Hi gals. Trish, I'm sorry I didn't see your posts until today, I thought this thread was gone... I am so happy it is spring myself! Daffs are finally open. I like the pic of you smelling your first spring bloom. Jess sent me a lovely package from bath & body works with my favorite fragrance --sweet pea--. It is so nice, has body spray, bubble bath, gel, hand lotion, etc. it's in a pretty green ceramic planter too! Jess == you are very thoughtful and this was very sweet of you to do. Thanks a bunch. Trish - thanks for the iris. Glad it's warming up for you. It did start to warm up here, then yesterday the rain turned to snow for a while ??? it's arpril isn't it? Hugs Maureen

Morning!! Margo, it's not as bad to take care of as people think. I think because its bigger, its pretty self sufficient. I do need to get in it every month or so and weed. My water plants reproduce so quickly they would cover the whole top if I didn't. What's nice is I put all the pulled ones in a wheelbarrow and bring them down to the veggie garden. Pile them up and let them dry. I about a week they are bone dry. So dry they crumble! I use them for fertilizer. I don't know if its the pond water, fish waste or what but those plants work almost like miracle grow ;) Shirley, we have a Master Gardener's plant swap usually every year here around Mother's Day. I say usually, cause this year we didn't have one? I was so busy at the time, never asked why, and till you just mentioned it forgot all about it :) My fair swap has been growing a little every year by 1 or 2 people. :) A lot of the same people come every year once they get hooked. The like the variety of different things I bring every year. What's awesome is that it all comes from the gw. :) The seed swaps in the fall produce nice little babies for my swap. This year I tried a bunch of Dianthus.... I have Ipswitch, Black Adder, Yellow something I can't remember, Black Magic, Fire Witch...as you can see I got most of these from the Halloween swap last year :) I also have some different Althea's that I can't remember right now, lol. The turtle is officially done. He's not a fancy turtle, but, he does look cute. ;) The kids are so excited I hope he wins. Taylor was looking through the entry list for ecology classes. She's entering photography, art (painting and sculpture), sewing, flower arranging (gee, wonder where she's gonna get those?), and house plant arrangement. I have 1 house plant in my house. Taylor's zebra plant. This thing has produced 8 babies! She took my tea cup planter and planted them around in it. She then used one of my old spoons and stuck it in. Made a tea bag tag to tie to the spoon, " Taylor's Tea" It came out so cute! Billy is entering art. He made the most beautiful pastel drawing of a fish this year in kindergarten. It won an honorable mention at the school art show. I framed it. He's also entering the house plant arrangement too. We didn't have any house plants for him, but, we did have some hen's and chicks. So yesterday we got a pair of his old sneakers, washed them, and filled them with hen's and chicks. They are so cute!! Little blue sketchers!! So adorable!! My neighbor saw them when she was walking her dog and asked if they were going to be at the plant swap...lol! I have to get a photo of them. Have a great day!! vina Here's a weird one...found this double gaillardia. It looks like a science experiment gone wrong, lol.

Hey everyone! Wow! So much going on here!! Sorry haven't checked in the last few days. Sorry I missed Bingo, been just crazy here. I'll start getting my seeds together to mail :) Here are a couple of recipes I love... RECIPE 1: Lazy Pigs ~1 small to med. cabbage ~1lb hamburger ~2 cans tomato soup ~2 med. onions ~2 cups brown rice Core cabbage, and cut into small pieces. Wash, set aside. Brown 1lb hamburger, reserving drippings to cook diced onions. Cook brown rice according to directions. In a large skillet (I use cast iron) combine cabbage, hamburger, onion, rice and 2 cans of tomato soup. Mix well. Add enough water to cover the top of your mixture. Cook 350, for about 1 1/2 hours. If you wanted to make this quicker, I cook the cabbage on top of the stove for about 20 minutes. Reserving the cabbage liquid to mix with some of my tomato soup. Mix everything together and cook 350degrees for 35minutes. Salt and pepper to taste :) RECIPE 2: Ham and Cheese Roll ~1 pound of ham; Sliced or cubed ~8 oz. of Havarti Cheese with dill, cubed small ~Your easiest dough recipe. Some times I've even used those flaky biscuit tubes (Grands, you need 2 tubes) ~ 1/2 cup peach jam ~ 2 Tbsp. mustard Roll your dough as normal. Like making a pizza. Or place your biscuits together in a 13x9 pan making sure their is no holes in the bottom. Place ham and cheese randomly over your dough bottom. In a bowl mix jam and mustard together using a small whisk. Pour over the ham and cheese, and spread evenly over the dough. Now you can either roll your dough like a stromboli, or if your using biscuits, open the second can and place over the ham and cheese mixture. Bake at 375. For actual rolled dough cook for about 30 minutes. For biscuits cook for about 20 minutes. They will both be golden brown on top. Yummy :) Have a great night!!

Christine, well done!! Congratulations! And congratulations to everyone else, for doing one heck of a great job! I picked up quite a few ideas from all of you wonderful OBFERS! And thank you again Sheri, for a very fun and creative swap!!!!! Happy weekend to all! Annie