gardens1, Ha I found mountain man already lol Its on the ever growing list, must look again at Blarney stone. moccasinlanding, Celtic Uplands is a nice looking plant and shiny and fragrant, will do research! The temperatures of the atlantic storms depends on the direction the low pressure takes as it approaches us and the sea temps, a deep low skirting the northwest of Ireland will drag down the cold from the cold north atlantic areas of Greenland/Iceland, where as a low approaching the south west will bring mild air from the usually mild mid north atlantic. These storms can be hurricane force sometimes, there may be the first storm of the season coming at the weekend and models suggest it might be a strong one with 90mph gusts, the track of it is uncertain yet. Out coldest temps come from weather systems blocking the mild weather from the atlantic which usually keep us mild and wet in winter, this has happened a few times in recent years notably during the winter of 10/11 which caused chaos with temps as low as -15 to -19, I had -17 here with snow on the ground for 32 days. This is relatively unusual and as a result the country does not have the infrastructure to deal with these extremes, for example water mains not buried deep enough to avoid freezing, only enough salt/grit to treat main routes, few snow ploughs. Where I live is VERY rural and we were left to fend for ourselves or die, such is our inept and uncaring government system. It pays to be a bit of a Prepper (not one of the weird ones lol)

punk...well, you don't have to twist my arm about YS'ing or GS'ing either! My car doesn't have a bit of trouble stopping at those yard signs! The big church one we went to last Fri., I limited myself but scored!...candlestick (which I know now I can't force myself to paint white! It's solid walnut)...so will use as is! LOL! Let's see...got sugar & creamer(Metlox) with green ivy on it, brass little mouse with curved tail in the air (he called to me), box of used craft paints & glitters, 3 hardcover pic books, box of photo cards, 3 ft. turned wood column ($4, believe it or not!)...ahhhh, I could go on & on! I'm in the garden mode,too, right now & lovin' it! But I'll be using some of this good "stuff" yet on this forum! So don't forget to pick me up on that bus! I'll share! LOL! Jeanne S.

LG, your urns and the cache pot are lovely. And perfect for you. I am looking forward to seeing how you decorate with them. I'm not ready for Christmas, other than loving looking at stuff and buying some. But I sure want summer over, our nice Fall weather doesn't even start till around first of Nov! But last year I decided to start decorating for it on the actual first day of Fall. LOL. And I will again this year, it gives me so much more time to enjoy it. Its easy to tweek for Halloween. By the way, "someone" in Canada sent me some cookies!! Only in Canada can you find chocolate type cookies called Whippet (like my dogs!). I'd heard of them but never saw any. Now I only know two people in Canada, and the other one doesn't have initials of L.G. like on the mailing label. Did YOU send me these yummy cookies? ;o) hugs, Karen PS...Candy, thank you for not fighting me for that Cookie Chef Nutcracker! I really, really wanted him badly.

First, I haven't made my thank you cards, much less sent them and I do every year, usually between Christmas and New Years. This year I had been ill and I just opened packages and I really don't know who gave me what for the most part so I'm having trouble figuring out what to say. I usually say thanks for whatever I/We love it and plan to do whatever with it. But I'll try to get it done soon, I'm feeling guilty bigtime now. My first Christmas with my husband 11 years ago, we did the frantic Christmas eve in a nearby larger city shopping. We both hated it, big fight, spent way too much money and I said, no more. The next year we either bought early or put things on layaway and it was better. I finally got brave enough to make things the next year. He was sceptical at first but when he saw the response and the extra cash in his pocket, I took care of the supplies bought early, he was behind me 100%. Luckily all of the women are crafters or quilters, ect. and their spouses and children know about these things. We receive verbal thank yous and sometimes notes on my Jan. birthday cards. While I've never had the awful experiences of most of you, especially you, Jude, how heartless of anyone. I love having someone take the time to make me something. I can relate. I've only had a problem with a bachelor uncle. I sent him two knit stocking caps, he likes to jog and hike, lives on east coast so don't know where he does this, never heard if he received them. I'm still mad him. Every other year we've jumped through hoops over his gift.We cut down on what we spent on boughten gifts this year and still spent three times on him what we did on everyone else, he is always very generous to us (even though sometimes the gifts are nothing we really care for either, but still thank him) so makes my husband feel cheap if we don't spend a lot. That's it, though, next year he is in budget and if he doesn't like it, too bad. He wasn't impressed this year when my husband told him we were using his Christmas monetary gift, (easier to carry on plane and since he really didn't know what to get us, he explained,) to buy a hay ring for my horse and goats. My husband had already suggested before Christmas doing this with any cash gifts we received. Thought uncle was going to rip the check out of our hands, oh, well. We love the hay rack and it saves us time doing chores and the expense of hay wasted. Revenge is sweet even when you don't plan it. Should this be a hehehe? Janie