Well, I typed out a whole message, pushed submit, then my internet went off and I lost it all. GRRR.... ANYway, lol... Diane, I received your package today. She sent me a really big and gorgeous garden statue!! I absolutely love it, thank you so much. It is beautiful, Diane. Here is a photo of it out in my yard: Diane, you have been such a great pal these past few months, despite how crazy busy you have been. And I cannot thank you enough for that. I wish we could've been pals longer, but I am enjoying the time that we have been pals. E-mail me sometime if you ever get a spare minute, and I will do my best to respond. I am still way behind on e-mails to others, specifically Susan, who I want to apologize to for not writing in so long. Seems like there is always so much to do, and so little time. I hope to sit myself down and write a good e-mail to you sometime. By the way Diane, here's a photo of the king frog statue you sent me last month, out on my back patio for now: Thanks again Diane, for such a great housewarming gift! ~Summer

Ann I haven't read anything by Heyer since I was about 15! Not so long ago I was at a church sale and picked up a copy of something by GH and casually remarked to a woman next to me "We used to read her stuff when young perhaps as a lead-in to Jane Austen". The woman, a rather serious do-gooder, looked at me as though I told her I still read Enid Blyton. I returned the book to the counter and slunk away. Tim, EJH certainly had 'boundary issues' as you well-describe them. When first married and very young and naive with her husband away at Sea, and living with his family she and his equally young half-brother had a 'crush' on each other; probably nothing serious but they made the fatal mistake of telling both the husband and the M-in-L. Her whole life seems to have been a series of similar moral blunders. She wrote about them quite candidly in her autobiography Slipstream; well worth reading.

Hmm.... Autumn, I may have to rescind my "I'm good at (hanging art)" statement. Took me 3 tries to get one painting hung. Granted, it's one of the hardest situations for hanging art: one painting directly inline with another, in this case, one painting hung directly above another. Turns out that even though the paintings are the same size, framed with the same frame and at the same time, they aren't exactly the same width. One is slightly narrower than the other so trying to line up one side meant that the other side was off and I didn't realize it until I'd pounded the nails in. And that was the 2nd try. I forgot to add in the the amount of painting above the wire to know how high up to hang the other painting and didn't realize that the top painting would be too low until I went to hang the top painting. Felt rather stupid when I realized that. Don't hate me but .... The sun is not cooperating for photos. It's supposed to be sunny all day but clouds have moved in. I took a few sample photos and they didn't come out as well as I'd like. I'll try again later. If not, I may not get photos done until Tuesday, which is forecasted to be our next sunny day. Did anyone notice if today is Friday the 13th? I'm running into one hiccup after another. I hope this isn't an omen of how dinner will turn out tonight, especially since I'm trying a new recipe for the main course tonight.

Just coming to the end of Edna Healey's Emma Darwin: The Inspirational Wife of a Genius. I think many readers would find it turgid and rather heavy going but I enjoyed it. Emma was born a Wedgwood of the famous 'pot-making' tribe and that family and the Darwins kept intermarrying for several generations; Charles was her first cousin. The book is about so much more than Emma and there is lots of info about all the various branches of the combined groups with the difficulty of working out who-is-who as many of them had the same Christian names eg six females called Francis/Fanny. Without Emma, Charles' great scientific works would probably never have been published as he suffered chronic ill-health and needed her near him at all times . . . which might account for the huge number of children she produced, many of whom were 'delicate' but much cherished. A little while ago I read a bio of Catherine Dickens and the contrast between the two families (much of the same age) is very marked. Mrs Dickens also had a huge family but her husband 'tired' of her and had her physically removed from her children and home, whereas the Darwins were loving, with children who went on to 'do well' in later life. Dicken's sons, except for the oldest, did badly and wasted their lives while his daughters were kept at home to wait on him and stoke his ego. Darwin led a quiet life of study and enjoyment of nature while Dickens was a great showman/showoff who burnt himself out when middle aged.