My grandparents were mostly born not only in the US, but in Chicago before the turn of the century, unusual for our tribe. Before the Depression, my grandfather was very wealthy, and his young bride had a number of "Depression glass" pieces. They lost every penny in the Crash, and my mother grew up bewtween that and WW2 rationing. When grandma died, I asked for the glass candy dishes and crocks in ruby red and green, plus her 1920 Deco dishes. I have carried those keepsakes with me for the past 20 years, over international water, moving to new countries, new houses, you name it. I also have my paternal grandmother's soup pot, which I still use all the time; it must be at least 60-70 years old. But the most missed thing for me are the stories of my great uncle, grandma's brother. As a young Jewish boy in the 1920's, the story goes that 6 months before completing dental school, he upped and left to be a hobo and ride the rails. The family was so ashamed that they never allowed him to tell the stories, especially to us kids growing up in the 60's. He died never having told any of the family of his travels. My sisters and I always felt that this was a huge loss.

Books for trade Fun with Terrarium Gardening (144 pages, paperback) The Complete Book of Dried Arrangements (193 pages, hard cover) The Complete Book of Flower Arrangment (307 pages, hard cover) The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas (297 pages, hard cover) Submarine by Tom Clancy (softcover) The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (hard cover) Raptor Red by Robert T Bakker (hard cover) and a collection of paperback books on Wells Fargo history. Will trade for garden stuff or anything useful. Here is a link that might be useful: my trade list

There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

OK, I'll bite. These birds are late nesters, so it would not be uncommon to still be shopping at this time of year, when most hawks have fledged their young. They are known for building and re-using stick nests, but not necessarily commandeering one. A sticking point is that their nests are almost always on the very top of the tree, making viewing from the ground almost impossible. So, either they were just window shopping, checking out a backup site, or maybe they are last years birds, now a year old going through the motions-