The pictures are so lovely! Speedy recovery Joyce. You are incredible. So this site is not only about lotus, also about survival-? The lotus seems so full of life maybe there is a connection-?:)) I am looking for advice and tips too - being a novice lotus grower or wannabe. The lotus out on my balcony, which are all in containers, are struggling but haven't given up yet. I planted them in regular potting soil, so perhaps not enough nutrients, and they are getting half a days worth of sun? Should I replant them in early spring with compost? I have six from seeds, but I haven't seen an aerial yet... still they are trying but the leaf browns out of water... one grown from root has a few floating ones... which is probably Momo Botan, the seedlings I don't know. So they are not dormant yet, with Mediterranean climate. I really don't need seven lotuses, but who knows if they make it! Other question... the seedlings are in jugs, like big juice jugs, should they go into bigger pots packed with compost even now they are struggling? Thanks... Tarja

Sierra, I am so sorry that you are dealing with frost at this time of year. I just can not imagine such a short growing season. I hope things warm up and you have a nice long Indian summer! Cameron, I hope the bee sting is improving. My DH has been stung several times in the last few days. The darn things fly inside his shirt and then move from spot to spot stinging him repeatedly. Cortisone cream has helped him a lot. I have tried to catch up on housework this week while the temps have been so high. I'm good up to about 90 F. but anything over that makes me physically ill. We have two window air conditioners that do a decent job of keeping it bearable inside. DD2 and I were able to clean a large closet, sort out all of her clothes to make room for new school clothes, get the house in decent order and scrubbed a few walls and the floors. I'm terrible about letting the house go during summer so I can spend time outside. We still have her room upstairs to tackle when she gets home from her weekend with her dad. I have a good carload of goods to take to the community thrift shop next week and won't even feel bad about using the fuel to make two trips if it means we can get her room back under control by clearing out lots of excess STUFF! In the meantime the weeds I've been so diligent about keeping cut so they don't form seed are getting tall and setting seed anyway. Next time we mow we'll be forced to bag too. Sigh. We've had rain off and on for two days and it's been nice to not have the hot sun beating in the windows all the time. 11 days until DD2 starts High school. Lots to get done before then because I already know how crazy things will get around here then. Thankfully most of our harvest is done. Just one more cutting of hay to do. We still have to rebuild the calf lot fences but will wait until the weather breaks before we do that. PS to Eduarda...we did our branding and tagging two weeks ago and the #44 cow survived the cut one more year. Her yearling grandaughter almost got shipped out but has been given a one year reprieve to settle down. How did it turn out that my heifers are all decendants of that crazy old #44? Hang in there everyone! MeMo

We used 3/8" Starphire glass with Clear Shield for our guest bathroom shower. We saved some $ by using 3/8"--it doesn't feel flimsy at all, and for a little-used shower, getting 1/2" glass just wasn't worth the added expense. We did "up-charge" by using Starphire (we wanted the white tiles in the shower to look white, without a greenish tint). We also had Clear Shield applied (similar to Showerguard in that it protects the glass from etching/filming; different application process)--DH and I did use that shower exclusively while our other two bathrooms were being reno'd. We felt the added protection was well worth any additional cost, especially over the long term. My personal feeling is, glass protection is definitely worth having. You're making an investment, so why not do what you can to help keep it looking good? Different glass shower door fabricators/suppliers might use different products, so you should ask your door people if they use one vs the other (our guys use Clear Shield, so that's what we got). Starphire is a good choice, if the greenish tint of regular glass will change the look of your tile/walls (unless you don't mind the tint). As I mentioned, we wanted our white tiles to look nice and white when viewed through the glass. If it is within your budget, and you will be happier with clearer glass, I think it's a good choice.

Hi, Kathleen, Thanks for asking! The umbrellas work fine and are more stable with bunjee cords stretched around the nearby fence & around the handles of the containers themselves to anchor them down. We decided against plantings--for now. I did "meet" the new neighbor woman thru the fence--she is the sister of the woman who owns the house and she is the aunt of the other woman "with issues" who used to live there. The next day after we met thru the fence, I made and decorated a batch of cherry cupcakes and brought them over for her, her hubby and their two kids and visiting nephew. They plan on cutting down the rest of the tree, hopefully next month. That will eliminate the problem, and I'll have two nice umbrellas for the patio. We'll see if they remove the tree. I had a chance to look at it through her kitchen window--the roots are huge and extend about 5 to 8 inches above their patio surface! I suggested they get the stump ground down & mentioned that the tree roots could crack the foundation of the house--BIG expen$e for her sister and BIL if that happens. Much as I love the tree, I had no idea of how big the roots were above ground! No wonder my cinderblock wall (perpendicular to the wooden fence) had a big crack in it! While I was there, she mentioned the boys were using the tree as target practice, which was a perfect opening for me to mention about the city ordinance of "no discharge of guns within city limits"--it was a big issue when I was on the citizens committee of the city council. I thought I made my point, and showed how her large backyard abuts so many other yards, that neighbors might be concerned, and if the police were called, the kids could be taken to juvie or something because shooting a gun in the city limits--not to mention a neighborhood full of houses & families!--is a misdemeanor. Of course, my big concern beside privacy was the boys in the treehouse doing target practice at empty cans, and then deciding to try and shoot a moving target--our little dogs! Her bringing up the boys using the tree as target practice was a great opening for me to speak up! Unfortunately, yesterday the boys were shooting again. I really hated to do it, but the police were called. Maybe she was in the shower, maybe her husband told the boys to go shoot outside or something. I don't know. I can only hope the shooting issue has been resolved with police involvement, and soon the tree issue will be resolved as well. Cross your fingers for me, okay?? Here's one of our sweet little dogs: