We've not enjoyed the show on tv so much in ages, made me think once again how great it'd be to have more entertaining and little less competition, to bring best of Idols and have some extra fun for everyone. No matter, all are winners, except me and especially my daughter, will be listening to Katherine and my younger daughter to Chris (her forever Idol). I think Taylor got the votes for being a friendly country guy -if the show was about congeniality he'd get my votes, he had fun and made us join in the fun, appearing more self-confident- a few years older helps, even if he was at times comical with his dances-we can all use more fun. It reminded us of the times when the "She Bangs" guy was picked as the winner on line, lol. We're fine with the fact Katherine took the 2nd place- it's almost or as grand as the top. Her voice will sing for itself. Wish we didn't have to wait so long for more Idol, GB

Susan, I started doing square foot gardening in the mid-1990s and it works really well for some things and not as well for others that get really large in our climate. My spacing that I use now is sort of a hybrid of spacing from Square Foot Gardening and from John Jeavons' "How to Grow More Vegetables....." book, which has a complete title about as long as the distance between Marietta and OKC. I've just experimented with the spacing until I find out which one gives me the best yields. I think Square Foot Gardening would be great for you, but encourage you to think of it as Cubed Foot Gardening and grow as many plants upright on trellises, cages or arbors as you can and you'll get even higher yields per square foot. With smaller plants like lettuce, onions, carrots, etc., the standard Square Foot Gardening spacing works fine. With larger plants that turn into monsters in our climate, like Indeterminate tomatoes, squash, etc., I go more with John Jeavons' spacing or space my plants even further apart. With peppers, it generally varies, depending on whether a given variety gets 2' tall or 4' tall or taller. I have found most peppers give a really high yield even with close spacing, and so do many determinate tomatoes. I see Lunas most years in April, but not every single year. I usually don't see them in a bad fire year, but I'm not sure if that's because they aren't "here" or if I am just gone so much during a bad fire season that I miss seeing them when they are here. At our house, I almost always see them either on the ground in the area under the big security light that lights up the garage/parking area or hanging around outside the plant shelf window. When I see them at the fire station, it usually is early in the day and they're normally lying on the ground near the security light that illuminates the front of the station. I've never seen the larvae, but we have acres and acres of woods so they could be anywhere. We have tons of native pecans and hickories scattered all over our property (and on the surrounding acreage as well) so I guess that explains why we see them pretty regularly here. When I was a kid, they'd hang out on the front porch, usually on the screen door, when we were playing in the yard in the evening. It seems like we saw them a lot more often back then than we see them now. We have every kind of wildlife you can imagine here (as you well know) and most of it is a pleasure to have around. Seeing the lunas, because of their relative rarity, is a real thrill. Dawn

Auntjen, I have a Victorian (I think?) set of prints and one of them says "Bless this home" even though I don't like the idea of God singling anyone or anything out to bless. I love that type of needlework sampler you posted! Not an instructional sign, but I have this up in my kitchen from my funny great Aunt Alice. My 6 y.o. must have just noticed it the other day because she read it, and then asked, "Mom, are you a half-fast cook?" I told her I was!

Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous! I love the linen texture shown upthread. I had chosen a green tile and then chickened out and so like kksmama, I have way more than a touch of green jealousy! This tile just looks so right in your kitchen.