Hmm. I must have forgotten, for it seems like we have had a drought the last 5 years, with the exception of last year. No rain during the summer, except for last year. And, actually we had quite a bit of rain in June and early July, which is abnormal for us. We had an extremely wet winter this year, such that the subsoil got a good soaking. If we can just make it to the end of August, I think we'll be okay. Most summers (except for last summer) we get absolutely no rain after May until September. So, the fact that we did get several summer storms, is something I was thankful for, knowing that we would probably have to ride out drought for the remainder of the summer. The heat is what is causing most of the damage in my yard - to the hostas, anemones, campanulas, hydrangeas, etc. But, they have made it through drought before, so there is no reason for me to believe that they won't make it again. They just turn crispy and die back to the ground. When the weather cools off in fall, they will pop back up. I wish I were into drought tolerant plants and xeriscaping, but I'm not. I love my water loving plants, my aroids, clematis, ferns, etc. I have to water because the darn trees suck it up from my plants. Drat those things! If they were pretty trees, I'd feel differently. If the NICE NEIGHBORS watered their trees, too, I'd feel differently about them. But NO - they let their trees go and don't do anything to take care of them. One of the neighbors keeps saying he is going to cut some of his down. His whole back yard is nothing but nasty disease-ridden trees, all planted so closely together that the branches rot and dry out and fall in MY yard. Grrrrr..... Susan

I have owned two houses (not at the same time) and have experience with the older thermostatic coil thermostats. My first had contacts exposed to the air and the second one used a small bulb of mercury. The bi-metallic elements in both lasted forever. The exposed contacts were not as reliable as the mercury switch. Once in a great while, a speck of debris would get between the contacts and prevent circuit closure. (This is a low voltage circuit, about 24 volts and powered from the bell transformer.) The mercury switch did not have such problem and has been the most reliable by far. I owned the first house 13 years and the second house 39 years have never replaced either thermostat. The only maintence I do on my present mercury swith thermostat is to pull the cover off and inspect for dust bunnies - it does collect and assortment of household dust over time. I blow these out by mouth or by a breeze from hair dryer (with heat turned off). One has to use care when blowing by mouth to avoid spittle on the parts. I will not be so lucky if I ever get a programmable thermostat since these have electronic parts and a circuit board. These are susceptible to voltage transients and aging. Some day, I may replace the furnace with a high efficiency model and that will involve electronic controls both for the furnace and the thermostat circuit. I am not looking forward to that since we do get a number of power line lightening strikes every year. My old gas furnace has been reliable. In all this time, I have replaced very few faucets, and merely did standard maintenance such as replace stem tip washers, repack gland nuts, and on newer faucets, replaced the "O"-ring seal on the end of the stem. Two years ago, I did replace a set of kitchen faucets because the diverter valve for the rinse hose had been ruined with some heavy handed tool work (by me). The bath tub/shower valve had to be replaced. That was broken trying to remove the cartridge after having been in place for 15 years. A had a plumber friend replace this for me since it involved cutting and soldering copper plumbing.

We've had our AC on, on and off, for ages because we've been in the upper 80s and even the lower 90s a lot. My Yankee-raised hubby can't stand being hot so I spend half my time freezing. Still, being freezing cold probably is better than burning up. The heat index outside peaked at 95 degrees here this afternoon, which explains why I was so miserably hot working in the garden. I stuck it out and finished as much of my To Do list as I could, and then I came inside to a freezing cold house! When he is at work all day, I do not keep the house cold like that.

Top Honors had first to blooms of the season today. Coast to Coast has been blooming for awhile, has a poly today. Happy Apache with a perfect bloom today, love it. An overall photo of one of my unorganized garden beds. Itza Pink Teddy is in the foreground, I found two instant rebloom scapes on it when I took this photo. Sherry