Oh my gosh!!  According the random number generator on random.org, the winner is Frances from Fairegarden.  Congratulations Frances! I want to thank everyone who commented and told me how they would use the rain chain if they won.  It made for some sweet reading.  I'm sorry I couldn't reply to everyone, but with 58 comments, I was stunned. Frances, dear, I hope you enjoy your new rain chain.  You'll have to take photos and show us. Thanks also go to Teak, Wicker and More who made this contest possible.  By the way, it's still raining in beautiful and very green Oklahoma, but I'd like to see the sun.

Yesterday, I was pondering out loud about what to write, and Bear said, "Why don't you write about mothers?" I shrugged and said instead, I would tell a story. Once upon a time there was a small girl, who lived in a small house at the end of a small street in a small city.  She had plain, straight, cocoa brown hair and wore cat-eye glasses which always slid down her nose.  Her homemade dresses were adorned with ric-rac ribbon across the hem, and her knees were always skinned from playing outdoors.  In the 1960s, girls didn't wear blue jeans.  Only boys did.  For that and so many other reasons, she wanted to be a boy. She also desperately wanted a bicycle, but her parents were very young and had no money for anything but necessities like food and shelter.  The bicycle would have to wait. Her mother's name was...

After I wrote the post, Rain Music, about the joys of my rain chain, I was contacted by the good people at Teak, Wicker and More. They asked if I would like to try one of their products, or give one away. Guess which one I chose?  I wanted to give you, my dear readers, something beautiful. I was able to choose any item from their outdoor furniture line.  Several people commented on the rain chain post that they would like a rain chain of their own, so I thought this would be perfect. Here are the features (copied directly from their website): Crafted from stainless steel electroplated copper Available in 6 different cup styles Available in full and half length chains May be shortened or combined with another chain to create various lengths Easily attaches to existing gutter systems Hanging attachment included Some assembly and installation required Full Length...

Carol from May Dreams Gardens (Zone 5), Mary Ann from Idaho Gardener (Zone 6) and I enjoy reading books like  Dear Friend and Gardener and The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters Between Two Eccentric Gourmet Gardeners, so we decided to create our own 1,000 mile garden project.  This gardening season, we’ll be exchanging letters with each other about our vegetable gardens, and we’re now in week nine.  We hope you’ll enjoy our travels around three different hardiness zones.  I garden in Zone 7. Dear Carol and Mary Ann (and all of our other gardening friends), This week I want to talk about flowers.  I can almost hear you two laughing and saying "Don't you always want to talk about flowers?"  True, but in connection with our vegetable gardens, I want to show my edible flowers.  They are still very, very small, but soon, I'll have Nasturtiums like 'Black...