Our new greenhouse has been SO much fun. Dennis is LOVING it and Sarah has been too. The plants are taking off like crazy.








:o)

I went to Sturbridge yesterday to get some shoes that they didn't have in my size here in town. I have always wanted to check out Country Curtains but never had a chance - until yesterday!! What fun! Needless to say, we have new curtains for the front room.







They are plain natural muslin with a hemstitch on the sides and bottom. I will add the valance (or the regular straight valance) at a later date.

Shoes? Curtains? Does it get any better than this??


;o

The weather has been crappy - rainy and cold. I'm sure it will get better the next day I have to work! But I have been able to get some nice color in spite of the weather.








I've begun playing with the manual white balance. I have trouble letting the camera pick the white balance when I am shooting images that are deep purple.








Now this is where I really have trouble.





I'm having fun! :o)

Ryan and Troy sent beautiful roses, Sarah brought me parley plants for my swallowtails and Dennis took me to Esselon for breakfast.

But I miss MY mom . . .




:o(

We took a ride to the top of Mt. Skinner to see where the wedding will take place. The problem is getting Grammy to the spot. Sarah really wants her to be there but it's highly questionable. We do have some ideas but they are not being received well. :o/

Sarah and Cameron will be married on June 21 with their closest family present. Last night was Sarah's shower at the Night Kitchen in Montague, MA. Great food, great company. What more could one ask for? (The music is wonderful, be sure to enable it!)





:o)

Last fall I had several black swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley. They turned into chrysalids. Some emerged very late in the fall and three stayed over the winter in a terrarium in my barn. I took them out this spring and have been keeping an eye on them. Today Dennis called me as I was driving home from work and said one had emerged. I was ecstatic! My first baby of the season!

(OOPS! Forgot to post this AGES ago!)




The postage rate increases next week. Which means I would need two different postage rates if I mail my daughter's wedding invitations this week. Then, there are only limited styles of stamps left to choose from because of the rate change. I can choose the flag or Harley stamps. No, not for wedding invitations. And that would only be for the stamp on the outside. The stamp on the inside would have to be 41 cents. And those are crappy as well.

So I decided to do the 'photostamps.com' thing. I could have any one of my photos on the it, they would compliment the rest of the invitation and the outside stamp would match the return envelope stamp. All that for a mere $1 a stamp.

Paying almost $40 for two sheets of 20 stamps isn't too bad considering I only need to mail 19 invitations. But when I finally get the invitations finished today (print, cut, glue, stuff, etc.) I was in for a surprise at the post office. Each invitation weighed 1.2 oz . . .

Now what does that mean? I don't have enough postage on them!! Which meant I had to pile on more stamps to equal the 2 oz. rate. After quizzing the postal clerk, "so what are the odds somebody somewhere along the postage line will re-weigh them", I had to leave the counter to cool off.

I had to go back home to rethink all of this. There had to be a way to get these delivered without having a mess of stamps next to my photo stamp. Then it hit me. I could have them hand stamped but not let the post office deliver them. I would have to deliver them myself. The two that are considerably out of town (WA and CT) would need to have a postcard stamp next to mine.

Half of the cards are already delivered and I will be able to give the other half to the people at the shower on Friday. Solved.

Now it's time for a drink!!

I was in town today and my friend reminded me that the Dalai Lama was visiting Smith College . I made a dash for Main Street to line myself up for a good shot but was mistaken about where he would make his entrance. I took this shot at full zoom, totally blind, not even sure if her was in the picture and as it turns out, he was waving in my direction. It's a lousy photo but I am tickle just the same that I was able to get a shot at all. I had goosebumps for a good hour after that.

:o)

We slept in until 8:00 and fortunately I slept well. (I have memories of our last vacation in Key West when I got food poisoning, was up all night and had nothing but smoothies for four days.) But when I got up, I was still feeling lousy. My stomach felt queasy but we had breakfast and went down to the pool (and the hot tub) to figure out how we would spend our day. By noontime we headed to Duval Street. We had a coupon for the newly opened Key West Ron Jon's so that was our first stop.























I munched on a few light things and drank only ginger ale all day.





Back to the room for a rest at about 6:00. I had planned on going to Mallory Square to get shots of the crescent moon setting but after some research, I realized it wasn't going to happen until midnight and before I knew it, it began to rain - hard! So much for that idea. I don't know if I'll ever get another chance at a shot like that. Only MY luck!

I still feel crappy so I should probably go to bed. But before I do, I am going to see if the rain stopped and the clouds cleared. I doubt it. . .

:o/