This morning it got kitchen scraps - bell pepper scraps, onion scraps, mushroom scraps, ucg, tomato scraps, used (uneaten) dog food, left-over coffee, tea bags, and shredded paper to add some browns to it. I then added more water to the container before taking it out to the pile - it helps get everything out of the container, wet the papers down to where they'd stay with it, and helps with the current dry state of my pile. Then all of my piles got watered, because it's been a couple weeks since our last rainfall. I do very passive composting, but whatever I'm doing seems to work, because when I turn the piles, it smells like earth. :)

We have a 6 ft. stockade fence around our back yard where my garden is, even this didn't stop someone from coming in to do some "selected" shopping. I had grown some Cowichan Primulas from seed, they were in a low planter on some steps, we came home one day to find someone had dug out the one in the middle, the prettiest deep inky blue I have ever seen. I don't garden much out front anymore, at least I don't plant anything anyone would want, someone came again when we were out and dug up my little patch of Spring Snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) I had planted along the side of our house, very hard to find around here. I finally managed find and buy a few more but at five bucks a bulb they're a little on the pricy side. I use to have a very large fuchsia collection back in the 80's, again someone came in a took off with the one I was grooming for show 'Lechlade Gorgon' sorry I don't have a picture of it but here's a picture of some of the ones I grew from cuttings this particular year. Our gates are all bolted from the inside when we go out now :(. Annette

Herbalicious - I love the Elvis thingy! Would love to see it - Elvis get's blamed for All kinds of things in my family just like "Not ME" from Family Circle. I have 3 garden 'objects' in my yard. One is a frog that my Mom made me - (love him & is extra special since she is no longer with us) and I have a small turtle that has a 'bobbin' head (VERY cute, I just couldn't resist )but I haven't decided where he will go as I just got him. The 3rd is an old iron wagon/tractor wheel raised up in a sqare shaped mini flower garden. I have placed a 3' rooster weather vain in the center of the wheel. The first year I planted r/w/b flowers in memory of my father but now it is a 'catch all' for left overs from the annual flower beds. My daughter cares for it and plants them where ever she wishes and it looks all willy-nilly but is very pretty. I am not a uniform type person -I just plant what catches my eye every spring. I do have an old cast iron bath tub and an old wash machine tub that in hid on the north side of my house for mint. That stuff takes over, if not contained!! They belong to my husband, I guess it is a 'guy' thing??? I plan to put a pond & fountain in my back yard next year but no plastic wild life,(we have wild turkeys, deer, pheasant, grouse, geese and a multitude of other critters) just live fish and vining plants will be added.

In a town with lots of old houses people know who you are not by your last name but by which old house you live in. Setting mouse traps, wrapping windows in plastic and digging out draft stoppers are part of the "normal fall routine". Quilts, wool blankets and curtain rods of various sizes and shapes and condition have been hung over least used hallways,doors,windows. Down comforters are on all the beds not because they are fashionable but because they are required to keep the chill out at night. The idea of a heated toilet seat now makes sense to you. You gladly share your bed with the cats and dogs you have. That extra body heat comes in handy on those cold nights. The phrase "making do" takes on a whole new meaning when you are going thru a major project and either the bathroom is shut down or the kitchen. Hopefully not both at the same time. You know more about the house's history and PO's than you do your own family tree. You treasure every little tidbit of information you find on the house. Be it a pic, a mention in a book or just someone you know who knows someone who played in the house when they were a kid.