I'm surprised to be able to report this but.... After two freezes, one which really put an end to any growth of my in-ground figs, we've had some moderate temperatures: mid 40's to mid-fifties. I have a lot of figs on the trees that are obviously too immature for use, but I'm surprised at how many continue to ripen. I've been eating fresh figs off the tree right up until this morning. Several dozen more have deepened in color and increased in size overnight and ought to be ready for picking in another day or two. I did nothing special to protect the trees from the freezing temperatures. All of this is despite the many postings and websites that declare "You can't grow figs in Ohio. Figs are Mediterranean and will not ripen in your cold climate." Lesson: Take everything on the internet with a grain of salt and test every idea for yourself. Every caution and negative declaration about how I can't do any of what I want to do because it's Ohio, or it's too cold, or the climate here isn't Mediterranean have all proven to be sensible, reasonable, logical and, in the end, untrustworthy hogwash. I write this having just eaten three figs fresh from the fig trees on a cool, cloudy, non-Mediterranean, Ohio afternoon in late October. The figs aren't quite as sweet as those picked in the heat of late summer; but considering what's available, and not, in the local markets, these aren't at all bad. My patch of everbearing Albion strawberries are still producing as well, so this weekend's project is to make a good batch of strawberry-fig jam with a nice harvest of fresh-picked fruits.

If you're willing to travel a bit, downtown Detroit's Eastern Market has a lot of tree/shrub variety, at prices a good deal lower than the standard nursery. Open every Saturday from 7am til afternoon (later in the day yields better prices, but less variety). If price is not a deterrent, any Bordine's location (4 in the SE MI area -- maybe one by you?) offers a LOT of larger trees (all kinds!). They are a bit on the spendier side, but have an extremely knowledgable staff and lots to choose from. You can check them out on the web at: www.bordine.com.

Ordered a Lambert Cherry tree on 5/4/23. Delivery was delayed several weeks. Upon inquiry, customer service informed me that delivery was delayed because they were waiting on trees to become more established prior to shipment. Tree finally arrived on 6/6/23 in very poor condition. Leaves were completely wilted on arrival. It was potted in very course, poorly moisture retentive media. Cursory exploration of roots revealed poor development. Customer service was contacted again reporting the poor condition of the tree on arrival. I was advised to water the tree by immersing the pot in a bucket water. This resulted in limited improvement of the wilted leaves, but severe wilting recurred within 24 hours. Contacted customer service again and was advised to continue daily immersion watering. When I expressed concern about the longterm viability of the tree, customer service advised it was guaranteed for a year. Thus began many weeks of intensive care involving daily watering with limited improvement. I maintained contact with customer service throughout this period. Eventually, I repotted the tree into a more moisture retentive media. During repotting, it was clear how little healthy root mass the tree actually had. Repotting helped significantly, but it was mid to late July before the tree was healthy enough and able to maintain reasonable enough leaf turgor between waterings that it could be planted in the orchard. Ongoing extra care and watering throughout the growing season produced no visible new growth. Due to its poor condition on arrival and inability to sufficiently establish itself over the summer, the tree died over the winter. I planted a dozen other fruit trees which were healthy on arrival (from other sources) last spring in the same orchard and all are thriving. Upon contacting Nature Hills this spring to report the loss, despite well-documented issues from the start, they are now refusing to reimburse my purchase. They will only offer a 50% credit towards purchase of a new tree and I would have to pay for shipping. Even worse, they don't even have Lambert cherries in stock this season. I've already replaced the Lambert cherry from another nursery and it was half the cost I paid Nature Hills last spring anyway. I have never purchased trees from any other professional organization that didn't replace or refund my purchase immediately upon notification when there was a problem on delivery. Heed this warning and buy elsewhere! Deceitful customer service and warranty policies.

DH bought a car with OnStar last Fall. This is our first trip away from Southeast Michigan with it. We went down to Ohio and across I90 through the far northwest corner of Pennsylvania to New York. Our first stop was at Binghamton, where an old college friend of mine lives. (Isn't funny how you can not see someone in 15 years and within minutes you are right back there, chatting as friends. What was supposed to be a two-hour brunch turned into an all day stay as we shared our lives! DH missed seeing the Baseball Hall of Fame that was on the agenda for the afternoon, so we have to make it up later.) When leaving our own neighborhood at the start of the trip, DH pulled into a shopping center and asked OnStar to send us to Binghamton, NY. It wanted to send us through Ontario, Canada. That was a fine route, 40 minutes shorter than the route we took - but only if there were no international crossings to negotiate. There are two, one in Detroit/Windsor, and one at Niagara Falls. We were fairly certain that the two crossings would consume far more than 40 minutes on the last weekend of the summer! Well, Onstar could not help us. It insisted on only that route, so we had to wait until we were in Ohio to ask OnStar to give us the correct route to Binghamton! The system was a bit bothersome, sometimes telling you incorrectly the name of a road you were on. "Take 36 West to Summer street and turn left. Continue for 4 miles until Summer St. becomes Union St. Travel for 3 tenths of a mile, then turn right onto North Rd." Well, Union St. would never appear, and like a true dysfunctional family member, OnStar would act like it knew the right name all along, once you got past that section. "Travel 3 tenths of a mile on Summer St, then turn right onto North Rd." It did save us when we were "confused" about what route to take. After Binghamton, we went to an inn on the Hudson River. We took a drive at lunch and visited the town of New Paltz. Our route back to our Inn had a detour and the instructions on the road signs were confusing to the dear H, and he asked for OnStar to come on and direct us back to our route. It worked fine. The road signs had taken us to a semi-deserted downtown area, and dropped us there without a clue about where to turn next. OnStar played the little "I will rename this block in honor of one of my programmer's dear great-uncles, who passed away during my beta testing," trick, but we were onto it by then and ignored the faux-street name change. After that, OnStar's instructions did get us back on route. This is the view off our little semi-private terrace outside of our room: A far soom on the Hudson river down from our room. Pulling back on the zoom on the very same scene. Seating area outside our room. If you'd like to see all of the pictures, click below and click on individual pictures to see them enlarged and read the captions. Here is a link that might be useful: New York Vacation