Oh, my!!! I accidentally landed here, while beaming back and forth between 'Conversation' (not much going on there)to 'Discussion' and I'm sure glad I got side-tracked here. Your pix are so awesome, John! Thank you for sharing them, especially these days! They have given me 'a shot in the arm' and I can't wait for Spring again! I love the 'show' in Spring with the sometimes purple eyes emerging, pushing up to stand tall and slowly unfurl, and the leaves displaying their particular Spring colors lasting well into Summer! Then, the Summer show begins, with many scapes making their appearance early on! Thank you, John--oh, and I STILL love my daylily magnets! :o)

WOW !!! Can I find my house the same way you showed yours? How do you do that? please let me know. I'm not fortunate enough to have a church with permission to use their land behind me. The backyard neighbor I have is such a lazy character he only mows about once a month and sometimes not even then in the summer. He did no fall cleanup and I expect the leaves to all end up in my yard over the winter. Maybe the long grass will keep some of them in his yard. We have lived here into our 18th. year and I have only seen his wife 3 or 4 times. The last time in '06 when I asked her husband to tell her to come walk through the garden before I had a grarden walk. Thank goodness their very scary German Shepard dog died as I couldn't be in garden when he was out. They did have one of those underground fences to keep him in but once he came over anyway and I never trusted the fence again. We can't pick our neighbors can we. Connie

I must try your "slug cafes" next year Cowboy, good tip on the dollar store baskets, I've got some rabbits here too. Iron phosphate usually works so well but last year it couldn't keep up with the pests, I so wanted to go to the more lethal slug bait but was too afraid I'd poison the birds and my dogs. Which reminds me just now of a nightmare I had last night, dreamed all of the hostas had come up, fully leafed out and I hadn't put any slug bait down! I was racing around like a madwoman trying to play catch up. How much sun is your Golden Meadows getting? It looks like it's in optimum conditions. I'm thinking of moving mine out from under a viburnum that's shading it a bit too much.

God bless you. You've suffered losses these recent past years and yet you're still standing. What an amazing strong person you are. Please forgive this lengthy tale, but to me this gives hope that our loved ones are always around though we can't see them. My 29 yr old brother was killed in 1977 and it's hard to believe so much time has passed since his death. I believe in signs,and I know you do, too. So let me share this with you. I always wondered what he would have looked like as he got older and I almost got to see first hand. I was at a social function with about 100 other people and found myself in conversation with an attractive gentleman that I imagined would be how my brother would look at this age had he lived. As we spoke we found we had so many things in common...previous pet's names, childhood experiences, similar likes and dislikes. He asked if I had any relatives in PA (we're from FL) and if I possibly had been adopted as a child because I looked like so many of his cousins. In fact, I looked as if I could be a part of his family. I don't have family there and I wasn't adopted. I then admitted that I imagined my deceased brother would look like him if he had lived. We went on talking and found we had many more common experiences than we originally found out about. Then as a joke we asked each other for our birthdates to see if that was a commona factor as well. I gave my birthdate first and he said his was different. Then, he told me his birth date and I was stunned! I burst into tears and he couldn't understand why. Turns out his date of birth and year were my brother's birthdate. What are the odds of that happening? I feel this was a way for my brother to let me know he was okay. I feel I was blessed to have spent an enjoyable evening with my brother that night and it gave me a sense of peace. And by the way, this man wasn't on the guest list. He was visiting a friend and just tagged along for the evening. I hope each one of you who has experienced the loss of a loved one will receive a sign that all is well. And after all these years I confess I still cry.