John, somthing along the lines of "Passion Fruit" comes to mind. I found this little gem at a 7-11 behind a copy of "Gentleman's Weekly". It was full of gorgeous garden photos, unfortunately they were all badly out of focus and it was hard to get my eyes past the scantily clad nymphettes holding a variety of garden produce. The world needs more books like that. What i particularly liked about this magazine was the emphasis on the art of the vegitable. I'll never look at a wet tomato the same. I never would have imagined that there was so much i didn't know about gardening. For example, did you know that if you light a daylilly bloom correctly it becomes translucent and barely hides anything? Yes, this was one of those books that changed our lives. We used to throw zucchini away. Now my wife wants me to let them grow, "...just a little bit more..." she says with a hint of smile. Poppa

This is a topic I was interested in reading more about, acutally. I am currently reading "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (I've never seen the movie) and it's going pretty well so far. I am a fan of Shirley Jackson (best known for her short story "The Lottery") and found out she wrote a novel called "Hangsaman" about a girl with mental illness. I can't find the book anywhere... other than at the local university(it's not due back until July!) so I may have my SO check it out at some point. The next book that came up in my search was "The Bell Jar" and I have wanted to read that, so maybe that's next. As for the realistic nature of the portrayal of mental illness... I'm not sure, to some extent this subject tends to be auotbiographical and so as far as you can trust personal experience it's accurate. When I think though of Bertha in "Jane Eyre" I'd like to think that that is a totally inaccurate portrayal of a person with mental illness. Bertha is a described as a monster and as inhuman, two things mentally ill people are generally not and it would not be PC to describe them as such currently.

About Pat Conroy...I'm a big Conroy fan and am happy to have met him several times. I lived in Beaufort, SC for many years where he lived with his family for several tumultuous years as a child and returned to stay some years ago. Did you all know that his books are based on reality and real people? It's quite an adventure reading his books and being able to put a real face or place to a fictionalized name. I'm attaching a link to his blog (CLICK HERE) which is always a fun read, even if you aren't from Beaufort or familiar with the people. I'm re-reading The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty , something I get the urge for every couple of years. My copy is well worn, well traveled, and much loved.

Vee, most of my neighborhood consists of people too old to compete in the Christmas decorating frenzy, but, yes, we do have areas that must spend the other eleven months of the year paying off their light bill. One area even used to have live reindeer. I haven't been on a driving expedition to see the elaborate displays since the grandchildren were small. There do seem to be a lot of houses already done. I'm sure the reason is that people are taking advantage of our temperatures which have been very mild up to now. We did have a heavy frost a couple of mornings last week, but yesterday was 68 F. Cooler today and supposed to be dropping to a high in the 40s the rest of this week. And I'm done! All I have to do now is vacuum sometime before next Tuesday and bake a couple of goodies. I'm going to wow the ladies this year with Sticky Toffee Pudding.