Max, the brick streets were so popular years ago because of all the clay in Indiana to make the bricks with. There even is a small town in Indiana called Clay City, which is know for it's manufacture of clay bricks for use in buildings and flower pot and things like that. That is what is meant by brick red. Course, some of it is a yellow or a bit orange and even shades of brown and gray, just because that is the color of the clay used.

Woe is me. Haven't found a way to create an interest.

I need to have DH take some more pictures before I can list anything other than books which I can scan. It was a waste of time to try to sell books during this free listing time. For the last 3 months of the so many that I listed, I only sold 6. I guess I will have to give them to the SA & GW. Hate to though for I have hundreds.

No one is awake here by me and I am usually awake at this time of the day and even the cats feel it is time to sleep. The kitten has grown into a cat by now and I hated to see that sweet have age so fast. The older cat would rather you not bother him. He is asleep on top of my scanner/printer and did awaken long enough to give me a big yawn and a glare and wiggle back down into a big blob of furry lump.

We are in great need of rain and so I fill empty milk gallon jugs at the sink while I am in the kitchen doing other things and DH waters all the potted plants on the porches. Dh found a plant sale so we have 7 containers here and there, all outdoors, of course. The porch furniture all needs a good scrubbing but we haven't sat out there as much as we used to. Our company doesn't stay as long as they used to either. I think that we are not as good company as we used to be but they come around to see how we are doing. Since we are mostly in the house and have good air conditioning we drink and serve more coffee.

MaX! where to heck are you? What's new? Do you ever come back through Indiana? Where is your real home?

The books that I have been into lately. Moo by Jane Smiley. Think Husband liked it better than I. Tis about life in a midwest College, perhaps like Purdue. I just couldn't stay interested. Farming is no longer my cup of tea, Although I love the Foxfire books and Mother Earth magazines.

Back home after a week in the hospital. What we thought was a broken bone in my foot turned out to be Gout. It was so painful that when I woke up, I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t stand to put any weight on my foot. The fireman had to come with special equipment to get me out of the house.

Then, after lots of testing my blood was too thin for some minor surgery they found I needed. Coumadin level was way too high. That was a wow as I just had it checked a week ago. So now I go back to the hospital next Thursday for the surgery. Anyway, I sold 2 books so life was not a complete loss.

Add a big glass of icy cold milk and watch them disappear.
I use strawberry or black raspberry preserves or grape jelly.
I watch them a little closer towards the end to see how long it takes them to brown properly.

Did you bring the coffee with you Gail? If so, I have my mug. No cookies though, just animal crackers.

Well, it looks cold out there in the yard. Light fluffy, puffy clumps of snow in the stubble of what ever is left of the lawn grass. It feels cold. It's cold. The bird bath is frozen, the feeder is bare. We are going to have to get busy with those things. We have the seeds, just haven't gotten around to it. They are not going without anyway. The birds and squirrels are enjoying every shred of food that we don't eat like bread heels, old cereal, almost raisins grapes, 2 dried up apples that were hiding in the back of the frig. DH adds acorns that he gathered this summer. He puts those things out there in dribs and drabs so there will always be something.

We are keeping busy trying to sort the things we can't live without. Have to get rid of this OLD stuff. SA and GW here we come.

I have had a super nice Christmas. Some family made the trip back here again that were here for Thanksgiving. We had all kinds of food again with so many bringing their share. The kitchen counters were always full. Everyone pitched in to do something. My youngest daughter just took charge and made sure that things were put away or in the frig. She even ran the sweeper several times as Christmas was about a week long this year.

The young kids got plenty of attention and the one non walking baby just went from arms to arms. She never cried that I heard and thought we all were pretty funny and had lots of sweet smiles for us all. She is 7 months and is small for our family and will always be tiny for us. Her name is Caroline and we all say it in a soft southern like attitude. You kind of get the feeling that we love her a lot? Well, we do, lots and lots.

There are no squirrels scampering around keeping track on their lawn of acorns, nuts and whatever we put out.
The raccoons have made a mess of two of our feeders and so they will have to have extensive repair. Meanwhile, the smaller critters y are making do with a mega size flower pot and a big old stump which seem to suffice, except I can't see them from my window.