It was the best ever! The weather was lovely and there seemed to be more entries than usual. The Parade goes down Jefferson Street, right past the shop, and I watched with Jane and Vicky. The Trevlac Fire Dept., of which Chris (Lotus Petal Cinema and Gallery) and our Joe are a part, won an award for their Pirate float. (I'll bet you didn't know that Trevlac is Calvert spelled backwards. Mr. Calvert had a sense of humor!) I had no idea that Brown County had so many fire trucks or Fire Departments, for that matter. And they were all blowing their horns. The Muddy Boots float was adorable - with a big muddy boot on it and lots of tissue paper flowers that we've all made on a couple of Craft Nights. Roberta and some of the other gals walked behind doing the "Electric Slide". There were lots of kids and horses in the Parade, including little girls dressed like fairies riding horses covered in flowers. Vicky, whose husband , Doug, was in charge of the live events at Disney World for years, agreed that this Parade was so much better. The rest of the day was terrific too - lots of happy people and a very successful day at the shop. Then Indiana weather did its weird thing and the temperature dropped into the 30s last night. Today's a new, sunny day.

My perspective on Fridays is different from most folks since Friday, Saturday and Sunday are my busiest work days. It's great to be busy, especially now while buying and selling plants. Yesterday was so beautiful and I drove to one of the nurseries - thru the woods. The dogwood is blooming now - as well as the redbud and other blooming trees. I've put off buying more plants for the last 10 days because of the very cold nights. I got so many yesterday - probably a record for one day - that I had to make two lovely trips! Many of the vines are now big enough, so I got several flats of cardinal climbers, moon flowers (my favorite), thunbergia (black eyed Susan vine), morning glories, and purple hyacinth beans. I also got several flats of dragon wing begonias. Half are for Coral from the leather shop. They grow like mad, are beautiful, and need very little sun or care. Also, of course, bought lots of herbs. I stayed late at the shop to price things and to rearrange the garden. It looks gorgeous. Joe stopped by to help me and showed me his new uniform for the Helmsburg Volunteer Fire Department. It's raining hard now and everyone's hoping that the weather will be good for the Spring Blossom Parade tomorrow morning. And I'm hoping to make paper outside the shop too. Only 2 more weeks until both my girls and baby Blake will be here! I bought a stroller this week and now need a car seat. Oh! The mail woman just knocked on my door and there's a surprise package from my sister, Nancy, in Gig Harbor, WA!!. Hopefully there are some new Olive Sandwiches products for me to "test". What fun. Hope you all have a terrific weekend!!

Saturday I came in to the shop and found lots (2 dozen or so) empty little pots in the flats outside. Herbs, mostly, and flowering miniature petunias, and perennials. Here and there all over the garden. These little tender plants were pulled out of the dirt so that their roots were bare. There's no way that very many of them could have survived. The cinema, six feet away, was open until 10:30 the night before and Justine didn't notice anything. The plants weren't thrown on the ground - like kids (or adults) simply being destructive would do. Some of the plant markers were neatly placed on one of the tables! That, on top of the woman dying in the public rest room, immediately behind the shop, last week - was unsettling. Sunday night I took one of the white sage smudge sticks from the shop and smudged* the restroom - every stall! Also the inside and outside of the the shop. I was coughing all the way home from breathing the smoke - so obviously I was cleansed inside and out too. Gotta be a good thing. *Smudging is a Native American ritual used to cleanse, purify and balance an environment, yourself , or others.

Hi. I had a great experience last night with my friends Marilyn and Kathy. They're neighbors and the woman across the road from them rescues owls. Patty is her name. She gave a wonderful talk about owls in Brown County State Park at the Nature Center. About 40 people, locals and tourists, sat in a circle around a campfire in the woods at dusk. Another woman walked around with a little screech owl and then a gorgeous barred owl. She passed around the wing of a great horned owl. Beautiful. The top of the wing and the top feather has little comblike extensions to break up the air currents when the bird flies. And I had no idea that an owls ears are not symmetrical. One is on the right front and the other on the left back. They turn their heads back and forth until the sound of the prey reaches both ears at the same time. It's like a triangle. At that point they can swoop down even in total darkness because they know Exactly where that mouse is. She also said that owls in her neighborhood come around at dusk, once in the middle of the night and again at dawn and converse with the owls that she's nursing back to health. The night before the earthquake, though, she said they made noise all night long! Fascinating!!!

It's been just glorious. Such an beautiful day. I made paper outside the shop, John Franz played music, and there were "green" movies at the Lotus Petal Cinema. Many people stopped by to buy plants - mostly herbs and vines. Jane was funny and Cozy was there "helping" people eat their lunches. I didn't use pigment in the paper, but put artichoke leaves into the pulp (beaten and stringy to give texture to the cotton paper). The paper was a lovely pale green. Also put lots of flowers in the pulp - especially pansies and fuschia colored stock (smells wonderful). I had so much fun I'm going to make paper on Saturday afternoon too. Earth Week. More soon. Send lots of positive energy to Beth McIntosh - 3 tests today and another one tomorrow.

Did you experience the earthquake?! I woke up and felt and heard the window rattling next to my bed. My cat MeMe, in bed with me, was scratching at the same time. Half asleep, I wondered how her scratching could make the window rattle like that! I thought I'd better get her to the vet right away!

We've had several very beautiful days in a row. I'm starting to be convinced that it's Spring - though a small part of me is still cynical. Saturday was a turning point for me emotionally and spiritually. I went to the nursery for the first time to pick up some plants. Not too many since they're still tender from the greenhouse and I have to carry them into the shop each night. I bought maybe 4 dozen scented geraniums, which I love. Lots of people collect them for their beautiful leaves and for the variety of scents. Thomas Jefferson grew them. The Victorians loved them. Among others I got old fashioned rose, citronella, lime, coconut, ginger and as many chocolate ones as I could get. On the way back thru the countryside, the car smelled heavenly, the sun was shining and my windows were down. I turned on the radio, tuned to NPR, and incrediblly beautiful arias from La Boheme were playing. I turned up the sound and felt ecstatic. I'm reminded that it's those moments in life -that come upon us unplanned-that we string together to make our lives magical.

I'm at home watching the birds outside my window - hoping the pileated woodpecker will show up again. I'm about to go outside and make paper. I made a spring green color the other day and I love it. If I put several different but related greens in the vat and stir them only slightly, it gives the paper a lot of depth. Very organic like a plant or some moss. I love it. Since I've been watching "John Adams" on HBO I've been looking up quotes by Abigail Adams, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Abigail was quite a feminist and told her husband that women wouldn't feel an obligation to obey laws that they took no part in creating. And I didn't know that Thomas Jefferson was the one who said, "When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry count to one hundred".

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Go to this website and click on the black space to "plant" your flowers. You'll love it. Thanks, Beth!!! The sun is shining today. No complaints. I had lunch with Pam and Tamar and we talked about spiritual matters. Everybody's read or is reading "The New Earth" -so we talked about this new way of thinking - or non thinking as it were. Pam's reading a book about the Mayans and 2010 being the end of the Mayan calendar. Tamar, a wonderful painter, is working on a big commission and took a rare break today to have lunch with us. Pam is, as usual, involved in many things. One of her new roles is being a correspondent for a Bloomington radio station - something that came up suddenly and was fun for her. I think the message I got from a few hours with good friends was that it's OK to have down time in the winter. Maybe even necessary for me to spend time hibernating and doing what seems to me to be nothing. Residing in the primordial ooze until the creative frenzy comes. Soon, I hope.