I'd rather be watching the complex patterns of air embedded in thick black ice, the white dance of driven snow and the sensuous curves of the snow banks carved by the wind... than be smelling chickapoo in the sweltering heat. But that's just me. peak p.s. BB, You're every wish is my command. Well, every wish other than that "go to H***, you &^%$#^%&" :-)

Tucson AZ had basically the freeze of the century last week; nothing like most of the country is dealing with, but we are sooo not used to this level of cold. Covering plants was pretty useless without some form of additional heating protection (xmas lights etc). Many cacti sort of 'explode' when water freezes internally; so do water pipes, which burst all over town (local hardware store ran out of supplies to repair them). Eep. That bloody groundhog had better be right. -O-

Sandy-do Tulip Magnolia have a root system that is 'hosta-friendly'? (Southern Magnolia sure don't.) They are so gorgeous in spring. A little over a week ago I mentioned the NWS forcast the next weeks weather to be near normal, meaning here lows should be 30-31 degrees. The last 3 days it has been 23, 18, 15 and this morning 14 as I type this. Glad I didn't tip my pots up. :o) But the 5" snow we'd finally gotten was gone in 2 days so I am looking at ugly brown ground, the result of last years drought. Theresa

Just purchased our new Leibherr refrigerator/freezer and had the same experience- repair tried to tell us how to repair ourselves we demanded in person repair from company we purchased $8,000+ from they got involved and sent local repair - ice jammed, door stuck, bin cracked etc etc a mess ! We had to purchase a Leibherr because we were replacing a 34 yr old Subzero which we loved ! All their frigs have standardized to 83 inches and our space with drop down could only accommodate 82” with out tearing out ceiling - long story - anyway we love the frig but the ice maker is problematic- to say least - repair man came diagnosed- reset ice maker and said it had stuck in position that didn’t allow water to fill it - then Leibherr sent wrong draw to replace cracked one he came again And had to convince someone on phone it was wrong drawer (we never would have known that !) new drawer arrived then installed-still ice maker didn’t work - ordered new ice maker - installed yesterday working - keeping our fingers crossed alls well - I reall appreciate the reviews here and am left wondering why Leibherr doesn’t engineer their ice maker in a superior manner - the fridge is great What we know now is that the ice maker was over filling causing the blockage in the first place so we’ll keep an eye on that and now we know we can adjust that ! Thanks to all participants- I always say there is nothing like advice from “the front lines” !!