Chelone, the cat's name is Lily, sister (in spirit) to Tiger, an orange male and the coolest cat who ever walked the face of the earth. Lily is more normal cat, Tiger thinks he is a person. He knows more people in the neighborhood than I do, and frequents most of their homes. There is also a third orange long-hair named Molly. Orange cats have the best temperaments IME. Thanks for the compliments - - it's nice to hear after all that sweat I invested! All of the materials used were found on my property except for the stone dust, which I got at a discount through a friend. I have to say right now I actually love the look of the walkway, while I think the patio is just "ok". I do prefer the irregular stones, impractical as they may be. The patio stones are a bit out of line since I was just eyeballing them and then I had friends come in to help finish who weren't as picky as me! As for Poor Martha (as she has come to be known in the neighborhood), my next step if the town historian doesn't call back and take over is to go to the Bureau of Vital Statistics (I think that's what it's called) in Hartford and search for that date of death. If there is a Martha, well, Bingo. If not, and there are one or two other people with that DOD, I can check which cemetery they were buried in and see if they have stones (and whether they are replacement stones). If there is no match that way, I might be out of luck because that means the stone was not local. In that case I would just beg the historical society or a cemetery to take it. The woman from the Connecticut Gravestone Network also said she can search ancestors.com because she has a membership. So we'll see if she comes up with anything. For now Poor Martha has been moved to the patio, where I'm sure she's doing a great job of freaking out the mailman when he walks up to my house everyday. Hopefully he has figured out that she was unearthed during the walkway reno!

Oh yeah, and while I'm on the subject, and since we've just had the hottest June on record down here in Southern Ontario, and "I'm lovin' it", here is my latest 'pet peeve' in the expression category. Are you ready for it? It's "This is God's Country". It's said when one is referring to a stretch of land the speaker lives in or stakes some kind of claim to belong to etc. Well folks, I've got news for you: I've been damn lucky to have visited (and continue to search out) more places in the world than many people will ever dream of seeing, and all and each of them are capable of being called "God's Country" for many reasons. You may feel you're in "God's Country" because the air is fresh and clean, because you have rivers and wildlife and miles and miles of wide open spaces and you may have a point. But a country is what it is - just a "country". It's all "God's country" really isn't it? And anyway, wherever you are, isn't it the "country of your mind" - the place you live in every second of every day -infinitely more deserving of the expression? I don't know why I mention this but I felt like throwing it in. I have a suggestion for you - next time you have a toast, say "Here's to God's Country" wherever you may be, and get out and enjoy it and quit watchin' TV.

To be 'at sixes and sevens' means to be all over the place, as momj says. Not said so much these days but if for eg. you are late for an appointment, the car wont start, a child says they feel too ill to go to school, your husband suddenly remembers he is bringing home a couple of work colleagues for dinner . . . then you may be/or soon will be at sixes and sevens. Spotted Dick is a very traditional English pudding (the word 'dessert' is usually reserved for rather fancy cold dishes). These hot, filling puddings used to be the mainstay of school meals, though these days, with all this calorie control, sedentary life-style etc, plus the fact that they take some time to prepare plus a couple of hours to 'steam' they are much less popular. Made with a suet-crust pastry with a scattering of raisins, currants (hence the 'spotted' appearance) rolled into a wide sausages shape and cooked in a steamer in a 'pudding cloth'. Served with lots of custard they are very yummy. Didn't know they sold them in cans (which we call 'tins'). Don't you have any pudding-type 'desserts' in the US? Perhaps those of you with German/Dutch/Polish ancestry have similar recipes. Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own Spotted Dick

Wood - Glad you are enjoying the wonderful "Child/Forest" book. My library has the prettiest edition of this, and I donated the other two in the trilogy, but have a strong feeling they went into the FoL book sale instead of on the shelves which I had intended to make up the trilogy for other people. As for the adding of the "-ie" sound to words in English, that is quite common even now. "Brekkies" - breakfast "Sarnies" - sandwiches "Prezzies" - presents/gifts Also, there used to be a penchant for reducing some names to "-az" such as: Sharon --> Shaz or Shazzer Barry --> Baz or Bazzer Des --> Dezzie This might just be my group of friends though... We had a mixed bunch (social class speaking) and I think this shortening was a lower class trend... I could be mistaken as it may vary in other regions...