Dawn- one of the benefits of country living. You just can't put a price on sitting on the patio in your niteshirt. Jay, I'm with you on the "casual" attire. I see people in their p.j.s and fuzzy slippers, in town and I just can't get past it. Has to laugh when I saw the link and read that I should write down what I do on that day , and my thoughts and all that, and send it to the local paper. Tried to think of what some of those locals might do if they read that in the paper. Not to mention that my folks would have the head-liner torn smooth out of their caskets if I did anything like that. and rightly so. Mom always cautioned me not to do anything that I did not want to read about in the paper. which meant not to do anything that SHE would not want to read in the paper. LOL mo

Hmmmm... The Florence Fennel bulb tastes much like it smells. I let the Swalltail larva eat my summer crop. It doesn't make a good bulb in the heat and the butterflies thought it was the Hilton. We watch too much Food Network so have to grow the yummy looking stuff in order to try it. I think I'm in the same zone as many of the folks posting on this forum. We're zone 6. We always have some freezing weather, snow, and ice. You folks Northwest of us seem to get more rain. We're on the edge of the storms that pass over NW Arkansas and Springfield. We're only 20 minutes from the Missouri border. As for the lettuce, it's called Sonette. I got the seeds from Thompson Morgan. It's a totally crispy head lettuce, more so than Buttercrunch. It's been hard for me to grow. It didn't grow this Spring and not at all this summer. I planted some more late August and we've enjoyed some. The tight heads are about softball size and absolutely delicious! It's in with the Fall broccoli which is good because it needs Dipel too. Slugs loved it in the Spring until I tried the special slug nematodes. I haven't seen a slug since. I'll absolutely invest in a Spring treatment the coming year. I've only seen it at one source... gardeners.com. I can't be sure if it was the nematodes or the weather but we're pretty darn sure it was the nematodes. No slugs under rocks or in the Hostas either.. Sunny, my Rosemary is in the ground, not in pots. It comes back every year with no problem. I don't think it would make it in a pot outside though. I don't mulch it but I don't remove the heavy leaf fall so I guess it's protected some. I have trouble with Thyme and Tarragon surviving. Some years they do, others they don't. If I'm lucky, my Ronde Zucchini will make seeds for next year. I've got a giant almost ripe fruit. We don't ever want to eat another kind of Zucchini. These little round Zucs are so buttery and delicious! For us, nothing else compares. We didn't get a one all year until now. I tried everything to keep them alive during summer. I even injected the stems with BT to try and stop the borers. Nasty growing summer... I'm so happy we're finally eating them and stocking up on muffins and zuc bread. NOW I'm ready for the cold weather! :-)

DEAL! That would be fun, and I would be happy to dig out my canoe, even, and take you down the Wekiva. Assuming I'm not too feeble to paddle, these days. I have a very good friend who is a hiker/birder/nature kind of guy who knows all sorts of good trails and things, too. And seeing familiar areas from a herper's viewpoint would be like seeing them all for the first time, wouldn't it? Looking at it in a whole new way. Maybe I'll make it up to your part of the woods someday, who knows! Stranger things have happened. Thanks for the welcome and the honorary herper status! That's a great compliment. Thinking here...(always dangerous)...if I am a birder and a herper, does that make me a birdERPER? Marcia

I'm going to the Smokies at the end of May for a few days. It won't be great salamander weather but we'll see what we can find. I have agreat spot in Smoky Mountains National Park where you can find Four Toeds and Black Chinned Reds right next to each other. As well as many other species. Dave