BP, So sorry to hear about your Butterfly Bush and Lupines. I'm sure you'll see them again in your gardens being the green thumb you are. :O) I'm happy with quite a few things this year. The plants which made me jump the highest were the Blue Himalayan Poppies. Looks like they perennialized and have returned for a 4rth year. Last year was their first year flowering and they were spectacular! Another happy-joy-joy moment was when I saw the Lynchis Lumina Red Shades peeking up. These were winter sown last year. They appeared to struggle in the containers all summer long, but in the fall, I took a chance and planted them. Looked pitiful! Figured they were compost, but the other day I noticed these bright burgundy/wine/red things poking out of the ground and realized that the buggers had made it. Party!!!! I'm anxious to see some second and third year perennials flower for the first time. Amsonia, Baptisia Australis, Meadowsweet and a few new-to-me Digitalis. My biggest disappointment so far has been the deers. The population is exploding on the Prospect Peninsula and there is no hunting allowed due to the proximity to homes. Usually, 40% of the herds die in the winter, but we had such a mild winter with no snow that biologists are saying there was virtually no deaths this winter... They are already coming by every night and devouring what has simply grown during the day. Not good for a gardener. And so, I am starting to discover what is deer resistant and planting LOTS of those!! :O)

Yes, I have cones every year, but they are never mature enough for viable seed....so far. Years ago I used to get starts from the Cunninghamia lanceolata, 'Glauca' by rooting them from cuttings. I have about 15 over 7 meters tall and a few over 20 meters tall. I should try propagating some more this year. Now is the time. Will, how does it feel to be a major conifer enabler? ;-) Mike....watching it rain. I LOVE being retired and not having to work in the rain anymore.

Yes, Sue, there have been a few times when this little story about the blocks would come up in conversation. Usually at a time when DD was feeling deprived or having a pity party, and I would ask her if it was because she never got the blocks. lol. It was kind of a joke between us. I didn't take the picture. My DGD's DH is the camera guy and I asked him to get a good shot as she opened the package. It is great, isn't it? About next year? Geezz, give me a break!! I'm glad you all enjoyed this little story, and it just goes to prove that it doesn't take much to make someone happy. AND, if she had gotten the blocks, there wouldn't have been a story to remember. Sue

Finished Kathleen Tessaro's "Debutante". Not exactly "chick lit." since it doesn't stress designer clothes or "looking for 'Mr. Right' ". Has depth of character and good background development. One of the characters is partly based on the Mitford sisters. It jumps back-and-forth from a modern-day woman to a back-in-time woman. The woman from the past is revealed through a series of letters she wrote, which pop up in each chapter. A unique, intriguing way to tell a tale; but then I like these sort of parallel universe stories. In the Author's Note section I was disgusted to learn of how people (mostly women, it seems) were locked away in institutions for no good reason. In one case they only had typhoid (no mental problems), and after they were cured, they were kept locked up ... some of them for 60 years ! ! The cure for typhoid was discovered in the 1950s ... some of those women were locked up till the 1990s ! And this -- two women were listed in Burkes Peerage as having died, when they were very much alive -- were cousins of the late Queen Mother. It seems the girls' parents didn't want to deal with their upbringing; so just left them at an "institution" for life. They were later joined by three of their first cousins -- also retarded. One of those girls was sent on to Ketwin House, which was closed down amid allegations of sexual and other abuse. Her "stay" there had been paid by the NHS !! -- even though her family was wealthy. These sorts of things make my blood run cold. And to think, these are perpetrated by intelligent people. And -- worst of all --- in the case of children -- they were put there -- and abandoned, sounds like -- by THEIR OWN PARENTS.