Ann T, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only person who thinks sourdough is too "sour". I tried and tried to get a viable living starter and after I did, I didn't even like it very much! I haven't baked bread in a long time, Elery's been on a diet and since he loves homemade bread he has asked me not to make it . Since neither of us care for store-bought bread, it sure cuts down the bread consumption! Sandra, Grandma only baked basic bread during the winter, when the chickens weren't laying eggs and we didn't have an overflow of butter. All other times she made the rich farmhouse white bread with butter, eggs and milk, some sugar. I really have to make some bread soon. It won't look like Ann T's but I don't care, LOL, I'll eat the end piece off the loaf before I ever think to take a picture. Annie

staph culturing often takes longer... i had a severe, life threatening staph infection that took more than 10 days to finally get typed exactly and all of those samples were done in hospital. i was furious to say the least as i used to teach medical microbiology to medical students at IU. next to my expertise in plants comes microbiology. after they finally ID'd my staph type i calmed down (internally as i did not want to make anyone mad lol) LOL as i knew culturing gram-postive rare types has to go thru multi stages of testing :-) do some research on what the possibilities of what you might have is and how it is cultured and tested. in my case i was soooo sick sooo fast dr's immediately started treating me w/ different antibiotics (while waiting for tests) that only added to my susceptible immune system. my system was soooo taxed from the staph that treating me w/ something for strep sent it into overload, taking immune strength away from fighting staph to working on what little strep may have been around. BTW basically everyone has almost all bad infectious bacteria in their systems, just not at levels high enough to be harmful or often even detected. because of that when you are treated w/ incorrect antibiotics (for an undiagnosed bacteria) your immune system puts up a fight, albet a small one often, but that creates a energy diversion adding to the severity of a real, undiagnosed, infection. i would also like to add that right now in this country there is a very big problem causing a panic at the CDC involving 4 patients who brought a particular variant of drug resistance into this country from India called NDM-1. medical personnel are supposed to be watching for patients either on or getting new scripts for antibiotics as these people are the only ones getting infected. do a search on NDM-1 and decide if you want to even get antibiotics for something if it's minor. this particular variant is our new superbug and if it doesn't kill you and they can save you w/ drugs used during the 50's & 60's that were banned, you will need new kidneys and a liver after treatment (the reason for banning). this is a common problem in India because believe it or not they abuse antibiotics even more than the US does because of their lack of potable water! ~ liz

Ok update on Downy Mildew outbreak! Plum Perfect has losts all its leaves and so has Julia Child... Julia Child was already covered in blackspot so DM finished her off... Miracle on the Hudson is between Julia Child and Plum Perfect... MOTH has lost a decent amount of leaves but still actually looks ok but getting bald spots now.. D. Ko's have some DM but not near as bad as other roses... Earthsong has a fair amount of DM but still looks ok on the most part... Little Fiji roses just now getting DM so they probably will be naked soon as they are small... Carefree Celebration.... Has DM to a mild degree right now... Raining, windy here today...Thunderstorms... Those DM spores are probably flying everywhere! MOTH...Notice all the fallen leaves from DM.... On a good note...lol

Yesterday was incredible! Went to Al's Garden Center in Woodburn, Bauman's Farm in Gervais and then Sebright north of Salem. Sebright has drop dead gorgeous display gardens! Don't let the the fact that they specialize in Hostas deter you from visiting, as I had, up until yesterday. The gardens contain all of the coolest plants...Trilliums were amazing, but tons of cool woodies as well (Daphniphyllum!) Time to go out and figure out where to plant everything. Supposed to be 80F here by Friday, yay.