Pam, I don't think I've grown many of Twilley's varieties, but I intend to start trying some of them every year. For 2013, I'm thinking of trying a couple of their broccoli varieties (Castle Dome and Coronado Crown) that have received very good reviews from Farmerdill on the Cornell website. I figure if they do well for him in Georgia, they ought to grow well here as well. I might try a couple of the lettuce varieties they carry too. I'm always on the hunt for lettuce varieties that can ignore the early 90-degree-plus days that hit us randomly in March and April some years. I hate it when early hot days cause the lettuce to bolt earlier than it should. That happened both in 2011 and 2012 because we were hitting the 90s before Easter, which is just ridiculous. One reason I've posted only my 2013 tomato grow list and not the grow list of all other veggies is that I'm still trying to decide which Twilley varieties I'll try this year. As for the seed addiction.....Tim is just happy it is not a shoe, purse or diamond addiction. Seeds are a lot more affordable and don't require much storage space in the closet. Jay, The catalogs and the updated websites seem a little slow this year. I did go to Sample Seed Shop's website last week and order a bunch of seeds from Remy that "Santa Tim" is giving me for Christmas. I also have looked at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's website, which has updated for 2013. However, a few weeks ago I went to their website and ordered 2012 seed that was on sale for, I think, 50% off, so I don't really need any of their new 2013 seeds. Burpee has updated their website and sends e-mails constantly, but they are pricing themselves right out of my price range. I don't care how promising anything in their catalog sounds--I am not going to pay $5.95 or $6.95 per packet to try a variety that is unproven to me. I try to order Brandy Boy and 4th of July every 3 or 4 years and then not order again until those two are used up. Then, if there is something at Burpee I want to try, I order it when I'm ordering those two tomato varieties. Dixondale did add two new short-day varieties that I'll try this year, but I noticed they didn't add any intermediate or long day types. Of course, they really don't add new ones at a very fast rate. SESE's latest newsletter said they're getting ready to ship the catalog in December. Well, I sure hope it is in early December. I usually get impatient and order online before the catalog gets here which also means the website isn't completely updated yet, and then there's always something in the catalog I wish I'd ordered. The Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog is a special favorite of mine too, as is Baker Creek. I can spend the whole winter looking through the catalogs from Johnny's, SESE and Baker Creek until I practically have them memorized. Forget coffee table books, I love these three coffee table catalogs. I try really hard to get all my seeds ordered and received before the end of the year. There's nothing worse than ordering in January with the expectation the seeds will arrive in a couple of weeks, and then having them back-ordered and not getting them until March or even later. If this drought hangs on, I will push hard to plant everything I can as early as I can in the hope that I can get a good harvest before the heat sets in, and without spending a fortune watering the garden. Last year, the early planting strategy worked incredibly well because we warmed up early, but I didn't plant everything early--only about half. I planted Waltham Butternut transplants from Wal-Mart in March, and was harvesting winter squash by the end of June. That's never happened before (and might never happen again). This year, I'm aiming to improve my harvest of all crops by planting everything as early as is humanly possible. You know, I'd plant the cool-season stuff tomorrow if I thought I could get away with it. : ) Actually, all of the fall cool-season crops are producing very well still which makes it hard for me to think about planting more in mid-winter, but we usually are hitting the teens intermittently for overnight lows by early to mid-December, so the cool-season crops won't keep going indefinitely. Well, except for the kale and chard. I don't know how cold it has to get to really hurt kale or Swiss chard because even when they have freeze damage, they bounce right back. I'm not sure I've had anything hurt them until we got down into the single digit temperatures, and even that only froze them to the ground and then they instantly regrew. I'm ready to sow seeds now, but it is too early. (Way too early!) Every day now I say to myself that I ought to dust off the light shelf, plug it all in and check the bulbs and replace any that seem weak, sterilize a couple of flats and start some seeds, but then I talk myself out of it. This week I noticed some very tiny volunteer tomato plants are growing in the cattle trough with the lettuce. I grew dwarf and cascading tomato varieties in that trough until October when I replaced them with lettuce, kale and chard. I suppose the leaves of the taller greens have protected the baby tomato plants from the frost and freezing temperatures. I think today I might dig up a few of those volunteers, pot them up and put them in the greenhouse if for no other reason than to see how long they last in there before they freeze. On most nights so far this fall the greenhouse is staying consistently 2 to 5 degrees warmer than the outside air. It will stay 5 degrees warmer as opposed to 2 degrees warmer if I had the doors and vents closed by 3 p.m. so the heat can buildup before sunset. If I don't close the vents and doors until just before sunset, it only stays a couple of degrees warmer than the outside air. I also think part of the reason for this is that the days are still pretty warm and the ground isn't real cold yet. I expect that sometime in December I'll see that the greenhouse is going exactly as low as the outside temperature at night. Dawn

Received and opened today a cute card for eggs-ceptional luck that says Happy St. Patrick's Day inside My eggs-ceptional ladies a pink egg a blue egg a green egg First lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), the U.S. president from 1933 to 1945, was a leader in her own right and involved in numerous humanitarian causes throughout her life. The niece of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Eleanor was born into a wealthy New York family. She married Franklin Roosevelt, her fifth cousin once removed, in 1905. By the 1920s, Roosevelt, who raised five children, was involved in Democratic Party politics and numerous social reform organizations. In the White House, she was one of the most active first ladies in history and worked for political, racial and social justice. After President Roosevelt’s death, Eleanor was a delegate to the United Nations and continued to serve as an advocate for a wide range of human rights issues. She remained active in Democratic causes and was a prolific writer until her death at age 78. Unwin’s Striped Sweet pea seeds inside Born on Feb. 15, 1820, in Adams, Mass., Susan B. Anthony was a pioneer crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States and president (1892-1900) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Scarlet Runner Bean seeds inside Pocahontas contributed significantly to the early survival of the Jamestown colony and played a brief but dramatic role in English imperial propaganda. Her untimely death in 1617 cut short her successful mediation between the Powhatan Indians and the colony. Both before her intercession and long after her death, Jamestown--the first permanent English outpost in North America--was precarious, largely because of Indian hostility to the colony and its expansion. Mini Red Turban squash seeds inside 4 packs of extra seeds Queen mix cleome convolvulus Enchantment Mix Buttercrunch lettuce Nantes carrots and a sweet treat - Russell stover chocolate mini bunnies Thank you so much JayeAnne for a sweet and thoughtful package

Cece- those were two good shows today, weren't they! I especially likes the cloisonne book cover. I printed that project out. The pasta maker I have is an Atlas. You can get them in a store that sell kitchen stuff- maybe a chain like Lechter's or a local culinary shop. It was funny when I got mine cause my Dad got it as a xmas present for me. He thought he was doing good by getting a big schmancy electric model with all types of controls on it. When I saw it, my face fell, and I had to tell him I wanted the old hand-cranker for crafting, not cooking! He had to take it back & order a new one, lol! I am not sure what the going price is- maybe $50? Check on Ebay to get an idea- I know they have them all the time. HTH, Karen

That was an intriguing project (on Carol Duvall). Have been experimenting with various ways/papers to accomplish the same thing. Gleaned the paper to use from some great gal on Delphiforums.com (polymer clay site). Tried it and it works pretty well. (Of course, the first time I printed my pics on the wrong side -- you have to have better light/eyesight than I have to tell the difference.) The paper is Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper, Stock # SO41062. Got it at Staples - 100 sheets for less than $15. By the way, it is Matte, not glossy. If you can't get all of the paper off when you've done the TLS process, soak your image in some warmish/hot water then rub the remnants off with your fingers. The picture on the clay doesn't come off. But if I ever get tired of doing it that way, I'll do as Lia questions, and just slap some picture on a slab of clay and perhaps coat the top and bottom with the TLS!