Not sure where you live Jessica but I've had great success with elderberry shrubs. Lost part of the garden to a tree removal 2 years ago. Bought an elderberry to partially fill the gap and it's grown to a very respectable size in 2 years. Has berries and flowers too!

Dagmar

Alice, I'm so glad to hear about Pepper.

I'm making oxtail stew for the first time. In the slow cooker. I think this weekend of ice pellets, freezing rain, and gusting winds will be winter's last blast up here. So I wanted to make something "seasonal".

Dagmar

Yum! I bet oxtail stew would be the perfect thing to make in my electric pressure cooker! Just returned from my first overnight backpack of the year, so I'm extra hungry right now. Mouth is watering!!

Dagmar - it is cold here, too. Phew. We have baseball tickets tonight, but I think we are going to skip it. Long week last week, long weekend, cold night. Might just be a skip the game, pour some wine, light a fire evening.

I still can't picture it being cold in Georgia. All those sweaty people in epis of "Walking Dead" have skewed my perception.

Dagmar

Right? Dang. Now, it isn't cold to some places standards, but it was enough that I turned on the gas fireplace last night. In APRIL. What the heck.

Ridiculously warm here today. Car said 24C (75F) when I got in mid-afternoon. That's a rather warm summer day here, not a spring day. And especially since we had blizzards very recently - also freak weather.

The warm weather has encouraged me not to eat v much. I couldn't manage oxtail stew, Dagmar, not today. How did it work out?

It was really good and quite easy to prepare. We are still in winter here - which is unusual this late in April - but the birds are declaring it's spring!

We have two house finches very determined to nest on a pillar on our porch. We are equally determined they do not as the robins who put a nest there lost their hatchlings to a raccoon. And Natalie would be totally unhinged by the time the babies flew away - she has a cat perch at the kitchen window and a clear view of all of the proceedings.

Dagmar

I don't actually know what oxtail stew is... gotta look it up.

We are having unusual weather here, too. 40s last Monday. 80 degrees yesterday, back to a high of 61 expected today. Back up tomorrow and Saturday, then back to 60s on Sunday.

Today is our first fully sunny day for 6 month. And a high in the 60s! After 6 months of 30s/40s, it feels so great.

One of my grad students made a decadent vegan chocolate cheesecake and gave it to me for an early birthday present. I hate cheesecake, but had a sliver in front of her - it was much more like a giant chocolate truffle, dangerously so because that is something I DON'T hate at all. I've been feeding it to DH and he's certainly doing his part to get rid of it. But I've had a bit every day. I'm not gonna stress about it though, it's so satisfying and not something I do often.

Enjoy your cake JayZee. As you said it's not something you have often.

Dagmar

it's going to be a tough weekend and possibly a few days after that. Trixie has a mammary tumour. We are waiting for biopsy results. I'm hoping for best case scenario - benign - but preparing for "other" too.

Part of me wants to buy a bag of cookies and mindlessly devour them to notch down my anxiety. And part of me says "what earthly good would the cookies do except make you feel sick". That part is right and I'm pretty sure it's going to win.

This is one of those times I wish I smoked drugs.

Dagmar

Ugh Dagmar, I'm sorry. Damn those feline mammary tumors. Cookies or booze or drugs won't help though. Give her tons of love and snuggles, it will help you too.

I'm sorry, Dagmar. Wise words from JayZeeJay, so do what the doctor says: tons of love and snuggles.