Hi Chris, Its a poly Rubbermaid tank that's darkish grey. Would it work to put clear plastic over it until it warms up?? Or would that cook it? No fish, but tadpoles. Would the heat hurt them? color=green> I was really wondering if it was metal. Since it is "plastic" and gray I'd say it is probably "drawing" a little extra heat on sunny days. (Now that you described it I have seen these in our local Tractor Supply store.) I've noticed this year in my area it has been more cloudy than in previous years. I think that factors into the mix, too. I'd hesitate to cover it with plastic now. It would probably heat up......possibly TOO MUCH for the tadpoles. And I'd hate to see you lose the tadpoles/frogs. Now the waterlilies would take the extra heat. :-) I have fish in both my ponds so I wouldn't cover them with plastic either. My two ponds are above ground. I built treated lumber frames, covered them with treated plywood (inside) and then dropped liners in each one. The smaller pond is 4' x 6' and has been going for 6 years. I bought a pond kit on clearance at Walmart for $35. My larger pond I built last May. It is 6' x 11'. I'll include a link to my Facebook page if you want to see pictures of last year's ponds. I haven't had time to take pictures yet this year. I had Green Smoke last year. I wasn't real impressed with it, as far as color. I have Dauben this year, and it reminds me of Green Smoke.color=green> I first saw Green Smoke at Longwood Gardens in PA. I love the coloring on the first two days. LOL! After that the petal tips "throw" the colors for me. That purple/deep raspberry on the tips just doesn't work with the rest of the flower. But I do love it. I've grown it two years in a row. I've seen Dauben at Lilypons and it is a little to pale blue for my taste. But it is a blooming fool! I do intend to grow it one year. This year I also have Panama Pacific again and its doing well. I also have a Fire Opal from Menards. I've had good luck with their water lilies, but this year I was a sucker. I should have known that there aren't any hardy purple lilies, but the picture on the container was purple, and they wrote that the color was Purple. Well, its light pink that turns to white the second day. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.color=green> I've grown Panama Pacific. Probably two years ago. Lovely color!!! Of the hardy waterlilies I have Attraction, Sulphurea, and Pink Grapefruit. LOVE the Pink Grapefruit. It blooms and blooms. Attraction (red) is not really a deep enough red, but it grows vigorously and quickly helps provide coverage in the spring. Haven't see Fire Opal. Sorry it wasn't purple enough for you. So many of the catalogs "lie" about the colors. GRRR! What do the McClane and St. Louis Gold look like? Where did you get them? color=green> McClane is a deep blue/lavender. The flowers are HUGE. The foliage is nicely striped and splotched. These stand up pretty high, too. St. Louis Gold is a deep yellow. And I've not had a tropical that flowered this much! The plant is a little less vigorous with foliage, but it just pumps out the flowers. I'm about a hour from Lilypons in PA. I either drive up or order online from them each year. Wonderful water gardening company. They also have a location in Texas, too, if I remember correctly. Do you overwinter your tropicals. If so, how? I've tried a couple times, but it hasn't worked. I was thinking of digging a deep hole with the post-hole digger and just keeping them down in there.color=green> I've tried without much luck. I have had the tropical set seeds, which I saved, and then raised from seed the following two years. Seeds were from a blue (un-named) waterlily that I had purchased at Springdale Water Gardens in VA. The seeds produced flowers in shades of blue, pink, and lavender. I think the first year I had about 15 that I grew from seed. I had 20 gallon tubs sitting EVERYWHERE that year. LOL! Lilypons and Springdale offer a "heated" pot that the catalog blurbs say will keep the tropicals warm enough to overwinter IN the pond. But I think only through zone 6 or 7. It sells for around $50. My problem is I wouldn't want to grow the same tropicals every year.......well, other than Green Smoke. I got my tropicals from William Tricker.color=green> I've seen their online catalog and they have an excellent selection. I'm tempted to try them one year. Lilypons is so good at getting stuff to me quickly that I just use them most of the time. I placed an order on Wednesday morning earlier this year. I had the order at my front door on Thursday! I'm spoiled! My leaves on the Juno and Red Flare are huge. I wonder if the leaves get larger, as an attempt to get more sun. I'm thinking I should find more sun for it. If it wasn't blossoming 'cause its not warm enough, you'd think it wouldn't put out so many leaves either. It looks very healthy. I have a volunteer butterfly bush that grew up in the rocks around my lotus bog. Its shading the lotus too much, but its so hard getting rid of the bush, since it attracts such beautiful butterflies. Ooohhhh....so many plants.......so little sun! haha Thanks for your help.color=green> I lost my lotus this year. I'm going to try to raise another one from seed next year. I've had good luck growing my own. I have a friend in Malaysia who sends me lotus seeds occasionally. I've grown a white and a double pink from seeds she sent me. Good Luck, Chris Here is a link that might be useful: Facebook Account....Click on Photos to see pond pics

Here's my update from the not used and not yet blooming lists. Four o'Clocks--Are blooming nicely now, but whenever I look inside, there's no nectar. None at all! I haven't seen the hummers at them, and this is probably why. They look great, but how disappointing! Blue Lobelias (Lobelia "Fan Blue")--I just saw a bird visit these this afternoon. I'm not sure if she got anything, but she dipped into a couple flowers before zipping over to the feeder. Interestingly, this summer I've been experimenting with making feeders out of Sculpey clay which closely imitate the hummingbird flowers in my garden. I made a blue Lobelia last week that is very realistic looking. I'm hoping that my feeders are habituating them to new colors and forms. It's hard to say because I'm not doing a round the clock study, but it seems like they didn't touch the lobelias until I put that feeder up. I put the feeder up a few nights ago, and when I got up the next day they were already using it without hesitation. I wonder what their reaction was when they first arrived in the early morning and saw a purple flower, instead of the usual red ones I've been making! I'm sorry to say I wasn't up early enough to see their astonishment. All of this probably deserves its own separate post, because it's pretty neat trying out all these different shapes and colors of flowers. I'm going to try making a nasturtium next. Cardinal Climber and Cypress vine--They're blooming sparsely on bushy, 20 foot vines. I just started fertilizing them with some "Bloom Booster," but they still aren't getting as many flowers as I would like. Maybe they don't like this ridiculous heat wave. Thank God it's finally cooling off. This afternoon, a hummer flew very near the vines, which made me think they might be getting used early in the morning. It seems I'm never up early enough to witness this, and then the blooms are kaput by the afternoon. I've still seen no action at my annual verbenas, my red petunias, mixed color snapdragons, Pelargonium geranium, Dianthus chinensis (although they might be sneaking into these), Impatiens, pompom or cactus zinnias, or my Oriental lilies. Bummer! I'm still waiting on the hardy Hibiscus (bunches of buds), and the Lobelia cardinalis is just beginning to bloom. They will be my last new flowers of the season. I'll let you know!

One particular treatment that was done in the 18th and 19th c. when it came to paint, was to paint the entire room in the same color, trim and all. The modern interpretation of this would be to do a higher sheen level on the millwork. This could address the issue of the different sizes of doors and such and minimize the horizontal banding effect of a wainscot. * * * * Mount Pleasant, a Georgian house that has slowly been taken back from colonial revival notions of what it looked like to what it Really looked like --based upon physical analysis-- had very Interesting paint treatment: The entire room, including all the heavy Georgian detail, was painted in one color (a rather drab gold if I remember) The cupboards had a bright paint treatment on the interiors, and there was a brownish black band of paint that ran around the lower 6-9" of the perimeter, intersecting EVERYTHING: door jambs, doors, fireplace, etc...a cut line straight across. (Apparently to hide the splash marks from washing the floors and muddy clothing and such)

I don't claim to be an expert but I used to do e-service Technical Support for about 6 years and most people did not believe me when I told them what the problem was. The simplist way I can explain it is that whenever you go to a site that requires you to sign in you need a certificate from the root signing authority installed in your certificate repository. These root certificates are typically pre-installed at the factory in browsers. When you go to a website your browser attempts to verify their certificate against what you have in your browser and if it does not find it you get an invalid certificate warning. It is a security feature embedded in the browser. Most of the time it is a matter of your browser root certificates being outdated but sometimes viruses have removed some of your certificates. The error message does make it seem that the website is the problem but if it was the website all of us would be getting the same error message. If you are still in doubt do some research on root certificates on the Internet but my explanation is probably easier to understand than the technical explanations you are likely to find. You also must keep your Java updated. I included a link to verify your java version as well. I am not sure which browsers are giving you trouble but yes some viruses do remove your certificates from your root depository commonly as an attempt to trick you when luring you to phishing sites. Remember that the free site advisor can be your best friend along with an up-to-date browser. That really helps in safe surfing. Thats my 2 cents based on my best knowledge. I hope it helps someone! Or maybe I misunderstood the question??? Ms Jay Here is a link that might be useful: verify your Java