Once I got home with this hot mess, I wasn't sure where to begin! I pulled them out of the pot and they were pretty root bound, not to mention a tangled mess. I started rinsing and spraying the old dirt off of them to see them better. I decided to start untangling by cutting any little roots or branches that would be above where I wanted the soil line to be for a smooth caudex. I was hoping I would be able to manipulate this without knocking the seed pod off. Then I started to stick my fingers in and begin to feel how exactly they were entwined so I could see what may come out and what needed to be cut. Some of the roots that were heavily tangled were softer but not discolored in any way - pure white flesh -it just seemed they were squeezing each other to death. So I kept gently pulling and prying, and because some of them had a lot of give to them I was able to make some progress. I tried to cut only what I seemed to really need to for now and then I figured I can reassess these plants next spring when they have recovered a bit. Finally, I am able to pull them apart. One of them was "hugging" the other one and then the other roots had grown to intertwine with each other and you can see they were really squeezing each others roots down. And here they are, DR1 and DR2. The one that was "hugging" has a cool caudex, the other one just kind of looks like a big potato! LOL! And here they are, all cleaned up and ready for their reveals: Next spring, they will be pruned back "like I mean it" as Laura would say! LOL!!! I hope they start to thrive and get healthy now that they have some room to grow and aren't choking each other! From this: To this!

I lived in Sydney for most of my life, and it's a good starting point for seeing a lot of the East Coast of Australia. Sydney itself has a lot of historical and interesting sites - to mention a few: The Rocks (near Circular Quay, on the harbour) Parramatta (Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta Park) Fort Denison (near the Harbour Bridge) Darling Harbour The Botanical Gardens (and nearby the old library) Taronga Park Zoo the Opera House There are buses in the inner city which take you all around the place, showing you this at this. You can get off the bus anywhere at one of its stops, and explore further, then hop on the next bus that comes and go onto the next spot. Great for tourists, and quite a reasonable cost. You MUST hop on a ferry from Circular Quay (easily accessible on the train system) and take a trip across the harbour to Manly Beach (or the Zoo). There are harbour 'taxis' and tourist mini-cruises and hovercraft, too. From Sydney you can do day-trips to the Central Coast (Gosford), to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba, Jenolan Caves, Hill End), or to the South Coast (Wollongong, Kiama) and lots of other places in between. Take a couple of days and go to central New South Wales for the Open Plains Zoo near Dubbo, or the Observatory at Parkes. From Sydney, fly down to Melbourne and do day-trips from there. Or fly north to Brisbane, take a trip along the river; and from there go down to the Gold Coast or up to the Sunshine Coast. Do day-trips to Toowoomba or the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's place), or the Big Pineapple, Buderim Ginger. Travel further north for a few days to Hervey Bay and do a bit of whale-watching and some of the islands; go right up to the pointy bit on the map to see Townsville and Cairns and some tropical rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef and some beautiful island - some have holiday resorts. Travel west to Mt Isa, Emerald and other mining towns. Really experience the Outback and visit Birdsville! (one of the hottest places in Australia!) Fly up to Darwin, then travel down to the Centre to see Uluru (Ayre's Rock) and other sites of the outback. Fly down to Adelaide,capital of South Australia, the City of Churches, visit Kangaroo Island. Go north again to the desert to see an underground city, Coober Pedy (opal mining). Time permitting, you shouldn't miss going from Melbourne across Tasman Strait to Tasmania, a truly magnificent place for tourists, with stunning scenery. Melbourne is a city of restaurants! Back up to northern Victoria or southern New South Wales and take in our highest mountains and ski resorts. There'll be no snow in summer of course, but the scenery is fabulous. Fly (or take a 4-day train trip) across from Melbourne or Adelaide to Perth, then across to Kalgoorlie (largest gold mining area in the world.) Do some sightseeing tours for the wildflowers. Fly up to Broome and see some pearl-diving. Call in to Exmouth (where there was recently an airbus incident.) My son is in charge of the investigation into that incident, and he said it's a truly beautiful spot for a holiday. Don't forget places like Kakadu, a huge national park, owned and run by native Australians. January is our hottest month of the year, and she can expect flies wherever she goes. It's the Wet Season in the north, so some places might not be accessible, and they'll be stinking hot and humid as well. Perhaps keep those places for a winter (Dry Season) visit! Don't be too concerned about safety. Just take the usual precautions (like not flashing your money around!), and remember than very few people in Australia have guns! Private ownership is forbidden unless you can convince the Powers That Be that you have an excellent excuse for having one. Never, never go into the Outback or bush without having a knowledgeable escort. Take a visit to Cabramatta (known locally as Vietnamatta!) in company. It's just a suburb with a large population of Vietnamese immigrants. It has a bad reputation, and there are some nasty types there, but also some decent people - but it's interesting because it's hard to imagine you're in Australia - most of the shops and street signs etc are in Vietnamese! Interesting. Best seen in daylight hours - perhaps take a taxi ride around the place. Redfern is similar, except that it's an enclave of a large population of Aboriginal residents. Again, take a taxi-ride - it's only a short distance from the inner city. Actually, it is undergoing a sort of transformation, and has a place on the list of Desirable Suburbs to Live. King's Cross - well, it's the red-light district sure enough, but it has some interesting sites (including the local residents and businesses!) - including the Alamein Fountain, some great restaurants, a waxworks museum etc. Find a tour-guide to take you there, and you'll be safe enough. You don't HAVE to enter the naughty shops and theatres!! And yes, avoid dark alleys. Remember that Australia is an entire and very diverse continent - HUGE, the distances are vast - and you could spend a life-time seeing all of it. But I hope I've given Meredith some ideas.

Nanny - We must have cross posted. Yeah, if the new foam doesn't work it just doesn't work. I'll take it as a lesson for next time! I have a side chair that goes with an old claw foot desk I need to redo. Maybe I'll also add some cushion to the kitty bed. If I look on the bright side it could've been a more expensive mess up! I managed to get the corners pretty good I think. I'll go over them with a hammer. The gun I'm using now is a Fasco. I think it takes special staples but don't know if I can use a different size with it. Like I said it does seem to be working good. I'll keep it in mind for future projects!

A few weeks prior to the airing of this show, I received an advertisement in the mail for a local store advertising the neti pot. I was intrigued and did some online searching. You can now buy them at Longs Drugs as well. I have asthma and allergies and thought this might benefit me. But during my search I also found a sinus rinse technique using a squeeze bottle and saline and thought it more appealing, because you can vary the pressure with which the water flushes your sinuses. I am so happy to have discovered this and I use it every day. Parhelia, you just lean over the sink and tilt your head in a certain manner and the neti pot just uses gravity to take the water through one nostril, through your sinuses, and out the other nostril. Simple as that. And I totally understand your fear of drowning. I was a bit hesitant at first (I had an older brother who loved dunking me as a kid, and I always felt as if he might succeed in drowning me one day), but I don't get that feeling while using my sinus rinse bottle. Do a search for neti pot and you'll find videos showing people using them. I posted about this a couple of weeks ago on the health forum, but got so few responses that I thought nobody used them. Now I see that I was just posting in the wrong place. Of course, my family thinks I'm crazy, but I told them I don't care. I like to breathe freely.