Great idea, and lots of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your gorgeous plants (like growhappy's eye candy on her "The Schlumb Show" thread :) I would also love to see a thread full of pictures of 'old' plants at one time. Some people I know have plants that they've grown for years; one friend of mine has a 40 year old Dracaena Janet Craig; my mother has a 20 year old Aglaonema that has provided enough shoots for half the city (almost joking) and a ten year old Hibiscus, a profuse bloomer that keeps growing bigger each year; another friend has a 10 or 15 year old Gardenia that blooms every year and is so HUGE; my mother-in-law has a 45 year old palm that she received as a gift when her third child was born; and so on... Anyhow, those are just small examples off the top of my head... It amazes me how some plants grace homes for many, many years and I'd love for us to write about - and post pictures of - our own long-lived successes... For now, looking forward to this thread...

juanita, that is SO cool! carol, those are fabulous photos of p.springs, love the purple mt

I'm having a wonderful day because I don't have to get out in the heat. We broke the record yesterday with a high of 97. Supposed to be 95 today. That's the actual heat, not heat index. So I'm cleaning house, which has been neglected lately. Took the sheets off the bed and they're in the dryer now. Cleaning the Florida room but my back started hurting so I'm taking a break. Sounds like you had a fun morning, Sue. Baby Alyssa must be a really good baby to be able to take her like you do.

This IS a fun thread, and I hope more will chime in! Love the wonderful painting and the uplifting way it's been interpreted. And of course I think Lynn's spearhead is absolutely fabulous! A real treasure from long, long ago. I'll add photos from my phone (am on the laptop now), but here's something I'd like to share. I love Acoma Pueblo (also known as "Sky City"), which is about 60 miles west of Albuquerque. It is remote, sitting high atop a rugged mesa, and has a rich cultural significance spanning back 2,000 years. I first visited this place with my father a couple of decades ago, and about three years ago I was able to take DH for the first time. As would be anyone who is interested in Native American culture, he too was quickly smitten. Today there are around 50 tribal members who live year-round in Sky City, and many continue to make the wonderful earthen pottery that the Acoma people are well known for. You can only access Sky City via organized tour, and when you're walking down the dusty streets, you're met at various places with residents selling their work. I thought each piece I saw was gorgeous, but most were WAY out of my price range. There was an elderly woman with a small folding table set up outside her modest home, however, and she had one piece in particular, hand-coiled in the traditional manner, that caught my eye. I chatted with her for a few minutes, asked the price of the piece, but then had to hurry to catch up with the rest of the tour. All along the way, I continued to think about her and her pottery, and as the tour ended, I asked the guide if it would be possible for me to retrace my steps and go back to the woman's house to see her pottery one more time. The young tour guide cheerfully left the rest of the group, and took DH and me back to the woman's house. He knocked on her screen door, and explained to her why we had returned. She had by that time packed up all of her wares and returned inside, and I was thrilled when she invited us IN to her very old adobe home. She had two little black-eyed granddaughters who sat eating bags of chips and watching us warily, as she unwrapped her pottery and placed it on the kitchen table for us to see again. I selected the one that had caught my eye, and paid her exactly what she asked for it. I'm sure I could have negotiated a bargain, but there was no way on earth I was going to pay this woman any less. In retelling it, it sounds like such a simple thing, but just being invited into the woman's home and having the opportunity to interact with her and catch a small glimpse of her real life meant the world to me. I treasure this piece of pottery, made by her own hands, and hope that today she and her loved ones are happy and healthy. I so admire her people.