OMG! That's scary! You must be psychic! That was my first thought. I'll pack up and send my only other blooming Trisetella off to Oklahoma! As I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes! ;~) Thanks for the complement. I've been so busy, I almost missed this bloom. It fell off sometime the next day. As usual, everything always happens at once. I've got things blooming, babies being born and never enough time for it all. Thankfully, this palludarium is pretty much self-maintaining. It needs cleaned in the worst way, but that can wait a bit. I just have to watch out for the gators! Scott

Pat the same way around here. Wally World last week had put all of their flowers on sale. Had moved the Bonnie veggie plants up with the flowers but still the same price. I understood that supposedly Bonnie doesn't allow them to cut the prices anymore. It is basically too late here now unless you are planning on moving them inside. The local greenhouses/nurseries figured out several of us would wait for the 1st of July sales to buy our flowers and trees. So they moved the sales later and later. And then like one nursery I bought from for several years they started letting the city and organizations come in and take first pick at sales prices. I went over last year guess I was optimistic the drought would end and all the good ones had sold signs on them. The first one behind the city and the other organizations. They did me a favor I ended up not buying anything. And won't this year. I was in there a few weeks ago and they have a sale going on and they wanted to know if I was coming to buy some. I asked if the city and the other groups had picked theirs yet. Was told none of them were taking any. I said I think I'll fast just like they are. It is sad when good plants are allowed to die just because they refuse to take a few dollars less. Many of these plants have been stressed so there is some chance a person is taking when buying them. The same with the trees. I bought an Austrian Pine a few years ago at Home Depot on sale during a hot spell. I asked them to water it before I left. It was too late. I got it home and a lot of it started dieing. I only buy trees from reputable nurseries I know now. And if buying during a hot spell or right after one I have the understanding I can either get a refund or exchange if it dies. Luckily I haven't lost but one tree during the last 4 years. And I set out around 20 up till this year during that time. Some aren't growing as much as normal. Have had a few tips die but nothing too serious yet considering the conditions we've had. Jay

Roc--I do use a good drywaller for myself, and my plasterer is straight off the boat from Co. Donegal--we out gloom each other about the disappearance of real plaster when we are together. I am not sure that I could sell these @ $200-300 a pop to anyone who wouldn't cringe at a typical drywall job anyway :) These appear to be a bit more user friendly than the initial commercial version I have seen. Oh the current owners of that house didn't live by candle light. But they did seem to be...minimalists. There is a chandelier in the dining room, a pendant fixture on each floor in the hallway, and a ceiling fixture in the attic (a bulb). In the non historic part of the house there is a light over the vanity and maybe five ceiling lights in the kitchen. They also have a toilet in a tiny closet by itself on one floor. They lived modestly. That said the house has the neatest most beautifully kept 40+ year old renovation I have ever seen. They may have had TONS of lamps, I don't know. The house currently has one TV, a console from the sixties, and a wheeled cart in the MBR that indicates a portable of similar vintage. The place I live in now has such a thick ceiling that putting in remodeling cans was impossible. It was easier to pull down the kitchen ceiling, put in regular cans and drywall. No in-ceiling lights anywhere else: a pendant in each hall and lots of lamps. Its not for a matter of purity --its just easier than dealing with the ceilings. --------- I think, as opposed to Europeans, Americans want to preserve the relative "purity" or "intactness" of their old buildings because there are almost none, relatively speaking, that are 250 years old, and relatively few, in the scheme of things that are 100 years old. I think the average house age in the united states is 60 (?). Italians may live in an old stone farmhouse or palazzo that was originally built in the 1600s and modernized in degrees as time went by, but Americans tend to "remodel" or knock down and start over. Its a different process.

I do not think it will start a war...just maybe dirty looks and cold shoulders. The funny thing is that the kids go to private school and the family walks past our house every Sunday to attend church services. You would think they are decent people.....but I feel like that is all a mask for the demons they are raising! On the 4th our town had fireworks at the park we usually go to. We walked since it is only a few blocks. On the way home they were in front of us walking. The bigger troublemaker of the two boys stopped to tie his shoe (I think so we would catch up). Well we passed the boys and their father (their mom did not go to fireworks-she does not work or anything?). When we got up to the street to cross there was lots of cars leaving the fireworks. They all rushed out in front of cars and crossed so we ended up behind them again. Well when we passed their house (it was almost 10pm) the dad had gone inside and left the two boys outside hanging out in the driveway! It was like he was asking for trouble.