Bobbie - gold star and a box of chocolates for you!!! Bang on! 1. In 1868 Richard Cadbury produced a heart shaped chocolate box to celebrate Valentines day and this became an instant success. He personally designed the boxes with the idea being after you had enjoyed the chocolates you would keep the box to store mementos in such as love letters and gifts. The boxes grew increasingly more and more elaborate until World War II when sugar became rationed. This resulted in Valentine day celebrations being scaled back. Today however, More than 35 million heart shaped boxes will be sold around the world on Valentines day. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico and Central America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC by the Olmecs in south central Mexico. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Mayans and the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl , a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. 3. The first European contact with chocolate came when Montezuma (then tlatoani of Tenochtitlan) introduced Hernán Cortés, a Spanish conquistador, to xocolatl in the 16th century. Antonio de Solís, Philip IV's official Chronicler of the Indies, described Montezuma customarily taking a chocolate beverage after meals, as part of a sumptuous daily ritual: He had Cups of Gold, and Salvers of the same; and sometimes he drank out of Cocoas [i.e., coconut shells], and natural Shells, very richly set with Jewels.[...] When he had done eating, he usually took a Kind of Chocolate, made after the Manner of the Country, that is, the Substance of the Nut beat up with the Mill till the Cup was filled more with Froth than with Liquor; after which he used to smoak Tobacco perfum'd with liquid Amber. 4. Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, with 43% sourced from Côte d'Ivoire, where child labor is a common practice to obtain the product. According to the World Cocoa Foundation, some 50 million people around the world depend on cocoa as a source of livelihood. In the UK, most chocolatiers purchase their chocolate from them, to melt, mold and package to their own design. 5. Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. So there you go!! For Bobbie: For TM, Annette and Cynthia: A for effort. Thanks for playing, see you all next week!! Nancy.

yeah! more fun! more food! more plants! best of all seeing all of the green friends again! I am thanking heaven I am making my garden paths narrower this summer. (the better to squeeze a few more plants in... does this mean I am an addict now? I can just see the 12 step program... 1.take your hands off the shovel.2. take your hands off the watering can.3.take your eyes off the seed catalog.4.stop letting your car drive you to the nursery.5.confess you have a problem. 6.try not to make too many cuttings from your houseplants unless someone wants them.7 make sure you have enough money to buy your own veggies (if not growing one or two wont hurt).8.your lawn looks bad - better water it.. if a few drops land on the garden then that is just bad luck. we all have that. 9.it is a proven fact that flowers make people feel better. growing a couple of daisys is improving your neighbors lives. 10. the daisys worked you got a couple of smiles better put in some daylilies. 11. they stoped blooming better fill in the bare patches with some varigated foliage plants for better colour. 12. take a deep breath and your cured! lol

Hi Everyone, Sorry I didn't make it to the swap today.With everything that's been happening and going on with the weather,I totally forgot today is the day.I really was looking forward to seeing you all.We're really trying to clean up everythng and waiting for help getting things back on the house.We have lots of missing shingles to get back on and the back down spout is laying in the back yard still yet,Not to mention pieces of siding blown off are in the far back yard.And of course a very large tree limb thats too heavy for either of us to move plus all the broken tree limbs and trash that comes along with the ride.But we'll get it done.We were without electric and water from Sunday to Wed.I'm very thankful it wasn't any longer then that and no one was hurt.I'm sorry to hear some of you are still in the dark,But know it won't be long now.I'm very grateful to all the workers who gave up time being with their families and loved ones to bring our power back on. I had so many plants to bring today,But like I said"Totally slipped my mind". I guess I will save them for the Spring Swap.I hope to see you all then.I will miss you all so very much!!Hope you had a good one!! I know you did!! I'll be reading when I can get on line to see what you all swapped for and had to eat. Granny57x

Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?