I second the salvias. Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is my natural hummingbird feeder. White sage (Salvia apiana) is another; it is attractive to bees and is used in herbal medicine, responsibly sourced, since it is endangered now in the wild. Cleveland Sage, (Salvia clevelandii) is another one I love.. I also love Mexican Bush sage, (Salvia leucantha).

Also Mediterranean herbs, which I believe includes the salvias, do well in our mixed Mediterranean/desert climate.  So for ornamentals lavender, (I especially like Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote'), grey santolina (Santolina chamaecyparissus) ,(probably all of the artemisas).  For culinary use rosemary, (rosemarinus officialism), French Tarragon. (Artemisia dracanculus), Italian parsley , ThymeI second the salvias. Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is my natural hummingbird feeder. White sage (Salvia apiana) is another; it is attractive to bees and is used in herbal medicine, responsibly sourced, since it is scarce now, I understand in the wild. Cleveland Sage, (Salvia clevelandii) is another one I love.. I also love Mexican Bush sage, (Salvia leucantha).

Also Mediterranean herbs, which I believe includes the salvias, do well in our mixed Mediterranean/desert climate.  So for ornamentals lavender, (I especially like Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote'), grey santolina (Santolina chamaecyparissus),(probably all of the artemisas).  For culinary use rosemary, (rosemarinus officialism), French Tarragon. (Artemisia dracanculus, thyme (Thymus vulgaris), Parsley, (I like Italian Parsley, (Petroselinum crispum),  oregano, (Origanum vulgare), its cousin Marjoram, (Origanum majorana), cilantro, (Coriandrum sativum), and basil,(Ocimum basilicum).. 

Some of us can never have too much basil! Last year I had a really pretty Thai basil plant that the hummingbirds loved. In the past I have had purple basil because it is so pretty.  I presently have a perennial basil plant that is now, I think, three years old, which flowers purple, but too strong to eat. More of a potpourri or perfumers herb..  

For a tree I love my Hawthorne tree, a symbol of hope and this one has a story that bears that out. I was just reading about it last night, because I would love to find another one. It can live to be 400 years old! According to what I was reading, it is becoming endangered. It feeds the birds, and can be consumed by humans as well. Again it is used in herbal medicine. The one that I am looking for is Crataegus monogyna. If anyone knows a source I would be grateful. 

I wish I had an elderberry tree (Sambucas nigra). The berries, dried and made into a tincture, are a proven remedy, scientifically demonstrated, as well as used for centuries worldwide for cold and the flu. Lozenges and a syrup are available commercially. I have been using both the lozenges and my own home made tincture for a number of years to supplement my annual flu shot. Good stuff, but checking the botanical name here to get the right one would be important, since there are toxic varieties as well as the beneficial one. 

Sorry, to be so long-winded. I have just given away to all of you that I clearly spend way to much time "Googling" and reading on the internet. Also I have been growing, studying and using herbs on and off since the 1980’s. 

 , oregano.cilantro, and basil. Some of us can never have too much basil! Last year I had a really pretty Thai basil plant that the hummingbirds loved. In the past I have had purple basil because it is so pretty.  I presently have a perennial basil plant that is now, I think, three years old, which flowers purple, but too strong to eat. More of a potpourri or perfumers herb..  

For a tree I love my Hawthorne tree, a symbol of hope and this one has a story that bears that out. I was just reading about it last night, because I would love to find another one. It can live to be 400 years old! According to what I was reading, it is becoming endangered. It feeds the birds, and can be consumed by humans as well. Again it is used in herbal medicine. The one that I am looking for is Crataegus monogyna. If anyone knows a source I would be grateful. 

I wish I had an elderberry tree (Sambucas nigra). The berries, dried and made into a tincture, are a proven remedy, scientifically demonstrated, as well as used for centuries worldwide for cold and the flu. Lozenges and a syrup are available commercially. I have been using both the lozenges and my own home made tincture for a number of years to supplement my annual flu shot. Good stuff, but checking the botanical name here to get the right one would be important, since there are toxic varieties as well as the beneficial one. 

Sorry, to be so long-winded. I have just given away to all of you that I clearly spend way to much time "Googling" and reading on the internet. 

nearly the Last of the Garden

Just before Thanksgiving I took this picture of the harvest that was sitting then on my table.

The avocados came from a friend, grown in a backyard in Santa Clara.  Yummy and buttery, possibly the best I've ever eaten.  I shared one with a friend on Thanksgiving and the other with another friend on the Saturday after. The seed from the second one is in a small pot of dirt outside.  It will be interesting to see if it survives and sprouts leaves.

The tomatoes became

part of a plate of dinner for me and the salad on Thanksgiving.  There was so much going on on Thanksgiving, that I didn't have time for pictures. The meal was one of the best I have made for Thanksgiving.  A turkey meatloaf, subbed for the bird, since there were only two of us eating. Fresh herbs combined to make poultry seasoning.  Amazing what that did to the meatloaf.

I made pumpkin custard, which is pie filling without the crust and then totally wrecked the calorie saving virtues of it by making hard sauce. Decades ago at a very memorable Thanksgiving with friends in Chicago I ate hard sauce for the first and only time in my life up to this year.  After looking for a recipe on line I have to say it is basically butter cream with booze.  And it is good.  Rum in the pumpkin and rum in the sauce.

The ways in which the garden has provided stability and blessing and great culinary delight in my life is part of what I am so grateful for this year.  Rain and weather that is not so cold as it was in November are two more blessings that I give great thanks for.

Holy Cross High School, Class of 1965, 50th Reunion

My high school classmates convened this weekend to celebrate our fiftieth reunion.  We were asked to write about our most memorable moments in the last fifty years.  Here is what I wrote.

After graduation from Holy Cross several events stand out in my life over the last fifty years. The first is the day the acceptance letter arrived from Stanford University. I remember that it came earlier than I had expected and that I held it in my hand for some time afraid to open it. Stanford was the defining experience in my life, I think, more so than High School, although without the foundation that I was given by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, I could never have gone there. As a transfer student (from Foothill), I never lived on campus, but I made life-long friends through the St. Ann Choir, a Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphonic Choir that still sings in Palo Alto. A degree with honors in Medieval History still decorates the inside of one of my drawers somewhere. The picture was taken around the time that I began studying at Stanford.

The second is the day that the acceptance letter arrived from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Again, an early letter which I held in my hand and then finally opened. As I pondered whether to go or stay, one of the people who had written a recommendation letter, Fr. Robert Giguere, said, “Peggy it is a very great honor and very prestigious, but you don't have to go.” I went.

In the first quarter there I attended a lecture by a visiting theologian given at the OI (Oriental Institute) because our school, the Divinity School located in Swift Hall, did not have a room large enough to accommodate the crowd. I remember entering the huge foyer of the OI and looking up to the carving above the doors. James Henry Breasted Memorial Hall the letters read. The hair prickled on the nape of my neck. I had come full circle from Sister Peter Damian's Religion History class to the place where the foremost Egyptologist of his time and author of the book we had used had, to paraphrase the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer “lived and moved and had his being.” As a further note, when I told Papa about this while I was home at Christmas, my father recognized the name of the theologian. Turns out he had known the man before he became a priest—when they were both graduate students in Mathematics at Ohio State. It is always a small world!

Sometimes I wish I had stayed here. At the time I believed that I was truly called to active ministry but not to be a member of a religious order. I thought that I would most likely become an Episcopalian, but in the end could not. Sometimes, especially when I am reading Jan Karon's wonderful novels about Fr. Timothy Kavanaugh, I wish I had become an Episcopalian.

Instead, I returned home after passing doctoral qualifying exams. That day and the whole process of preparation for those exams are two more outstanding memories in my life. Graduation from Chicago with my father and younger sister (Patricia Manor Pierce, HCHS 1969) attending was another outstanding moment. I remember at Convocation holding my degree in my hands at the end of the ceremony as the president proclaimed, “Welcome to the community of scholars.” The event was marred by sadness though, for even as we celebrated and we went on to Toledo for a visit where I got to meet my niece for the first time (I had met her older brother in previous visits) we missed Mama who had died a few months earlier after a courageous and cheerful battle with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The picture at the left shows me at the pulpit at Bond Chapel. The closest I ever came to preaching!

I came back to California expecting to work and carve out a career after spending so much time enjoying school. Unfortunately, post-polio syndrome, also known as post-polio sequalae was already catching up to me. By the late eighties I was also developing serious arthritis in my hips and spine so that the doctor who diagnosed post-polio advised me that I should begin using a wheelchair alternating with my crutches.

Coming home from Chicago after not driving for the better part of six years also found me without the ability for independent mobility. I could no longer drive. I needed hand-controls, which should have been a simple solution, but no amount of research or number of phone calls yielded the information that I needed—where to buy them. I was stranded in the island that would soon become Silicon Valley. Today, of course, the internet would solve the problem in a few simple searches. What I needed was a good occupational therapist.

It wasn't until 2010, when an emergency hospitalization brought me to Valley Medical Center's Spinal Cord Injury Unit (also known as Rehab One) that I was to meet a truly great Occupational Therapist and a whole team of caregivers who taught me how to use the equipment that paraplegics use. I spent almost three weeks there and it was the closest that I have ever come to a real vacation. Today I live my life on wheels—a power wheel chair that allows me to get around in my neighborhood—Hobee's, Walgreen’s, Starbucks, a lovely Chinese restaurant and most important a lovely new grocery store, Fresh and Easy. After decades of being house bound I can go outside and enjoy the flowers and trees and a walk with a friend, and even her dog—never mind that I am still sitting as we proceed. The picture to the left was taken in the Spring of 2011.

In the interval I had tried everything that I could think of to maintain some independence. For several years in the 1980's I grew what seemed like a zillion seedlings—it was really only several thousand—primarily tomatoes and peppers for Common Ground in Palo Alto. I was trying to have a very small business, what today I call, and I think I have seen the term used by others—a micro business. I researched flowers and herbs, their meanings in the language of flowers and their uses. A few years ago I resurrected this business and am enjoying selling on Etsy, potpourri and sachets that are natural, symbolic and very pretty. There are several natural moth and ant repellent mixtures for fiber stashes and kitchen cupboards. I also make custom labels for fiber artists, to their specifications.  (In reality I never made it past the "I'm having so much fun I don't know how much money I am losing" stage of turning  a hobby into a business.  The draconian constraints of the institutionalized poverty of disability benefits, have not helped any of this, of course. That would be another blog post, or maybe several.)

In High School, I taught myself to sew, a few years later I took a wonderful knitting class at the Mountain View Sears store with my mother who wanted to learn to knit, but didn't want to go out after dark alone. The teacher taught us how to knit a sweater and that project pretty much gave us all the basics of the craft. I still have the sweater—wish I could still fit into it! I can no longer embroider as the fine hand movements are gone, but knitting and sewing, cooking and reading occupy my time.

This year I also put in a garden again so that interest has come full circle. All in containers so that I can tend it, it has rewarded me immeasurably not only with delicious food, but the peace and joy of being in it. Making a meal based on what I find in my own garden has given me a profound sense of connection to my ancestors, especially all those who were farmers.

Please come find me on Facebook, on my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/margueritemanor and on my blog http://margueriteblogs.blogspot.com/ I look forward to reading your stories of the last fifty years.

Growing tomatoes, 2015, Part 2 soil mix for containers

Tomatoes are heavy feeders.  In the ground they may develop root structures as deep as eight feet.  The plants can easily grow eight feet above ground.  Containers will limit the depth, of course.  With a good soil mix and careful feeding at least two of my plants exceeded eight feet this year in containers.

I used a mixture of one half potting soil and one half of a mix of amendments that I made myself..  Several brands of potting soil were used, depending on what friends found at local nurseries as they shopped for me. (Potting soil  is one thing that I could not find online--way to heavy to ship!) Here are pictures of two of the brands.

The second half of the mixture is made from one third coir fiber compressed in a block and re-hydrated. Pictured here

I bought this from Greenhouse Megastore on line.  Their prices seem reasonable and their shipping time is reasonable as well.  They carry a wide variety of containers and soils amendments.  Here is their url

https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/

The next component of my mix is perlite, about one half the amount of re-hydrated coir fiber.  Perlite expands in water and holds water for the plants. It is available at most nurseries and home supply stores.  It is also available at the Greenhouse Megastore and on Amazon.  Seedlings especially love this and will send rootlets out from the main root to connect to the perlite.

The last component of my mix is vermiculite.  Vermiculite also holds water and releases it to the plant.  It expands like a sponge when it is wet and will help transfer water to the roots of the plant so that plants have a good source of moisture.  It is available from the same sources as the perlite.


I used a bucket to make my mix in. Hydrating the coir fiber first is essential, because that will give you the base for your measurements of the next ingredients.  Either hydrate the whole block in something like a wheel barrow, or water the block and scrape off the hydrated amount into the bucket.  I could not handle the whole block and I did not want to waste water wetting it down over and over in between making the mix, so I chose the slower method of scraping it off.  Fill your bucket a little more than half full.  Add more water until the coir fiber is well saturated but not gloppy.


Now add the perlite. It is a very good idea to wear goggles and a mask when you do this for the perlite is dry and dusty.  Water it slightly and then stir it in.

Do the same with the vermiculite that you have done with the perlite.

These measurements aren't precise; it was all done by eyeball on the bucket.

Make sure the mixture is well mixed.  Use it to start seedlings or to transplant plants.


(edited on November 7, 2015)

Growing tomatoes, 2015, Part I

The harvest is in.  I lost count of how many tomatoes my plants produced, but for about three months I ate tomatoes everyday and shared them several times a week with friends whom I share meals with.

All of my plants were (and still are) container grown so that I could tend them in my power wheel chair.

Gardening has always been an empowering activity to me, connecting me to the earth and to my ancestors, many of whom were farmers.  This summer I found it amazing to pick my dinner, plan my dinner around what I had in the garden and eat simply and humbly.

It was even more empowering to me because I started out with two big drawbacks.  First, I am a power wheelchair user and I like to say that I live my life on wheels.  Second, the drought in California made gardening difficult.  I had been putting off my garden for several years because of the drought and this year I decided that if it was going to happen while I could still do it, it had to be now.

The plants did not take as much water as I thought they would, bringing my water bill up only a few dollars.  This was good.  A soil mix that held conditioners that hold water helped a great deal. A separate blog post will cover this.

Here are the varieties that grew in my garden this year.

Anais Noir, a beautiful heirloom that is so delicious! This tomato started it all for me when a friend gifted me with a perfect tomato from her garden in Santa Barbara at Christmas.

Sandul Moldavon, another heirloom that ripens to a rich, tomato red.  it tasted like the tomatoes of my Midwestern childhood and nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sweet Solano, a yellow tomato, slightly more acidic than its larger, red cousins, but delicious none the less.  A bonus is that in spite of its small size, it produces lots of seeds for saving for next year.  Great tomato for salads or for lunch or for a quick snack.  A bit large to pop in your mouth right of the bush.

Purple Cherokee, was finicky in my garden.  It seemed like it thought it must go to seed right away and worked on producing one tomato that was ginormous.  Didn't weigh it after picking it so that it would stop hogging all of the plant's energy, but should have. It ripened in a paper bag, spilled forth an abundance of seed when I cut it and was absolutely delicious.  I dried part of it so that it will come out of the freezer in the winter to brighten a winter meal.


Black Vernissage, a purple tomato, bigger than a cherry, smaller than a small tomato.  Absolutely delicious flavor and lots of seeds.  Did have a problem with browning leaves (verticulum wilt?) and the plant died before the others.  To be fair this plant was in too much shade.  More sun next time!  See the plate above the small purple tomatoes are these. Yum!


Sungold, a highly regarded yellow cherry tomato did not do as well for me as I had hoped that it would, but to be fair it got a late start, could have used a bigger container and more sun.  Next time! Don't think I have any pictures.

Riebenstraube is a beautiful grape tomato.  I love it.  Planted late, the plants took off and are still healthy and strong.  Lots and lots of flowers, lots of clusters and now the weather is getting a bit too cold.  Picked them today will see if they ripen in a paper bag.

Holiday Boutique Dates

In addition to my potpourri crafts I have glass ornaments blown in Europe in the 1980's.  These were made as collectibles and have most likely been discontinued.

There are three blue baby carriages for a boy's first Christmas, a number of frosted pine cones, angels, at least one St. Nicholas figure (one of my most favorites), several cornucopias and little purple Santa figures.

In addition, I have fabric ornaments that I made twenty-five years ago.  The fabrics were so much prettier then than what I have seen now that they are really pretty.  Some are hung on a small tree on my dining room table for display.

If you are local, you are invited.  Please contact me through mamm(@)pobox.com (remove the parenthesis) and I will send you my address. And if you are not local, please visit my Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/margueritemanor .

Please share with friends.  Shop early, shop often, shop Etsy.  We need you.  Thank you so much.

In the interest of fair disclosure, I have edited this post since earlier in the day to reflect the fact that one of my open house times is over and to correct the alignment of my glass ornament pictures.

Newest Christmas Products! I am so excited.

This year I have made three kinds of holiday potpourri. 

Christmas Blessings is an extension of the one that I made last year with the addition of calendula  and bachelor's buttons.  The yellow and blue flowers really make the mixture pop and I am so pleased.  Here is a photo

Christmas Roses is very similar but has more roses and more rose oil.  It is available in Burgundy bags and in red potpourri hoops shown here

The hoops can be hung as a decoration anywhere, not just on a Christmas tree, but also in a cubicle, or in your car!

The third mixture is called Peace Potpourri.  It is intended for use year round so I have left out the balsam and bayberry with their specific Christmas reference and also made it more universal and ecumenical by taking away the Marian and specifically Christian references found in the other two.
Here it is depicted

With the blue and white and gold ribbons this might even be appropriate for Hanukkah.  The balls have holes at the tops to allow the scent to escape.

All three mixtures are available in all three formats, sachet bags, hoops, and potpourri balls.

The first two are posted on my Etsy shop

https://www.etsy.com/listing/213422203/christmas-blessings-potpourri-large?ref=shop_home_active_2


https://www.etsy.com/listing/213586297/christmas-blessing-potpourri-hoop?ref=shop_home_active_1

The last one will be coming soon.

Thank you!

Holiday Boutique Dates for 2014

It is that time again!  How could the year go by so fast? It is time to do my crafts boutique again.  I hope to see many friends and to share both my old standby products and some delightful new things.

Here is the basic information with the dates and times below the product description.

Cards for Christmas and All Occasions by Marguerite Manor and Fe Langdon fill the hall rack.

My Potpourri and Sachets—Christmas Blessings, Christmas Rose, Peace Potpourri and a variety of anti-moth and anti-ant mixtures will be available in sachets, hoops and acrylic ornaments.  Great small gifts and some would be nice hostess and thank-you gifts throughout the year.  The anti-moth and anti-ant mixes really do deter these pests, although they do not kill them. 

Below is my mixing bowl with one of the mixtures in progress.

Here is one of the Christmas potpourri balls (just needs its ribbon and tags to be complete).

And here is one of the hoops (new this year) with the ball.  (Balls are 3" and hoops are 4".  I also have 3" hoops available.

Vintage Christmas ornaments, European mouth blown glass , folk fabric ornaments made by me in the 80's will be available as well, along with my Mary Kay holiday catalog.

Here are the Dates and Times

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

Saturday, November 29, 1:00-4:00 pm

Wednesday, December 3, 11:00-2:00 pm

Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7, 1:00-5:00 pm

 I AM AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT IF THE ABOVE TIMES ARE NOT CONVENIENT. 

 Please contact me at mamm@pobox.com for the address or to make an appointment.

  

Not everything is up on my Etsy shop yet.  Hoping most of it will be by this weekend.  (I need elves!) Still I hope you will take a look, contact me and come by. 

Visit me on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/margueritemanor

Visit Fe on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/FeLangdonDesigns

Thank you so much for your consideration.  A Blessed and Joyous Thanksgiving to each of you.

It's been a long time and reading of late

It's been so long since I've posted that I've nearly forgotten how this works!  Good to see that Blogger is still here and that it works in much the same way that I remember.  Clearly, I have some revising to do.  Yesterday I was so taken with toggling between preview and edit that forgot to save.  So my lovely post disappeared.  My fault, not Blogger's, although it would have been nice to have had it ask me if I wanted to save.  (Sort of like Zen, the computer in Blake's 7--a sci fi show I loved but haven't been able to find on DVD.

Been reading a great deal in the last year.  Two neighbors have given me good recommendations and I have found some on my own.  The librarian who pulls books for me for the SOS program finds more for me from time to time.

Recently I read Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers. Absolutely wonderful book set in Babylonia at the time of the Fall of Jerusalem, it is the story of the siege of Masada.  Strong women characters, a totally different way of life and history that I had not read before, made this one of the most absorbing novels I have ever read.  Will be a television mini-series soon with one of my favorite actors, Cote de Pablo.

Maggie Anton's novels Rav Hisda's daughters take place in the same Mediterranean world a couple of hundred years later.  So far I have only read the first one and I think the second may be in the tote under the table waiting for me to read very soon.  Again they feature strong women characters and open up time, place and Jewish culture so that they are marvelously different from novels set in modern times.

As a student, I majored in medieval history, so Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughters, were particularly absorbing for they gave me a look at the Middle Ages from a Jewish perspective, set as they are in medieval Troyes.

Highest recommendations for all of these books from a reader who reads too much! Can there be such a thing?  (If I would spend half the number of hours in the day that I spend reading, writing.... I won't go there.)

So this is a kind of test post, to see if I can get it right this time. (And I found the one I thought was lost!  Google gets more points.)

My Holiday Open House

My Annual Holiday Open House will be this weekend.  Here is the flyer that I made for it.

Please come to my

Holiday Open House
Let me help you with your Christmas Shopping!

 Note cards designed and made by me and by my friend Fe Langdon from photos we have taken!  Blank inside so they are suitable for all occasions.  All cards were $4.00 and are now $2.00

Christmas Blessings Potpourri
This is a special and wonderful smelling mixture of herbs and spices with the meanings for Christmas.

Herbal Moth and Insect repellant sachets.  Several kinds to fit a
number of likes and dislikes. All of my herbal products are
perfect for stocking stuffers and appreciation gifts. (They will ward off bugs from your clothes and books.)    

Vintage mouth blown glass ornaments, new

Vintage tin boxes (perfect for the sachets or fill with tea bags,
candy or other small gifts), new

At my house

Saturday, December 14, 2013, 1-5 pm
Sunday, December 15, 20113, 1-5 pm

Also available by appointment. 
Please contact me at mamm@pobox.com

Always available, year round and twenty-four seven at my Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/margueritemanor

If you would like to know my address so that you can come to it please email me at mamm@pobox.com.

Thank you so much.

Thanksgiving, Counting Blessings

It is hard to believe it has been a year since I have posted here.  Time to get back to it.  It is good to begin with Thanksgiving and a reflection and recollection of blessings.

First I am always grateful for my parents.  Although they have not been with me on earth for too long a time, not a day goes by that I do not remember them with love and gratitude.

Second I am grateful for family and friends, especially those friends whom I have known for decades and with whom I am growing old.  For the youngest member of my family, who at sixteen months, charms and delights us.  For the oldest of my friends, who at ninety and a half (as he himself said two days ago) reminds me of my father.  A member of the "greatest generation", he reminds me of Papa and also of how much thanks we owe to those who have served in our nation's armed forces.

For those among my family and friends who served in the military, I am grateful and in this month of November that also includes Veteran's Day, I honor you.

For my 'best friend" from high school, our small Catholic girl's school, herself a Marine, I am so grateful.

For all the neighbors, especially three women who have become like sisters, who help me, befriend me and give me their time, I give thanks.

For the faith that my parents taught me, even when it wanes at times, I am very grateful.  It is so much a part of me that I once told one of my professors at the Divinity school, a very famous Catholic theologian, that "Catholicism was in my bones and blood". He looked out the window for such a long time, that I feared I had offended him.  When he turned back, he said simply, "mine too".

I am grateful for the gift of a first class education, for the teachers, especially the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who taught me in high school, my advisor and mentor at Stanford and the professors at the Divinity School.  Thank you.  You were all blessings in my life.

For my garden, especially the rose this year, which bloomed and bloomed.  Each one is so beautiful, so unique and they have a kind of patience and humility that only plants have.

Every day, I give thanks for the caring and superb team of medical professionals who cared for me at Stanford Hospital and Valley Medical Center's Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Unit. It has been three years.  Hard to believe that it has been so long.  I am almost pain free now, as nerves that had been damaged from overuse have healed.

For a diet that came out recently that I have been following for seven months, I am thankful.  If I live long enough I may solve my lifelong weight problem (or win my lifelong battle, depending on how best to phrase it.)  More, I hope, in later posts.  For now I am grateful for the seven inches I've gotten off my waist. Hurray!

For the people who invented computers, the Internet and all the technology I take for granted, I give you thanks.  For the people who invented durable medical equipment, especially the power chair I am sitting in even as I type this, I give thanks.

For the gift of still being alive slightly over sixty years after I was paralyzed from the neck down by the poliomyelitis virus, I am grateful. And that that virus, a nasty thing,no longer afflicts so many people I am also grateful

Praise and Thank God this Thanksgiving.  Thank you to all of you who are my friends.

I am grateful to Google too, for making my little blog possible.  I hope to be better organized to post more often.