Oh, hey there Melee, how goes it? Well I actually meant to post this on the main board, just because so many of us are outside in the sun etc... anyway, had a bit of a cancer scare:O. I had a little spot on my neck/shoulder, that I'd just kind of been ignoring...anyway my sister came into town and saw it, insisted I get it looked at and well....turns out it was melanoma. And for those of you that don't know melanoma can be very deadly:(, it's the skin cancer that can and does go to organs, usually lungs, lymph nodes, brain:( anyway they caught mine fairly early, of course for a week or 2 I was wandering around the house humming the theme from Love Story LOL, before I got all the results back. they still had to cut a pretty big chunk out of my neck to get all the margins, but it's healing fairly well, and I don't think it'll leave too bad of a scar. So!!! if you see anything suspicious on yourself or anybody else, get it looked at!!! Don't be a knucklehead like me, if caught early they can take care of it fairly easyly. And being as most of us on this board probably spend a great deal of time out in the sun, make sure you wear hats, sunscreen, etc.....ok enough preaching from the Boopster. Oh and Melee, I'll have to post some more pics of Hudson, hes getting HUGE!!!!!!! How are your horses doing? Done any yakin' lately? Poochella, how's Mikey the Brittney getting on? Has he settled into country life yet? We spent the weekend at the coast with the folks we got Liz from,they brought her sister Lil, I'll have to post some pics of her too, they look so much alike I almost brought the wrong dog home! anyway our house at the coast is not all that big, and we had FIVE Border Collies down there with us:) but a good time was had by all.

idabean is referring to the rural landscape cemetery movement, which came about as cities realized that land was getting scarcer and didn't need to be tied up with, ahem, dead folks. Additionally, the cemeteries of the early 1800s were rather dreary places and didn't inspire one to invest much in your dearly deceased. So - in the attempt to save the land nearest the urban centers for more lucrative endeavors, properties were sought out in the relative hinterlands and efforts made to make them more of a place to go visit and spend time with the loved one departed. Sort of like parks for the passed. Mount Auburn Cemetery actually precedes Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.'s design career. I think it dates to the early 1830s, and Olmsted began at Central Park in NYC in the late 1850s. Still, it is a fine example of working with the topography in laying out the design, and then making it beautiful and beckoning with the plantings and architecture. Back to the question: most all large cities took up this baton, and established their own rural landscape cemeteries. I'm very familiar with the Big Three of the Ohio River valley region. ***Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati OH (700+ acres) ***Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville KY (400+ acres) ***Lexington Cemetery, Lexington KY (150+ acres) These are all fine institutions that have maintained the traditions of their founding, and all have excellent horticultural collections - reaching arboretum status. Don't have the skills to post pics here, but I have many from each of these sites. The Ginkgo biloba at Cave Hill Cemetery is absolutely (and appropriately) other-worldly.

Angie, it's really neat living near the Mississippi river...we get to see all sorts of amazing sights. Eagles are such a gorgeous bird...we are truly blessed to see them frequently, even flying over our house (would that be considered a backyard bird then? LOL) Once I got photos of a bird way up high in the sky...I thought it was an eagle but when put on the computer and edited, it turned out to be an osprey...that was a thrill!!!

Kraftymom, thank you and you are so right about painting, it is about fun and expressing yourself. You know I never notice imperfections in other people's work just my own. It's true we are our own worst critics. Why is it we have the need to point out the mistakes (most people would never notice if we didn't)? Our teacher has a "rule" in our class...even though she has to keep reminding us of it a lot...."You are not allowed to criticize your own work". Now who in the heck would criticize someone else's??? But really if you don't quite like how something is working on your piece she will try to let you know what you can do to correct it and it usually works :). Using too little paint and too small of a brush is usually my BIG problem :) Luthien Thank you for your nice comments. I too would love to get lost in a nice peaceful place like that, every time I paint one I think I'd just love to jump right in. I'm a little silly right there with ya. Happy Painting, Diane