Nor do I use an alarm clock, so I began a gradual shift last week. I normally get up so early that over-sleeping isn't really a problem; it's just the blitheringly unnecessary inconvenience. After listening to him go on about how wonderful the time change will be, I let DH re-set all the clocks. Heh, heh, heh. -I'm not really as nasty as it sounds, I *did* tell him that he missed re-setting the VCR. Before the program came on.

WYATT'S CAMEO is my pick of the day & I like Magnificent Rainbow. The last photo of Ashwood is just gorgeous in a clump, I see what you mean about it changing. Both photos are pretty, & I like them both.

Erica: I always love those little bonuses. In almost every Jade pot of mine I have another little plant growing from a leaf that fell off or that I planted and forgot about. Oksana: I guess I was under the impression that a slight twist in the leaf was a defining feature of obliqua. Your obliqua is very nice, and healthy. Christopher

Kim, The first time or two that I went to PA to visit Tim's family before we got married, I had a heck of a time adjusting to the weather. Even years later, after I was more used to it and thought I knew what to expect, it still would blow my mind that we could leave here with days in the 90s or 100s and nights in the 70s or 80s and arrive there and have highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Once, on Memorial Day weekend, the low up there was 26 degrees and I had to borrow a coat and gloves from Tim's grandma because I was freezing to death. We went fishing. Early in the morning. For the life of me, I never expected to get up and go fishing when the air temperature was in the 20s. I couldn't wait to get back to the Texas heat. Another time, for the fourth of July we drove from Tim's family's home in PA to Niagra Falls for the 4th of July and it was cold, misty and the highs might have made it up into the 60s. It didn't feel like July 4th to me! I laugh about it now, but at the time I was miserably cold. Sometimes (though not often) we will have cool mornings really deeply into June. Maybe this will be one of those years. Or, maybe the heat is about to arrive and slap us upside the head and shout "Summer's here!" Sandplum, I guess it depends on the area. Where I live in southcentral OK, in a hot, dry summer, our low rarely drops below 78 or 80 in July or August, so once the heat arrives, we have to wait until probably September to have a cool early morning like today's. I hope to enjoy this cool weather while it lasts, and will try to get outside to the garden very early every morning. I just had a copperhead issue in the garden yesterday afternoon and that makes me want to not even step foot in the garden. If I can get out there while the temperatures are in the 60s, I can get my harvesting done while the likelihood of encountering a snake is pretty low. I already decided yesterday that based on how close the snake was to me (about a foot away), that I'm probably already done with the weeding of areas that have lots of vegetation in them. If I cannot see the ground beneath the weed I want to pull, I'll just ignore it. I remember 2002 being very cool well into June because my Father-in-law was visiting from PA and had been looking forward to our usual June heat. Only, we didn't have any heat yet, and he was so disappointed in that. I think I had a really good garden year in 2002, so in my mind I always associate good June nights with great gardening conditions, and they don't come around all that often in June either. lcdollar, I really hope the forecast is correct. I want another cool morning...or 10 or 12 more like this morning would be even better. Our high temperature at our house today hit 86 and our forecast was for 83, so I hope that's not a bad sign. I'd love for it to stay cool for a while longer. I need to dig potatoes as soon as the heavily saturated soil dries up a little, so maybe it would be wise to hope for a lot of heat to dry out the soil, but instead I am hoping for cool weather to make the digging more pleasant. Dawn