Thanks Pondbucket...funny thing,I nagged the head groundskeeper until he removed the yellow flag iris. This opened up a big area, so that he was able to move one of his rose pots in that area. When I looked out the window, I commented on how smart I was, cause now we can see the waterfall from the house. He said, yes, It's a miracle!!!...and all thanks to you! hahahaa..He spent an entire day, cleaning out the area and trimming the small maple tree over the bio pond, so that the waterfall was visable... Yes, only the beach has rocks, the rest of the pond is suppose to be rockless, but the koi like to dig in the pots, pick up small rocks roll them around in their mouths and spit them out where they want them...we still have a lot of small rocks in the dog leg that have to be removed, because of the digging koi. we replaced all the small rocks in the beach with BIG rocks. The beach gets blasted with the hose just about every week to release all waste. The small pond is 200 gallons, and about 15" deep. It's actually a bio pond, the water flows back and forth between both ponds. Back to the Beach...

November 2007 " Chilli thrips were indentified on landscape roses in Houston. Chilli thrips have also been detected on a number of ornamental and vegetable plants in retail stores in Northeast and South Texas." Even though it's from 2007, this link has pictures of infected/affected roses and it's fast to download. Here is a link that might be useful: From Texas A&M

They can in Maury and Williamson county. Perhaps the whole state. Dave, do you want to add the dates for the Maury co classes? I didn't have them to include. Evelyn

I enjoyed reading this tonight after a very busy weekend and want to thank you so much for sharing this. Your birding experiences are so interesting. I loved seeing the little bluebird finally make the leap in the movie and all of your photos are so incredible. Poor little mama bluebird with the hurt leg. I sure hope it heals correctly enough for her to get use from it. She is very unique in appearance and I wonder if any of her babies will look like her. Please keep us posted if you see any resemblance. The high winds have been so hard on our little birds this year.