My absolute most favored book of all time. I have several copies...here and there. :) Scout and Jem have been my friends for years. LOL And how could you not love Atticus Finch? (Truman Capote wasn't Harper Lee's cousin, but a neighbor when she was young). I hate the rumors that he wrote the book instead of her, though.

That's beautiful, Robert. I love the way you've crossed and trimmed the vine. I've never seen that before. Very elegant. They look terrific against your grey fence, really perfect there. Mine are 4 years old this spring, They are extremely vigorous, growing fast and strong and blooming all summer, getting much bigger than the catalogues said they would. They are stunning in May, just a wall of red, and bloom mostly all summer from May to frost. After seeing hummers darting in and out of them late last summer I wouldn't give them up for anything else. Even the thicket behind the blooms has to be a wonderful place for bird's nests or sheltering.

He liked to say somewhat poetically that he served on foreign soil and heard a shot fired. That about sums it up. He was in the US Navy and patrolled the Great Lakes. One night, patrolling the Canadian side of the Great Lakes, someone fell asleep on guard duty, dropped his gun, and it fired. He came away from the navy a cribbage player, and the family often gathered around the kitchen table late at night to play the game, which he reminded us was a great pastime in the navy. The Crimson Field” title refers to the poppies pictured in the title slide of the show as well as the blood of war. And the poppies refer to the poem below written during WWI by a Canadian military doctor. I remember my father reciting this poem at the dinner table from memory every year when Veteran’s Day arrived and he bought his poppy that year, which he proudly wore for the rest of the month. The GreatWar 1914-1918 In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, May 1915 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

We've watched Safari Live for years. We have gotten tired of their obsession with cats, kills and close-ups of cats eating their kill. We still glance at it occasionally. We've started putting Pete's Pond up. It is also operated by Wild Earth. It's a live cam on 24 hours manned by "zoomies" from their home computers. In the past 2 weeks we've seen: eland, giraffe, black-backed jackal, elephants, warthogs, impala, zebra, baboons, hyena, waterbuck, monitor lizard, guinea fowl, Egyptian geese, ostrich, hare, steenbok, African wildcat, crocodile, vervet, kori buzzard, civet, tortoise, dwarf mongoose, stork, African bullfrog (huge). We also saw lions.....and a kill. The best sighting was 5 cheetahs....all together...which is highly unusual.