Oh Michelle...how lovely! What a treat this a.m. has been, between you and Marie! :-) The more I see of them, the more I'm loving "formal" gardens too. Well, in my next house, I'm going to include some areas for both formal gardens and cottage ones too! :-) Oh, that "green" picture with the lovely water's edge...wouldn't you like to just rest there right now? Lovely! And oh would I *love* to have a natural path of those lady slippers orchids (in the woodland garden in my next home...LOL)...Wouldn't that be a blessing? Ah, perchance to dream! Thanks again Michelle...I really do love seeing all this inspiration! Well, I really have to go now or I'll miss the parade. Have a great day! Ei

Good thing none of you accidently kicked the camouflaged Sargeant as you were taking your seats! I wouldda needed to be excused after getting any kind of rounds fired at me. Clean-up in Isle 13. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* When Mike and I lived on St. Kitts, we'd go to the various beaches on Saturday or Sunday and hang out. We'd go snorkeling or just beach combing and afterwards we'd pop into any one of the many little restaraunts dotting the beaches. One of the little resteraunts was near Frigate Bay where you could get a burger and fries or lobster. All pretty much the same price. This little place also would rent boards for windsurfing and we'd do that sometimes too. (Good thing I'm a very good swimmer! LOL!) We were windsurfing one Sunday afternoon and saw several other people having fun doing the same. There was one guy who seemed farther out than recommended but he'd whip that sail around and come flying back to shore and then out again. He seemed to be testing his skills and racing abilities. He put on a very good show for everyone with his twirls and effortless jumps over the waves. Time to go home so we packed ourselves up and took a last look at the ocean and the few windsurfers that were still out there. Hmmmmm. The very skilled guy was *really* kinda out there but was coming in closer. We told the restaraunt owners that one surfer is waaaay out in the ocean. They knew. That's what he always did. We went home. The next day ... lots of activity in Frigate Bay. There's a windsurfer missing! Eeeeeekkkk! That's the guy we saw! There were literally HUNDREDS of small fishing boats and catamarans as well as official boats looking for signs of the surfer. Nothing! :-( The United States Coast Guard was asked to help in the search. Mike told someone where we last saw the surfer. The maps and all were pulled out and there was a grid search made of the ocean as well as volunteers were combing the beaches and rocky shores in search of a body that may have washed up. Day 2. Nothing! No body. No board. No sail. Plenty of shark in the waters though. :-( Day 3. HOORAY! Waaaaaaaay out in the middle of no where, a recon. plane spotted something in the water. The Coast Guard went to investigate. It was the surfer laying on the board. He had been caught up in a strong ocean current and was about 400 miles off shore! He had taken down his sail and tried to protect his horrible sun burned body from getting more sun burned. But he was alive! He had severe sunburn and beyond. He was also severely dehydrated and spent about 5 days in the hospital. Somehow he managed to not get eaten by the ever present sharks. He told us that he had a school (if that's the right term) of dolphins around him all the time. They had protected him from the sharks! He said he had been watching sea turtles swimming and he wasn't paying attention to time or where he was going. By the time he realized where he was ... waaaay far off shore ... it was too late and he wasn't able to get the board back to land. What a frightening thing to survive but what a cool experience to tell the grand-kids one day!

Hi Marie! It sounds like you're having a great time and we'll be looking forward to those toddler pictures... Your baby Bouv. here is doing well. I consider all puppy accidents to be the fault of us humans for not paying attention/reading the signals right. It takes a bit of time to adjust to read her particular language so some accidents were expected... Today was a very mellow day here. Misty has now fully accepted Phoebe as a member of her pack - she initiated her into the joys of head wrestling today...:-) Head wrestling is a game she and Copper invented. The only rule I enforce is that the big beast has to keep her feet on the ground. The way it works is Misty is on higher ground (the lounger on the back porch in today's case) and the big dog is standing on the floor beside her. Misty pounces on the big dog's head and that dog tries to grab her and flip her over. They then proceed to wrestle back and forth until one of them tires of the game. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me so didn't get any pictures, but maybe some of you remember the pictures of her and Copper playing on the loveseat. The same thing was going on with Phoebe this moning on the lounger on the back porch. Barb was here today. She and Phoebe got along very well and they had a vigorous game of chase-me (Barb pretended to chase Phoebe and Phoebe joyously raced around the paths...) We all went for a walk past the library to drop off some books. I like this picture, in part because the sign on the library window says Laugh Out Loud - a comedy reading program for kids - seems appropriate for Phoebe! Here's the classic Woody's Doggie Holiday Camp picture from this afternoon (just after this picture Phoebe nuzzled my waist with her head, rooted in the training pouch with dog cookies that I'm wearing, and absconded with a cookie or two! I handn't realized the pouch was unzipped... She's a smart dog. Misty and Phoebe are definitely much mellower together now. When Randy got home tonight, we went for the third walk of the day. Zoe (yearling Rottweiller) was out on her driveway so introductions were made. Phoebe was skittish but eager; Zoe was dubious :-) A generous dose of cookies was applied all round. It takes more than a strange big hairy dog on her driveway to keep Zoe away from her cookies! So Phoebe had a good day at camp today :-)

Well, where do I start. My hydro system was designed out of a book. In side the container is four sprayers that spray the net pots, full of gravel. When the roots grow, they will grow all the way to the bottom. The sprayers transfer the nutes and air to the roots. This is called aeroponics. It is widely used for growing leaf lettuce, I'm just trying it for hot peppers. There are a ton of different kinds of set-ups, but this looked like the cheapest way to start. Including the pump, I think I have sixty dollars into that part! The lighting can get expensive, but thanx to Craig's list, I found a 400 watt metal halide for $150 dollars. LED lights seems to be the new go go gadget:) I start them in the peat pucks and the wash them clean before carefully putting them into the lava rock. They have excepted all I've done so far. In three days, I swear they have doubled in size! I will post a pic of the inside. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask! I've been doing alot of research and those pepper freaks love to share! Here is a link that might be useful: