Kristy I am glad it worked and made you laugh :-) *hugs* This was the second year for it. 1st year I only had it in a pot and it grew fairly small. Then I popped it in full sun in the ground and it grew very nicely. I sure hope it comes back. Isn't it a perennial? maybe I figure out how to root it and send the ones who like it some :-) Lucy

Retired ha, although I have been lucky enough not to have had to work once we started a family, I do think after all the years of holding down the fort, being the solver of assorted problems, putting 3 squares on the table the last 50+ years I have earned the title domestic engineer LOL. With winter around the corner I'll be getting the wool out, knitting fancy scarfs for the girls for christmas, probably crochet another afghan although with a new kitten that might be challenging. I've collected a few books to read, admittedly mostly garden related but I do like swashbuckler and period types along with mysteries. I'm also a fan of the old noir black and white films and have started quite a collection, these I don't mind watching over and over as they actually have a fair amount of dialog and are entertaining at least to me. Also they leave some things to the imagination rather then.... grunts/groans, non stop gunfire and the F word, which I find quite irritating also boring. Some of the latest DVD's I've bought have been about cottage gardening, english gardens and the victorian garden series shown on TV in the 80's. I find myself drawn to the english tv series like Doc Martin, A touch of Frost, Heartbeat, Midsumner Murders, I find them much more appealing then some of the crap on TV produced over here. I love to go antiquing (DH says watch her she'll head for the most expensive thing in the place LOL) but I also go with my neighbor to thrift stores and garage sales a few times a year where I have picked up some really neat stuff. I'm also a collector of colored glass, I have a lovely piece of Glass DS1 picked up in Venice for our 50th, Anniversary, a few pieces of Fenton and I love green depression glass. Dh just picked up a pair of salt and pepper shakers on ebay for me. I also love the small vases and other pieces of glass I've picked up for 50 cents or less at flea markets. We've just installed ceramic tile through most of the house, I've got the bathroom painted and as soon as I've put the garden to bed I have more rooms to paint. Making wine is also something I've started doing again although not at home but at one of the shops, a heck of a lot easier, no mess or cleanup. Right now a friend and I have an ice wine and a cream sherry on. The top thing on my list to do at the moment is purge the house, numerous things are waiting to be picked up to go to the salvation army thrift shop. Being a golden oldie I'm pretty much a stay at home kind of gal now, besides visiting my favorite garden web forums ( I only discovered the internet a couple of years ago) I like to put my feet up in front of the fireplace read, knit, crochet, nap :o), or watch old movies in between redecorating whims (can you feel my DH shuddering) or maybe you'll find me in the kitchen cookin up a storm. In my younger years I liked going on hikes, the odd bottle dig, salmon fishing and a lot more. I used to raise rabbits for show, we had Netherland Dwarfs, Holland Lops, Tans and Belgian Hares, won quite a few best in shows with all of them. So that's the kind of person I am, thanks Ianna for starting this thread I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. I'd love to see this side of the forum pick up, it could be a lot of fun. Annette

This is a great thread. Karaoke Quilterswhat fun! I was about to say you can add me to the list of readers, but then I remembered the stack pile of books overflowing the coal bucket next to my bed......books I've bought but haven't yet read. So I guess you can add me to the list of book buyers. I love books and love to read, but I don't spend as much time at it as I used to. I do, however, keep an audio book, usually a mystery, in my car at all times. In winter I love old-fahioned rug hooking, the kind that uses strips of cloth cut from old woolen clothing. My current project is a table mat I started in 1997. (I took a long hiatus from hooking.) It shows the seven cats we had at the time, the ones we were always telling to "get off the table!" I grew up in my dad's darkroom, and love photography. I swore I'd never get a digital camera (silly me), but that went by the boards when I worked as a newspaper reporter/photographer and had to process my own film. When we switched to digital, that was that. I'll link to my Flickr page below. I inherited my dad's photos, negatives, and slides, and bought a sophisticated scanner with the intention of digitizing some of his work. The prospect of the learning curve has me somewhat paralyzed, though. I suppose one of these days I'll plug it in . . . When my kids were growing up we had a huge vegetable garden and I spent endless hours freezing and canning and drying and cooking. I made three meals a day from scratch every day. But I loved it. I also sewed a lot of their clothes, and some of mine, and did crafts with them all the time. I can't imagine having that much energy! Well, I know I never will again. These days I'm cooking for one, and it isn't nearly as much fun. I do have the occasional creative spurt in the kitchen, but not often. I would still love to bake, but like someone else who posted, I have to limit carbs so that's out. I enjoy blogging. I'm not skilled at genealogy, but I love to poke around the Internet looking for bits and pieces of family information. In that way, I managed to trace one line back to around 1720. Because I was so moved to see the gravestones of two of my great-great-grandparents on the Internet, and grateful to whomever took those pictures, I volunteered at Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness to photograph gravestones in my rural area. I received my first assignment last week. I've belonged to a poetry group since the late 1980s, and although these days the focus of my writing is prose, rather than poetry, I'm still active with the group. In fact, I'm organizing an event to take place this week, and the Scranton paper published a small interview with me about it this morning. Here's the online version. Amazing how many things trump housework! Here is a link that might be useful: my Flickr photos

As I age, my hobbies change. Some on here will remember how Cactus & Succulent crazy I was for years... pretty much gone. I moved in 2004 and my microclimate changed drastically. So I had to change what I grew. Orchids became more prevelant, which devolved into mostly Oncidiums and Cymbidium orchids! The microclimate involved many more epiphytics, AND there was a YARD involved so more in ground gardening and less container gardening. In 2007 my career changed paths (totally UNEXPECTED paths) and I've been learning a whole new industry since then. May of this year saw me promoted into a Manager position, in a one person office, so it is All Me. (That sucks up way more of my time than I like.) Read (less than I used to) Compost Have four cats Have had my Class M California license for more than 25 years and have been more actively riding my trike (Brothers of the Third Wheel have been featured in several Major publications this year) Got sucked into Farm games on a well known social network Photograph my beautiful plants, at a near professional level Lost a dear pet suddenly and needed a new hobby to keep my hands busy, and my lap full... so I started designing and crafting jewelry. (Yep, that's pretty much where I've been.) You can see it here http://www.artfire.com/users/The_Clockwork_Boudoir Not to mention a recent introduction to Steampunk... Just what I need, a new hobby! I've developed a more sophisticated musical palette thanks to my 24 yo son, and will be attending a Black Keys concert on my 50th birthday... Wondering if I'm in crisis territory?