I hope you are standing the heat. We are roasting here. It was such a relief in Michigan from the heat. We loved it and the drive there was a beautiful one. We went through the Carolinas and into Ohio at Cinn. to avoid all the bad weather on the Atlanta/Nashville route. So glad we did. While stopping for the night in North Carolina we heard on the news about the 68 tornadoes hitting Tenn. We really dodged the bullet and chose to return home on the Carolina route although it was a tad longer than the straight shot route through Indiana, Kentucky and Tenn. Much nicer weather that way this time of the year.

We have decided to escape the hurricane weather here and spend the summers in Michigan from now on. Spent a whirlwind week looking at properties for sale and even have a property pending for purchase not far from where 2 of my sons work. Will get to see a lot more of the grand kids that way. We plan to leave for the closing in June. Not much time to get things settled here for the move. Plan to come back after the autumn cool down forces us south. Hope we never get any more late autumn hurricanes as we did last year. Wilma struck us just as the official hurricane season was drawing to a close. Somehow Wilma was not informed of that fact.

Have been busy doing contract knitting. People send me their socks and I copy the pattern from the original and make copies of it for them. I have even repaired some that have been attacked by moths and are in sad shape. I really enjoy resurrecting these treasures for my customers. I feel really honored that they trust me enough to send me their cherished possessions.. I am blessed with their happiness upon the end of each job.

I came home to a wondrous sight. Over the past couple of months I have been chucking the sunflower seeds that I feed the birds with into various little spots around my yard perimeter and drove into the drive to be greeted by the bright yellow heads in full flower here and there all around the house. I have a resident cardinal that just sits around singing with glee at the prospect of reaping those seeds. I have been busy planting more so while I am gone a constant source of food will be growing for that cardinal and his family. I figure I will plant a few clumps every 2 weeks until we leave to guarantee this.

On this trip we got off the super highways in an area where I spotted some tissle weed and made note of it in my mind so we can stop and gather a few plants to take back to our summer home this June. All good Amish homes had that weed growing so they could use it to tease [card] the wool for hand spinning using the seed pods. I have a carding drum I use for that but having the symbolic tissle weed growing on my land will make my soul happy. All my summers with my beloved Aunt Mary were spent on just such an Amish homestead with no running water nor electricity..

My most cherished memories are of times there with Aunt Mary and Uncle Levi.

Donna

PS: For those unaware of what tissle looks like, they may view a beautiful photo at the following link:

http://www.glennbartley.com/naturephotography/Flora/tissle.htm