Well, got up this morning early to get my dishes together for a carry-in Christmas dinner at church and decided to start the chat thread. Woke up to CLEAR skies and a beautiful moon, so I am hoping for a sunny day after so many days of gloom. I actually got a growlite out yesterday and put it in the kitchen because I was getting so SAD that I figured maybe it would help. Perhaps it is all psychological but I feel very certain that I feel better after a few hours in the light. (Actually at this point I don't care if it is just psychological, I just know that I end up crying all the time this time of year if I don't have the light)

Friday I took a walk through the garden and was surprized to see lots of little heads of cauliflower and cabbage. We had it for supper along with coleslaw made with one of the little heads of cabbage I picked and carrots I dug. I have never had a "harvest" this late as I usually just pull them after the first hard freeze but had not gotten to it this year. We have been warm long enough since the last hard freeze to make things grow again. Quite a treat.

Tomorrow I travel too my daughter's home for a couple days for our annual "cookie bake". Doesn't seem possible it is time for that again already. I am bringing the oldest grandson back. One of the real joys of homeschooling is the flexibility as we are not confined by someone elses definition of "school". He has already learned every thing they say he "needs" to learn for first grade and is charting his own course with just a little guidance. I sure wish that I had had that option when my children were school age.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.......Polly.....is it this week your surgery?? hugs

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2001

Answers

Diane, Been thinking about you. Hope that you are getting that light. Yah, people that are never depressed have a hard time understanding those of us who get that way. Snap out of it they say, or find something interesting to do, think good thoughts. Yah, easy to say when you are not depressed and nearly impossible to do when you are!

Seems like when I get that a way that no amount of pushing or prodding or analyzing does me an ounce of good, but sometimes I just have to sit down in my misery. Ok. here I am , I tell myself , I am depressed, and I am not going to try to fix it but I am just going to dwell here for a little while and just be depressed. I know that allot of people would say NO No No , you can't do that , you can't just wallow in your misery like that , You have to get out and do something and fix it. Well maybe you do, and maybe you don't, sometimes for me, it's best just to let it be, to just accept it and experience it, and to get through it , and so far it has always gone away, sooner or later.

Well anyhow , so much for my ranting, I would like to share with you Di, a poem that my dear poetry leader and friend, Clarrisa Wells wrote , I like to read it when the gloom of winter gets to me.

Summer's Winter Song

All winter long I feel the summer breeze

in swaying , playful melodies, and though

the snow banks high the hill, I see

the flowering peach, hear soft notes

of robins' trill.

And this is why:

I reap the summer joy the sparrow sings

bouncing on his limb, assured a loving eye

is watching over him.

I breathe the wild rose breath of June,

write on my heart the warbler's tune

to store with these and more in my mind's eye

as autumn glows and summer waves goodbye.

While winter storm and sleet rant cold,

they prime my heart with summer's gold.

Let chilling , howling winds blast clear;

it's summer's winter song I hear.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001

oh tren, how lovely!!! I am going to print that off and hang it over my kitchen sink for the winter. Makes me think of that old Seals and Croft song, "summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing like the Jasmine in my mind" hugs

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001

I can relate Di. My prozac just does not cut it in winter and I have to get outdoors as much as possible even on cloudy days to combat depression. By March I just want to sleep and run away from home...just can't cope. Vitamin B helps ALOT! There is a multi called Stress-ease by Jamieson that works great!!! I am a cranky ass camper without it. If its a really really bad day I take another dose of it. I highly recommend it. This has been quite a week. Went to the city on Friday for cocktails and dinner theater thanks to a company hosted function. Woo hoo free drinks. I behaved though and we had a great time but were glad to come home too. My feet were killing me (dress shoes) and I wanted to wash my very carefully applied make up off and comb out the hairspray. Jewellery off, flannel nighty on, I felt like me again. I did look nice for a change though..spiffy even. Saturday went to get a side of beef cut up with a neighbor and after we divvied it up we had a couple of drinks which was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Very unusual but spontaneous and fun. We planned our New year's party while we sat and joked. then I tottered home and unsteadily cooked a bitchin' beouf bourginon (hmmm..that doesn't look spelled right). 'Twas a lovely tell yer mother kind of day in all. the Sunday and the turkey massacre. I can't go there. Today I am cleaning like crazy and a guy from our community drops in to see if I want some angora bunnies. Do I have hutches? No. Do i have food? No. Do I say No thanks? No. hubby will have a surprise when he gets back from Toronto and Montreal eh? Hee heee.......

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001

Well, I'm still "dealing" with this unseasonably warm and snowless fall. We had a dusting of snow a week or so ago, but it was gone as fast as it arrived! Last weekend it was 60 degrees and today it's a beautiful sunny day and 50 degrees. Did I miss fall and winter? My daylilies have started to grow!!!

One good thing about the wonderfully warm weather...hubby is slowly getting his garage addition finished. With it getting dark so early, he only has weekends to work on it. Have to start on shingling the roof next...not me! I'm not getting up there!!!

Really hope you're feelng better soon, Diane. I've never had a problem with really bad depression, but sometimes when I wake up in the morning I just don't want to do anything...nothing seems important, even though I have animals depending on me to get my butt in gear! I have rearranged my livingroom to help myself out of this "funk". My favorite chair is positioned in front of an east window so I can catch the first rays of the morning sun as I'm sipping my coffee. I just sit there, while the woodstove is cranking up, and let the sun's rays wash over my face. Hubby thinks I'm wacko...but seems to get me going :-)!!

I'm SOOOO not looking forward to Christmas! My son has two stepdaughters (one is 9 and the other is 10) and I don't have a clue as to what they want or need. I have a few things picked out for my granddaughter, but she's only 4 and very easy to buy for. I know hubby and I are gonna feel really bad if we have more gifts for our granddaughter than the other two kids. And I hate to feel that this present "thing" is a competition to see who gets the most!!!! I know my daughter-in-law will be P.O.'D if we don't evenly distribute gifts. Christmas can't be over with fast enough for me this year!!

Well, gotta get outside and spead some manure on the garden...can't waste these beautiful days. Have a wonderful week everyone!!!!

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001

Hi all!! I got off work this morning (had to work the weekend of the full moon, as usual) and then went out Christmas shopping. It really wasn't too crowded today, so I didn't mind it too bad - I may have to try getting it done early every year! I got home and hauled everything in to the house, then collapsed into bed and snoozed until just a bit ago - felt good!! Now, I'm just going to clear the kitchen counters for cookie baking tomorrow and get things measured out for that before I crawl into bed with a book - a pretty nice day, I think!

My surgery is next Friday the 14th, Diane; but thank-you for thinking of me and sending the hugs - I have been in a mental frenzy wondering if I will get everything done in time, so they were surely - and sorely - needed!!

It is difficult to be "fair", isn't it, Marcia; especially if you know that the other girls will be getting presents from their mother's side of the family also. When my step-daughter complained that Jessie got more presents than her, I told her that I was sorry she felt that way; then I asked her to sit down and write down all the things she got from her mother and step father; and from her mother's family; she decided that it probably was fair after all. Sometimes, it seems that the children understand better than the parents do!

I got a catalog from Pinetree seeds - has anyone ever ordered from them before? They have a lot of interesting things, but I really don't need any more seeds, do I? Of course, need and want.... I've been reading Jay's dandylion thread with interest, but as I already have a fine crop of the darn things out in my perennial bed, I think I'll pass on trying to grow them for now! I do love to read about his adventures in worms and BISF gardening tho!

I haven't had too much problem with SAD or other depressive symptoms this year, though all the rain and gloom last week was beginning to make me a bit cranky by the time it cleared up. We had temps in the 60's and sunshine today - breezy and gentle, almost like spring! I'll save the memory and wrap it around me next week when I'll probably be slogging through snow to do the chores!! I do like puttering under the grow lights in the winter time, and seeing the little green things growing. My silly peonies and mums are trying to come back up; and I have a good crop of celosia seedlings in the side bed as well - guess they must think the weather is springlike too!

Well, I don't think I'm making a lot of sense; and I'm yawning pretty big, so I guess I'd better get in and get the kitchen done before I head back to bed. Something tells me that Hubby will be taking my glasses off and moving the book from my chest when he comes to bed tonight!

Hugs and sunny skies to you all this week!

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001

It's 60 degrees here in Indiana today, I don't really care for cold weather but this just isn't right. We really could use the snow to help repenish the watertable.

I aced my finals, so I now have a very fancy and proper-looking certificate that allows me to legally practice massage in the state of Indiana. The second semester starts in March and I'm really looking forward to the break to get caught back up with things around the house. I gave out some of my soaps as early Yule gifts at school and now I may have a contract to create a line of soaps and lotions at a local day spa. I thought that I was getting out of the soap business but I guess not. :)

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Congratulations Sherri on passing the finals (not that i ever had any doubts that you would)............do you need your soap making stuff back???

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I just remembered...last Friday I actually watched one of my hens lay an egg. Hubby was up on the barb roof screwing down roofing and I was waiting for him to need another sheet of metal passed up so I watched this ugly white hen breathing funny and thought "oh No She's sick" then I noticed she was standing and seeming very concentrated on something and I clued in. How interesting!! I must say I felt for her..it took more effort than I supposed. I was so proud of her and amused by her after laying behavior. Don't get that in the city!!!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Sure you do, Alison, if you own female cockatiels! :-D Boy, my girls (who I do call my little hens) are like dragonets when they have eggs (unfertilized, since the boys live next door in a separate cage)! One of my hens laid 85 eggs in just a few months time, before I lost track of how many. She laid a lot more before she died -- at only about 8 years old. I tried everything I could think of, short of hormone shots, to stop her, but she was a little egg machine. I think she inspired all the others too. The second most prolific layer is gone now too. I think it really takes it out of them.

The two that are left were never all that big on laying, though one of them did raise a clutch of babies before she was separated from her mate. They pair bond, usually, so if you're feeling sorry for them, they do get to come out of their cages together. That isn't enough time for them to settle down to breeding and nesting behavior, so they're still bonded but not raising babies. I hope these two hens live a lot longer than the heavy layers. Cockatiels have been bred so many generations in captivity now that they are considered domesticated birds and can lay year round, and don't need the presence of a mate to do so, unlike parrots, which are still essentially wild animals living in captivity. Probably more than any of you wanted to know about cockatiels! I could go on about the color genetics . . . . ;-)

I don't plan to replace the birds as they die, though I MIGHT get more parakeets someday. I have one left, and I know I would surely miss that parakeet chatter if I had none. She's never been a very friendly, tame bird, but now that she is the only one, she is getting more interested in chattering with me. The Humane Society often has them for adoption, so I think I can easily get more when I want to. It really doesn't matter to me too much if they aren't especially tame -- I just like to hear them sassing and chattering. Some people think they're too noisy and grating on the nerves, which I can never relate to. Okay, I'll shut up now about my birds!

Freezing cold today, but sunny with no wind -- really a pleasant day to be outdoors, as long as you're moving and stying warm.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

I've decided that this is going to be the weekend to clean out the spare bedroom. If I haven't heard from me by Monday please send out a search party! :)

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001