mmqchdygg if you want certain daylilies from Melanie email her to see if she still has them and can hold them for you, She often sells out of some cultivars early. I email her in very early in the year for the cultivars I want. I recently recieved my order from her as always very healthy fans. This is my second year buying from NCD and I will continue buying from her as she is in the same zone I know they will be hardy here. Shive I never have a problem with emails to NCD I would try again otherwise her phone number might be listed on the NCD website.

Thank you all for the very nice comments. NAT-4b- Thank you, and Yes SUSAN WEBER is a late bloomer. ALEXA,LINDA & MARG. Thank you for looking and the nice comment. RITA. Thank You, WONDER OF IT ALL has been a bloom machine for me. It has had 123 blooms this season,and deserves a rest period, even if I DO wish it would bloom year round.:))Its in a pot and fast filling this 14inch pot.I will probably need to find a bigger pot for it by this fall,as I intend to keep it in a pot with potting soil.Since it seems to love its home.It will just need a bigger home.:)I do have hundreds of pictures of it to look at this winter when we have nothing blooming. I have even saved a bunch of your pictures of your beauties, too, to look at during the winter. Jean

First off, thanx a bunch to those who helped me out in my quest for Missouri camping, all info is greatly appreciated as I know nothing about that area of the country. We will be camping at Hawn State Park. I hope we will have the opportunity to view some decent wildlife, it is supposed to be quite hot, maybe dusk road cruising will turn up a herp or two. Here are a couple pics from today. I flipped this little female fox snake after work near my home. I haven't seen one of these since early summer, so it was a welcomed sight. A little OT, but here is one of many many corn snakes that my girlfriend keeps, I find this one just beautiful, I hope she keeps a lot of these bands and colors. later, I will post pics of any herps I spot this weekend. Matt

I've spent parts of 3 days haunting an estate sale on estate in area that was once well outside the Mpls-St. Paul boundaries but is now embedded in a second tier suburb. Ad said "prominent St. Paul family" and rumors said they were related to a RR baron and were Ivy League educated, etc. Tried to pick up as much of the sociology of the place as I could. 1930s was the rumored provinance, but I think it was the colonial revival of 1920s. White Cape Cod shake siding house with dormers, now with double garage. Overlooked a large wetland and probably was a former farm or hobby farm. Owner sold land surrounding it to subdivisions of 1980s-90s wealthy buyers. Former "barn" is now modified into Dutch Colonial house. May have had servants quarters? The thing reeks of Williamsburg & Wallace Nutting pretenses. Wood paneling, curved staircase, 18th and 19th century antiques, wide plank repro floor, large formal dining room with multiplane windows. But the sale crowd also revealed what moderns would consider flaws of the house. Everything moved through a series of narrow necks: long nasty driveway that provoked many troubles during multiple snowfalls during sale, long slim paved walkway to front door, small front hall, one person at a time on stair, little bedrooms, narrow butler pantry passage into kitchen, narrow faux-Palladian porch-walkway under extended roof. Kitchen was probably updated in 1960s or 70s or 80s but was always restrained--Kenmore range with metal hood mounted onto ceiling above, off white painted old cabs, modest refrig., synthetic floor tile that resembles cork. One replacement light fixture over table and one old ceiling fixture and one light over sink. There was a sink in the passage from dining room, embedded in a 5-foot run of metal countertop, very likely original to the house, with frumpy cabs above and below and on opposite side of passage. An eating area with view could hold a family of kids--this may have been an add-on when double garage was attached. A "library" with lots of windows and knotty pine walls and beaverboard ceiling was the casual room. Probably had hunting & sporting prints on walls and akin items lying around. Imagine the owner smoking a pipe and surveying his grounds from there. We didn't see part of upstairs--closed off, including bathroom(s?). This was a high-end estate of the pre-WWI period. There were obviously dinner parties and cocktail parties and garden parties and pool parties. Metal lawn furniture and a modest 2-burner Weber grill. Lots of panoramic views of the wetland in distance below. Servants very likely. All the images of Hollywood scenarios from the B movies about New England made just before my 1950s childhood came screaming back to me, esp. the ones about worldly writers working on a manuscript for a Broadway producer. This place is 15-25 minutes from downtown St. Paul by freeway. Comments by sale attendees used words like "horrible kitchen" and "screwy floor plan." DH said "I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy this place" after digging me out of the ditch for the 3rd time. Charm just doesn't cut it much any more. But I think it's been sold anyway. Postscript: I couldn't afford the $25,000 Pennsylvania highboy, the $12,000 Early Republic self-storing dining table, or much else, although I coveted it all. Oh, except an 1810 eliptical-front mahogany chest which is now blocking the walkpath in our in-progress new addition. DH is barely speaking to me.