http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com About and FOR friends of Ruthe's Secret Roses (blog edition) en-us Tues May 6 2008 12:00:00 GMT Tues May 6 2008 12:58:01 GMT Ruth Marlene Friesen Ruth Marlene Friesen http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com/category/the-rosebouquet/at-home/ I do my garden work in short 20-30 minute spells after meals, so it may take me a couple of weeks to get finished, but I am so eager - I may snitch more time! My cat-lover subscribers really enjoyed my story of Snowflake last week. I try to space these out a bit, so as not to lose other subs, but I have been gradually introducing her to the idea of going outside. I think a longer photo story will come of this when we are further along, however, this weekend we have made some progress. I'm bursting to share this with you. ..... MORE Tues May 6 2008 http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com/category/the-rosebouquet/whats-new/ I also reclaimed some time right after lunch for renovating my huge Ruthe-SecretRoses.com site. Goodness, I started to overhaul it year before last and am just about done now with the resources section. However, I realize that I've learned several new things since I began that project (there's over 600 pages), so I should really begin again as soon I'm done this work-through. Besides that, I'm learning tricks from my SBI site that I'd like to apply to this one. One of the men I work with on the ministry site, http://manna-publications.org.uk wanted to learn how to update a certain page on their site himself, so last week Thursday evening he phoned me as he got out of bed in the morning, and as I was about to shut down the computer to go to bed, (due to a seven time-zones difference). I spent two hours tutoring him on how to do certain things for himself. For someone... MORE Tues May 6 2008 http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com/category/the-rosebouquet/tips-solutions/ They say a messy desk is a sign of a busy and productive mind, but that's hard to explain to those who don't have such a mind. Last week I had a growing sense that I should organize my desk - seriously. So that was my main agenda item on Saturday. Resourcefulness is one of those things I've inherited from my Dad. As I was doing some of these things I realized that others might not come up with these ideas by themselves, so here's a few tips. 1. Pack up all the old notes, and files in a box and find a place under the desk or nearby to park it, so if you need to get at these archives, you can still pull them out. .... MORE Tues May 6 2008 http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com/category/the-rosebouquet/ruthesroses/ You've met her granddaughters, Cathy and Muriel O'Brien in a previous Closeup, and I don't want to spoil the surprises in the novel if you have not read the story yet, but I think I can dare to tell you a bit about her past, what brings her to who she is when Ruthe meets her. These details were not all part of the plot, so some got trimmed out. Kate O'Brien grew up in England in her childhood, and later moved to Ireland, which was her parents' birth place. They were entrepreneurs who tried to make a sale of whatever they could, just to keep body and soul together. In other words, sometimes they raided garbage dumps, looked for things they could fix or paint up and sell as antiques. Kate was assigned the job of gilding old clocks and other knick knacks, or damaged art projects, because she had such a steady hand with a fine brush. ... MORE Tues May 6 2008