My grandmother was born in Ukraine. What a wonderfully beautiful church you built. The architecture is so special. I do love that cross! Great work. I was so happy to see something so dear, and it made me think of Grandma. Nothing could be better than that. I especially love birdhouses and do a lot of them. Do you have more to show? Here's my link if you'd like to see mine. http://photobucket.com/daisyme-birdhouses

Hi everyone. The concert at the beginning of February went OK; the chorus managed to hang on by their fingertips and made it through the entire piece. But I have to say my heart fell to the floor at the rehearsal following the concert, when the conductor asked us all: Do you want to make the Vespers part of our repertoire, so we can continue to polish it and make it better over time? I was ready to raise my hand enthusiastically when several people around me hollered in disgusted tones: "Noooo!" So I went off and joined the Ukrainian chorus, and although I haven't formally quit the original chorus, I'm attending a lot fewer rehearsals there. Perhaps it's divine retribution, but the original chorus got kicked out of its really nice rehearsal space in Riverside Church, and now the only digs they can afford are an old church in an iffy neighborhood. The building is under renovation, and their next door plot is being turned into a condo, so there's heavy machinery noise...and the old church smells a little like cat pee. And perhaps I'm experiencing some kind of dictate from a will not my own: this is the Orthodox Lenten season, and although I hadn't intended to observe it, I sort of have been for the past week, since a stomach bug has left me unable to eat anything except toast with jelly, rice, gingerale, bananas, and chicken broth. I've lost seven pounds over the past three days. As I wait for this very slow Spring we're having in our region to take off, I think about how food must have become scarce in centuries past right about this time of year, when nothing is really growing yet except a few onion-type things, and the winter stores would have been dwindling or gone. Dostoino yest (it is fitting, Old Church Slavonic) to have a lean season once in a while. All the richness is going into the Easter eggs (see gallery).

I grew two small Sugar Pie pumpkin vines once in an old wooden box, about 18"x18"x18". It was against a heavy metal grate used as a trellis. I got 5 nice punks, but that year I had to hand pollinate and only the ones I pollinated matured. I held the fruit up with tulle netting slings. Maybe you could box and trellis the smaller ones if you need to save space and hill the giant one.

Nice tour of the neighborhood! I've never been to Iowa, but it does remind me a lot of Upstate NY and PA. What time of day did you take these pics? Looks very nice and quiet. Usually mornings and evenings are the worst here because of the people commuting and there's always road work being done which adds to the traffic! That mansion is beautiful! Whoever lives there is very rich, thats for sure! I always like to see some dawn redwoods, they look really nice, but I rarely see them at big sizes around here since most people have to cut them down because they plant it close their homes or run out of room, or something like that. Thanks for sharing! -Alex