Hi Everyone! I hope you all have weather as nice as mine. It was absolutely wonderful out this morning. I have been gathering commuter clothes and my latest purchase was a Squall stadium jacket from Land's End. It has windbreaker properties, but has a hood and a soft thinsulate lining. Perfect for what feels like a spring morning. I highly recommend it for anyone who has to stand on a windy train station platform. Or for tromping around outside. I am looking forward to March, and it is right around the corner. I think that my roses I ordered from Pickering will be arriving at the end of March. I got a Vilchenblau for my mom which I plan to give her for mother's day, a Sweet Bess, and one other one I can't remember. I will have to check my order. I am so excited to see my garden this year, because I moved a lot of plants to new areas and am looking forward to seeing if they like their new home better than the old one. I just wish I had planted some crocus or snowdrops. Martie, my thoughts are with you today. Hope all goes as well as you wish. Sue, I hope Zoe is doing better. And that the surgery issue works out. Somehow I can't find your posting with details of what happened with the insurance company, but hope it gets straightened out. V, did you bring Olive home? A couple of weeks ago my daughter and SIL were at a restaurant and there was a cat hanging around their car, meowing. They went inside, came out, it was still there. SIL asked the workers about it, and they said it had been there all day. My daughter got in the car and it jumped in her lap... They took it home. The vet said it is perfectly healthy, and 8 mos old. My SIL thought it was an old abandoned cat that he was going to offer shelter for the last couple of years of its life. It also explains why he was leaping on their other two cats, and playing so much. It is a very cuddly cat. They were going to name it OH Boy... because that is the name of the restaurant, but settled on Ziggy. Deanne, I just loved your fluffy birdy card. He was adorable. I have noticed little bugs on my Elephant ears that are determined to sprout in the basement. Must be that time. T- hope your car is fixed quickly and inexpensively. I am looking at getting new shocks and struts on my car. I have been driving Skip's van to work, and I don't like to drive a big car like that. Michelle, nice to see you! Good for you on getting projects completed before the warm weather. I thought I might get my kitchen finished before spring. We will see. Roof is leaking in three places, so that will probably be next project. Skip spent a month working on it last fall, but it must not have taken. I think He is going to have a major job on his hands. He took the whole roof off of one area right to the rafters, but it still leaks. I wouldn't have a clue how to fix that. Kathy, your front garden is really shaping up. And that camellia is huge! Is that a normal size? I don't think I have ever seen one in real life before, just the flowers. I am out of time, hi to those I missed! D.

LOL Karen! Too funny! Is that like the regifting rule that you need to rewrap it? :) I looked around and tried to guess what you might like to even us up a little. I have a senecio that's a succulent called hot dog plant, not hardy, and a little houseplant that has adorable bulbs with freckled leaves, used to be scilla violacea, now it's a manfredia, i think. I also have some walking iris pups i could pot up, a pot of variegated french lavendar, which is ratty but will fill out nicely this summer, but isn't hardy, and some of that ornamental red leafed yellow flowered oxalis. Also, i could bring one of my pots of the puberula that i got at bb's, which i found the tag for that said z8, and is just labelled rosebud sage, if you'd like. BTW, I lost that cool sage that looked like a variegated koyame but plan to get more when i get down to bb's. Dana no worries- it's a really small start. The dirt's gotten hard & dry again, just like that. If it's happy it'll take off and go, though. I've had mine for oh, about 14 years. Deb, Karen & Alicia. I feel awful having to report this, but i was digging up those small rosette delizy starts and not a one of them had rooted for real. Dad gummed things really fooled me- they were stuck in but good and had new growth, but no real roots. So i went ahead and got them out of the ground and into little pots. They were well healed, nice & bumpy, and looked to be beginning the rooting process. I can either bring them and you can see if they'll root, or I can keep them here with plans to bring them come fall. Your choice- just let me know what you want me to do and if you want something else. The mother bush is getting ready to bloom and not really big, so i hate to do cuttings now. They supposedly do much better if taken after the first flush anyhow, so i may attempt to root more after that in june.

she sure does hahahahahaha oh at least I now know that I am GLUED to the chair hahahahaha thanks Daniella. My brain only knows ONE word right now and that is BINGO lol Lucy I tricked ya, didn't I ! You thought I would be gone for FIVE minutes. I cut it short

What a great opportunity you had to give her the snow globe! Even though we lived fairly close to both sets of grandparents and I loved them all, I didn't interact with them much in elementary years or as a teen; but had "snow globe moments" with them from time to time. My mom occasionally mentioned my maternal grandma wondered if I didn't like her because I usually went off to read a book. I just didn't know what to say to her. When I was 12 we moved next door to my paternal grandma to be where we could help her. I never felt close to her really. She tended to be critical and to compare me to, well, pretty much everyone, but she meant well. In college I moved into my mat. grandparents basement apartment to be closer to campus. In my whole life they had never tried to correct me (something I feel is always best left to the parents!). While I lived there they just visited with me, asked me about school and work, told me amusing stories, etc. Never once did I use the kitchen downstairs. I always ate with Gramm and Gramp and they always acted amazed that I would do all the dishes when I "should be studying" or that I could carry my book bag with so many big textbooks. They were delightful and brilliant and the least judgemental people I know! They met my husband long before the rest of my family did and made him feel welcome, too. He feels as close to them as I do. Gramm's been gone nearly 20 yrs now, Gramp has been gone for 11. I still miss them both with all my heart! I think you're wonderful for wanting a close relationship with your family! Just keep loving your little one and be patient. Don't push the relationship. Love her mom, too. Grandparents can be a safe haven when the time is right! Wishing you all the best! Kay