That's way cool Glenn, wouldn't take long to form a hedge with a plant that suckers like that I bet. Far as I know we can only get CJ, CP, and Romeo down here. Hope they get the others figured out soon! I'd heard it has something to do with passing some long and drawn out virus test or something. But I'd like to have them ALL!!!!!!

I very much enjoyed Marian's link to Tabby cats. I had always thought "calico" was the term for cats that have largely grey coats, but with large patches of white and also hints of buff around their eyes and the bases of their tails. I see that coloration in handsome Ted although his coat appears to a "classic" or "modified classic" Tabby. Vera is "classic" Tabby, both Spencer and Polly are "mackerel" Tabbies, but both show the coloration I described above as "calico", Spencer having a good deal of white on his body. I was esp. interested to learn that a Tortoiseshell pattern is a specific sort of Calico and I did know that coloration is very closely sex-linked. It's all very interesting. But I've never met a cat that wasn't! I did some alteration work yesterday and shortened two pair of tab top curtains, using the excess fabric to fashion tie backs for them, too. I have another two pair of slacks to hem and a zipper to replace either today or tomorrow. Alterations and repair/re-style work always comes back when economic conditions take a nose dive. And I'm very glad I was well trained lo those many years ago. Anyone need new pockets in anything?. (I've become rather rusty with zipper replacements in slacks, though. It took me 15 minutes, up from my personal best which was about 8 minutes (including removing the broken one). ;) Woody, I've seen that Jap. Maple at a local nursery and I simply adored it. You have excellent taste! We have a Bloodgood on the Compound and I've wanted to add a few more but there is still too much "hardscaping" and reorganization on the docket for me to consider forking over the sort of pork required to obtain a nice sized specimen. I rather miss your frequent posts, too, but knowing you're "applying yourself" to the class makes me smile. Michelle, I love the look of matching picture frames... and the aerial views of the farm must be wonderful. I recall commenting on them once a long time ago. It's always neat to see things from the perspective of a bird (or Brenda as she plummets toward terra firma after hurling herself out of plane). I'll bet you're glad the audit is over! I suppose the thing to bear in mind is that the audit is there as form of control and protection and NOT to simply make everyone's life miserable for a fixed period of time. This is definitely the time of year I most wish I'd made the effort to bring in some "germamiums" from the windowboxes... alas. PM, how funny that I didn't read your post to Marian in a negative way, at all. But I've never been much for hunting for "DHMs" (deep hidden meanings) anyway; takes too much time and too much energy, to my mind. ;) I'm impressed by the scope of the JulieJobs you put behind you, Marian. Wanna come here and do some of that in my house? I'll bet you felt great after you finished. It's good to know you're in a "brighter" place. Life in a dark, shadowy world is no fun but sometimes we find ourselves there even when we don't wish to be. I would really like to see the pop open cat cube; our cats have developed a real fondness for a particular upholstered footstool that sits in front of Daddy's chair. It's been basically shredded, and reclaiming it from their sharp little claws will be no day at the beach for me, but for the time being it's OK that they pounce on it, grapple it, and slither around underneath it. We do indulge them. ;) Wondering if Mary has yet put a stopwatch on David's manoeuvering through the wheelchair agility course? Were you able to get to the concert? I thought of you on Thursday when my boss told me there is a gluten-free bakery going into one of the storefronts in town. Another one offers something called "Chocolate Decadence Cake" as a wheat-free offering. I do believe you're a trend-setter! :) Norma, I managed to score a large piece of 3" foam last week. I'd just finished making new cushions for a cuddy cabin and replaced the foam in the process. If I put it to the coals and make a cover for it Rex will have a smashing new bed, VERY plush. Best of all, he won't care if the foams smells a tad musty! Next warm spell I'll clip some Forsythia... you just shove the shoots in water, right? Cigarettes. I saw firsthand what regular use of them did to someone I loved. Bladder cancer is 95+% attributable to cigarettes. 60+ yrs. of a solid pack/day put Mum in the sorry position she found herself for the last 5 yrs. of her life. Not to mention the toll on her respiratory and vascular system. There are theories that smoking also affects hearing, weakening and reducing elasticity in the tympanic membrane. When I was changeing the urostomy pouch once/twice every week and routinely dealing with all the necessary steps involved I used to look at pretty young women huffin' on a butt and think that there was a time when Mum thought as they did... nothing will ever happen to me. And I wanted to take them home with me to get a good, hard look at REALITY... an 80 yr. old woman who was reduced to peeing into a bag glued to her side and depending on someone else to care for her most intimate, personal needs. Not to mention the sheer scope of the MONEY wasted maintaining the habit. Do the arithmetic, a pack a day X365, then calculate the interest it could earn (or save if applied to a mortgage or installment loan). Clearly, we all share the same view on the topic. But the fact that the addictive properties of nicotene are now becoming clear gives me hope. I feel so bad for W, because he knows the score and in the face of so much flux in his life he's unable to get that monkey off his back. Lots of love (and more love) and support is all that will work. I truly wish him well because I understand just how tough an addiction it can be to get under control. Also the toll it takes on those around you. ((('bug))). Great pictures and Deanne your backyard is as lovely in winter as it is in the summer. I can't wait to see you next weekend; let's hope there is no snowstorm! OK! it's time to get busy with the day. We chalked the lines for the floor last night and it's time for me to get out there and come up with my plan of attack. It took me a fair piece of time to come up with numbers to lay out the grid. I'd been stuck in a rut seeing only parallelograms (rhombus, actually) and was having trouble coming up with measurements required to lay out the grid. Then it came to me... a rhombus is actually 2 equilateral triangles, which can be broken into 4 right triangles... and then it's only a matter of plugging numbers into an equation and isolating variables. Praise be Pythagorus! :) (I loved geometry and it was geometry that made Algebra make sense for me, isn't that silly?). It tickles me that V. is working on the ceiling and I'll be working on the floor... reminds me of the great Paul Simon song, "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor".

Your Cupid's Dart looks big enough to possibly bloom this year. You do have a realllllyy long growing season, so that helps you towards getting first year blooms. There's also something called Vernalization (I think that's what it's called), where the plant grows in a warm environment, then if planted out into cold spring weather, thinks it is going though winter. When it warms up again, it thinks it's a second year plant. I read about this when I was thinking about growing Cardoon. You have to do this to get flowers (and seeds) in the first year.

Marie, I true am sorry for hell week for you. This is what all this sounds like. Just BREATHE. You will get through it all will be better you will be happier this are gonna change for you! IN A GREAT GOOD POSITIVE WAY! Want me to keep repeating THAT to you? Your daughters room will be pretty and unigue and she will love it! Her and her friends will have a blast painting it! My son wanted to do green/blank/white stripes with black trim and a black carpet in his room I was going to him but we moved out of that house before we got it situated because the landlady was insane! We lived there a month! It will all be ok we will all get through all we have going on! One day at a time. HERE IS MY NEW UPDATE: (just copied from another post it was easier) The good news for us is we just found a place to rent that we pretty much had been looking for for YEARS! The bad part is, I have to MOVE. The electric com. there is HIGHER then ANY OTHER ONE and the house is TINY, TINY, TINY!!! Gosh where am going to PUT EVERYTHING? The GOOD news is: There are over 50 acres available to use for horses/cows, we can have a pig, chickens, or any other animal it is already set up for a chicken house. There is a creek on it the yard is LARGE there is a HUGE garden spot and 2 more places the gentleman said we can put a garden if we want THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS TO THE LAND AT ALL! He said I can put in ALL the FLOWERS I wanted all he asked is we take care of the house with is NOT a problem and the place is CHEAPER then HERE and it is back in the area we used to live! Gee whiz I think I just convinced myself it is worth moving too after all. I have been dreading it but looking at the pluses there are more of those then there are minuses! BUT the major on is I HAVE TO MOVE, I HATE moving! And the house being smaller is a downer to me too but hey I get to plant whatever my heart desires how great is that? I am happy about being able to plant whatever BUT the yard PRETTY much ALL of it is overgrown and has bramble bushes all over that will have to be cut out those stupid tree bush things can't think of what they are BUT we will be cutting wood and srubs out all summer and MAYBE YEARS to come IF we stay there any lenght of time. It will be a lot of work but no close neighbors and all the other pluses are well worth the move even though there will be a lot of losses too. I have a LOT of stuff that I am not willing to part with and will have to get a building I guess to store it all in. For the most part I am happy but NOT looking forward to moving in gerenal and all my plants are not up yet and I will be losing some of those I fear! It irks me to because I just started trading for them last season! No, I am not sure were all of them are even though I DID put plant markers up the stupid stray neighborhood cats scratched/laid/fought in the beds and misplaced the labels! OH well, Marie I am truly sorry life hit you so hard these last few months if there was something I could do to help fix it I would! diene, when I said I would go ahead and post the March month I meant after everyone had posted they had received. I KNEW it was going to be a few more days for those :) not rushing anything BELIEVE ME! Cause that means I will be one more year older! Later everyone, please check in. Boy howdy, I didn't mean to write a book! :) Fran