Friends: Thank you for your encouragement. Music and fabric, PMs and letters, seeds and seed gift certificates have all smoothed the way. Thank you.

"What ails us" is that a hand built, two hundred year old house crafted from trees that started life up to three hundred years ago is gone. There truly is no cure for that loss. We will find treasures. We will have another home or homes. That much loved, unique house is gone forever.

We are grieving the death of our home. We are allowed to do this, and it is healthy for us to to mourn as we feel the need. If it is uncomfortable for our Mudcat friends when we do so here, we are content to post only the stories that will provide encouragement and indicate progress to whomever happens to read the posts.

We have held off posting for several days to allow the concern and helpful efforts to go to those here who are fighting the good fight against various illnesses. When we aren't so busy working at the fire clean-up we'll post with such happy reports as we can muster.

The best we can offer for now is the new poem on the Birdwatching 2010 thread.

maeve & Truelove