The lower photo is of a purple bee balm. The flower is reminiscent of alliums but the stems and leaves show that it is on a plant of the mint family. Here's a picture of a red bee balm blossom: I plant herbs throughout my flower beds and veggie beds. The catmint and bee balm blossoms shown are in the "herb quilt" portion that is the entryway to my veggie garden. In our current drought condition, the herbs are practically my only blooming plants. My garden zinnias are starting to bloom, but that's only because they get watered. My front flower bed is usually bursting with color this time of year, but because of a late snow April 15th followed by drought with bunny foraging followed by a severe hailstorm 6/17 followed by MORE drought there's not much blooming. :-( Here's a shot of my front flower bed from 7/1/07: Here's a front view of that same flower bed from 6/28/05: We need rain here....NOT HAIL.

Steve-the picture is clickable and will take you to my photobucket account where you can see some of the really nice pics that I have captured with the SX10. I have had the camera for less than one month and I know very little about photography. I am trying to learn some things so that I can get even more interesting shots. You can really grow with this Canon. J&R electronics has the best price right now-but be sure to order your 4 or 8 GB Transcend Flash memory card from Amazon as they have the best prices. I also ordered two sets of Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries with the charger from Amazon for under $19 each. That is half the retail price. You will then be set to take fantastic pics. Vicki

My camera is a Kodak EasyShare Z760 and I just used the automatic setting. (still haven't figured out all the others..lol). I was standing within inches of the feeder and they didn't seem to mind at all!

How do I keep the beds so neat? I use an edger once a week whether I think it needs it or not. By cutting down along the edge, it cuts any roots that are spreading underground. Also once a week, I look over the entire bed and use a Japanese hoe to remove any weeds that have come up. It only takes me about 30 minutes for each job - sometimes less. When I am out cutting flowers, deadheading, etc. I also pull any weeds that I see at that time. Once I got into this routine, the flowerbeds were no longer a problem to maintain. I've learned this is the only way I can keep up with the beds when I am working. Hope this answers your question Oubliette. :-) Charlotte