Sometimes procrastination pays off.  The last couple of days have been delightful, 68 degrees and sunny.  Cliff cranked up the chainsaw to take down a pine tree that would be throwing too much shade on the vegetable garden this year.  I watched from my sewing room window as the breeze controlled the swaying pine. My thought was that I wouldn't be taking down a 40-foot pine on such a breezy day. 

Instead of falling into the open garden, the pine fell onto the driveway where the new fence would have been if we hadn't procrastinated so long.  Then I had to tell Cliff, that wasn't even the tree I wanted removed.

This was the pine that would be throwing too much shade and needed to come down.  It was taller than the first one he cut and landed exactly where he planned.  The wood is no good to burn in our stove so he'll cut the trunk into manageable pieces and roll them down hill into the woods.  In another couple of weeks we'll till the garden and around the third week of March, I'll put in the potatoes.

Boy, you can't pull anything over on your children, even when they're grown adults.  Lauria noticed the hat I used on my mutant snowman belonged to her doll from about 30 years ago.  I'm making the doll some new clothes and will mail it to the grandchildren along with more cookies.

 John, Lauria, Michael, and Mark

This must be late summer of 1973 in Massachusetts.

 During the miserable cold and icy conditions we had here, I finally went through my old 35mm slides and scanned a couple hundred pictures to put on cds for my children.  I love the recent post of Lauria and Jim's children holding Olivia when she was a baby and when she just turned five.  So when I came across this one, I had to post it.  I purchased a Wolverine slide scanner about a month ago and it has allowed me to view and transfer all the slides to my computer.  What a journey it's been to go back and relive those days.

 Loved a sewing machine even in my teens.  Check out the curlers!

My mother and me in our Easter bonnets!