Hello fellow MNFers! Spring has definitely sprung to summer today in NYC. People are in shorts & sandals with 81'F & sunshine! Begonias are out. Marigolds out. Peonies in all colors out. My jasmine bloomed its first bloom this morning - like heaven. Glad to see there were a lot of surprises in the boxes. I also thought my box would be obvious, but I guess that's what makes the world interesting, is that we all live in different gardens around the world. Beth I'm sorry I had to cut a lot of the foxgloves down to fit in the box. They weren't so big when I was planning the box, but they grew gigantuan in the weeks of steady rain we've had & I couldn't find a bigger box to send. Here's the updated status: celeegra - Grace => goes to BethB /sent & received sred98 - Shelly =>goes to Grace / sent & received veeja11 - Carol => goes to Shelly / sent & received beth_b_kodiak - BethB => goes to Michelle / sent & received just waiting for.... mchill320 - Michelle => goes to Carol We have one week left in May, which means one more game. Go to this website & there's a game for making flower arrangements. Name as many of the flowers & foliages as you can & post them here by end of Saturday May 28th. http://www.meddybemps.com/shops/arrangingflowers.html The person who can name the most will win a prize. If there is a tie in the number of flowers & foliage listed, then ties will be broken by creativity in the actual flower arrangements. You can take screen shot or print & scan the flower arrangements you make on the site & post them here. Good luck! Grace

hello all Yes Kathy everything found it's way here in perfect condition! much better luck than I have with ebay!!!!=) I wanted to let everybody know what else I received! can't forget the box of girl scout cookies dosidoes (yum) bell pepper mix yarrow white pampas grass white rosemary vitex chaste free primrose tall yellow Heuchera dale's strain grape hyacinth mix coyote (ind) cherry tomato's dwarf red plains coreopsis long red cayenne pepper jewels of opar mg lavender diathus black caps berry lav/purple wisteria black pearl ornamental edible hotpepper cosmos cosmos daydream eccremocarpus scaber tresco hybrids mg scarlet o'hare tovarah-painter's paletteafrican sunflower jaffa ice bread-seed poppy purple pink petunia big leaved blue hosta tithonia fiesta del solfreesia soapwort lotus marigold dwarf french mix and beach chair post cards I sure hope i did not forget anything! Kathy thanks again for everything Now I need to make time to go and play in the dirt. Joseph

That video is right on the mark! Thank you for sharing. Yeo, I sure know how it feels when a pet loves you the most, those are the hardest to lose. Neetsie, I think you're right. I haven't heard a peep from the second tom in two nights so I hope he went home. I finally opened the bedroom door this morning so Pepper can have free range of the house. Raven is the one I don't trust. If looks could kill, all the cats would be dead by now. lol For example, (before P came) if Callie is in my room and Raven comes in, it's hiss city, and if they are both under the bed I have to get the broom to make one of them leave. No fights but they get mad. Last night was a first for me. Raven and Callie are loveable but Pepper was all over me while I was trying to sleep. She'd wake me up to put her head under my chin while I held her. When I turned over she started kneeding my hair with her claws and that hurt! I'm pretty sure she sees me as her mother.

Here is the list of my purchases. A good investment of $32 (the price of one new book) for a long time of enjoyable (I hope) reading. I set it up this way to save space. Harder to read (sorry!) but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson [YA]; A Newbery Halloween – selected by Martin Greenberg and Charles Waugh [ various Halloween short stories]; Peace Like a River – Leif Enger [I wanted to make sure I had a copy because I couldn’t remember if I did]; Telling the Bees – Peggy Hesketh; Duet – contains: The Flight of the Falcon & The Scapegoat – Daphne du Maurier[to add to my collection of her that I’ve begun]; Joe Hill – Wallace Stegner; The Ride of Our Lives –Mike Leonard [with a DVD in the back of the book]; A Prayer for the Dying – Stewart O’Nan; The Flight of the Maidens – Jane Gardam; Back When We Were Grownups – Anne Tyler; Great Short Stories (Ghost stories) – Ed. By William Patten; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis; The Little Paris Bookshop – Nina George; Suite Francais – Irene Nemirovsky [which will always be ‘The French Suitcase’ for me ever since Astrokath posted that very funny story about an encounter at her bookshop. I hope I enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed that story];The Girl in Hyacinth Blue – Susan Vreeland; The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton; The Hot and Cold Summer – Johanna Hurwitz [YA]; The Down East Murders – J.S. Borthwick; Necessary as Blood – Deborah Crombie; The Cage Keeper – Andre Dubus III; [these last two were accidental pick-ups I think. While I recognize the author’s names I don’t know the books. No matter – what if they are the best two out of the lot?] Wolf Hollow – Lauren Wolk [YA]; The Christmas Letters – Lee Smith; A Red Herring Without Mustard – Alan Bradley [a Flava de Luce that I picked up to see what all the fuss was about. If I like it, I’ll start from the beginning of the series]; Black House – Stephen King & Peter Straub [I’m collecting a stash of books for October for Halloween reading]; A Walk in the Woods & The Lost Continent – Bill Bryson [ another two to see what the great appeal is. Not looking forward in happy anticipation but that’s probably because I’m stubborn and can be a jerk. I hope I am pleasantly surprised]; The Day the Falls Stood Still – Cathy Marie Buchanon; Broken for You – Stephanie Kallos; Classic Ghost Stories – Wilke Collins, M.R. James, Charles Dickens and others – Ed. by John Grafton; The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend – Katarina Bivald; Skellig – David Almond [YA]; The Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley [I’m collecting different editions of Robin Hood – all fun and all very different style-wise]; The Weekend – Peter Cameron; Summer Rain – Marguerite Duras; The Light at Tern Rock – Julia Sauer [YA]; Mystery on October Road – Alison Herzig & Jane Mali [YA]. Then on the way to the car I spied one more I wanted so DH ran it back to the cashier desk where they were still recovering from tallying and bagging my books, threw up their hands and said “just take it!” That one is a graphic novel – The Hound of the Baskerville – Conan Doyle. Of all the books listed I’ve only read one (Peace Like a River). All the others were either on my list or simply looked good. Any feedback will be hungrily read. Wow, what a great day I had.