Michelle, your potager is great. I thought of you yesterday afternoon as the helpmeet brought in the first wave of tomatoes, lamenting that if we don't get some sun the poor things are going to fold their little tents and give up. Lettuce, cabbage, and brussel sprouts seems to be holding their own, however. :) And I love the urn above; esp. the big, fuzzy Salvia argentea which tickles my fondness for big, bold foliage. Very pretty. I smiled at the bowling ball, amazed by its size... consider that the Compound is in the heart of candlepin bowling, lol. Nice to "read" you, Norma. I figure people are just busy when they submerge for a spell. I know that feeling of being just too far behind to try to catch up; even vacationing I'm still soaking up tidbits I've managed to miss. Like the miscarriage, Martie... perhaps time will ease the loss. You mentioned Abigail Adams; have you read "Dearest Friend" (I've not)? Also, there is a fun book by Irving Stone called, "Those Who Love" that is about John and Abigail Adams. I liked that one, a nice light read. Battened hatches were of no consequence last night. A loud crack of thunder launched poor Spencer from his happy place next to Mummy and sent him scratching around the corner to a safe place. Poor thing was out like a light and it scared the livin' daylights out of him. Vera appeared some time later and wriggled her way under the covers for a cozy sleeping spot. Nolon's camping site for Callie reminded me of something my father would have done. He was forever creating little hangouts for the cats and when he summoned us to witness the cuteness he would proudly proclaim, "look at that cat! isn't he smart to find such a great place to nap?". My brother is the same way, so is the helpmeet. Never waste your time on men who don't like cats, is what I say. The Passiflors are great, you guys. I always note them in garden centers but as a rule I tend to walk past most annuals. It will be fun to see Deanne's reemerge next spring and attain house eating proportions. We put in two hours yesterday morning splitting wood. We made a pretty good dent in the unsplit pile, too. The weather is looking pretty wet today, but if it isn't raining we will go out and put in some more time. I think the pallets are going to be picked up on Wednesday and then we will level and set them in a sunny area and begin stacking the wood to dry. Thinking about getting it done is much worse than actually going out there and doing it. The wood we're splitting now will be for next season and quite possibly several after that. If that ain't a New England vacation, I don't know what is. I managed to get the lawn mown, too. It didn't rain yesterday (some "birdsweat" but nothing major) but the grass was still pretty damp so I opted to mow high and mulch the clippings. Looks better and I'll be sittin' pretty to get it mown again in a few days. Then it was on to more weeding, this time around the pond. My goal was to clear out the weeds enough to identify the Cinnamon ferns, the native Eupatorium, and a shrubby thing that has lemon-y scented leaves (the leaves look vaguely like those of the Magnolia stellata). I accomplished that much and have laid bare the dreadful blackberry brambles (vicious) and uncovered a stealthy move by our resident Poison Ivy population to colonize another spot. Methinks some quality time with some Agent Orange type thing may be in the helpmeet's vacation plans. ;) I believe replacement coffee is on deck. I did something terribly wrong with the first pot, it was pitiful. So bad, in fact, it went down the drain post haste. I have watched some of the Olympics (loved the 2008 drummers!), I like the diving, some of the gymnastics (I'm not buyin' the ages of some of the Chinese gymnasts, sorry!), the swimming. But beach volley ball? (c'mon). I'm accustomed to never seeing the events that I really like (Dressage and Driving), so much of the 'pics means very little to me. But the all night broadcast beats the hell out of infomercials or Poker (how dumb is that?) for an insomniac. Saucy has evolved to papparazzi... it must be the camera. :)

Buff, 'Adam' has very, very few thorns. Many of its canes have no thorns at all, but a few canes have a very light sprinkling of them. Would it fan out on a trellis? Yes, and then in a couple of years it would eat the trellis. I wouldn't even try it on a trellis long term. In my garden it was much too vigorous for that and it has a mind of its own as to where its long, arching canes want to go. It's basically a giant arching shrub. Giant. It's blooms never balled in this climate. Basye's Blueberry and Nur Mahal have very different plant habits. BB is fairly erect and its canes are not flexible at all. It naturally is an open plant. It reacts well to pruning however, and by pruning it can easily become a more full shrub than it normally would be. It's a beauty, I love it, and is 100% thornless and fragrant. So sad that mine had rose mosaic virus. A neighber two blocks from me has a BB and his has the virus too. I'll eventually order a new one and it will come from The Antique Rose Emporium, where I think I will have a better chance of having a virus-free plant. 'Nur Mahal' is an arching plant with fairly flexible canes. Mine is about 5 ft tall and about 7 feet wide. But it doesn't look bulky at all because it is very open in habit. I think it's a graceful looking plant. As much as I like BB, I like Nur Mahal even more. Both are totally thorn-free (at least mine are). Hamp, I give my purple coneflowers lots of water and they seen to really like it. I guess I'm not surprised that they would wilt in our furnace of a summer. Their blooms last a long time on the plant and in a vase, which is a nice trait. Hamp, I promise you, Red Yucca will not wilt on you :-) It's extremely drought and heat tolerant. All that it asks is well-draining soil. It is not a true yucca and therefore has no thorns or sharp points. It is said to be very cold-tolerant ... it can handles anything you would get during a Mississippi winter and then some. Randy

haha yeah we have the japanese beatles here now... lots of fireflies for the last two weeks as well... it always tickles me to see them come out... we haven't been getting much rain.. but comparing to the average we're ahead of schedule for the year... here in southern kentucky its been similar to phil's situation... low to mid 90's for a few weeks now... with a chance for isolated thunderstorms just about everyday lol... beautiful sunny day the other day.. out mowing on the husqvarna and within five minutes the sky darkened and I was getting pounded with (in the voice of forrest gump) "big rain"..... and in fifteen minutes it was gone lol...just enough to water everything pretty good and deter me from mowing til everything dried... I make a big deal out of watering... I'm a lawnhose junkie.. about 300ft of hose and a garage full of sprinklers and attachments... so all my hostas are still looking strong... though I can see how things will go quick this year... my midsummer bloomers.. mostly lateblooming daylilies and some lilies are all already blooming... I have colocasia thats about 18 inches long already... grown from straight bulb...most of my daylilies have already hit their peak and starting to have fewer blooms... since we had lots and lots of 70-80 degree weather in April...Its going to be a boring fall for gardening... Good thing I have guns lol

beachlily, my stepdad had shingles and it was awful, there were days when even the collar on his shirt hurt him. I'm sorry that your hubs has this to deal with too. Hang in there, I'm sending prayers and hugs, as you know. Ruthanna, like you, I don't have air conditioning at all, and I cook outside on the deck sometimes. I should have an awning out there, but I don't. I do have an outside plug, so I put a crockpot out there, or my Nesco roaster or my small countertop "convection oven". I also have a camp stove, so I can make breakfast out there if it suits me and I have canned out there occasionally. I keep threatening to get one of those "screen houses" because the mosquitos here are awful, the people who keep track of such things say it's the worst year for mosquitos in a long time, that we're having the "perfect storm" of heat and wet for them. The bats and barn swallows are loving it, though. It got to be 92 here on Friday and 88 on Saturday, with humidity hovering in the high 80s. I decided to just ignore it and so on Saturday I mowed the lawn, finally cleaned and folded the pool cover, gave the outside trim on the house a coat of Kilz because we're painting the house, and then went inside and canned a batch of Habenero Gold. I figure if it's hot, it just is and a bit more doesn't make a difference. Yesterday I compensated by spending 7 hours in the garden, rototilling, raking and hoeing. There was a decent breeze and it only went up to 84F so it wasn't so bad, but it didn't cool down at night and Elery ended up sleeping on the couch in front of the open sliding door and with the fan blowing With both dogs. His house has air conditioning and so he's not used to it. Annie