I don't know if this tidbit of info will help any, but your Mesonet station is listed as being 4 miles north of Jay. Carol, I was thinking that the lake probably gives you some lake effect heating.....with that very large body of water absorbing sunlight and heat all day and then releasing it at night as the lake cools. I think it very well could keep your nights a couple of degrees warmer. I only scattered a little hay over the onion bed, which probably wasn't even necessary, but I wanted them covered if the snow reached us, which it didn't. Even though our temps went down to 26, the cannas, which are up 6"-8", didn't even show any damage. It will be a while before I'll know if the fruit it going to abort--sometimes it can take a week or two for it to happen. I had the tomatoes out in the sun and wind for an hour yesterday, and will increase that to two today. After being inside for several days, I'm starting all over with the hardening off process, which is a drag, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. The peppers can go out when nights are staying above 50 degrees. Technically, it is exposure to cold in the lower 40s that stunts them and causes them to be unproductive, but I play it safe and keep them inside until we're completely out of the 40s. For planting purposes, the pepper roots may be damaged if plants are set out in soil temperatures lower than 55 degrees. I usually transplant peppers a week or two after tomatoes so I can be sure the ground and the air are warm to stay. I usually have tomato plants in the ground by now, but then I have to cover them up a lot at night and uncover them in the morning, so I am trying and trying to hold off and wait. Easter weather always makes me nervous because it seems like we always have a late cold spell the week before or after Easter. I hope the weather allows the plants to stay out too, so you don't have to carry them in and out every day while your son is in town. How nice that he'll be in town to visit! I always start way too many seeds too and then I have to figure out what to do with all the plants. I am ready to play in the dirt, but the wind is brutal outside today. I hope March gets her act together and "goes out like a lamb" and that April weather acts like April weather and not like March weather. The coyotes are up and running like mad and there are lots of them this year. They are so loud, and so close to the house, that their howling wakes me up in the middle of the night. The three does who have been bringing the 4 fawns to the yard to eat all winter have only come once in the last 4 days and their absence is because of the coyotes, so we probably won't see them much any more. I miss seeing the fawns--it is fun to watch them "grow up". Despite the rain and higher humidity that we had for a few days, would you believe we still had grassfires every day? I will be glad when we get a more significant greenup so we won't have so many fires here in this county. As long as there is dry, dormant vegetation still standing (and there's tons of it in the unmowed and ungrazed pastures here), though, there is fire danger. Our humidity dropped to 23% yesterday which is pretty low for spring, but it was much lower in southwestern OK. Wind, wind, go away! I don't know if it is blowing hard everywhere, but here at our house it is very high today. Dawn

Mantis: The person I received it from, sings its praises. He is in MD and Zone 7. I have seen it in his yard and once in my yard. I loved it at both sites. The problem with it here is that I had it in a bad location with little sun. My neighbors trimmed their row of evergreen bushes and now there is more sun. In the mean time I relocated it and I hope to see it bloom this year. From memory, it is rather tall and the pink/red eye is outstanding and will grab your attention. It is one that I am looking forward to this year. David

Walking in Beauty never did anything here, but this year a number of disappeared evergreens suddenly showed themselves. (Not Walking in Beauty.) They seem to have liked the protracted cold of last winter, followed by a spring with no late freezes. I like the update on the Bennetts.

I haven't noticed a shortage of Mozzarella, and I have been using a fair amount of it. We bought some on Saturday, along with some ciabatta bread, and I will make a sort of pizza with that - it's just easier and still very good. Kevin went to the store today to get more bread flour (I have plenty of rye and whole wheat), as I intend to continue baking our bread - now that I have a good supply of yeast. The stores do have bread on the shelves now, but the bread I get in Rancho Mirage is not as good as what I got in L.A., and it is certainly easy enough to bake my own. I actually enjoy making it, and I've decided that I like it even better when not using my Kitchenaid mixer. I mix pasta dough by hand also, and I plan to make some lasagna later this week. I'll have to roll it out with a rolling pin, however, and so I'll see how that goes. Considering how popular farmers' markets are in southern California, I do think people here are fairly health conscious - or at least are concerned with getting good produce. It's helpful that so much is grown here and therefore so readily available. And I do see mostly younger people (i.e. 20-something) at the farmers' markets. The Bristol Farms that I go to in Westchester is just a few blocks from Loyola Marymount University, and it has a huge selection of health foods, mainly for the students, I think.