I once bought a pack of seed at WM that said it would plant a 20 foot row. It had 3 seeds. That is pretty wide spacing. Sometimes even the best of companies have problems. I placed an order with Lee Valley Tools on 12/31/10 and received the last backorder today. I ordered 3 stainless steel tools. One piece came right away along with the other small stuff. They called me after almost four months and said they had the shovel but not the fork but they were willing to ship the one they had since I had waited so long. It came on 5/2, which was my birthday, so my husband handed it to me and said, "Happy Birthday". I had placed and received another order since that one and received everything I ordered. Today we are finally even and I have received everything. Great tools by the way, and I had decided they were worth waiting for. Now if I hadn't had others that I could use until these arrived I might not have been so patient. And I can think of one more company not garden related....Have you ever gotten your order correct at a Wendy's drive thru?

You say that you sense the smell mostly in the air. Is it possible that this particular area is just an area where other household odors accumulate? We have two such areas in our house, where odors will collect and linger- one is in a central area in the entryway, the other is in a bathroom that is in a back corner. One of those I can see having limited air circulation, but the first seems like odors would move through quickly, yet they don't and odors from other parts of the house will essentially leave those parts of the house and collect in these. I was just wondering if it was possible that the smell is coming from elsewhere (say a nearby bathroom or laundry room?) and is hanging there? What happens if you put a small fan in that area later in the day? Would the smell still be in that area with the fan on or off? The other thing that comes to my mind is bed linens- particularly any down or feather product. I've had issues on occasion with these getting funny/smelly odors that come and go, and it's very hard to pinpoint the issue, even when smelling the comforter or pillow directly. It's only by removing the item from the area/house for a little while, that we were able to pinpoint exactly what it was. I've noticed this problem more when the humidity is higher and it was worse later in the day when temperatures in the house had increased, and like I said, it smells fine some of the time and then other times there is a weird funk. I hope you can find the source. It sounds very annoying.

Lea, thanks for the pictures. I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what is causing this, but I would suspect one of two possible issues. One could be, that there is only one top plate on your wall and there is a splice near the end of your window header, allowing some flex in that location. The diagonal bracing ends in the same place and could be contributing too. The other possibility is that there is an air leak on that side of the window which also happens to be where a sheathing splice occurs. Because the outward movement happens during cold weather, I’m guessing this is most likely the case. Your sheathing looks like “intermediate” board or Built-Rite, a product that’s made up of pressed wood fibers, and expands when exposed to moisture. When it drys out, it doesn’t usually go back to its original size, but could soften enough to take the pressure off. I don’t think this is a structural problem to worry about, but air leaks do affect durability. The house has survived 70 years with this condition, I would learn to live with it and be careful with any energy upgrades that can create more indoor humidity or air pressures.

Spring Mystique is such a prettty patterned daylily. I can see why you brought that one with you. I like how it looks with your companion plants. Your Clown Parade looks pink. I wish mine did. Glad to read you've had plenty of rain. I'm hoping we get one of the isolated or scattered showers predicted for the end of the week. Debra