I would dig in the dirt for anyone right about now! But most definitely for you, Kym! My youngest was wanting to go out and plant larger seed and was picking some out of my box cause I said we couldn't because the smaller seeds would blow away as the wind was gusting to 35-40 mph. He begged for quite a while to be able to go out and plant some of the bigger ones. I still had to tell him no because the temp was dropping hard and fast and the wind picking up. Poor kid,he just can't wait to start really planting! We had rain and tornadoes last night in OKC about 20 miles from us and then snow this morning, can you believe it? Kathy Kathy

OK, Jean, I think it's time you 'fess up and tell us just WHICH ornithilogical publication you do professional photography for... Your photos ALWAYS look like they came right out of a book, or should be in one! I'm humbled by your skill and aspire to attain anything close to it with my own bird pictures! As for the Carolina wren, I got a picture of one just outside my dining room window a couple years ago, perched on one of those cage feeders... picture's through a dirty window, but it's an otherwise pretty clear picture of a wren and I think I posted it here before at one point, so let me go see if it's in my Photobucket... Well, I THOUGHT it was, but maybe I deleted it. It's late, and I'm not gonna hunt it down right now, but maybe you'll figure out if that was a Carolina wren or not by looking at online sources, FTM. Happy Birding, all! Jeff

It is so funny to watch the "baby" birds that are as big as their parents. They hop around behind their parents,flap their wings and shake their bodies and chirp loudly in an instinctual behavior that elicits a feeding response. I feel sure the parents are thinking the same thing that humans think when adult children return to the nest after fledging. "I'm tired! Go find your own way like I did when I was your age!" Tee hee!

Rjinga, I have a very mature rosemary bush that had grown in a similar pattern to yours. I was very hesitant some years ago about doing hard pruning. I finally got the nerve cut it back hard. The plant is still with us and healthy (and has been hard pruned several more times). I have several more rosemary bushes that are babies of the original plant. When our original plant "sprawled", I looked underneath it and noticed some of the longer, lower lying branches that touched the ground had rooted themselves with no help from me at all. I carefully cut them away from the mother plant, dug them up and kept them in pots for a while to let them develop better root systems, and then transplanted them. That's how I have obtained most of my rosemary bushes although I started a couple from cuttings. Just wanted to see if I could do it. My guess about the existing root system is that you will find the main root system is one plant and I don't think you can divide it. Maybe others have more knowledge on that. I have never tried it because I know for certain our original plant was a single bush. I grew it from seed. If you look under the sprawling branches that touch the ground, give them a little tug where they touch and you will be able to tell if they have put down roots. If yes, you have free plants :~). Hope this helps.