J.  So here we are still trying to figure out how two people compose on a single blog...but we are determined women and we WILL succeed!

I have finally made it down to Florida to escape a little of the cold and wind in NOTL. Our home is on a golf course in Fort Myers. We have the good fortune to be situated on a lake and this is a typical view from my bedroom window. Stunningly beautiful birds come to visit every day as they wait patiently for their breakfast, lunch or dinner to swim unwittingly by!

Florida has seen some cold, wet weather this February, but for us it provides an alternative winter season with sunny, crystal clear, blue skies.

Last evening (one day late) we celebrated Valentine's Day and the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Tiger, with friends from Toronto and North Carolina. For me both holidays blended harmoniously in the delicious luxury of dark chocolate and the reposing grace of the white tiger. We dined on delicious food which everyone shared in preparing, sipped pink champagne and laughed, and traded thoughts and ideas around the table. My ideal way of celebrating...around the table. We even managed to eat outside...albeit wearing jackets!

I am lucky to have been given the ultimate gift of love when our first child was born on Valentine's Day in 1977. I remember slowly unwrapping her when she was brought to my hospital room tightly swaddled in a soft pink hospital blanket, a tiny bundle all of 5lbs 13 oz and barely 19 inches long. She fit perfectly between the crook of her father's elbow and his fingertips. For the last 33 years she has, and continues to be a gift we unwrap.