My 4 year old son gives roses to his teacher at Valentines day. I go to Costco and pick up a bunch of roses. I then put each rose in a plastic tube with water. I get clear plastic wrap (sold in wrapping paper section at Target, etc.) and cut a large square. I lay a colored tissue paper to match on top of the plastic. (Make sure your roses are not wet or the color of the tissue paper will run.) Lay the rose in the center. Fold one side over, the bottom up and the final side over and around. Tie with ribbon. Attach a card. Hope this makes sense. Michaels Craft Store sells the little plastic tubes you can fill with water. But are a touch expensive without the 40% off coupon. I like the idea about approaching a florist...tell them you are a school teacher and they will likely sell them to you for cheap. All these supplies can be bought for cheap but in bulk at a florist supply store. But to get the wholesale price you would need a resale license. Maybe a freind has one.

Congrats! It's very fun to find eggs and cats. Don't worry too much, the little cat could be molting. Sometimes the black swallowtail cats can be slowpokes. I just found my first BST eggs at the nursery yesterday. 4 eggs on the Bronze fennel plants. Yippee, butterfly rearing season has officially started.

Glad to hear it's all coming together for you momof3. I do wonder if all the problems began after GM's "departure" but consistent lying and not not showing up to the job site and leaving our backyard in shambles have left us no choices and now we are moving on and getting things done our way. Never said it was your fault Jimbar...Just expressing what we are going through, with the same people who you worked with...with very different results..consider yourself very lucky. We have learned from several contractors that our PB is well known for taking on way too much, he's short staffed and has several cases against him for lack of finishing the job, he subs everything out despite his website claiming "no subs"...so, we wait on subs to finish other jobs to get to us and are lied to consistently - he blames everyone else and keeps blaming GM (he was in sales he's not a builder) it shows MW's inexperience and immaturity as a business man - he screws people, plain and simple. These delays will cost him in the end, as you can see from this forum (and there are others where I have read about CB) his reputation is exactly what we are going through so I am happy for those few who can claim a a good experience, there aren't many of you jimbar. ..thanks for your time and input.

Like Alisande, I only see one about once a year...just passing through. I put out a lot of bird seed. I put black oil sunflower seeds in the feeders in the yard and I get a free mix that is a lot of milo and some sunflower seeds donated to me by Walmart, and I put it out along the driveway for the doves. It is so dry here. Right now I have 5 bird baths in the lower part of my yard, which is only about 1/2 acre big, but ran the horse water troughs over yesterday, and couldn't believe all the doves down there bathing. I guess I'm fortunate. I see sparrows in town, but out here in the country, we don't have them. Bluebirds can be seen in this area...supposedly, but the only time I ever saw them, was a pair in the yard of the old man that I look after a couple of towns over, and he couldn't have cared less. That was a few years ago. Now he has a pair of hawks nesting in a tree right out his door, and I can't even get him to walk to the door to look out at them.