Searcher, the garden sounds lovely. What a great idea. I bet you just love being surrounded by it. Lionspaaw has also buried a child. She has a butterfly bush ( at least that's what I picture, it may be a tree) planted in her son's memory. She just reported to me that it made it through hurrican Wilma. I would have been devastated had it been uprooted.

When Mom died, a few friends gave us flowers and bushes for the garden. I liked the idea so much that I will share the tradition with family and friends when they experience a death.

Feel free to tell us more about Nicole if your heart desires.

Also, I could just picture you in front of your fire. Sounds so cozy. Do you have an outside fire pit? We just got one this fall and the other night my daughter and her boyfriend built a fire, carved pumpkins, and made s'mores. Great fun.

When they were all finished with the pumpkins she called us out and grinned ear to ear while holding a pumpkin carved as a cat. She then announced that it was in memory of Nana! Nana just died in August and she was a cat freak. We were so touched.