Then Wayne had parked in a compact space adding to the frustration.

A couple of years ago I slipped walking down a hill, and landed with my full weight on my stiff, straight right arm, jarring and wrenching my shoulder and upper back. I was sure I had torn muscles or bruised something. It hurt, but not so much that I wanted to let it affect me. I continued on with life despite the pain, including playing in my twice weekly volleyball league. The pain continued for weeks, and I wasn't even really connecting the ongoing pain with the earlier fall. On a couple of instances the pain became very much worse, but I thought I had merely over done it. Eventually I went to my PCP and was sent for an x-ray. Upon getting home from the x-ray the doctor called saying I had a broken rib in my upper back, and that it looked "funny" and asked me to go back in for more x-rays, immediately if possible. After the x-rays I was sent for a cat scan and later a bone scan. Because the break looked funny, ie. somewhat raggedy on the margins of the break, and because of its location, completely beneath my shoulder blade they were convinced that it was a bone lesion indicating bone cancer and they were looking for more. In the end though the break was most likely caused by the shoulder blade due to the fall, and the raggedy appearance was due to it partially healing and being rebroken at least twice. So the moral of the story is take it easy, and give your rib time to fully heal before too much physical activity -- such a shoveling snow.

Sons of the Wolf by Barbara Michaels. I really liked her books back in the olden days. She was actually Barbara Mertz and also wrote as Elizabeth Peters. I liked all those gothic-type books. Mary Stewart was my favorite, although she mostly wrote current-day stories. I blame her for my love of travel. Her characters were always having adventures in different countries. BTW, I'm just back from our Switzerland-Austria Odyssey Tour. It was great--possibly the most tiring trip I've made what with climbing to the tops of stuff. No Heidi sightings, but I did get a souvenir Christmas ornament of her.

Alana, your pics look like others I've seen of Ville de Lyon. It's really beautiful. I have one I bought as a bare root in a bag at Walmart a year or two ago. It hasn't bloomed yet but I'm really looking forward to it. From what I read it's very vigorous. At least I hope it's Ville de Lyon ...they called it " City of Lyon." Same color bloom on the package. Niobe is one I had some years ago and it seemed much darker...a very deep, burgundy red. Have a new one coming in from Brushwood soon. Your picture is beautiful, Gardengal.