LOL! Come on, be ornery! Once I found the little froggie, I realized that your pic wasn't THAT blurry, FTM. It was my sense of size (things may appear larger than they are) that had me thinking the leaf-with-eyes was the mack daddy frog. :D It's great to hear they love crickets, since I moved some pots the other day, and found a multitude of them, large and small. The frogs have been singing their hearts out all over the yard, and I know they come up to where the crickets were, since that's where my watering can is. :D I love yummy tummies! Brenda

An "old husbands's tale" huh, rhizo? Well, well, well....I guess the "old wives" have finally earned that right! ;-D (I am sure, however, that you are NOT an "old" wife). I started out with 12 adopted cats and virtually zero lizards, frogs, etc. Now that I'm down to 4 seniors, the population of anoles has increased and five-lined skinks are showing up in large numbers. The water garden attracts spring peepers, tree, leopard & bull frogs. All of the above has brought in rat, king and corn snakes, and just last week I spotted (briefly) a black racer in the back yard. But in 17+ years of living here, I have spotted a total of TWO toads, probably my favorite amphibian. That is very puzzling. Oh well, I'll just have to be content with the rest of "Ellie Mae's critters". Hope everyone is having a great summer. In 55 years I've never seen it this hot & dry. I hope we get some relief soon. The armadillos have noticed the moist soil in my yard and have shown back up, destroying everything in their path. On a lighter note... First-year-cutting of brugmansia 'Dolas Rosenresli' from Jesse, a GW trader from Californ-I-A

Here are some pictures of my pond. I love it, my garden wouldn't be the same without it, but it is a lot of work. This year we have had a leak somewhere, and it's been a devil trying to figure out where the water is going. I've had it for about 8 years now. My son actually dug it with pickaxe and shovel on his first year home from college. He knew I'd been wanting one for a while. It's lined with EPDM flexible liner, has a recirculating pump and a skimmer. There's a semicircular bed in front of it that is a bog bed, it used to be overloaded with ditch lilies and Siberian irises and weeds, but this spring my niece who has been helping me out in the garden because of back and shoulder problems, dug them all out. I am thinking of replacing them with hardy dinner-plate hibiscus. It attracts all kinds of wildlife, frogs, snakes, cats from the neighborhood who drink from it, etc. It has two lilies in it, one flowers pale pink and the other hot pink. It's three feet deep at its deepest point, so I keep goldfish in it year-round. They hibernate in the winter. I bought the goldfish at the local Petco, they started out as little feeder fish for about 15 or 25 cents apiece. We figured it was a cheap investment to see whether we could keep fish alive. Now the biggest is probably about four or five inches long. I don't have to feed them, they eat bug larvae, and algae from the liner. But they do like regular fish food as a treat. I'm not interested in koi, I've heard they are very disruptive. Anyway, here are some pictures. Today's waterlily bloom. A recent visitor. One of the hot pink lilies. I don't have a good picture of my fishies, or I'd post one. The only thing I would change about it is that I would change the orientation of it, if I could. We didn't realize when we built it that we wouldn't be able to see the waterfall from the house. I am planning maybe next year on putting in a pondless waterfall, and I am going to make sure that we can see that from the window.

Ladies may I join you in this discussion? I am a young healthy looking 62. And today is my first visit here after looking up adrenaline I sure understand better now That's what I have going on MY NATURE'S PACE MAKER.working. Adrenaline After a stay in icu heart recently everyone finally agreed i am mot crazy.it was.my heart. The docs installed is a device catch my heart acting badly is a heart tracker like halter monitor. Under my chest muscles on top of my heart. I can cause it record what just happened.. iam write with excitment because your stories are all so familiar. These stories for me begin after mitral valve repair. 7 years ago. Basic problem ..unless the doc sees the heart behaving badly they deny the problem. All this time we never could catch it Last doc said bluntly if we dont see it didnt happen. You must to er Well recent at 230 am it woke me up, just as you have described. I went directly to the er They caught the serious thing! Arrithemia and more then two days in icu. Now meds have slowed my heart from 70 to 52 while docs decide what to do. Last night I realized I was having an adreilin rush. The same rush I went to a neurologist for help. Over a year and half. Often it also affect my skin. Goose bumps crawling feeling all day long! Well have I got news for him.I was not crazy about that either. my gp I visited last month just to say. I know you don't know what is wrong but I still got it. Knows too I sat in neros office two months ago ,,,same thing. I said dr i just want you know ME when I end up in er..and i need you. well it was er straight to icu. Home now with electrical issues. Last last night meds have my average at 52 bpm.it woke me. 2 3 am. I use my tricks to get back to sleep.as soon as felt sleep coming on the stomach feeling spread. It woke me up heart pounding.sweat .out of breath!!! Happened several times . then checked average heart rate on my Garmin. 48. Average 48 so i was probably lower. Maybe 45! My natural pace maker kicked in every time sleep lowered bpm and I was short on air. Natural pace maker? Adrenaline can't wait to see what was recorded on my device Thank you body! Now I think i know what as going on for long time hidden from doc view. Electric shock adrenaline style