IÂve been in listening mode as well (can you hear me listening..?) Woohoo  Deanne, you do everything with flair! I bet Doug was scared to death  and you gave yourself a shiner? how terrible  adding insult to injury w/ the flu  I do hope you take it easy and rest  youÂve got a lot of entertaining to do soon w/ your Idyll guests! I do love that butterfly  and leave it to Marie to know what kind, etc., it was. Your party sounds like a wonderful way to break up the winter doldrums  Im planning to go to the Phila. Flower Show in early March  so thatÂs what Im using as a "break-out" of winter event. V- glad to hear youÂre feeling better and cannot be held responsible except via Âweb to have passed that flu along to Deanne  I hear you about the coughing though  I had severe flu about 20 years ago and coughed and popped a pelvic artery  landed in the hospital (it was a close call). . . .for Xmas because of it (they didnt know what was wrong til they operated). So I must confess I am extremely paranoid about hard coughing of any sort now & have been ever since that happened  weird things do happen. I confess on the health front I continue to be totally puzzled by all the conflicting reports  low fat, high protein, no protein, high fat  whatÂs a person to believe any more? I think your attitude is probably the correct one, Marie  celebrate with food  after all if we donÂt have fun with it, whatÂs the point? Honey, I meant to tell you that I truly love the red also (I in fact love all bright & deep colors) and am amazed that you pulled that all together because of wrong furniture fabric! One would Never know  youÂre an artiste. Mary, I imagine youÂre starting to count the days til the big trip  it sounds glorious  you and your entire family will have a blast  a trip to paradise, how neat is that? I imagine the children will remember it forever  and it will be a nice memory to make for Annie to put next to the loss of her dear friend  a good memory to overtake the bad one in this year. Michelle, - I ordered the Cl. Laura also  it looks gorgeous doesnÂt it? For some reason I ordered mostly Type IIs this year  Im probably crazy to do so  but my others have been doing so well that I am getting bolder I guess. Of course, if this is a failure and they all croak this summer or get horrible wilt, IÂll be going back to sticking w/ the IIIs I guess  but I wont know until IÂve tried. I ordered a total of 6 clematis this year (altho my list was much longer, but I tried to restrain myself & limit to a budget $$). I know thereÂs other stuff to comment on but I better get to work. Im hearing that 4-letter word in our forecast this weakened (S***)  ugh  of course, Im planning to drive to Phila. to check on the parents  it never fails  IÂll probably wimp out if it really says itÂs gonna happen  I donÂt know how you do so much intrepid driving, Martie, with your...

Today has been the BESTEST day ever!! I finally had enough extra $$ to go buy the soil and amendments I need to do my WS'ing. Then my grandmother asked me to go w/ her and my aunt to Costco to p/u the items for a reunion this wkend. They always have me cook most everything. I suppose that's a compliment! lol Meanwhile she kept offering to buy me this n that and ended up buying me almost $100 worth of groceries (what a HUGE blessing right now!!) Then I was browsing some cookbooks and found a FANTASTIC huge cookbook on baking homemade bread and alllll kinds of bakery items. I planned to buy it myself, and she insisted on buying that too, then asked if I was going to use a bread machine to make the bread, I said no, gonna do it the old fashioned way! We don't own one. She says well, you do now. She got one for Christmas and didn't want it so it's brand spanking new! WOOHOOOOOO!!! THEN she handed me $100 to go towards a $350 tire purchase I'm saving to make. This day was better than Christmas!! lol THEN I got home and the mailman knocked on my door with the RR box!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! I've got to run now to p/u kids from school tho I'm dying to get my hands into it! I'll post again this eve w/ an update of what goodies I decided I couldn't live w/out! :) Oh.. and I gotta brag.. it's 67degrees and SUNNY today!! ~Happy me

Well what do you know!!!I thought it was all over and the cards are still rolling in!!! Thank you to LISA!!! She sent me a lovely card with 2 types of Basil (I have never seen Africa Blue CANT WAIT!!), Hakone Whate double balloon Flowers!!! Fabulous!! and "The Black Pearl" Well today is the last day of the month! I wan't to thank you all for sharing yourselves and your gardens with one another! It has been a pleasure to make new friends and get to know each of you a just a little bit better! Happy Mailboxing! Frances

Kim, Prayers for fast healing for you. Bon, Where would we be without our beloved OK Mesonet? It has all the most helpful info in so many different formats. I just love it. I'm glad Bill made it home in time to chop wood. Hopefully that wood will keep the stove fed and keep you all toasty warm. Maybe you coulda/woulda/shoulda been chopping wood, but we know that it wouldn't feed your soul the way that gardening does, so we totally get it. Your wind chill was bad and it was bad so much earlier than ours. The cold front didn't make it this far south until tonight, but we're plenty chilly now. Megan, If you need some time to just chill, then allow yourself to do that. I think when our bodies are telling us what it needs, we need to listen. With a three day weekend, you should have adequate time for chilling and seed starting. Enjoy your holiday weekend. dbarron, Maybe the cat and dog were just playing and neither is too much of a fraidy cat? I'm glad you got the car into the garage so you won't have to chisel ice off the windshield later. The plants don't seem as bothered by the cold as we do. I guess that's because they are out in it 24/7 and are somewhat better adapted to it perhaps. Rebecca, I hope the procedure went well and that you and your mom made it home just fine. Y'all, the models look like somebody is going to get some snow next week, but I do not necessarily think it will hit many of us unless something changes. We have an unexpected, last-minute bonus weekend with the older granddaughter this week as her dad is unavailable for his weekend with her. Well, his loss is our gain and we're going to enjoy having her here with us, though she might climb the walls a little bit without her little sis around to play with. Of course, we can do things we don't do when little sis is here, like maybe go to a more mature movie (something not G-rated) or to a restaurant that little sis doesn't like. Tomorrow will be just her day and she's already voiced her opinion on where we should eat lunch. : ) Before they called to see if she could come stay with us, I had thought I might do a little plant shopping or something tomorrow but I think instead we'll do something she'll enjoy. It still is pretty chilly to be buying plants, especially since the cold weather doesn't want to go away. I'm ready to do some gardening, but the weather isn't really right for it yet, especially with the persistently soggy soil. Dawn