garry, 'Silver Swan' (also 'Tasmanian Tiger' and 'Glacier Blue') are all variegated forms of E. characias and therefore quite a bit less hardy than any hybrids like 'Helena's Blush' or x martinii. The variegation also tends to reduce hardiness and offers limitations on vigor as well - E. characias in my climate tends to be a BIG, robust, freely seeding plant that takes extremes of winter in stride. Not so for any of the variegated forms.

Angie, I doubt it was anything you did or didn't do. Stuff happens, especially in raising butterflies. Nor do I think that your misting probably had anything to do with the death of your caterpillar. I didn't mean for you to think that your misting was the cause of the Tiger's demise at all. I honestly don't know that misting is a bad thing, it's just not something I want to do. Our heat and humidity, especially this summer, provided more than enough moisture, IMHO, especially since I was raising them outdoors amidst all that heat and humidity. I just want everyone to know that there is more than one way to do things. I raised my cat(s) on the Black Cherry tree in a pot on my front porch. I didn't even enclose them cause the tree is too big for that. I don't know that misting would have helped or not since I haven't tried it. I just don't, at this point in time, believe that it would help. The decision is yours to make and no one elses. I'm not here to convince anyone to do it "my way". Even Lepidopterists will argue that "their way" is the best way and the only way. And who knows what is really working or not. One could get 10 eggs and have all of them survive, or 10 eggs and none of them survive. Who knows when we're dealing with nature. I also don't think that losing caterpillars in the small numbers that we do, is going to impact a large enuff number to have any great affect on the population overall. We all take our losses to heart, though. I raise butterflies and moths because it fascinates me. I do it to learn and to marvel at the entire process of metamorphosis. There is nothing clinical about it for me. It is pure unadulturated joy and wonder. I kinda compare it to growing plants. I probably don't use the same soil, fertilizer, watering techniques, that someone else does. If my plant dies, does that make me wrong, or a failure? No. I might try something different next time, or I might just chalk it up to the fact that I didn't get a very good plant or one that had problems before I got it. All I said was "I don't want to mist my caterpillars". I hope I didn't imply that everyone should do it my way because my way is the only way or the highway cuz that's just not me. My motto is "live and let live", and we all have the inherent freedom to choose how do things. You did nothing wrong, Angie, at all. And like I suggested, the fact that the caterpillar didn't make it, in all likelihood, had nothing to do with misting or not misting it. We love having you here and your enthusiasm and spirit. I just love reading your posts and you're doing a fantastic job raising your little ones. Keep up the good work. Susan

tumblenweed in case you are not aware of this you can download and burn many of the linux distros/versions to cd as an iso, they are called live cd's. You can take the cd put it in your computer cd drawer and then reboot the pc so that it boots from the cd drive, then you simply select to run linix from the live cd. you can do pretty much anything you want to do from the live cd, just like if you had installed it on your hard drive but you didn't so everything that was on your pc is untouched. You will be able to use the firefox browser on the live cd to go online and surf, use the office program on the live cd to do word documents, use the audio or video programs to listen to music or play videos, every thing you normally do you can do in linux from the live cd. It is the perfect way to try out linux, you do not change a thing on your pc all you do is stick a cd in the drawer and boot up. When you are done using it select the shut down button on linux, when the cd drawer opens remove the cd, let the pc reboot and you are back as it was before you ever put the cd in the drawer. If you don't want to burn your own cd you can order them for just a few dollars from several sources online. I would get several so you can try out different distros, ubuntu is not the only one to try, I really like Mepis it is very easy for new users, you can get some that use KDE some that use Gnome and there are some that have like 4 different managers on them. you can take a look at some of the versions here. Linux at distrowatch, on that site you will see links to sites you can order cd's from. Get a few and give it a try! Plus everyone should have at least one linux live cd handy in case their windows dies, you can use a linux live cd to still get into your system and often use it to get your files.

I deleted as many apps as I could when I got my phone, so a factory reset would actually give me more apps. I looked through them again last night, and I think I have deleted as many as I can. I tried to delete Instagram and Google Hangouts, and the best I could accomplish was to de-activate them. There's a app called "Lookout" which is supposed to be a protection thing, "in conjunction with Sprint" which is my service provider. Any real protection costs money, which I would be OK with spending but I have no idea if "Lookout" is any good or will not be a gateway for more junk "notifications" on my phone. I have managed to stop the vibrating for Yahoo e-mails and FB posts, but I still get FB pop ups when I turn on my phone. The ads seem to be intermittent. The only app I have that has pop up ads is my voicemail, which I may look into changing. It was the default app that came with my phone. You have to pay to get it "ad free." I suspect the FB app is the gateway for some of this stuff, but I do use it, and I liked that with my smartphone I could take a picture and then post it, unlike before when I had to download the photos from my computer at home. I like my weather apps, but they could be a source of ads. Another app that is suspect would be Yahoo e-mail. I use that too though, so I dunno . . . It kind of burns me because I pay for my phone quite handsomely and it seems like I shouldn't have to put up with ads. This will only get worse because too many people are using the Internet to circumvent paying for content . . . and I suppose free communication that the Web allows was too good to be true for long. Someone has to pay for the infrastructure and services . . .