This country is so into an over abundance of laws in all areas of modern life. It is becoming impossible to be a law abiding person. We can't keep track of them all. I just learned that it was $150 fine for not turning ones brights off accidently. This concept of changing to a white list was supposed to be for nurseries shipping in and out between Canada and the USA. All natives were not on the white list. So there was to be no trade of native between countries. What was weird about that white list was that Whole plant families were Xed off of the White list for no reason at all and only 12th of known plants were on it. It had only the normal trade type plants and nothing very unusual. I took Sally Waszowskis book on gardening with Texas natives and over 2/3 of the plants mentioned were not on the list. I looked and many invasives were on the list. It was crazy. I am amazed that this concept of White list versus Blacklist is becoming the norm. One gets lost in the detail and can not focus on the true problem plants. I am really concerned that I won't be allowed to grow my natives. It was not originally to be turned on the populous but be a import export vehicle. A way to control the professional growers. I agree, it seems so arbitrary , so draconian and unenforceable. We are now all possible criminals. Guilty till proven innocent. That Ruella (chi Chi ) is a monster. I got hit in the I eye by some seeds. I won't be sad to see that one go. Some plants should have warning labels. The fact that we make plants illegal that are inhabitants of this world shows how nuts we have gotten.

All magazines are in trouble these days (except for Rolling Stone, which actually increased its circulation last year), but a cheap subscription deal probably doesn't point to Veranda being in worse shape than others. Magazines offer amazing subscription deals to make their numbers more attractive to advertisers. It's all about advertisers these days, not circulation (except in how it affects advertising). I work for a magazine (not a shelter pub) and I can tell you it's tough across the board right now. The best thing readers of magazines can do is let advertisers know that they saw their ad in a magazine (and if they remember which one, so much the better) and do whatever they can to let companies know that they want to see their ads in magazines. I just got the latest issue of House Beautiful the other day and I grabbed a drink, my sunglasses and HB and ran to the hammock. I can't imagine ever getting that fired up about the latest issue of some online magazine. I need paper in my hands!

I nearly let out a scream when I saw Victoria on sale today at the grocery store. This was my all time favorite magazine and I truly missed it. I still take out past issues and re-read them. The closest magazine to Victoria I ever found is Romatic Homes. Not exactly the same as Victoria but nice. I can't say that I am really disappointed in the new Victoria but there is indeed something not exactly like the old Victoria. The general lay out seems to be the same. I love the recipe section and I am hoping the articles will be as nice(haven't had a chance to read them yet). I think there is a certain elegance lacking. Not terrible, but just little things like the bowl mentioned in one of the above post. However, I am thrilled to have the magazine back and maybe if some of us write in with our comments they will improve with future issues. It might be nice to let them know that many of us are long time readers of the orginal Victoria and woul love to continue supporting the magazine but there is some room for improvement. I never thought I would see the magazine back in publication so I'd like to continue purchasing it in hopes that it will once again be like the original Victoria we all loved.

Right before I left for vacation, I went to a local credit union's drive up ATM after hours. The vehicle in front of me took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get through their transaction(s). They finished up and pulled away. When I got to the machine, I noticed they had left a session open and their card in the machine. I closed the session and took the card out. When I got home, I looked up the person on Facebook (rather unusual name) and found him. His truck was his profile picture and it was the vehicle in front of me. I sent him a message letting him know I had the card, it was safe with me and I would return the card to the branch the next business day. Repeated the story to the teller when I dropped it off the next day. Still don't know if he got the card or not but it was the right thing to do!