DH and I wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We are planning to go to our DD#2's home for not lunch and not dinner. We are planning to eat around 3:00 so I guess we will say Thanksgiving meal. LOL. It is also an early Birthday meal too. The girls are doing all the cooking and baking so all I have to do is show up. I don't know how to act because I am the one usually doing most of the cooking. It has been pretty cool around here. We had a little sleet on Saturday evening but nothing major. It was a pretty and sunny day today also windy and quite cold. Still was able to do some outside work for a change. I have two little girls that I kept until they started school staying with me this week so they wanted to help. One of them is not afraid of work the other is a born supervisor. LOL. They helped me pick up where the dog tore up a faucet cover all over the yard and rake and pick up leaves and pinestraw. We had a storm come through about a week ago or maybe a little more that caught our young chick (almost two months old) out in a small pen inside the large chicken pen. DH was nice enough to go out in the rain and lightening and put them back inside. We have lost 11 of them. They were growing so good. It has really made me sick to see so many of them die. And if that isn't enough the hen that decided she wanted to set on 4 eggs waited until they started pipping and left the nest. The eggs were cold as ice when I got out there this morning. This is the third time that she has set and hasn't hatched one egg yet. She won't have the opportunity to try again. If she gets broody, I will put her up in a cage by herself. DH is out of school this week and we are trying to get some repair work around the house done. I am mostly staying out of his way. Letting him do the work and helping if he needs me. Again, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for everyday. Jan

My Dear Sweet Micki I haven't been on the Forum lately but tonight I couldn't sleep so I got on to see what everyone is up to. I always go to Conversations first, when I started reading your post I got so scared for you, immediately said a prayer while I read the posts than the Good News. I know going thru Radiation again is difficult but the fact that your doctors checked again and got the results almost immediately is awesome. Everyone has posted just what I feel about you and how much you mean to me for all you did for me. My "Healing Tree" is still up and I will never take it down. It is to remind me that God is Good and that you are my Special Angel. And each ornament was made with a prayer for my recovery by my fellow "Junkee" Angels. How blessed we are to have such friends. Prayers on the way! Love as Always NanaGrandma/Sylvia

I have sort of a "natural experiment" (aka "by accident") going on with restricting the size of Fortuniana by not irrigating it in summer. Late last winter I moved a 'Fabvier' up to a spot at the very edge of the cared-for part of my garden and grabbed the water line of the Fortuniana I also have growing up there (wild-and-crazy and regularly pruned) and gave it to 'Fabvier', figuring I would get around to fixing something up for Fortuniana later. Well, the summer went along and then it was fall without me getting around to it and I'm realizing that the Fortuniana still looked fine, though not putting on lots of new growth. Never did give it irrigation, and rains started in early November. Looked at it this morning -- lots of new leaves and flower buds, but no wild-and-crazy octopus canes yet, which it used to produce all the time when it got summer irrigation. I know of at least a few banksia roses at old houses around town that don't get any summer water but have persisted for a long, long time, and I am curious now to see how Fortuniana fares under that regime. Imagine this strategy wouldn't work in Florida, though, jin...

Thanks everyone. I will post some more pics and a list of places visited when I have more time. A few details: I travelled with a group of five friends. One of my friends who went is a travel agent and she planned the whole trip-I highly recommend this. There were so many moving parts with Covid protocols, proof of vaxx, visas, etc. The trip was seamless thanks to her. We were with a guide everywhere. All tourist groups in Jordan and Egypt included an armed police officer onboard our vehicle. Because of the terrorist attacks that Gooster mentioned, this is a requirement. Every major site also has armed guards as well as metal detectors to enter the sites. Additionally, you go through at least four security checkpoints in the airports in Egypt and Jordan, including a full body pat down and metal and bomb detection at every checkpoint. I never felt unsafe. The people were nothing but friendly, and were so happy to see tourists again. I especially loved all the children with their big smiles and hands waving at us. It was a great time to go before it gets crowded again. I was a little unprepared for the heat (and I live in a hot climate). We did almost all of our touring in the mornings. Despite that, we had a few days where the temperature was already 100 degrees by 11 am. I recommend bringing rehydration tablets. Of course, my smart friend the travel agent brought lots to share. If I go back, I will go in December/January as I do cold better than heat. The food was amazing. 95% of the fresh vegetables and fruit served in the countries is grown there in the river valleys. I have never eaten such incredible tangerines in my life. Of course, the dates just melt in your mouth. We did have to drink bottled water everywhere (it was readily available). I also used it to brush my teeth and re-upped my typhoid vaccine before travelling since it had been over five years since my last one. We spent ten days on a Nile river cruise with Uniworld on their new ship-The Sphinx. There were only 44 guests on the ship. The crew was all male and Egyptian, and they were amazing. The food was really good also. Vaccination was required of all guests and crew members. After the cruise, the six in my group spent an additional couple of days in Cairo with a guide. Cairo must be seen to be believed-over 20 million people live there. We stayed at the following hotels: St Regis Amman, Four Seasons Nile Plaza Cairo, Al Manara Aqaba, and (a not five-star) desert camp in Wadi Rum in Jordan. We spent the last night in Cairo at the airport hotel since the traffic there is so bad. It was fine. More later!