I am embarrassed to say that today was the first time I attended a Memorial Day Ceremony. Oh, I have placed flags on veteran's graves, gone to parades and enjoyed barbeques, but today's event was something I should have been doing every year. Our community honored our war Veteran's and fallen soldiers at our high school with a tribute and military fly over. It was a humbling experience to be surrounded by veterans of WW2, Korea and Vietnam-heroes who put their lives on the line so we can enjoy the freedoms we take for granted.

Our bees seem to be doing well. Although we have been checking the hive area daily to observe bees entering and exiting the hive, today we suited up and took the lid off the hive to look inside. We wanted to make sure the sugar/water food supply was full and also to see if there was any activity with the queen. I was a little hesitant because I felt disturbing the lid would make these bees feel threatened but it went smoothly. Food supply was still good and lots of bees clustered around queen area. A few bees flew at my face and yes I flinched, but when I remembered I had bee protective gear on, I was fine. I also planted some lavender in the hive area.

After weeks of reading, preparing and planning, as of today we are officially beekeepers. We drove down to Waldo Ohio(Where's Waldo?, you ask) and met a lot of interesting beekeepers in the parking lot of the local tavern. Some were seasoned and some were New"bees" like us. We gathered our 3 lb package and a lot of information from the veterans and drove home. Our bees are now carefully situated in their new home and all we have to do for awhile is make sure they have enough sugar water food. Oh--and between the 2 of us we had ZERO stings.

We are stocking up on food for our new tenant guests. 25 lbs of sugar should be ample to nourish the 10,000 bees we are picking up tomorrow!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

We have been as busy as----well, bees! Getting ready for the 10,000 bees we will be picking up on Wednesday. We prepared the hive tonite but after talking to my brother on the phone. I think I have the wrong box on the bottom. 

Farmer's market season has begun! This was a beautiful market in Bloomington Indiana where we spent the weekend and our gracious hosts knew exactly what kinds of things delighted us-like picnics, parks and farmers markets. I don't recall ever seeing so many varieties of tomatoes in one spot. And what was even better-you could buy single plants and not trays. We came home with a plant -or two. Okay----6.

Happy 27th birthday to my baby boy!!!!!! Happy 33 anniversay to my husband!!!!!!! Here they are getting to know each other!

This is NOT my favorite thing to see----and I have only seen this a few times, just enough to give me nightmares. A new hatch of baby spiders---squiggly, crawly, spiders---hundreds of them and maybe a thousand. Right outside my kitchen door. Just thought I would share the picture and now I am going to go and spray them!

This is kind of like a public service announcement. And it started when my brother called from California to ask my advice about treating his poison ivy. And that led to remembering what my mother always said about this-"wash with Fels Naptha soap". And this was reinforced by what my nursing co-workers told me last year when I had it-" you have to wash it with an old fashioned but hard to find soap". So I repeated all that to my brother who reported back that he couldn't find this soap in his area of California and,in his opinion, it was probably because it killed a fruit fly and has been banned. Well after I stopped laughing, I went out and bought 2 bars-one to send to him and one to keep on hand. Because when you have poison ivy, the last thing you want to do is to go out hunting this soap down. So-if you see it, do yourself a favor and buy one for your medicine chest! The Milk Bones
aren't for me.

There is white stuff falling from the sky and accumulating on the ground. Thank goodness it isn't snow, although it looks like it! It's just the cherry blossoms falling in the rain-------and no shoveling involved!

Hanging out at a few garden centers lately!! And slowly starting to plant-and hopefully we won't have anymore frost and some dry weather for awhile. 

For Mom's everywhere-and children of mothers this one's for you! The lilac tree outside my kitchen window went into full bloom today! Coincidence? I think not!!!

And one more picture to add to the Evolution of the Kitchen in yesterday's posting!! The modern day kitchen---although this is a vintage version of the sign. When this sign was in use, MacDonald's was actually kind of tasty. Nothing like the cardboard burgers they have today---oops I think I am sounding old.

Here we go ladies---the evolution of the kitchen as displayed at the Henry Ford Musuem. This rustic room dates from the late 1700's and I think the lady of this house felt she was blessed to have a wood floor as opposed to a dirt floor.

I find this mid 1800's kitchen inviting. I am picturing a New England snowy winter raging outside the window with a roaring fire inside and candles flickering throughout. And then there are those hungry children and husband, no running water or modern appliances and the kitchen doesn't look so inviting anymore.

And then there is this, somewhat dreary looking kitchen from the late 1800's. The stove looks like it might be a lot of work and although you can't tell from my picture, there is an intimidating large mouse trap next to the wood box. My grandmother had a stove like this. One of the memorable moments of my life was when we took my mom and her sister to this museum and they started reminiscing when they saw items their mother had! An unplanned magical day.

And finally---this beauty from the 1930's. I could live in this kitchen. Love the checkerboard floor. Love the seaglass blue trim. Love the white cabinets. Not so sure of the stove or icebox but with a few faux front cabinets to conceal a modern appliance or two---I could live here!