I use 1/2 gallon orange juice paper cartons. The nice ladies at church save them for me. They like to help and recycle with things they usually throw away. (they also save shopping bags for me to bag my sales in!)Throw away the plastic lid, cut them in half lengthwise to make two long trays from each carton. 5 halved cartons will fit in a no holes flat, covered with a clear germination dome. So you can do 5 different kinds of seeds in there, and take them out as each one germinates. I dip all the cartons and flats and domes in 1 T Physan 20 to one gallon of water. Then fill with a good seedstarter mix that's sterile-like my favorite Promix PGX with biofungicide. If using promix with biofungicide, fill containers with soil and water in the kitchen sink with warm water until moist. Don't use Physan or it'll also kill the biofungicide built in. If using other mix, fill with soil and water in using 1t Physan 20 to 1 gallon warm water. Then plant seeds. As a tip, don't put seeds in there too thickly or no matter how much light you put them in,they will be spindly when they are overcrowded. 50-75 tomato seeds, banana seeds, or other large plants is max. You can sometimes put up to a seed packet of small seeds like snapdragons that grow slowly as seedlings. If you're doing tropicals that take a long time to germinate, presoak them for 15-20 minutes in 1 t Physan to 1 gal water to sterilize the outside of the seeds to give them a better chance not to mold before they come up. Then cover with the dipped cover and here's the cool part, put them on your FREE heat mat! My FREE heat mat is my forced air central furnace with floor ducts. You take a empty web flat, the ones that look like mesh on the bottom, turn it over and sit it on top of the heat vent. Then you sit your germination dome covered flat on top of it. The heat will heat your flat and also your room because it can go through the mesh flat. Check your seeds every day, and get them in bright light asap and uncovered asap. I put them out into my greenhouse. You can use bright fluorscent lights etc as an alternative. When you're growing on your plants, you can carefully take a sharp knife and cut slits in the bottom of the cartons for drainage if you want to, or just water carefully. Then when you're done, throw them away. Save the flats and domes for next year after cleaning them up.

Oooh, this is a topic that is one my personal bugbears! They get so much wrong in films and even more so in TV series. Stuff blooming at the wrong time of year, snow sprayed over clearly deciduous trees in full leaf, blatantly artificial flowers stuck onto the wrong foliage, supposed rows of vegetables which are just plunked into the ground and are already beginning to wilt. Random bits of artificial ivy which are clearly covering modern bits of street furniture. (I live in an area where many of the buildings and surrounding villages have been used for filming and I've seen them sticking this stuff over modern doorbells and things) Recent classics from my collection include a blatant large flowered garden scabious being passed off as a wild scabious and growing in a wood, where it would never be found. In the film 'Bright Star' about John Keats they are seen picking bunches of cherries(plastic) from apple trees. Then there are all the anachronistic plants where you sit there saying 'the Elizabethans did not have Lilium regale' you fools! And don't get me started on the animals... Starting with the skunks in Disneys 101 Dalmations which is supposed to be set on the outskirts of London right up to the cicadas which are clearly heard in the night scenes of Shakespeare in Love. Only today I saw an episode of a TV costume drama supposedly taking place near Oxford where the nighttime cacophany would have done credit to the South of France in mid-Summer. Phew - good to get that off my chest.

I have a 'moment' to share for fans of W&G. We went on vacation to CA in late June. One of our stops was LA/Hollywood. On our last day, we went to the Los Feliz section because we have a 17 year old son and we'd heard there were interesting shops that he'd like. We did find a great vintage clothing store with an amazing t-shirt selection. Anyway, we had lunch at a funky diner called Fred 62 -- our guidebook had said that Drew Barrymore sometimes goes there, so I was actually looking for her. (I get very star struck!) So anyway, when we were done eating, we went to use the restroom. They had a single unisex restroom in the back of the restaurant, so while DH was in there, DD and I were standing in line waiting and we were practically leaning against this guy who was sitting at the back corner booth with two other guys. I was eavesdropping and they were joking about "having a power meeting at Fred 62..." and clearly were talking about a "project" they were working on. So finally I actually looked at the guy who I was standing 2" from (I mean, I was looking into his ear canal, I swear) and it was Sean Hayes!! (Jack from W&G) I just about wet my pants right there. DH came out of the bathroom and I pushed him back in, went in with him, and started whisper-screaming and jumping up and down, saying "OMG, it's Jack! it's Jack!" Of course he thought I was an idiot. After I came out of the restroom I walked by him again, trying not to stare, but then I stood by the door of the restaurant staring openly until DH basically dragged me out. It was so exciting for me. Actually, it was a pretty amazing afternoon. In the next shop we went to, we saw "Janice" (Chandler's annoying girlfriend from Friends), and then at Starbucks, we saw Ryan Adams (musician) -- not everyone knows him, but DH, DS, and I are fans -- and my son talked to him. I made a fool of myself with Ryan Adams too, but that is another story.

Second Hand Lions Steel Magnolias Shining Through (love, love this one) Lots of Bruce Willis movies I also like disaster movies, suspense, action adventure and.......Sci Fi, don't judge!! lol I love all the Alien movies, Predator movies, Resident Evil movies. o.k., there, I admitted it. Haha