Marlorena, most of the US changed/moved forward an hour a week ago, but a few states don't change along with the rest of us. Easier for them, I suppose, but even more confusing for the majority of us, lol. It's exacerbated by the fact the USA stretches across four time zones.

Your bench by the lane sounds idyllic, and I envy you. I can remember when I first moved to my current home, that it was on an unpaved, gravel road. I might have seen three cars go by all day, and there was NEVER a car going by past 10pm, lol. I also knew almost every person who drove by, and it wasn't unusual for someone to stop in the road to chat. But it was rare even for someone to come up behind them to interrupt, lol. I don't miss the gravel and the dust, but I do miss the peace and quiet, and the neighborliness. Ah, progress...

Yes, we did "Spring forward" an hour a week ago. My smallest cat, who wakes me up faithfully every morning at 6AM, was fooled for a few days, but she seems to have caught on somehow, drat!

Your lane sounds lovely. We live on a busy street, but have a cabin in a very lightly populated part of far Northern CA. When we are up there, neighbors do stop to chat, or just drop in when they are taking a walk. I love it. The road parallels a large creek (say, 30 ft wide) for 5 miles. All of the houses are on that one road, but separated by at least a 1/4 mile, and sometimes a lot more, until you get way "downcreek" as the locals say, to where the 3 room school, the church, the National Forest office, the volunteer Fire Dept, and the local store are. Oh, we even have a pizza parlor with delicious food. Everyone knows everyone, and most properties are owned by 2nd (us), 3rd, or even 4th generation of owners. There are even some wild rose bushes on our property, and also growing along the creek. Took me a while to see them, they are so little and bloom so fleetingly.

Jackie

We did ours last week. I too like the daylight when I get home from work. I can do some stuff in the yard in thse hours of daylight.

Well, that's a learning experience for me hearing from our European contributors! I had presumed that daylight savings time (DST) was an American thing (that is attributed to Ben Franklin if I recall) that hadn't been followed by other countries. I'm of a mixed opinion about the usefulness of DST and the advisability, given that there are apparently more auto wrecks and upswings in mood disorders around the time shift. If I had a choice, I'd keep it on the winter timeline since it's truly dangerous for kids to be walking to school in pitch black, but I have to admit the summer hours allow for more gardening time before it gets dark. Yes, I KNOW I could just get up earlier and ignore what the clock says, but I already have trouble getting my weary carcass out of bed at the best of times, and I'm the kind of night owl that thinks mornings shouldn't really exist except on the wee end of the night before I go to bed.

Sympathies on all the laundry, Marianne, but you are giving a gift to your house guests. I'm sure that you and other far northern people experience the extremes of DST pros and cons. I remember a friend in Alaska commenting that their preschooler was such an Alaska baby in that he didn't go to sleep till it got dark, and in the summer that was a very short time way into 10 or 11 pm. j

Cynthia

We moved \sprung forward an hour on March 12 at 2 am..

All of the EU moves forward an hour at the same date. I'm not sure though what Britain will do in the coming years..

I loved your waving at the passers by story.. I can't imagine any rose being a converstation starter, not to mention a traffic stopper over here..

Since I can't be bothered to adapt dog feeding time, the doggies get stressed for a few days after each time change..

I HATE DST! Hate, hate, hate it! It's so exhausting! I'm already worn out after working so hard all fall and winter doing planting, then pruning and now fertilizing. And,of course, here in Italy this is the absolutely most beautiful time of the year,with the flowers coming out, the tender new growth,not too hot yet...so I can't bear to stay home no matter how tired I am; I want to get out to my land and see my magnolia flowers, my daffodils, etc, etc, etc. So I really, really, really do not appreciate having to cope with the time change when I'm already so burnt out; once it changes, then I find myself even more overwhelmed than I am now, since I'll constantly be running one hour late...

We don't move the clocks back until the first Sunday in April; as I recall there was a few weeks difference from the UK. ( so awkward living in London and making calls back home- it was either 11 or 9 hours difference and I would always forget which one it was because of this ).

At the height of summer, its usually quite light til after 9 pm; its getting dark a fair bit earlier now, which means a few comedic moments as i tend to get caught out too late watering and end up staggering around bumping into the low hanging branches of the apricot tree the garden hose tap lives under.. Its about the only real shade in the backyard so its been allowed to get far too overgrown.

Thanks one and all for your most interesting replies... surprised some States don't change their clocks, I didn't know that..

Curdle.. I know exactly what you mean with the 11 or 9 hours, I used to phone Brisbane and could never work it out... strangely it was never 10....

hehe more than once i made a post pub closing call on a weekend night only to discover I had woken my parents up far too early in the day. Two hours can make a lot of difference on Sunday morning:(