Thank you Mike. Indeed it is hard to imagine Greece with snowfalls but we do get some. Extensive snowfall this year up to 5-6 feet in some nothern regions with higher elevations. For me, at 2800 feet altitude, 2 feet is a lot of snow, but I recall my grandparents telling me stories of 5-6 feet in the old days. Maybe true, I don't know. But it's strange seeing a lot of US gardens, even in zones down to 5, not completely covered in snow this time of year (Ken's for example), or do I see autumn images uploaded instead of fresh images? Sam, this is just a usual Cupressus macrocarpa 'Goldcrest' planted last, late winter and never irrigated. Just 5-6 waterings through july and August. I guess the combination of full sun, low temps (around -8C during night) and dry conditions through spring-summer brought up nice coloring. It is quite bright yellow-white all year round for me. Best regards, Fotis

Bob Fincham noted this about 'Aurea' as well. I think the top of the plant might be more golden on like the last couple years growth, but naturally once the tree is 15-20' tall, you won't see any gold up there, even if it is present. Dax: I am guessing that in fifteen years, you'll be admiring your larger specimens and I'll be getting out my chainsaw on an all-too-regular basis. A couple more since it's cold and rainy today. Listed as Pinus strobus 'Angel Falls'. Pendulous for sure, but not as much as I've seen. Abies procera 'Silver'. Supposed to have even more silvery needles then 'Glauca'. -Will

DtD: The New England gallery is not set up for direct upload, so you still would have to upload at some other hosting site and then link to that. I looked at the Hosta Gallery and at least one photo was on Photobucket (I only checked one to see). If you want to use Garden Web as a hosting site, then you would have to upload to Garden Galleries. Their FAQ is here. I checked one photo and the image location was at Garden Web. You would then link to the Galleries instead of Picasa. I'm still mulling this over. I may try transferring the older "Birds and other mobile features..." threads to the Gallery as a test to see how it works and whether people like that. Hopefully GW won't object to these threads as being somewhat on the fringe of gardening (actually, they are, but the regional forums, IMO, should have more leeway in what they're interested in). The test should show whether transfer is worth the effort. For me, the 'Mobile' threads have been going on long enough that bookkeeping is getting to be a real pain so it may be worth it. I would suggest that pixie_lou hang back and see how this works in practice. She has a good routine set up now that works well. Claire

Thanks for your comments everybody, dominoswrath - We use compact superzooms (Canon SX30, S5-IS, S3-IS, and Fuji S100fs) and shoot in Manual mode, so our settings vary with nearly every shot or series. The background blur is the result of shooting relatively close (8-25ft) at long focal lengths (700 -840mm). Happy birding all, Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Latest Slideshow