Sorry, KB, but I cannot help myself. For those of you snowed in or iced out, would you feel warmer dreaming of things to come--such as balmy spring breezes causing the daffodil heads to nod hello? I spent most of this afternoon indulging in ordering gardening supplies (seeds, mostly and some slug killing stuff, too) in preparation for our spring (which won't be here for awhile). Hey, I like to dream, too! Our snow is all in the foothills several miles away or on the mountains (great to look at, but it means unless I want to go ski-ing (NOT!), I don't have to worry about it. For those of you who do, think how nice it is when fluffy and clean and how lovely it will be when GONE! Imagine crisp fresh raw peapods or sugar snap peas (I have to keep Keesha OUT of the garden lest she eat them off the vine--a new trick she taught herself this year--before I get to them). Or how about steaming up some fresh beets or setting the ones just the right size for pickling and later enjoyment? A fresh radish anyone? I plant them between the beets so that the row is marked early and the beets have more space to grow as I pull the radishes. Onions anyone? Am going to try them this year. Summer and winter squash perhaps? They are fun to watch grow, but my greatest anticipation is for the sunflowers. I ordered seeds fo a variety that grows to 12 feet in height! Won't that be something to see? For those of you already in the heights of summer (sun and temps), imagine how refreshing to rush outside and plop down in a huge snowdrift to cool off! On New Year's, I watched (while shivering) as somre really testosterone-poisoned mid-teens rushed off a lake dock and cannonballed into the water (then scandalized the girls by running around naked once they were back in the house!) So much for wanting what the other half is enjoying, I guess. Some of us are enjoying our gardens now, reaping the rewards of our previous hard work. Others of us in the planning stages of things yet to come. Whatever, we still need to take time to marvel and enjoy the many ways in which our young ones also grow (and we too) as we learn from our observations and what we share with our LACTNET buddies. Am off to the jetted tub to read more bulb catalogs (though I am NOT buying any more! at least not this year!) :-) PS will my friends from the Pacific Northwest who must also gird their loins against the onslaught of slugs, esp. the large lemon yellow ones that are SO big and so voracious in appetite, please contact me re: the appropriateness of trying to grow lettuce (for me to enjoy, not the slugs)? Many thanks in advance. mailto:[log in to unmask] "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask] WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.net/kga/lactation.htm LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html