Rabbit! Rabbit! I always forget! Suzanne, I second BJ's request. We wanna hear! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I know that I am. I went to lunch with a friend from another forum on Friday. ( That was FUN!!) and to dinner with another friend last night. So far today I've been to church and am going to sit down and watch the Dodger game with DS. Then, off to a movie in the late afternoon. I have been "good carbing" it without a hitch for 2 weeks now. I have been making a lot of the recipes from the Good Carb cookbook that DeeMarie gave me for Christmas.I have discovered that bringing sunflower seeds to the movies keeps me away from the butter soaked popcorn and I do not feel deprived : ) This looks to be another busy week. I am hoping for better time management on my part. It is so easy to get distracted when you are working from home. I better learn, as in September, I will be making a lot of Home Nursing visits and time efficiency will become imperative! "See you" all tomorrow! Tikanas ( who is kayaking vicariously thru Raeanne....)

I'd like to suggest taking a picture of the entire family instead of just your daughter for the Christmas cards. It'll mean a whole lot more in the years to come. I was looking through the photo album that my in-laws kept for their kids this weekend. FIL took pictures of the 3 kids and put them in the album every year, but there are no family pictures. It just seems like the missing years without everyone in there. In some cases, those are the only pictures of the family during those years that the relatives and other close friends have. You can still do a really cute picture with the whole family. Last year was our son's 1st Christmas. We did the basic pose standing in front of the tree. My husband and I wore Santa hats. My son wore reindeer antlers. The picture that we ultimately used for the Christmas cards is priceless. We got lots of compliments on that picture. This year, we're going to pose in front of either the state capitol or one of the downtown Christmas light displays. If ds cooperates, we are all wearing Santa hats. A suggested cute pose for daughter only is Baby New Year. Last year we posed ds up in front of the tv while we were watching the ball drop. Ds was nude, but the picture would have looked cute with him in a diaper. We used a beer bottle as a prop, but if you have the fancy bottle of grape juice or something else nonalcoholic, that would look cute also. We emailed the picture out to close family and friends as a New Year Greeting. We put a picture in ds's baby book for posterity.

Regarding biochar: I did a long thread on biochar last year, after testing it several times before a heavy rain. Very impressed with roses' health enabled by SOLUBLE calcium and potassium in biochar. I have been growing no-spray roses for over 2 decades. One drawback of biochar: it messed up old-rose scent, and The Dark Lady rose reeked like burnt wax .. but after tons of rain, its blooms revert back to fabulous old-rose. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6003039/biochar-and-horse-manure-and-kelp-for-trace-elements#n=58 Below field-study documents biochar's effect on geraniums: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/5/260 "The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse while using three different growth media (i.e., solid digestate, biochar, and vermiculite). The results indicated that: (i) the pyrolysis of solid digestate caused a reduction in the bulk density (−52%) and an increase in the pH (+16%) and electrical conductivity (+9.5%) in the derived biochar; (ii) the best crop performances (number of leaves, number of total branches, and plant dry weight) were found using biochar, particularly for plant dry weight (+11.4%) and essential oil content (+9.4%)" Below is The Dark Lady's bloom, very large thanks to SOLUBLE potassium & many petals thanks to SOLUBLE calcium from biochar. Left is W.S. 2000, center pink is Radio Times. My vote for the most drought-tolerant & prickly own-root Austin: The Dark Lady (has Rugosa heritage & drought-tolerant & blooms well in partial shade). Rose Unlimited stops selling Austin roses after this year, and I want a 2nd one. The Dark Lady was the best looking bush at Chicago Botanical garden, besides Buck's "Hi Neighbor" rose. Own-root dark lady blooming in partial shade, below small blooms were before biochar experiment:

Although, I love Gael’s hats, in reality, with my casual lifestyle it unlikely that I will take up the ladies who lunch style. I have been adding more hats to my wardrobe, per my doctor’s direction. My doctor told me that I should as wear a hat when I am outside to protect my scalp, she suggested that I buy a fun wardrobe of hats. No visors, full coverage. Leaning toward traditional straw hats for warmer weather, trying to determine what beyond baseball caps will work for cooler but not cold weather, dressier than a baseball cap but not fancy. I am a bit stymied.