I feel as if I'm making a confession to you all. I always loved gardens but my folks never had much money or knew anything about plants so we had the ugliest, deadest yard on the block. I always hated that. My Dads mom had a beautiful garden and my moms mom grew a few rose bushes and a big loquat tree and my moms dad grew strawberries and tomatoes. My folks bought a house with clay soil and made a half hearted attempt at planting some unsuitable shrubs then promptly gave up. Everything died but the couple of pines and the Italian cypresses. My dad's folks garden was the magic place and I adored it. I always loved the prettiest yards on the street and I would stop and look at all the different plants on the way home from school. In particular I was in love with a Japanese couple's dicondra lawn surrounded by maples and bamboo and clipped things. They were out there almost every night working on it together. I can still remember them on their hands and knees pulling little weeds from the dicondra and talking to each other in Japanese. The azaleas were so beautiful and there must have been so many other treasures that I can't recall now. In my mind it was the best a garden could ever get. So then the years went by and I got a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book in high school and I read that book over and over and learned the latin names and began to really look at plants in a new way. I got an understanding of plants and what they like and that different plants want different things and that it isn't just magic that some people have and some don't. I started making an herb garden out in the no mans land of the front yard. Then I started growing annual flowers from seeds and working them in all the while waging war with bermuda grass that threatened to ruin all my progress. I planted seeds mostly because I was spending all my money to go to college but sometimes I splurged and bought fuschias and any other flowers that hummingbirds liked. I soon had a big fuschia collection going in the back under dads big pine tree that managed to survive the early years. I hated my job in the women's clothes section of a department store so I found another one at a local nursery run by a Japanese couple and their son. This couple was so good to me and the hours I spent sitting by Sumi learning about flowers and just being in her gentle presence changed the way I looked at the world and about flowers. She had a great wisdom and kindness. I don't think I'll ever know such a graceful and gentle person like that ever again. Sumi's brother Ken was there too and he was a wonderful man with a gentle way and great sense of humor. I wish I could go back and tell them how much I appreciate all the kindness they gave to me. I loved them and I loved the nursery and every plant in the place. I just wanted it all to grow well and for everyone who got a plant to be happy. I listened to all the growers and customers and I read everything I could read. Then came my friend Robert who knew everything about plants and loved roses. After a trip to his garden I wanted to grow roses. I thought I didn't know much after meeting Robert, but he was also very kind and wise and didn't mind my inexperience. He was also a great enabler and got me started buying roses from RoY&T. That catalog was like candy to us and we talked about it on lunch and while we were planting up flower baskets for holidays. When bare root rose season came around, Robert was always so happy. We loved getting into the big boxes of bareroots when they would arrive. After a while, I thought my humble herb patch was nothing special and started expanding. I left them all to go to the University and then I got a job at Disneyland Entertainment that ate my life. I spent many many hours during and after hours in the park and got to watch all the plantings and talk to the people in charge of landscape for the parks and the hotel complex. All that time, my garden saw me through tough times and I faithfully got up to water it before dawn when I had to go to work early or get to school and study. All along the way I met people who loved plants and I took cuttings and collected seeds to grow in my own garden. My grandma stood by me all the way, encouraging me. I loved Lord of the Rings too and Narnia. I remember when my sister and I were young and went camping in Colorado. We walked out into a meadow and I said " If I see the tents of Narnia, I'm just going to keep going" and she agreed with me that we wouldn't go back. I try to put a bit of fairyland in the yard for kids that come by and for myself to remind me of the old days.

might not be the right time to post this... but it is funny! Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn't take itself too seriously. WHAT A PITY KULULA DOESN'T FLY INTERNATIONALLY - WE SHOULD SUPPORT THEM IF ONLY FOR THEIR HUMOUR - SO TYPICALLY SOUTH AFRICAN. Kulula is an Airline with head office situated in Johannesburg . Kulula airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight "safety lecture" and announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported: On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it !" ---o0o--- On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants." ----o0o--- On landing, the stewardess said, "Please be sure to take all of your belongings.. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it 's something we'd like to have." ----o0o--- "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane." ---o0o--- "Thank you for flying Kulula. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride." ---o0o--- As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport , a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!" ---o0o-- After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo, a flight attendant on a flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted." ---o0o--- From a Kulula employee: "Welcome aboard Kulula 2 71 to Port Elizabeth . To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised." ---o0o--- "In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite." ---o0o--- "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Kulula Airlines." ----o0o--- "Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments." ---o0o--- "As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.." ---o0o--- And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!" ---o0o�" Heard on Kulula 2 55 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town : The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt." ---o0o�" Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town , on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!" ---o0o�" Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal." ---o0o�" An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline". He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it ?" The little old lady said, "Did we land, or were we shot down?" ---o0o�" After a real crusher of a landing in Johannesburg, the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.." ---o0o�" Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today.. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of Kulula Airways." ---o0o�" Heard on a Kulula flight: "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing.. If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."

I love a challenge...... You have probably already discovered this, but in the late 1800's and very early 1900's some sites have noted that NYC's Waldorf Astoria Hotel was known for it's wonderfully prepared Wild Canvasback duck. It appears that apricot was used in the recipes, along with cognac or brandy. I'd be inclined to contact the food doyen Martha Stewart through her Sirius radio program or perhaps on her website to see if her minions can come with anything for you.

In 1965 my husband to be and I stayed two weeks in the Hotel Royal Bretagne at 11bis rue de la Gaîté in Paris. Years after I read in Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs that she'd stayed in this hotel for several months in 1937, commuting from her teaching post in Passy. She describes it as a very decent hotel and it still was in 1965 and also in 2000 when my husband was given a room there purely by chance when he attended a conference. A room then cost much more than the 17 francs we paid and was much improved. On this same visit we looked at the nearby Hotel Orfila in rue d'Assas where the Swedish author August Strindberg experienced the psychosis he described in his book Inferno. Another literary place I've actively sought out was Jane Austen's Chawton in Hampshire, on our way from Mottisfont Abbey. We arrived too late to see the inside but the outside loo was open, to our relief. The greatest disappointment was the long detour we made to Little House in the Big Woods near Pepin, Wisconsin, where we had hoped to show our children Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood home. It was a shiny new replica with hardly a tree in sight. 29 years later it looks more weathered in internet photos.