Sorry to hear about your trees, I have mostly oaks, they're my favorite trees. I would try to get a knowledgeable person to help with the oaks who's roots weren't messed with. Oak wilt or sudden oak decline is prevalent in some US locations, hopefully it isn't in your area, it has yet to affect my area, but I would try to rule it out if here even is a way to do that. What kind of oaks do you have anyway. Eastern white oak Quercus Alba is said to resist this disease better than other oaks. I'm not an expert, there are many on this forum who can help more I'm sure.

In defense of the misleading photos on the HL... I would venture a guess that most (if not all) were taken by hosta lovers not professional photographers. The last digi I had was terrible at portraying colors accurately no matter how I fiddled with the settings. Blue hostas were neon blue, yellows were traffic light yellow and any subtlety in the coloring became screaming contrast. My new digi is much better, but it willstill distort colors if I take the photos at dawn or dusk. I try to stick to overcast days (sunny days are a disaster too!). In any case - it is a gorgeous plant and I hope you are enjoying it despite the color mix-up. Alexa

It could be months before the investigators release a cause for the explosion, but the ammonium nitrate at the plant is notoriously volatile, so chances are this was just an accident. Could also be an accident caused by unsafe conditions as mentioned above.The Washington Post did give it front page coverage and more inside section A later. I suspect that the reason the bombing at the marathon gets more coverage is that it could so easily happen anywhere at any public event or in any public setting. The fertilizer plant, while terrible, was site-specific and not likely an outside attack. I don't think it means one state is getting preferential coverage. I certainly would prefer NOT to get that kind of coverage and I suspect those in Boston would agree. Years ago, there was an explosion at a fireworks factory. Awful, but there was an inherent danger just as there was in the plant in Texas.People are horrified by such tragedies, but people who work in those places realize they can be dangerous. I do think there should be a perimeter around such factories within which houses cannot be built, but again, many people would object to "Big Brother" deciding where they can or cannot live. I agree that regulation is a good thing and people forget what it was like when rivers caught on fire and food was not as safe as it is now, etc., etc. Pesky, just out of curiosity, I have never heard of regulators that weren't publicly funded-who funds you? If you don't want to say, no worries. You just mention it frequently and I really am just curious-it obviously isn't any of my business. I know of private places that monitor things-DH is on the board of one such environmental non-profit-but they have no regulatory authority. I think it would be great if they did!

I wonder if that's how the term "dinking around" came to be. Because boaters spend an awful lot of time dinking around on their boats. I have used the word "dinky" and now I understand it more. I have seen a lot of those little boats, they look so fun! I took a similar boat out once at a lake park where you could rent sailboats. Not much wind, we were actually dinking around most of the afternoon!