It has been so long since I have been on here. First Yule, then my mother getting ill and all of the difficulties of getting she and my father moved up to Portland where she could get good medical treatment. I have been back and forth to Portland so many times lately, I think I could drive it in my sleep and maybe I have.

Realizing suddenly that your parents are no longer the rock you have leaned on all your life and having the tables turn 180 degrees is a big shock. It is as though in one minute they have become your children just at that time in life when you thought your children were all raised and on their own. And what makes it even more difficult is that they don't want to be dependent and fight it every inch of the way.

It is our plan to leave the NW this fall and move back to the East...probably to Pennsylvania. My husband is from Maryland and would like to be a bit closer to his siblings and I would like to be in an area again that has four seasons. I think we will probably be somewhere around Pittsburgh. I am looking forward to it.

Our weather out here has been truly awful this year but the plants think spring is on her way. The pussy willows are budded out and the snow drops are up and nodding away in the yard. And a number of my later bulbs are already pushing up and reaching for light. I am more than ready for the Maiden to make her appearance and warm things up a bit.