This month started with a flash and a bang! We had a wonderful storm Friday night into Saturday. Mostly it was wonderful because Billy and I were safe inside our luxurious Palacio, eating yet another of the Duchess' excellent salads. The resulting rain has done wonders for my herb farm. The Duchess, of course, does all the work on the farm. She tells me that the farm is 8 feet by 4 feet, which seems very large when you are a tiny bunny.

The farm is raised about a foot from the surrounding soil so that the Duchess can sit on the edge comfortably while she weeds the plants she has growing for me. She grows many good things there, all my favorites. There is fennel and anise, rosemary, marjoram and oregano, and two basils – large-leaf and purple. She also has two different kinds of mint growing in a pot so that it won’t take over the whole garden. I know that she is happy to work on my farm, especially now that she says the weather has cooled off quite a bit.

Next year she plans to start the whole garden earlier, which means we will get to eat it sooner. That seems like a good plan to me. I also want her to grow some chives and some dill. Of course, the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat a lot of the dill. All that means is that she needs to grow a LOT of dill. I do not mind sharing my dill with the baby butterflies  – so long as I get enough, of course. I have even told her she may share some with Juby and with our new little friend, Peaches.

Peaches is Rosy's little brother. He is just as delightful and funny as Rosy was - but very different, too. He is a bit more independent. He loves to run around on the Duchess's desk or the little table by the chairs (so long as the dogs and cats are NOT in the room). The Duchess has found a nicer cage which she is trying to convince me and the Chancellor that Peaches just must have.

Another new denizen of the Kingdom is a very handsome male Betta fish. He is purple, blue, and red, and does not have a name yet. He lives in a nice bowl that has some bamboo growing out of it. He seems very happy, but he is very fierce.

The Duchess and the Chancellor are finishing up a quick remodel of the shop. They apparently got some great advice from a retail interior designer who came to visit from the Oklahoma Main Street organization. She was in town doing a presentation for Ponca City Main Street and picked our shop as one to critique. I must admit the designer knew her business because the store – which didn’t look bad to begin with – now looks even better.

The Chancellor is weaving two shawls, a great big 7' one and a smaller 4' one, in the colors of the two most popular state universities. She will eventually have one of each size for each school. She also has nearly a dozen commissioned pieces to weave so she will be very busy for the next two months.

The Duchess has a busy month planned, too. She is giving several talks, teaching a class at the first Okie Fiber Fest in El Reno, and beginning the Olds College Extension Service’s Master Spinning Courses down in Davis, Oklahoma. She is very excited about the class because generally it is only offered in Canada. I have authorized her to be gone for 5 whole days – so long as she is certain that the Chancellor can make two first-class salads each day in her absence. In the meantime she is spinning a lovely 80% silk and 20% wool blend so that  the Chancellor can knit a special scarf.