I want to wish everyone a very nice holiday, but even more important, I want to acknowledge each and every person that has served or is serving our country.  Today is the day we give them honor.......those that are gone and those that are still with us.  Here's to all of you!  Because you're all hero's in my eyes.

I pretty much love all flowers, but one of my favorites is the hydrangea.........we have a bush that was here in front of the house when we moved here and it gives me huge amounts of pleasure every spring when I see that it's in bloom.

I mean, who couldn't love these fat, lush and vibrant flowers that appear like magic................

I'm not sure what determines their color..........if you know, please leave a comment.  Thought I read somewhere it has to do with the sun or climate......or something.  Mine start off white and as you can see, I have them in both pink and purple.

I love these flowers so much that last fall I planted a new one in my back yard.  I'm afraid I probably didn't choose the best spot........maybe too much sun?  And they seem to require an exceptional amount of water.  But..........I'm trying to baby it and bring it along..........

What I also love about hydrangeas is that they turn into lovely dried flowers and then they seem to last forever.  So I clipped two from the bush and now I get to enjoy them right here in my studio.

Moving from flowers to knitting............This is the latest project that I'm working on.  I bought the yarn last November when I was doing book signings in Alabama.  This one is called Pixie and although it's a bit tricky at first to work with, I love how the scarf is progressing.  It's three strands of very thin yarn and aren't the colors scrumptious?  And I'm using a very simple lacey pattern and I'm pleased with the effect.

And moving from knitting to writing..............I received my galley for HOLIDAY MAGIC, the Christmas anthology, last week.  Sorry I don't have the book cover in color yet, but here it is in black and white.  Love the dogs!  So I'll be spending today doing the final proofing on my novella, A CEDAR KEY CHRISTMAS.  I have to have it back to the Production Editor by June 18, but my goal is to have it on its way this week.

I'm so thrilled about this anthology and I can't tell you how honored I am to be doing a novella with Fern Michaels headlining it.  Thank you again to Kensington for such an incredible opportunity!  

Well, folks, that's it for today.........time for me to get to work because there's no "holiday" for writers.  So enjoy your day and remember to take a bit of time to honor all of those who gave so much.  For THIS writer it's especially meaningful because it enables me to have the FREEDOM to write............so again, I say thank you to our military!

See you here next time...................