Alexander Graham Bell what have you done?

First of all, let me say right up front that this is not an advertisement...it's a grievance, pure and simple.  Or perhaps it's simply an Aesop fable turned on its' ear and then shaken like a snow globe.  I  never really wanted a cell phone.  It would irritate me no end to watch people walking around with those bluetooth (teeth?) contraptions glued in their ears and talking a mile a minute to someone I couldn't see.  I can't tell you how often I've nearly given myself whiplash jerking my head up to see who was talking to me only to discover them with a phone in hand or ear and not speaking to me at all.  And watching people driving down the highway with a phone in one hand and the steering wheel in another always gave  me the heebiejeebies.  Talk about a wreck looking for a place to happen!

But I bowed to convention and allowed my younger son and dil to give me my first and only cell phone.  It's a nice little Motorola with a few apps (  I later learned this meant applications,  not a sleep disorder).  It took me about a week to figure out how to answer it.  I still haven't mastered how to take a photo.  And the other day in a fit of boredom while Mac was in with the Doc I opened a music file to listen to some tunes...and then couldn't figure out how to turn it off.  I finally did learn to pause it so that the others in the room didn't have to be annoyed by Lady Gaga...I did tell you my son and dil gave me the phone?

So my older son got a new phone last week.  It's a Droid.  I think I have that right,  I know it's made by Verizon.  So, he's spent the week learning  about all it does.  It does plenty.  I keep hearing little shouts of "wow...look at what it does here!"  So, it does things like showing fast food  restaurant menus and nutrition values of each item; you can scan a bar code in a store and it tells you the price...but wait a minute...then it tells you where you can get it cheaper!  It takes pictures that rival his professional camera (he couldn't get a decent one of the 4 inches of snow we got on Friday night with his work camera , but the phone took some wowsers) and can find obscure music (complete with song name and artist) and then it plays  it for you.  You take your finger and move over to new pages and its GPS will show you where you are and a satelite picture of the exact spot. It gives you the weather and the temperature where you are standing. It plays a game with you when you are out walking.  I think he said it was Escape the Zombies.  It shows where zombies might be lurking and which route to take to avoid them.    This is not something I would do, I don't do dark walking.  This phone even hooks up to the internet and does things my computer can't do.  Who knew?

I'm sure that when I next see him, I'll be hearing about yet another thing that his  phone can do that my own phone  can't.  I hear from a reliable source that I have a wienie phone that I need to learn to master before considering a new model.  But I'm telling you, when he comes in and tells me that there is a "load the dishwasher app"  I'm going to be suitably impressed.  Oh, and headed for the Droid store.

Oh Heavenly Seed...oh February Fever!

It's one week into February and already Pauxatauny Phil has come from his lair to tell me that we will have six more weeks of winter. Luckily for us we have Queen Charlotte who lives in North Carolina (Charlotte, I believe...hence the name) and has called that Yankee upstart a dirty rotten liar and banished him from the Queendom. It was a close call, your Majesty.

It's now that time to get dirt beneath my nails, pull weeds from the flowerbeds and curl up with some of the best reading material around when the sun goes down and the heat goes on. I have already made the acquaintance of some great folks who provide us with the most wonderful heirloom seed for the many things we grow in our garden. We have been ordering from them for several years and when we heard that the company they represented were no longer going to be offering home gardeners this valuable seed source, we were heart broken. The cost was so very affordable and the quality so high that we were really wondering what we were going to do. Then I got this message from Pattie and Mike and was just overjoyed!

Hi Sandra, Thank you so much for your order and for your kind words. Below is some information about how we got started: My husband Mike had worked for the SC Foundation Seed Association (SCFSA) for 37 years and began the home garden vegetable seed program there (to promote heirloom, organically grown and open-pollinated varieties for home gardeners).. In October 2009, SCFSA merged with another non-profit organization and at that time Mike was told that they would no longer offer the home garden vegetable seed program. After much prayer, Mike made the decision to go ahead and retire from SCFSA and to start Heavenly Seed LLC so that the heirloom, organically grown and open-pollinated seed could still be offered to home gardeners. We are so excited about the positive response we have received. (If you need more information, let me know) THANKS! Pattie

We placed our seed order on a Tuesday and received the order on Friday. My fingers itch. We have decided to try a new cucumber called Armenian Melon...I love trying new "old" things. We will have five varieties of tomatoes, three different lettuce types, some really rad radishes...its time to plant cabbage and broccoli...sweet peas will need to be put into the ground...later on we will be getting our watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew seed to start. I'm trying to talk Mac into getting a small green house. Right now we use my 100 gallon fish aquarium to start seed. Okay, so it works well...but we need more room than it provides. I can not wait to get started. You know, when the seed catalogs start arriving, Spring can not be far behind.

I wish you happy gardening and lots of fun visiting Pattie and Mike at Heavenly Seed. You won't regret the visit. You don't have to live in South Carolina to take this trip. Man, I love the inter- net!