Thank you very much. Would not have guessed it to be a Bugloss, I suppose that I am so accustomed to Siuberian Bugloss of Brunnera...

Jacques Cartier is one of my favorites for fragrance. It's so reliable as well, what a great rose.

So, mla2ofus, your "something new" was -- the garden! It is always tough starting out on new ground. If there's a new climate to adjust to, it is even tougher. My gardens are on glacial till so, very rocky. I've read that rocky ground is especially prime for root-knot nematodes. There was one year the carrots were just covered with hair! It seemed likely to me that this was just a response to the nematodes. Yes, there were even knots in the little hair roots but I think that they may cause me trouble even when they aren't so obvious by interfering with normal growth. A couple of years ago, I tried the carrots in a garden with very sandy & not rocky soil - they did wonderfully! I've wondered about oxheart tomato varieties, David. Do you know that the Early Girls I grow every year start off the year with that shape. Even true with the fruit of those "mystery girl" plants that I've had the last couple of years. I asked Carolyn over in the tomato forum about it. She contends that it is weather stress with those things. I may try hybridizing tomatoes next year . . . yep, sounds crazy to me. What I want to do is cross some very similar, open-pollinated varieties that I'm already happy with and see if I can't stabilize the offspring in a few short years. (If something simple works, maybe I can try being more adventurous. :o) Steve

My new nightstand has arrived (finally). For those of you who don't know/recall, I bought a floor model Stickley mahogany dresser from a local furniture store last summer on clearance (about 60% off MSRP, which is still insane at just shy of $3800 on sale). But Stickley had discontinued the line (why it was on clearance) and I wanted to get a nightstand to match. At the time, I had just bought the Henkel Harris pineapple bed (#29 cherry finish, which very closes matches the Stickley mahogany in the hampton finish) and the dresser to "match." I looked everywhere, and no one had any stock of the Stickley nightstand I wanted. So one day, I asked the same store where I bought the dresser to call the factory to see if the factory had any white stock of that style of dresser (white stock is furniture that's been made but is waiting to be finished and lacks hardware). After Stickley made the banded mahogany version I have (it's solid, not veneer and is "banded" by using a silkscreen technique) and discontinued it, they went to a solid in the same fluted style but with different hardware. But that solid was discontinued, too. So the nightstand in white stock was solid. After checking with their engineers, they got back to me and said they had enough of the matching hardware to do the nightstand and that the engineers could specially make the banded treatment for me (at a slight up charge). So, 10 weeks later, I received it, and it's perfect. It's hard to imagine being able to get this sort of treatment, and I truly commend Stickley (and my local furniture store, which had the idea to see if Stickley had any lying around anyhow). It was pricey, however, at $1950. But worth it (to me, at least). So now, I've pushed the bed over toward the windows and French door, and it's given me great space when you walk into the room. But I cannot decide what type of lamp to get and where to hang art. All ideas appreciated. (I had bought a Ralph Lauren blue and white ceramic/porcelain lamp, but I hated it once I put it on the nightstand, so that's out.) I think most of you know that I just had the drapes made, etc., so don't comment about those being changed out. You may also know that I'm still hunting for a plain duvet that will work so that I can fold up the quilt at the end of the bed, but that hasn't come up yet. Thank you all.