Good afternoon GB - glad to see your clems are blooming despite being left to fend for themselves. Did you loose any? Baby Reed made me smile - what perfect little features. Ei - I'll have to go smell my quercifolia as I've never noticed any fragrance. I cannot remember now which cultivar it is. Michelle - hope your case Shingles is not too severe. It can be a rotten experience - take care of yourself. Chelone - glad Rex is doing well and being such a good patient. Cynthia - any updates on Katie? Last night really lived up to Michelle's title for this Idyll - a hot summer's night. Never the less it turned out to be a great evening with the Chicklits (our book group). We had a wonderful selection of food, lots of wine and good book talk. David came and played his guitar to us while we ate - he played so beautifully it almost brought tears to my eyes. A friend of my sister's from New Orleans has just moved to our town and I was able to introduce her to the group. It turns out she moved in 3 doors down from another book club member and both have sons the same age. I love it when you are able to introduce people and feel they will enjoy getting to know each other. Only one of the group was up for a swim and we floated in the pool under the stars with fire-flies flashing till late in the evening. It felt sooooooooo good. Another friend chatted poolside, entertaining us with stories of her wild youth. We've known each other for over 10 years and I would never have guessed at some of those secrets. We're all rather conventional now, happily engrossed in raising children, PTSA, jobs etc. but sometimes it's fun to remember earlier carefree days. Today I had a work lunch - it was social more than work, and I had the chance to see a training video I was filmed for earlier in the year. I was mostly pleased with the sections I was in, but thought I looked decidedly "wrinkly" especially on my forehead. Perhaps it's time to splash out on some Oil of Olay Regenerist. Tonight there are leftovers from last night (an easy supper), then David has Karate class. I think I should probably shoot for any early night too. Hi to all Mary

Hi, Michael and Mike! :) Michael, Yeah, bungalows we've got :) I live in an apartment built about 1970 in the widely practiced Bland-ism style :) but I look enviously at all the beautiful bungalows as I drive past. Weather and climate are a lot like Japan's, but we have cooler, drier summers and milder winters. Yeah, it's tough, but us mossbacked webfoots can take it. Sun-loving southrons sometimes suffer from severe photon deficiencies, though :) A lot of the native plants are very similar to Japanese natives, too. If I were going to put in another tree (I'd need a very large shoehorn :), I'd go for the native Vine Maple (Acer circinatum), which has lovely fan-like leaves (think A. shirasawanum) with *gorgeous* spring growth & fall color, an elegant gently twisting habit, and grows almost exactly like a weed around here. [Don't move here, though, unless you really do enjoy rain, and clouds, and overcast; and don't mind going for as much as two or three months without seeing that big yellow glowing thing up in the sky. If you truly enjoy sitting out in the sun (or want to be able to sucessfully ripen tomatoes), this is not your climate.] From the USDA zone map, zone 10 looks like it places you either in the Imperial and/or Death Valleys, or in The Greater Los Angeles Area (as it used to be called when I lived there). Going by raw population numbers, the chances are that you're somewhere in LA, which means that you have all the architecture in the world, from excellent to execrable, just beyond your doorstep. Aren't there some pretty nice bungalows in Pasadena, and in & around the Fairfax District? Am looking at that middle gate at Kanjyu-an on p.72 of Keane's "Japanese Garden Design". Is it just me (and/or the angle of the photo), or does that roof have a complex compound curve to it that would do justice to Tomorrowland? Nifty as all get out :) Could those narrow little shingles be bark? Tell me I'm seeing things: it almost looks like some one took a really big (say 8 to 10 foot diameter) tree trunk, quartered it, hollowed out all but the bark and several of the last few tree rings, turned it sideways and set it on that gate for a roof. Is that possible? Or were those mushrooms last night not really shiitakes? :) :) :) Mike-san, I'll look for Carol Stangler's book at the library today. I only have one bamboo, a Fargesia nitida with seven culms and two new shoots. (My garden is very small, 1.5 m by 3 m, about 1.5 tsubo). I read in Ted Meredith's bamboo book that this bamboo species is the favorite food of giant pandas. It is also my cat's favorite plant to eat; and since she weighs about eight pounds (3.5 kg or so), I think she must have delusions of grandeur. (She likes to eat all the plants except the hemlock (smart cat :), the hinoki cypress, and the catnip that I got just for her.) I'm trying to keep things that look strongly Asian to minimum; I want people to look at the garden and say not "Oh! How Japanese!" but "Oh, how serene and pleasant!". I think that in such a small space, I have to be very careful about this. But I had to have one bamboo: I kept thinking about that quote (which you know better than I): "Without food, people become hungry, but without bamboo, they become vulgar." Thanks, Evelyn

oh yes believe me he does need it this type of very serious rogue does not just disappear!! Please tell him not to use any passwords with it this way and definitely not to do any type of banking or financial transactions. the fact it is not allowing him to install security programs is HELLO A HUGE RED FLAG telling him all is NOT well. I can not stress how important it is to have this pc cleaned. The forum at LzD is excellent they lead you step by step through the cleaning process running the proper scans. There is nothing that you can just run and make it go away this is a multi step process. This is the direct link to the malware removal area of LzD, register there, start a post of your own there giving all this info and the team will help. They are very patient and willing to answer all questions. If you need help along the way just let me know I am there also. Analysis and Malware Removal It is likely if he took it in to someplace to have this cleaned they would instead wipe his drive and reformat the pc and he would lose everything not backed up. So he should at the very least back up what ever he treasures that is on that pc.

Alison- how scrumptious are those cats?! I must admit that I had two of the three items mentally purchased as soon as I saw the theme of the swap which is why I was so disappointed when I looked like I was going to miss it because...well...I just love these things and I loved the idea of sharing them. The 3rd is giving me a little difficulty if only in the having to narrow it down to 1 more but it gives me an excuse to go shopping & see what sings. Cloud_swift- I thought of the fragrances because my husband is vilely opposed to anything scented. Potpourri, candles, sachets, even lotions. I've never had a problem with fragrances but after 14 years of having none in the house I find that I've become very sensitive to them. I can barely walk past a place like Yankee Candle. My MIL, on the other hand, adores scented things & is constantly giving them to us...whereupon they get promptly regifted or donated. So I guess I'm overly sensitive to sending my partner something that they might find repellent :-). In my excitement I missed the caveat of no food. Which eliminates the concern about food allergies. But it's still good to know for future swaps! Nina