I read that about the sun too! I kind of connected the dots to the weather myself, but that's the first confirmed connection I've heard about. I guess it's sort of cool (well literally, LOL) except for the part where it sucks tremendously :P something like 25 out of 30 days in june were overcast or rainy, and that includes days they counted as "sunny" when actually the sun came out in patches for about an hour total, lol. most miserable year I've ever seen!

A recent major UN study suggested quite strongly that humans are a part of this warming trend; it was performed by a team of scientists from many different countries. I have read, in another study, that the carbon dioxide in the air today is comprised of a relatively higher proportion carbon atoms that came from fossil fuel combustion. The study I read indicated that the amount of carbon-14 making up the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has decreased since the industrial revolution. Ice core data reinforce this. Coal and petroleum have carbon atoms with relatively little carbon-14 due its tendency to decay every 5,000 years or so. This means that coal and oil, being millions of years old, have relatively little carbon-14. Combustion releases it in the form of carbon dioxide. Hmmm... I personally believe the media has been coerced to call into question our role in the warming trend. The Bush administration has already been found to have paid anchors on television networks. Why were the anchors paid?! Ridiculous and compromising!

It all depends on what kind of hydrangea you have. There are several different types of hydrangeas grown as ornamentals here, and some of them bloom on new wood while others bloom on old wood. Pruning has to be timed to the particular way the one you're growing sets buds. Otherwise, by pruning at the wrong time for that variety, you could be cutting off all the buds that have formed for the next year, which then results in you not having any blooms that year. The types of hydrangeas grown here include H. quercifolia (oakleaf hydrangea), H. arborescens (smooth hydrangeas like "Annabelle" or "Snowball"), and H. macrophylia (lacecap and mophead types). If you are growing an oakleaf, mophead or lacecap type, these normally bloom on buds formed during the previous late summer and autumn. So, for these types, you prune them after their bloom period has ended in spring. If you are growing a panicle or smooth hydrangea type, they generally bloom on the current year's new growth. If they need to be pruned, you can do it anytime from late summer to very early spring before new growth appears. If your plants of this type are older and are large, well-established and very dense, they would benefit from you pruning away up to 1/3 of the stems each year, cutting them back right above the ground. This keeps them from becoming unruly monsters. If you can remember each year exactly which 1/3 you cut previously, then you can cut a different 1/3 in year 2, and the final 1/3 in year 3, so that the entire plant is renewed by pruning during every 3-year period. Hope this helps, Dawn

Those are among the "joys" of gardening --one never knows what will happen next.