Kathy; No, The Red Lilies are "Red Alert" Vickie:I agree with you,that I have wonderful daughters. 3 of them. Nancy: No I do not use a flash outside at all.Ms Blackie had her eyes squinted half shut, because the sun was very bright,and she had just walked out of bright sun into the shade.She dont act like the same cat that came here about 7 yrs ago.She was so wild and skinny,I could not get closer then 15 feet from her.She is still on the skinny side,even tho she eats good,she never puts much weight on. and yes, she really is content.She seems happiest when she can be near me and just looks me right in the eye and purrs very loud. Thank you Rita, I do love these Red lilies. I will have to bring this Pink rose outside and give it some sunshine,as it wont live long inside,and as it grows I will pot it in a bigger pot. I planted Hydrangeas in the ground years ago here and none of them lived,so wasnt going to take a chance with these two and put them in big pots.Well,the one is planted in a large plastic tub as you can see,and I just drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom for drainage.Besides these tubs was selling for $ 4,00 each at the time,and the big pots was $ 20.00.I plant tomatoe plants in these big tubs too each year and those tubs are now 10 yrs old,sitting in the sun all day, so they do last a long time, too. Them scapes are beautiful to me right now.Its hard to wait to see a bloom. Jean

Island, someone on another board told me that damage is consistent with drought damage, which we were fairly dry last summer, The crapes with Indian names are generally the hardiest. I have Hopi, Sioux, Natchez, a forgotten one, and also Acoma, Victor. Acoma is probably the hardiest but a dwarf. Victor is supposed to be really hardy but died to the ground on me last year, but I also planted it very late. Natchez and the unknown one came back from the ground after my dog made fetching sticks out of them, but probably would have been wood hardy. Natchez is supposed to be one of the hardier ones as well. As far as where to get them. They are becoming pretty common here. Every big box has 2-4 types, as well as specialty nurseries, and if you stop at multiple Lowe's, etc..., they usually have different varieties. In my old sales job territory, I counted more than a dozen different varieties locally last year.

How close was I to these fledglings? As close as I can auto focus with a 300mm f/2.8 lens, which is about 8 feet. They got so used to me bringing the meal worms that they would fly right up to the feeder while I was putting them out. I have had them actually brush my arm. Of course, I don't have my camera in my hand and it wouldn't do me much good if I did, since I can't auto focus that close. I usually move to about 10 feet and fire away. They tend to ignore me. It's hard not to get a pretty shot of a bluebird, especially if it is sitting still. They are simply photogenic. I have this fancy equipment so I try to get them in action and catch them doing unusual things or get close ups that allow us to see them better than we do in real time. Their individual feathers, for example, are very beautiful, but they usually move so fast we don't get the chance to see and appreciate them. And can you imagine seeing your reflection in his eye? Here's a shot I like from a few days ago. It has a lot going on in it. It was taken when Papa was starting to chase the fledglings out of the yard. In the center is a HOSP that was trying to steal a meal worm. Papa is coming in from our position to chase the HOSP. One of the fledglings senses Papa is coming and moves to get out of the way. After he hits the HOSP, Papa continues on and chases the fledgling for good measure. Thanks for all the kind comments. Dave

Annette - if you were walking by and asked to see the rest of the garden, we'd certainly invite you in for a tour :-) Bummer re the theft of your plant! Generally, this is a very nice neighbourhood with no problems - but back in 2006 the top of the concrete bench in the front garden was lifted off and dropped and broken at the roadside. We reported it to the police just so they'd be aware of it in case there were other incidents - it turned out that there were a number of small vandalisms that had happened during the previous night - there's a high school up the street and a couple of rowdy, drunken teens went on a spree... We replaced the bench top and cemented it to the base so it's much harder to lift it now. We worried at first about the bronze sundial - especially when it was still shiny! That one we cemented to a large, flat stone, covered the stone with soil, and planted creeping thyme (which has since died out....) Anybody that tried to lift the sundial out of place would not likely be aware that they were standing on the base! The iron arbour and iron tuteur are very heavy and are set in cement footings so would be very difficult to move! i have some suspicion that a Midnight Rose heuchera may have 'walked' out of the garden last fall - it went missing and there was a round hole where it was. But it had only been planted a few weeks before so would have been easy to remove - at the rate the local squirrel population moves things around, it's entirely possible that a squirrel could have removed it while searching for bulbs that were dormant in the same area! So I haven't yet had any incidents that would seriously discourage me from gardening in the front.