Visited a friend yesterday and raided her garden -- a lovely day finished by catching up over a beer in the back flower garden with the koi in the pond with the fountain (that's the soundtrack), butterfly bush awash in both butterflies and birds, and several bird feeders attracting finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, a mess o' sparrows and a mourning dove.

She yanked up some perenniel herbs for my kitchen garden including cutting celery, which I'd only recently heard about. What a wonderful thing! It'll be fantastic to grow it and I hope to keep a plant inside, too, now that our home's winter climate is not dependent on wood heat.

So right now I've got an abundance of riches -- a number of varieties of heirloom tomatoes, lovely long beets (not round) and greens, patty pan and crook necked squash, RASPBERRIES, cucumbers, and some home canned rhubarb, blueberries and spaghetti sauce.

What a lovely day!

Linn