Woodyoak..I'm very sorry you got the response you did from your visit to the local garden club. I know it may seem that you'd be tattling like a kid does when somebody does wrong, but I think you need to write a letter or call the President of that club and bring this matter to her attention. It is possible that she was not aware of what you encountered. Does that club have a monthly newsletter that goes out to all its members? If she is any kind of a person/President, she would mention this in that newsletter to prevent it happening to somebody else that has disabilities. I'm sure you are not the first one that has come there with a disability, so it's obvious that it should be addressed. Are there other Garden Clubs in your area that you could check out? The lady that you said walks by your house, is she in the same Garden Club as you? If so, bring up the subject one time she is visiting? Invite her in for a cup of coffee/tea while she tours your gardens. I am on our hosptiality and worship committee at our church, and our leader has taught us to walk up to people we don't normally recognize or act like they are new, and start a conversation by introducing yourself and say "I don't think we've met before but I'm so and so and ask if this is their first time visiting with us? Sometimes it turns out to be somebody that is not a regular attendee and they've belonged to the church for many years. At least, that introduction breaks the ice and you'll remember that person and vice versa the next time. If you can't remember that person's name the next time, you'll probably recognize his/her face. A smile and a friendly Hello does wonders. I know a lot of people are reluctant to join groups or organizations because they fear not knowing anybody. That's a cope out, I'm sorry! I hope that this helps. Don't give up!

I've belonged to the New Paltz Garden Club for several years now and it is a really wonderful group. We do a lot of civic gardening including the lovely seasonal planters at the Thruway Exit 18 tollbooths, the garden behind the bench at Main & Chestnut, a perennial garden on Huguenot Street & another garden outside Deyo Hall. We work in teams to do all the planting, watering and weeding of those gardens. It's a lot of organizing and work but it really helps brighten New Paltz. We have meetings, lectures, garden tours, swaps (I organize that!) and some more traditional garden club events like a "Table Carousel" which is a kind of table decoration tea party fundraising event. This fall we hosted a judged district standard flower show. Our club has several dozen members with a wide variety of gardening knowledge, skills and styles. We have organic gardeners, master gardeners, rank amateurs such as myself, and some incredibly creative artists in our group. One of our members, Barbara Campbell, has been president of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State for the past two years. Anyone is welcome to attend our meetings, they are usually listed in the paper's Almanac section and we get great speakers and have interesting programs. We are 99% female (landscaper and all-around good guy Mark Masseo is our sole male member at this point in time - he really helps us when we need some heavy lifting or equipment!) but all are welcome to attend. And did I mention we have killer homebaked desserts at the end of every meeting. : ) If you are interested in learning more about New Paltz Garden Club drop me an email or leave a message at (845) 255-7800. Celeste Cleary

I have been out of town for several days but came home to beautiful mail! Shirley (sjc) sent me a lovely snowflake card. I always enjoy your one of a kind cards. Thank you so much. Speaking of snowflakes, we finally got some last night. Around midnight, the rain turned to snow. We get snow maybe every four years but this was different in that it happened at night and it was blowing...a mini snowstorm....white all over the place. This went on all night. It is almost 11:30am out here and the snow is just starting to melt off the roof. Funny, people are coming from down the hill to snowboard in the hills, throw snowballs, build snowmen and frolic in the white stuff......CBS and NBC are out and about in their trucks reporting about the snow. Huge story....LOL! It is a bit nippy...temps are hanging in the mid 30's. That is cold for us!! But it is nice...very wintery! I better get outside and build myself a snowgirl........... Happy New Years to all. May your 2015 be beautiful, happy and healthy. Melinda and Heidi, prayers for you. Margo, so happy your son was fine after the car accident.... Thanks Shirley for hosting.....as always perfect! Happy Day! Annie

eld, that is the ABB effect. fortunately I live in a resort area, so that will never happen here because Cape Cod needs these short-term rental properties, but ABB (and now HomeAway) have wreaked havoc on this industry. Aimee, I do as much as I can, obviously, to avoid serious damage. I vet people as best as I can during the inquiry process. I try to form a very comfortable relationship, more a friendship than a business one, when formulating the whole deal, i.e.: humor, friendliness, etc. My house is furnished primarily via CL and things given to me. I do cover the sofa, which is a very good sofa. I am very up front with potential guests and tell them right out that this is my home and that I hope they will respect it and "take care of my baby", that kind of thing. I drop little hints, like, 'Oh, my neighbors will let me know if y'all have gone nuts over here" (so again, some humor with a "be aware" snuck in there). I rent mostly to families, and while they can be messy, they tend to be quiet since children go to bed early. I avoid groups of young people, although the very few times I've done it, there have been no problems at all. I think that, when people learn it's actually your home and not a second property meant to be an investment property, they have a different attitude. I think people know they wouldn't want their own homes trashed by renters, whereas a lot of people feel that a second property, meant for investment income, sole use is enters, have a more relaxed attitude and sense that they can be harder on it. I also think that, a lot of owners of those second investment property homes put junk in them for furniture, which there is a good argument for doing, and that lends itself to harder treatment. I do allow dogs, but never, ever cats. (sorry cat owners). the other thing I "do" is have an attitude of "It's the cost of doing business" that things will go wrong, people will lie, stuff is going to happen, but I have to do this for my livelihood. But, as I said, I've been very, very lucky and have had some really wonderful people here. Btw, you can tell a lot about a person from the initial inquiry, believe it or not. The people who go out of their way in the initial written inquiry to tell you who they are, that they are responsible, compliment your house, etc., tend to make very, very good tenants. The inquiries that have a tone of someone looking only at their own needs and wants and not showing an awareness that it is someone else's home they want to live in for a while, I vet a lot harder to try to pull that out of them. You do not want to rent to someone who is one-sided, only concerned about their own interests. We owners have to be concerned about our guests' needs, but guests should also express concern about the owner's needs too. If you can establish that, you're probably good. re: dogs. Dogs must be penned in the kitchen when no one is home. If it is a dog that sleeps on the bed, I am okay with that, but I tell the guest to bring bedding for whatever bed the dog will be sleeping on. That has been the only down side; Dogs have done some damage to some of my bedding, so I've implemented changes for that. I am FIERCE with them about cleaning up after the dog, noting that children, including my neighbors' kids, play in my yard and I do not want dog poop anywhere on the lawns or where people might walk. I have two pooper scoopers on hand for them to use. MOST are very good about it, but some, not so much. Again, "Cost of doing business". The thing that drives me absolutely batty, for whatever reason, is when the games I have for kids are not put away properly, the pieces all accounted for and put back in the right boxes, that kind of thing. I think it is SO discourteous for the next users, so that is something I insist on. I even made labels for some of the games, like UNO, that say how many pieces there are, that kind of thing. Also drives me nuts when they use my white towels to take makeup off, esp. since I put black facecloths in each bathroom for that purpose. It's definitely a Learn-as-you-go kind of thing.