Bocci - Thanks for your nice comments :-) I do love to do portraits though getting a real likeness can be quite difficult. It's a shame I couldn't see some of your work. I sometimes actually put the drawings under the scanner and piece the bits together to get them on the website - seems to work ok. Do you have a scanner perhaps? Anyway, thanks again. Bernadette

I would say that the one on the left could be Guacamole. It would be better if we could see the whole plant rather than a leaf. By this time of year, Gold Standard should either be a parchment color or gone limp with the first frost, in my experience I agree, GS -and most of the Fortunei family- is one of the first ones to go down in the fall, PLUS, the leaf shape is too round for GS. Guacamole is a distinct possibility if it is one grown in the shade, I keep mine in mostly sun and they're considerably lighter. Pieter

The downside to worms and related areas is that it's not like math . Reason I say that is that if a person in Maine gives me (in Arizona) the a couple of the dimensions of a triangle I can give them all the info they will need to find the rest . Not so with worms . There seem to be no gurus . There are no places to find rock solid bet your boots on this sources of info . There's a lot "well , for me here in XXX we can do this or that" and so on . I have searched and am down to just a few "almost" sure fire methods to use worms . I am now getting ready to use euros to live in the soil in which I garden so their poop will help the soil and as they produce more than I need then I will sell them as bait . The produce will benefit me as well as a few bucks from anglers . It seems that raising worms will work but like the word says "it's WORK" . Start small and learn from your mistakes . A friend of mine had to get out of the biz because shipping costs ate him up . He was selling on E-bay and they demand overnight shipping on worms . I'm sure that if you ask enough people questions you will hear some stuff over and over . You can start with those answers and answer many of the others through trial and error . Keep your worms separate so one mistake does not kill them all . Experiment with small groups . This stifles growth at one end but in case of a catastrophy you are not starting over . It's a slow process but at the rate that worms reproduce you will eventually benefit from their sheer tanacity . I would think that 5 years is a reasonable time to give for this type of project . It's a long time , granted BUT I'm reminded of a girl I knew back east . I advised Nursing School . She said (and I paraphrase) "My God , I'm 40 years old . It will take 6 years since I work . I'll be 46 when I graduate."I replied "How old will you be in 6 years IF you don't do it ?" She is a retired RN and enjoying a GOOD retirement . Work it like a school project . Ask every question of every person . When I was younger I was a pilot . We had a little saying . "When I had 10 hours I didn't listen to anyone . When I had 100 hours I listened to SOME people . When I had 1000 hours I listened to EVERYONE." This is something that "might" support but will at least supplement you . The business will be YOU . It will succeed if you make it succeed and fail if you make it fail .

Count us in on the round plastic Rubbermaid hampers - inelegant, but efficient. Laundry is DH's Sunday morning "thing", he's been doing it since he had to lug the clothes basket 3 blocks to the laundromat when we lived in the city, and I could barely walk that far not carrying anything. The little old ladies who ran the place taught him how to do the wash, fold clothes, etc. He gets to watch whatever horrible dreck he wants to while doing laundry, and (by mutually-agreed-upon rules) I am not allowed to complain one bit! LOL Thanks to the front loaders it's only about 3-4 loads - it's usually finished by noon. The laundry basket lives in the bedroom closet; except for DH's truly foul workout gear (which used to and will again live in his dressing room, aka the guest room) we don't have any odor issues but I keep a zeolite bag hung up in there too. They're available at most hardware stores, Home Depot, etc. under the brand name "Gonzo Odor Eliminator". It's a white mesh bag with weird-looking white pebbles in it. Really works though, and it doesn't stink like "Stick-Ups", Renuzit and similar so-called "deodorizers". If you're not a naturally grubby/smelly person, aren't doing things to get dirty (like gardening), and it's not "sweaty season", it's totally doable to get more than one wearing out of your outer clothes, especially if it's something you've only worn for a few hours. (Am I the only one who still does "at-home clothes" and "out-in-public clothes"?) I only have 2 pairs of jeans right now (dratted Lyrica weight gain) that I alternate, and sweaters can often get multiple wearings before they need a wash - I usually wear a t-shirt underneath in case I get a hot flash though. I wonder if that's why my clothes last for ages? Washing and drying is actually hard on fabrics. DH has oilier skin and is more prone to getting dirty just in the normal course of a day so he rarely gets a repeat wearing out of anything. We try not to buy dry clean only clothes in the first place, dry cleaning is expensive and I don't want those chemicals in my home or on my skin ("green" dry cleaning isn't all it's cracked up to be), but dry-clean items can get multiple wearings unless visibly dirty or smelly. I never iron or put in the dryer clothes that have been worn once though, since that sets dirt/perspiration/stains. Stacks and Stacks has a lot of great looking hampers and laundry sorters. I really miss having the laundry on the same floor as the bedroom as the wheeled carts are very cool. I'm really looking forward to getting the washer and dryer stacked to maximize space in the microscopic laundry room.