Birthday Bonanza
Well folks, it’s that time of year again. Another birthday for me!
I like this time of year because all the lovely fruit on the trees around here is ready for picking.
I’m sitting on my back veranda (quaintly known as the Writer’s Nook) eating chocolate.
I look up and this is what I see.
You may not notice those things hanging from the left of the tree at first, so here’s a closer view
Then if I wander out the back with my chocolate I see these
And these
Then I spotted this little cutie hiding near the shed
I’ve been without internet access for a while so I haven’t had a chance to catch up with my many friends here…
…but it’s back now, so I’m going to have a sip of champagne and read some blog posts before I get whisked off to dinner with friends!
That is a real fruit bonanza! We can grow some here in Florida, but it’s too cold for lichees, which my sister loves. (She lost two trees to freezes.)
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Luckily we never have freezes here, Joy. The lichees are delicious – we just need to keep the birds away because they love them as well!
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Mmm… I would love to be surrounded by all that fruit! We have a couple young fruit trees but they are too young to bear fruit – and are just young enough, the animals are drawn to them, so we’ve lost a few trees. I’m about ready to just give up and depend on the supermarket!
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The birds love the fruit on our trees so I guess they have to be big enough for us to ‘share’ – it’s a lot of work but worth it once they grow. The flying foxes absolutely ravage them if we don’t have green ants to keep them away. Yes – the supermarket is often a lot easier 😉
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Happy, happy birthday Dianne!! I had the reminder come up in my Outlook today and keep forgetting how many hours ahead you are. Have a truly wonderful birthday. xx
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Awww – it’s SO sweet that you have my birthday on your Outlook! Thank you so much for your lovely wishes xxxxx
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Happy Birthday! What a beautiful fruit bonanza! We are anxiously waiting for our oranges to ripen – they’re yellow and getting to orange and they’re huge.
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I love fresh oranges, Ruth! Thanks so much for the birthday wishes. I read your last post but couldn’t comment because my internet connection cracked up. I’ll be back xxxx
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I’m glad you’re connection is back!
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You could make one heck of a fruit salad – YUM! Happy Birthday – Enjoy Your Special Day 🙂
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Thank you so much! xxxxx Fruit salad here I come 😉
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Happy Birthday, fruity!! You have Mango heaven there, wow! Nice to see you back, and you have a fantastic view from your nook Dianne. Have a fun time with your friends. 😎 👍
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Thanks so much, John! Mango heaven is a lovely place to be 😀
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I bet you look a year younger. 🙂 Enjoy the day, and the evening.
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LOL – thank you so much, Fen, I haven’t been game enough to check the mirror yet 😉
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Ha! No worries. You have the kind of beauty that ages well. 🙂
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Too kind 😉
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Oh poo, your pictures didn’t pull up on my phone. I’m laptop-less for a couple days, so it’s tiny screen reading for me. Sigh.
Happy Birthday! As my stepdad says whenever I grumble about getting older, “It’s better than the alternative.” 🙂
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Your stepdad is SO right. Being alive is great and our birthdays remind us of this, Carrie 😀
So sorry you can’t see the pictures – they’re fruitaliscious! 😉
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Happy birthday, Dianne! Love your bountiful harvest!
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Thanks so much, Naomi! 😀
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Have a wonderful birthday, Dianne, and an even better year ahead. Love the photos!
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Thanks, Luanne! A better year ahead sounds like a great plan 😉
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Wishing you a splendid birthday, Dianne. Eating chocolate whilst surveying your garden bounty, sounds like the perfect way to start your day. Such exotica too! We bought a single mango this week, and had to throw it away, because it had obviously been frozen at some stage, and was very yucky inside. Yours, fresh from the trees, sound like a much better alternative. I envy you. 🙂 *Birthday hugs*
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I thought you might be able to grow mango where you are, Sylvia. I would have hurled a frozen and yukky mango against the wall (tropical fruit is pricey and I get fruit rage when I buy something and it’s nasty) 😉
Thank you so much for your lovely birthday wishes, my friend 😀
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A lovely time of year to have a birthday. Happy Birthday. Enjoy all the good things that it brings 🙂
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Thank you so much for the beautiful best wishes. It’s started raining here and not before time – it was getting very dry. Although I’ll probably be complaining about the floods soon 😉
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Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear, Dianne, Happy Birthday to you! My gift to you is that I typed this rather than sing to you…I can’t carry a tune. 🙂 Enjoy your special day, you’re a special lady! Thanks for sharing the beautiful photographs!
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I LOVE your song! I’ll be singing that all day now, Jill 😀
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Looks like a fruitful year in the works for you! Happy Birthday dear Dianne, wishing you many exciting adventures, quiet mornings, and mating geckos!
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LOL – mating geckos are the BEST! They’ve been doing a lot of it lately 😉
A fruitful year sounds wonderful – I hadn’t thought of it like that 😀
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🙂
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Well happy birthday to you! I can’t really imagine a better way to spend a day than noticing what is around me before friends surround me. A blessed year to you Dianne!
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Thank you so much, Allen. The garden is really looking spectacular 😀
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What an abundance! Does it all grow wild? You are so lucky.
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It’s not all wild in the yard, Jacqui – but I have found ten more mango trees at the creek in the past week. They must have grown from seeds washed downstream. I know hubby’s great grandfather planted a banana tree out the back a long time ago and now we have a forest of them! 😀
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Happy Birthday Gorgeous!! Jealous jealous of all your mangos, you couldn’t just have one tree now could you?? Pineapples and yummy lychees. Jealous..did I say that already? Hope you have an amazing day sipping champers, eating chockie and celebrating with your family and friends, oh and for the record I’m jealous 😉💙🎂🍹🍸🍷🍝💐 xxx
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LOL! Not that there’s anything wrong with that 😉
A friend of mine just arrived from Melbourne and she’s loving the lichees! 😀
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Yup still jealous 😫 😃
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Firstly.. a big shout out for your birthday…. may you have many many more… Secondly your fruit tells me what type of climate you have, good thing you love mangoes as it looks like you’re gonna have a bumper crop this year… when we were on the farm Linda used to make dry fruit rolls out of the fruit as well as the jams and preserves… but the mangoes always seemed to end as dry fruit rolls…. I must say I was a great lover of lichees and stayed for a couple of years in a house that had 4 big trees… I over ate the one year till nearly sick of them… now I eat one or two and that is that… I have never had a pineapple grow in the yard, how lucky is that….
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Thanks, Rob! 😀 It is a lovely tropical climate here but has been very dry this year and I’m surprised the fruit is abundant. I found some of my corn stripped yesterday and asked one of the old farmers what could have done it – turns out it was cockatoos (cheeky things) so now I’ve covered all the cobs with plastic cups. They also eat the mangoes and lichees but there’s so many of them we don’t really worry. Soon the crimson rosellas will come in to get the fruit so I’ll have to get a few shots of them, they’re beautiful looking birds 😉
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I know by now I’m late, but happy birthday my dear lady! Hope you have many more. I loved your pics and all the great fruit! I’ve never tasted a lichee. I’m fruit deprived in cold canada. LOL xxx
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Thanks, Jackie. One day you’ll taste a lichee (I’m sure!) and then you’ll be hooked 😉
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Happy Birthday!
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Thanks, Robert! 😀
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You can lead the Birthday Girl to FRUIT . . . but you cannot make her stop eating CHOCOLATE!
Have a blast, kiddo!!!
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Thanks, Nancy! 😀
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Happy Birthday, and welcome back! xxx
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Thank you so much 😀
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I know you will have a great day Dianne, enjoy every minute of it and let your friends and family pamper you. One of the big plusses of being tropical is all the fruit. I’m so envious of all your mangoes, I have one sad tree that sets half a dozen fruits, every year, I talk encouragingly to it but every year they all promptly fall off way before they are ready to pick
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Oh no! my greatest nightmare is having fruit fall before it’s ready to pick. Our five corner tree is like that at the moment. When the fowers come out just keep drowning the mango tree in water until the fruit sets (and even then, keep watering) and that should make a difference xxx
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Thanks for that tip. That may be the reason our poor mango is suffering, it is a corner that I don’t water. They’ve all fallen this year so I will remember that for next year. I threaten it with the axe but it is such a good shade tree.
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Happy birthday, Dianne! ❤ And my am I envious of your fruits, especially the mangoes! I'm a a sucker for a big juicy mango. Lychee is pretty amazing too! You wouldn't happen to have any mangosteens hiding around, do you?
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Oh yes! I’ve got two mangosteen trees that fruit beautifully and have taken the seeds to grow another three. They are to die for! 😀
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Happy Birthday, Dianne! Cheers! You have such wonderful scenery, and I had no idea there were so many different kinds of mangos. Enjoy your b-day celebration!
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Thanks, Amy! 😀 I’m sure there are even more types of mango around here that I haven’t identified yet. I’ve seen a few on my walk to the creek with the dogs that are nearly ready to pick so I’ll be taking a bag with me next time 😉
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Happy Birthday Dianne. Have a great day. I’m very jealous of all your fruits. They look so wonderful. None of those grow over here in England so please feel blessed! What we do have here are lovely crunchy apples so I’m not complaining!
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I love a crunchy apple! Unfortunately we can’t grow stone fruit like apricot here because it is too warm so I guess it would be the same with apples. We’ve got loads of orange and lemon trees that seem to do quite well.
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes 😀
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Happy Birthday Dianne. I hope you’ve had a wonderful day. What a perfect way to start, by sitting on your gorgeous veranda surrounded by such deliciousness. I am a tad envious of you having all those mangoes. But, I have been picking my own blueberries for a few weeks now.
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I absolutely love blueberries (and they’re very good for you). I’ve planted a raspberry, but nothing is happening with it yet so it may just be a dud.
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes and keep enjoying those blueberries! 😀
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Hang in there with the raspberry plant. The blueberry took a couple of years to produce anything but this year it is loaded. I love the fact that I walk down the back yard, pick them and eat them breakfast straight away on the weekends. Delicious!
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Happy birthday, Dianne. Enjoy. It’s below freezing here. 🙂
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Oh no – too cold for me. I’ve acclimatized to the tropics quite quickly and tend to shiver if the temp goes below 20C (68F) so I’d be hopeless in that kind of cold. Stay rugged up and safe! 😀
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Happy Birthday to you Dianne. I’m so envious of your beautiful array of fruit. We’re heading into winter so berry and cherry season is well and truly over until next year.
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Thank you for the birthday wishes and stay warm and safe for the winter! 😀
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Hey, we’ve missed you!!! Happy Birthday, sweet thang. Hope you had an awesome day. Now I need to go eat some fruit…you made me hungry! 🙂
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Get into that fruit, Britt – it’s very good for you (and maybe a little chocolate and champagne on the side) 😀
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mmmm – fresh mango – fresh pineapple – and all from the nook! Happy b-day ❤ ❤ ❤
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Thank you! 😀
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Oh! I want to come and visit you. It looks so warm there. My birthday is in November too, but I bet I’ve had a lot more of them than you.
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A November baby as well! I should have guessed. Happy Birthday to you too 😀
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Happy Birthday! Mango and Pineapple–two perfect fruit, in my opinion. I could eat both all day and never tire of them. Yummy!
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Thanks for the birthday wishes, Char! You’d love it here! 😀
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Happy what-is-now-a-belated Birthday, Dianne! I envy you having all that wonderful fresh fruit in your own yard. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the dinner with friends!
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It was a great day and night, JM! Thank you so much for the best wishes 😀
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Happy Birthday!
Wow, not just mangoes, but several different types! I love this time of year for the fruit as well.
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Thank you for the birthday well-wishes 😀 Summer fruit in Australia is just fantastic 😉
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Happy Birthday Dianne!
Guess all that fruit explains why you are a little fruity, eh? 🙂
Hope you had fun with your friends!!
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I certainly am a little fruity! LOL I love it 😀
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It’s a tropical paradise! And a very happy (belated) birthday to you, Diane 🙂
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Oops. With a ‘double N’.
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Thank you so much, Alarna! 😀
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Now you’re just ‘showing off’! 🙂 Just letting you know I’m envious… All the best.
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LOL! I love showing off my beautiful fruit 😀
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Happy Birthday! I’m also envious. I love fruit and the weather here is rubbish…
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What a shame about your weather! it’s just started raining here in the past week so things are now growing out of control 😉
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Happy belated birthday Dianne I hope it was a grand affair. Wow! To the abundance of exotic fruits you grow in your own back yard. Only in Queensland my friend.
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It’s been incredibly dry, but started raining about a week ago – now I have even more weeds! But the fruit is loving it 😀
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Happy Birthday! Those pictures are too die for! I need to make a trip there!
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The fruit is fantastic at the moment! And it’s started raining which is always a plus 😀
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Happy belated birthday!!!!!
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Thank you! 😀
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Being a new convert to the juicer and blender I’d just love to reach out and grab those! Not to be found in our local shops. Oh and Happy Birthday Dianne and glad you’re in writing shape.
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Thanks so much, Roy 😀
My neighbour has just bought one of those new-fangled juicers that turns the entire fruit to juice without having to get rid of the pulp and it’s fantastic! 😀
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Happy birthday to you.
How nice to have such tropical fruit growing where you are.
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Thank you, Cynthia. I consider myself very lucky indeed 😀
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Dianne, you already know how jealous I am about your fruitful bounty (seriously – a surprise pineapple?!) Wishing you a very happy belated birthday – I hope it was bright and wonderful. 🙂
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I had a wonderful birthday and I hope yours was awesome as well 😉
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Who needs chocolate with all that lovely fruit around?! OK, we all do – but maybe chocolate dipped mango, lychee and pineapple…yum, yum
Belated Happy Birthday, Dianne xx
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Thank you so much 😀 The mangoes are nearly ripe so I know what I’ll be feasting on next week while I help my mother-in-law make pickles and chutney 😀
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On another note, have you seen this
http://www.mstrust.org.uk/research/drugsindevelopment/alemtuzumab.jsp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7684824.stm
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WOW! Thank you – very interesting indeed!! xxxx
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Oh darn! I always miss somebody’s birthday! So sorry it was yours 😦
You almost distracted me with all that exotic fruit, though. Quite astounding what grows in your neighbourhood! 🙂
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I’ve been picking mangoes over the last few days for my mother-in-law to make her famous pickles and chutney. I saw more trees near the creek so we’ve now got boxes full. One wild species that grows at the creek is the strawberry mango and I didn’t capture that one here, but I can’t wait to taste one when they ripen!
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! 😀
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Happy birthday. Hope you enjoyed those fabulous mangoes!
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I’ve been doing a lot of picking, Renee. Now it’s time to make chutney and pickles! 😀
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You certainly seem to live in fruit heaven, in the mango neighborhood apparently! I never knew there were so many kinds! Hope your tropical paradise gave you a wonderful birthday (though I’m very late in offering my birthday blessings!) – it’s so funny to read about pineapples and lychees when we’ve already had our first snows here! This world is such a beautiful, magical place…. Huge happy belated birthday hugs, Harula xxxxx
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Thank you so much, Harula! My internet has been coming and going over the last month so I haven’t had time to catch up on blogs. I think I need a new internet provider 😉
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Wow…I’ve said it before, but you really do live in a beautiful place, Dianne. And the fruit…! What are you doing eating chocolate?!? Just kidding. That’s exactly what I’d be doing! ;0) Hope you enjoyed your dinner!
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Thanks Hazy. Happy New Year! xxxxx
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Awesome reminders of why it’s so important to look up, look around, and look down. You never know what unexpected treasures you’ll find. 🙂
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They’re everywhere 😉
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