Hey, thanks for sympathetic shoulders, I do appreciate them. You know, at first I was kind of in shock taking it in, after having an incredibly gorgeous start for all my plants this spring and working so hard on weekends getting things spit-spot, but was thinking as I went to pick up my kids for dinner, about how a quite-venerable account of a guy named Job put it in perspective. Here's this scenario in chapter 1 where his livestock get rustled by the local thug-gangs, all his baa-baa's become black sheep when lightning does the "insta-mutton-on-the-barbie" thing out in the fields, a tornado visits the house of his oldest son while all the kids are having a birthday party there and whisks them off to Oz, only there's no Glinda or ruby slippers bringing them back, and he didn't shake a fist at heaven, just remembers who gave him all his gifts in the first place. So I said his words out loud for some attitude reshaping (a little redux of v21, second half) and was glad for all the stuff that's still alive and will get back on its feet, maybe delay a harvest or so, but that's okay. I'm entrusted to bandage up some bruised figgies and berries, and sweep up one heck of a lot of debris. Plus hope we don't see another repeat for awhile! fruitnut, you may be more used to it down there in Texas, but honestly, we folks in central Indiana are bewildered by the amount of damaging hail this spring, there's been more incidents of it within the last two months than I can remember for about twenty years of living here! The stuff truly packs a punch (sorry to hear about the greenhouse, doesn't seem like plants can be safe anywhere once the sky starts falling), and all we can do is be thankful when it's less than baseball sized and our cars aren't caught in it, also. I'll give them first aid tomorrow, for now, sleep's a must - glad you could empathize with one of those gardener's nightmare stories, of which I hope we all have _very few_ to share, now and in the future. Sherry

You can find the chalks in scrapbooks stores and in the craft department of Wal-Mart. I have even used my kids sidewalk chalk! I just used a q-tip to apply it. If you have any of that outrageous '80s eyeshadow, that works well too, LOL. I use blush in a lot of my craft projects to make pink cheeks on things. You can watercolor you paper casts too, just don't use too much water or it will turn to a sodden mess. You can use kids watercolors, or take a water based marker and "color" onto a plastic lid. Then dip your brush in water and run throught the marker residue - 'voila!

Kath, I wasn't familiar with Mackellar's poem, thanks for posting it. UK book titles are the same as the Australian ones. Downunder is still a a recognised term for Australia here though I don't suppose they call England 'Upover' anymore than they used to refer to us as home. BTW I felt that Downunder was rather thin on substance. I don't think BB had spent long enough there. I never realised that A Town Like Alice had an American title. I remember when I first heard the book mentioned, as a child, it sounded 'unusual' but can't see why US readers seem not to be expected (by editors/movie folk) to be capable of dealing with the occasional oddity. Whatever the title I think it is still a cracking read. On the Beach is another one with a most unusual 'plot' that works surprisingly well . . . for a story dealing with nuclear fall-out. re Fuller's book. I think the title is Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight which has been well-recommended over here. I haven't read it but usually the expression 'going to the dogs' or if you are from London 'going down the dogs' means spending the evening at the local 'dog track' ie greyhound racing. I think the book is set in Rhodesia and I have no idea if there were any 'dog tracks' or if white people would have been seen there. 'Going to the Dogs' also means a deterioration in ones circumstances/business/way of life. Mary does any of the above appear in the book?

Carolb, if you are interested in exploring further about the marriage, you might be able to find a record of it on https://www.familysearch.org/gettingstarted/ the LDS site has extensive records and a really easy free search option. The census reports are there, too, if he might have been married at the time one was taken. I’ve had a lot of fun searching about my family there.