Liz, the grandmother stuff happens to lots of people. It must be irritating too. I wish people would think before they blab. Jem, since I am 9 years younger, people are supposed to think he robbed the cradle, not the other way around. :o) Paula, she didn't seem mean-spirited, but who knows. She seemed sweet, but confused. We went out to dinner last night and while hub went to the restroom, the waiter came back to take our drink order and asked if I knew what my husband wanted to drink. I was so happy to hear that. Sleeper, from what I understand, her family used to own the business and when they were bought out, they kept her on. Could be that was part of the sales agreement and she needs the money, and that is why she continues to work there. I don't know though. She didn't look "off", she is a pretty, well-groomed older lady, but the remarks about knowing him since he was a boy and talking to his mother did throw me. She HAD seen him recently though, he went in to place the annual order a couple weeks before I picked it up. But I am gonna go with mistaken identity or senility, it makes me feel a whole lot better. :o)

I love making soil. I love it even more when someone else is doing most of the work for me. I'm itching to start some spring planting in my tiny garden, but it's technically still a bit early (our last frost date is supposed to be around the 18th or so, but these days who even knows) and I'm impatiently waiting for the contractors to show up and replace my rotted fence before I can do any planting in the back half where the pile of rock mulch over weed cloth used to be. The fence would have rotted anyway, but the bottom of it was completely eaten away where the rock mulch was piled against it. I have already put down a tiny new tree (Amelanchier x "Autumn Brilliance") which arrived bare root and needed to go in the ground ASAP, but it's not next to the fence, so it should be fine as long as the fence guys don't step on the 18 inch high forked stick which, seen with my eye of faith, is already a handsome small patio tree. The tree went in the spot where the old, scrawny, unhealthy cherry plum used to be, where I have been piling vermicompost and leaves ever since last summer. I didn't amend the planting hole at all - just dug and filled in. Enough leaf mold and vermicompost just fell into the hole to make me feel fine about the start my new tree's roots are getting. Anyway, the "someone else" who is working for me outside is a healthy passel of earthworms, which I can see out there every time I pull back last autumn's leaf mulch, which I diligently collected from the sidewalk in front of my row house and brought out back. Even if I can't set to work yet, I like knowing that they're hard at it. I've seen some of my red wigglers who rode out from my indoor worm bin, and at least three separate species of native earthworms: slow gray short guys, some really huge red nightcrawler types, and a longer, thinner, super-active wiggly worm that's new to me. I've also scattered out some seeds and grains for the sparrows and squirrels, inspired by some videos of composting chickens I've watched on Youtube: so there's been lots of pecking and scratching and digging going on in the layer of leaves, which is both fun to watch and will serve to further shred down the leaves for incorporation in the soil. When I do get to the planting along the back fence, I'll try to remember to post a soil pic as a "before and after" to the one at the start of this topic.

What would you do if there is nothing left to do or to change in your garden? For me winter is very hard and a life without garden is unthinkable...I have no other hobby that gives me the same inner peace and strength...yoga and reading are ok in winter, but nothing compared to the joy of gardening...

I made so many mistakes while making the March Pinwheel blocks. I had a lot of nice fabrics tied up in the mis-cut and mis-sewn blocks. I wanted to salvage it. I picked some blocks apart, recut others, and am making HST and QST blocks to add to my “bits and pieces” stash. I have to hang my head in shame. Some women get entire tops together in a weekend. I accomplished four 4” QSTs! I had to frog stitch two of these to get the points to at least try to match up.