How did I miss this? Thank you Deanne for posting these wonderful pics! I love that pic of Sue, Mary & Bug. What a cute, expressive smile on your face Bug...and Oh my...what a show those morning glories make! I also love them on the arbor with that beautiful island of pink next to them...you can actually "feel" the movement of the garden here...lovely! Well everything is as lovely and astounding as I imagined it to be, but after seeing all these great pics I'm even more sad that I wasn't able to see it in person...someday! I *love* all the pics of Elora Gorge Deanne! You are such a *wonderful* photographer. And the pic of the "most garden tolerant men" is great! They don't look like they were suffering much though! :-) Thanks Deanne & Bug for sharing these! Ei

Bear, Didn't mean to sound like a jerk. :) I've just done a bit of reading on CP's and I'm just getting into Asclepiads, so I get a little over zealous sometimes. As far as I'm aware, Huernia don't eat the bugs, they just want them for pollination, but who knows. It just seems eating you pollinator would be counter-productive from a reproductive standpoint. *smile*

Should've asked here first before going! ;-)) You weren't all that far from a good site for Pinus remota, the road running southeast out of Rocksprings (towards Uvalde), there's a good group of them in the first gully out of Rocksprings, about 15km (just short of 10 miles) southeast of the town, right beside the road at 29°53'25"N 100°07'20"W, 680m altitude (you have to sneak over a low stock fence to get to them). This is the easternmost published site for P. remota that I'm aware of, and they weren't difficult to find. The other place I saw them is much further west, as Ron says in the Glass Mts., on the road from Marathon to Fort Stockton. There's a little car park / picnic site there surrounded by about 40-50 or so Pinus remota, at 30°28'55"N 102°55'50"W, 1370m altitude. The trees there are smaller than the Rocksprings ones (only 2-5m tall, compared to 8m), and have smaller cones, too. There is only Pinus cembroides, no P. remota, in Big Bend NP, and also the Davis Mts west of Ft. Davis. Further west, there is Pinus edulis in the Guadalupe Mts close to the NM border. If you want to get seeds, around 10-15 September should be best; I was there on 21 Sept., and most, but not all, of the seed was shed. Resin

Wow, I'm glad you're okay. I had one of those hikes from h*ll. My sis and I took a vacation to New Mexico. She had hiked the Sierra's plenty when she lived there so she wanted to take me on a trail "she knew". I wasn't a hiker at the time, but we made it to the top after hours of hiking up. Once we arrived, we hung out for a little while, then headed down to ensure we'd get there before dark. Some time into the decend, dilly dallying, and not paying attention to the time, we had to pick up our pace a lot because dusk was upon us and we still had a ways to go. Moving along, somehow, we took a wrong turn and got lost. No one was around. It was getting dark now. We were running. Then came the rain so we put on our ponchos. Sis's flashlight had dead batteries, and mine were almost dead - not sure why, they were new. We expected to be down before dusk anyway. It was pouring hard, we were trying to find our way down in the dark with a very dim light, seriously wet terrain and an occasional thunder. We were running along the edge of cliffs trying to find our way out. Not good - one bad move and down you go...or one turn of the ankle and you can't walk. Somehow, we started going up again - another wrong turn. After awhile of not being able to see 2 feet in front of us, something told me to search my backpack and there I found spare batteries. I didn't remember packing spares since my other ones were new. I really thought we were sleeping on the mountain that night, in the rain. Finally we found our way. I was never so happy to see our car in the lot and get to our camp ground. Now, when I hike, I'm well prepared. That was the scariest night ever.