Yes, I completely agree with you, Ken! I was fairly horrified after visiting your place to realize that I didn't take pictures. I was hoping you wouldn't feel slighted, because I will always remember the visit. I am not a multitasker. My better half is and takes lots of pictures. I can take a picture, or I can participate in the event, I cannot do both. I'm quite envious of those of you that can! tsuga, you found, as I did, that the gardener was every bit as noteworthy as the garden. The link below was on a Denver news channel recently. The didn't site the study source, but it pretty much sums it up for me. Here is a link that might be useful: Taking photos may make your memory worse

punkinhead, Yes, I've noticed that. Around here, you can't give away summer squash in May or June because everyone has too much and is sick of it. In recent years I've gotten to where I can, dehydrate and freeze so much produce that we don't give much away, but this year I've been sending tomatoes and onions to 2 or 3 of Tim's coworkers, and to our son's coworkers at the fire station. One of the firefighters at his station is a real "foodie" and probably as close to being a gourmet chef as anyone we've ever known, so I try to send him something fresh from the garden every shift they work. He is thrilled beyond words to have truly fresh produce and our son's coworkers are rapidly learning there's a big difference between produce from the grocery store and produce from a garden. Yesterday morning, DS took in Red Norland and Red LaSoda potatoes that I dug a couple of weeks ago. Last night, DS sent me a text message after dinner about the superior flavor and 'tenderness' of the fresh potatoes. I should add that he's spoiled because we often have fresh produce obviously, but he's seeing it now through the eyes of folks for whom it is a pretty rare treat. Everyone else we know is on their own. My attitude is that if I can grow it, they can grow it! I will confess that when my local friends who garden call me and say "come get all the corn...or tomatoes....or purplehull peas....you want because we're tired of picking them", I usually don't go. After all, we garden in the same conditions, so if they're having a great year, I'm having a great year and I'm just as tired of harvesting and putting up the crops as they are. We also have some friends who don't seem to know what to do with fresh produce. They're so used to either eating out or cooking frozen stuff from boxes that they don't seem to want to cook fresh produce....or maybe they don't know how or just don't have time. Dawn

I couldn't agree more with Carla on this one. Nice people are not necessarily good people. Nice people often say what they think people want to hear. Good people do and say what needs to be said and done. This can be done kindly or not so kindly depending on the circumstances. Some people are so thick you sometimes have to appear unkind to get through to them. There are also a lot of nice people who are mean and bitter on the inside. They just hide behind their "niceness".

Well, Christmas is over... Though it would have been cute if they'd had one for today with pine needles, scraps of wrapping paper, half eaten cookies and a broken red bauble. :)