Hello again

Wow, didn't realize it'd been over a week since I last posted. Guess there's just not a lot to talk about. Awhile ago, I was sitting at the desk surfing when I looked out the window and saw the duck couple that comes to my birdfeeder had figured out how to get under the fence. The hen was starting to range out a ways from the fence when something startled them and they both flew off. This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I happened to see them fly up from the creek and land in one of the big cottonwoods behind my house. I didn't know ducks would even perch in trees! But there they were, just kind of waddling along the bigger branches.

The weather is nicer, now, and many of the flowers have rebounded. Many of the daffodils are upright and blooming, and even the tulips that got mashed to the ground are trying valiantly to point the bloooms upward. The tulips up front are standing tall and finally beginning to bloom. The hosta, which hadn't yet unfurled their leaves, aren't as dark green as they were before the snow, but I think they might be OK. The two mums I planted on the hillside last fall took a lot of freeze damage, but yesterday as I picked dead leaves off, I saw some new green poking through.

I've been working on my wildflower garden, too, hoeing away at the grass in there so it won't be so overgrown (maybe) this year. I'd like to expand it, too, and add another Russian sage or two along the fence, replace the purple coneflower that didn't survive the drought last year, add a shasta daisy again and maybe move the black-eyed Susan if it reappears.

Some bad news from one of my "sisters" in my breast cancer support group: A couple weeks ago, her mammogram showed a marble-sized lump that proved to be cancerous. Further tests showed tumors in her lungs and chest lymph nodes. She's having a mastectomy and they'll biopsy those tumors at the same time. She was diagnosed about the same time I was, but here treatment had to be a lot more aggressive. I'm hoping she comes through this well. She's got a teenage son and she's been making a lot of headway with an organization she's in, and she's real proud of getting out of her "comfort zone," as she told me. So if you're the type, say a prayer for G., OK? Thanks.

For the weekend, I'm heading to the state capital, where the state newspaper association will have it's annual convention. The publisher and managing editor will be there, too, for the sessions, and then a couple of others will join us for the awards banquet Saturday night. The good news is, it sounds like they don't expect us to all travel together.