hey! nice to see a fellow new yorker! :) i wanted to let you know that in the shady parts of my garden in brooklyn, the birds really appreciate my astilbe -- the ferny leaves really give a lot of hiding places -- i actually have a baby sparrow and his mom hiding in there at all hours. he's not doing such a great job of hiding, though, because every time i see him he's shaking his little wings and screaming "cheeeeeeeeeep!" which i believe means "feed me now i haven't eaten for nearly 30 seconds, what's the matter with you?" these are real brooklyn birds. anyway, to second sahoyaref's post, the hiding places really seem to do it for them. i also have a small pond, and i sometimes see birds bathing and drinking there. they leave behind fertilizer, too; a little bird graffiti, sort of like "kilroy was here." good luck with your birds :) heidi

Hi Stephanie! We had hours of thunder and lighning....but so little rain. I was hoping that if we were going to have all that "fuss", we'd have a good old-fashioned downpour to go along with it. We haven't had a REAL thunderstorm in such a very long time here. We had a thunderstorm last summer, probably in late July or early August. It had been SO VERY LONG since we'd had one that we went out to the covered porch that is attached to our barn and sat in the lawn chairs and watched it rain! Isn't that pitiful? We later found out that a lot of our neighbors did the same thing. LOL It was a lovely storm...lots of huge dark clouds and tons of lightning (one lightning strike ignited a fire in a hay barn north of us)...and we had a double rainbow. We got about 3/4s of an inch of rain in a fairly short time. I really miss the rain. (sigh) During the recent ice storms we had thundersleet and that was pretty cool. And, back in 2004 we had thundersnow. Oklahoma weather can be pretty interesting, and is rarely dull. Already this morning I have started seeds in little peat pots for 60 kinds of hot peppers, sweet peppers and herbs . Now that all the tomatoes are outside for good, the lighted shelves I use for seed starting were looking sort of empty. I don't get into much of a hurry with the peppers since they sulk if planted in cool soil. I'll be mowing three acres of rye grass today! Also planting nasturtiums "Caribbean Cocktail" as a companion plant in the vegetable garden, and, of course, today the tomatoes will actually go into the ground. About that laundry and housework....do you mean to tell me that we are actually expected to do those tasks when it is "gardening time"? I ALMOST have my husband and son convinced that you shouldn't cook or do laundry or do housework anytime the sun is shining and it is warm enough to be outside in the yard. Note that I said "almost". I'm home alone today, so once I step outside in a few minutes, I have no intention of coming inside to do anything! Have a wonderful and productive day. Hope the fence project goes well. Dawn

I have a copy of, "the NEW Fannie Farmer-Boston Cooking-School COOK BOOK", 1953. My father, in his retirement, took on the care of several Summer homes in Southern Maine. He would check on them during the winter, board up windows against storms, uncover rose gardens when the time was right, deal with emergencies...that kind of thing. During the Summer, when people were in residence, he was sort of a general, all around handyman. His largest client was old money...there was a beach named after the family, a road named after the family, and a huge home, loaded with antiques that had been the original furnishings. An elderly Black woman came up every summer from South Carolina to be their cook for the season. Little bittie thing, set in her ways and stubborn as heck, but since she'd been cooking for the family for decades, she knew what they liked and how to manage them. I had been separated from my father at age 5, and when I found him again in my early 30's, I went out to stay with him and my stepmother for a year to get to know them. He took me down to meet Marguerite. She was a kick, and we got along...several years later, when she knew that she wouldn't be able to make it up again the next season (or ever), she gave my father her Fannie Farmer for me. It still has a bunch of book marks in it, some with shopping lists, some with her name, some with cryptic notes I can't decipher, all in the same, slanted hand. I actually use the book quite a bit, but I don't disturb the bookmarks. I sometimes puzzle over the marked pages, wondering which recipe she had marked... I also have my mother's copy of "The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook",1952. It has a separate section of Passover recipes. There are no pork recipes, naturally. Generally, the cookies and bread recipes are good. As for unique...I have an Ethiopian cookbook...the only one I've been able to find. "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking-Society, Culture, Hospitality, & Traditions. I've only made a couple of dishes out of it. I love Ethiopian food, and when I found out how much Nit'ir Qibe (purified herb & spice butter) is used in most of the dishes I love, I realized why I love them. For example, in dishes made from 1 pound of ground beef, it is not unusual that they contain a cup of butter. A typical lentil dish pairs 2 cups of lentils with 2 cups of butter. No wonder I love it!

Hey all, done for the day here. I just broke the news to M that I'd prefer not to put the glass doors back on....another "whaaaaat" ??!! (My original plan way back was to have it open but I wanted doors made just in case I needed to hide stuff. Jan, I'm planning on doing a beadboard or planking behind and on the sides of the upper hutch...Dover White probably which is my cab color. I DO think a lighter cream would really look great on yours! My technique today was work FAST lol! (before M got home) I normally use Raw Sienna craft paint on the wood primarily around areas that would be worn such as knobs, top edges "etc". I don't sand much, if at all normally. When I paint the semi-gloss (I don't use satin...too flat normally)I can wipe off or pounce off to expose the Sienna which looks like old wood when that's done. Because these pcs were so large, I just used some leftover maple Polyshades I had hanging around and used that for the base...same tone as the Sienna. I didn't do much of that sort of thing this time nor did I DING at all...trying to stay a little "quieter" since they will stay with the kitchen given they're built in. For my own pcs I usually get more rustic. Anyhoos, one almost done. Thanks guys! Oh, rjinga...weren't you trying to match those to an EC? Yeah, what Jan said. Swipe with whateva! If there polyed though, it might not stay.