Hi Martha - Well... kind of embarrassing... it's not liatris at all. I received it from a plant exchange and it was labeled as liatris but its actually liriope. I got a little suspicious after I saw a neighbor's blooming profusely and growing tall (compared what mine looked like). After a little more digging... liriope it is. Ugh. Its the second plant that I got that was blatantly mislabeled that, only due to my inexperience, I fell for. But the liriope isn't bad, just not quite what I was hoping for. I'll probably look into getting some seeds or a plant on the exchange forum because I do still want one, especially knowing the butterflies love it. I've started reworking a small bed into a small butterfly garden, which is where the liatirs (oops... liriope) is so I'll probably move that and get some real liatris there. Glad yours is attracting monarchs! Just more incentive to get some!

FWIW, I'm holding my yearly maintanace contract in front of me. Here are excerpts from it, 'Contract starts at 03/15/2007 and ends on 12/15/07 and includes: -Spring Clean Up (definition blah-blah-blah will be done on a week of March 15), -Fine Lawns (mowing, trimming and bagging on a weekly basis), -Residue (paper and debris removal from the beds, walkways and driveway on a weekly basis), -Pruning (pruning of all shrubs and small trees will be done two times a year to maintain neat and manicured appearance with the use of mechanical trimmers. If hand pruning is required or requested it will be done at additional cost [I love this job and do it myself with a pleasure]), -Edging (will be done two times per year), -Weed control (all FOUNDATION beds [only] shall be kept free of weeds by use of cultivation), -Cutters (cleaning of all gutters will be done once in a late fall), -Fall Clean Up (definition blah-blah-blah...Leaves removal on a weekly basis. Leaves will be put in the woods. Final fall clean up will be done in December), -Extra costs (This contract does not include any materials unless specified. Any other work not described in this contract will be an additional cost. Labor charges for additional work are $35/hr per man. For fwork of more than 6 hrs, day rates will apply: $350 per day per man), -Cost (Cost per month: $400 plus tax for nine months)' Considering the size of my property and number of beds need to be edged, weeded and otherwise tended, I think I have a fairly good deal. The same crew of 3 man (all workers, no boss) coming to the property every Tuesday and spend between 50 to 55 minutes to perform all contractual tasks. From time to time, for the small cash fee they also do some things which is not in the contract such as moving some shrubs or rolling few rocks from one place to another etc. Of course, mulch itself and spreading it is an extra. All in all my yearly spending on maintanance amounts to about $5300-5500 if I not skeep on mulch.

Who sits around and dreams up this crap? I'm truly curious about that. Yes, it's marginally funny, but only marginally. So does anyone know people who write these things? Do the people who write this stuff want credit? More likely, they just google their stories to see how often they're repeated and linked.

What fascinating stories, natesgram! What a wonderful thing to reconnect with your pen-pal from Micronesia after so many years. That's quite a gift! And what a sweet, sweet story about your father-in-law and how he met the love of his life. :-) My mother really inspired my interest in pen-pals. She had a pen-pal when she was a young girl in the 40s - a girl her own age who lived in Scotland. Mom saved several things that the girl had sent her, and over the years as I was growing up, I used to love to dig out those items and dream about a little girl from long ago and far away. I had my first pen-pal when I was a pre-teen. Her name was Barbara and she was an Italian beauty who lived in New Jersey. She was extremely boy crazy, and quite precocious for an 11 or 12-year old, and I remember being somewhat "scandalized" by her letters in which she told me of kissing (and petting with) boys. Shocking! ;-) When I was an older teenager I briefly had a young man as a pen-pal. His name was Christopher and he lived in England, and was very handsome. I definitely had a crush, but I also had a boyfriend who was jealous of my long-distance letter writing, so I stopped communicating with Christopher. I've wondered a few times over the years whatever happened to him. Thanks to magazines such as Country Decorating Ideas and Country Almanac, I've had quite a few pen-pals, several that I grew very close to throughout the years, even meeting in person and developing a relationship with their families as well. I reconnected with several of them on Facebook (but I no longer have an account there, so have kinda lost track of them again). Back in the early 90s, I probably had 5 or 6 very active pen-pal relationships with women who, like me, had a passion for decorating, collecting, and homemaking. We regularly sent each other "swap boxes" of goodies that we either handcrafted or picked up for one another in various antique shops or even at yard sales, and that was so much fun. Looking back to that time in my life, I wasn't working - I was a full-time homemaker - and the letter writing definitely filled a void and made my days at home more interesting. I still can't quite believe all of those pages and pages that I hand wrote! I just wrote a brief thank-you note to a work contact, and my handwriting has become just atrocious throughout the years. I know it wasn't this bad when I was regularly writing to my pen-pals! Fun topic! It made me stop and remember some really neat people from my past.