Another mile logged on the highway of life. Happy Birthday. From Readers Digest: When someone your age was asked if they had any children the reply was: "We don't have children, we have old age pensioners". OKAY, enough of the old stuff.

So you emptied out a drawer and found a card from me. Nothing. I have saved everything. I once had every greeting card dating back to 1 953. I say once because I did a purge when we shifted back to NZ in 1 985 and tossed out some of the more mundane Christmas cards which only had a signature. Since then I have decided to not keep those types anymore, but I still have heaps. I also keep the original of any card that I make, so no need to send any more back my way. Everyday I say to myself "I must throw something away". I can't. We won't shift again because I have too much stuff.

Thought that I would give you an update on the yard -plantwise. We have no place to put anything more, but we still buy stuff. Got a tangelo last year, no fruit yet. Put a pohutukawa (Metrosideros Excelsa) in on the drive: it is NZ "Christmas tree" as it blooms bright red around then. Some worry that the species is doomed as they are dying out. And after so many years of saying that we would get one, we finally got a bottle brush (Callistemon Red Cluster) which is doing real well and flowers twice a year. We noticed Chinese Toons (Cedrella Sinesis) everywhere last year -pink leaves in spring. Tried to buy one but all sold out. So this year Gail got one about 8" high for $1 3 and it died on us. We are having a drought for the third year in a row (reservoirs at 50%). Neighbor cleared a section on drive and we let her take down three large phebalium and into the gap we stuck a Silver Cloud (Brachyglottis Leith Gold) which has large velvety leaves. And a Kapuka (Griselinia Littoralis). Few years back we put in a tamirillo and have had heaps of fruit from it. But this year image our amazement when we found cranberry bushes for sale. Thought they grew in bogs in Wisc and NJ. But we have one in our dry front yard - being watered daily - and it has hundreds of berries. I love raw cranberries, so if this is successful we'll buy more. In the veggie arena, it has been harder with me working, so not as much going on there but we have put in savoy cabbage and brocoflower for the first time.