see posting in "Utah Gardening" forum for more info or to RSVP.

My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart

Evening All! It was the same here, Tuesday, Margo, overcast and windy but the wind wasn't bitterly cold, which was a welcome change. My mini daffs are starting to bloom! The crocuses are still going strong. And I too am still tired. Bummer! I was reading back thro the posts on this thread and way back at the beginning of this swap, I promised to keep the Robin's flight plan posted. You may have noticed, I haven't done that! So here it is, a little late, and I'll try my best to keep it updated! I sent to Peggy in Washington; Peggy sent it on to Heidi in Nebraska; Heidi mailed it on to Annie in California; Annie mailed it to Ruth in Texas; Ruth sent it flying to Melinda in Arkansas; Melinda just sent it to Diane/Moonfire; Diane sends it to Jeanne/sandlapper_rose in South Carolina; Jeanne sends it to Alana/poisondartfrog in Kentucky; Alana sends it to Robin in Virginia; Robin sends it to Vina/flowergirl134 in New York; Vina sends it to Janine/Jaynine in Connecticut; Janine sends it to Suzanne/hibiscusfan in Ohio; Suzanne sends it to Margo/smitties in Ohio; and Margo will send it to Katie in Mississippi, who will send the completed poem back to me! Hope I didn't skip anyone! Have a great day tomorrow! Shirley!

well i'm not usually on this forum but the topic struck me so i thought i'd put my 2 cents worth in-- in 2009. yes the market might be flat. but i think there is a learning curve that corresponds to a generational curve. it takes a while for people to learn the basics and move on to something a bit more hard core. in 2002 we were pretty much after the baby boomers and just getting into the gen-xer's. I'm in my early 50's. i gardened early as a teenager, but then with college, job and starting a family i wasn't ready to start expanding my knowledge until about 10-15yrs ago. even then i was well beyond basic books, but bought a lot of them hoping to find something new/better. now when i buy i look to fill gaps in my knowledge. but usually i get the library to get the book first, check it out and read it. if it doesn't suit my needs, i don't buy it. if it's outside of what i am interested in, i usually just go back to the library again to reread it. i do love to read those english garden books. but for someone who lives in NE Ohio they just don't offer much that i can use. i had to google ken's books to see what of his i've read. surprise was that i've read them all and remember enjoying them. but i don't own them-- probably because i wasn't ready to buy them at the time. Now i hit the used book stores looking for gardenbooks that i really want. and the reason that so many basic books are out there is that they are entry level for the newbies, but not everyone goes on and on. the same hold true hen i buy cooking books. with a few more than 1300 of them, i still buy about 50 per year. but a lot come from the remainder shelves or used stores or are regional ones with quirky recipes. the other day i noticed that our library had the El Bulli cookbook on the shelf. I'll probably check it out, read it, do a lot of scoffing and return it. but i'd never buy it unless i could get it for under $15. simply because it's a fad. same hold true for gardening. diggerb