sponsored the civic-owned John Labatt Centre, arena for Junior hockey that provides players for the N H L. There's an Agricultuiral Exhibition Centre, TV station and some flee markets ...oh, something wrong with the spelling, did you say? Used to be a biscuit/candy factory, but they closed. Oh - there's a cookie factory (Archway, Hollandia - similar to Voortmans) in a nearby village - they make great cookies, sometimes have 5-lb. boxes on sale. There's a motor vehicle licensing testing centre on a highway just on this side of London, should anyone be interested. If you're still around next Monday you could go with me for my next test - but you and my licensed required co-driver would have to sit in the centre, as no one allowed in the car but the tester (and me). When they test guys riding motorcycles, they give the guy being tested a radio collar (sorry - "headset") and the tester rides alongside with a transmitter to give instructions. Another driver-instruction session slated for after church on Sunday. Our London has a Thames River ... and ours has two branches, which meet downtown, with parks nearby and the former jail (now a municipal office bulding). I didn't say that we've become so civilized that we don't need a jail any more. Have a lovely weekend, everyone. ole joyful