5 months before you can eat your fresh veggies??!!!?? It will be 5 months before I can PLANT mine. After a freak rain yesterday and temperatures in the high 30's we only have 2 feet of snow on the ground...except where it is drifted. Today I slogged through some thigh deep stuff to get to my sage in the hopes there was enough for my turkey stuffing under the snow. The rabbits left me quite a bit but I still need to use some of the little I have dried. Ah well. sigh....Mama had to be a Yankee. But once the kids get through college, hubby and I are heading south! We are both sincerely sick of 6 month winters! Kay.

Mike, Next time call in sick.. lol! What a shame you missed the blooms. Maybe better luck next time. We had a similar situation here. The darn thing would bloom after my son went to school, and start to close before he got home. He got to enjoy some of it, but not all. and it was his plant. The real bummer was it was 3 days before school let out for summer. Does the shade trick work on most or all? Or just the type Mike has here? JoJo

Well Ta Daaaaaaaaaa!!! Last Snowflake wins by a landslide. I figured it would since it just has to be my most favorite in the garden. Thanks for your votes, this was fun. Last Snowflake has to be my favorite Stamile daylily so far. I love all the early blooming daylilies and the eyed ones, but somehow this one just tugs at my heartstrings. If you don't have it, get it, it will not let you down. Ann had to get it last year after I raved about it, but I don't think hers has bloomed yet. Mary, I just cannot give Fringy away, it was too expensive, I know you were joking. I do have very many seed pods from Fringy, I put its pollen on anything fancy. Ann and I are working on a trade this fall, she is sending me a Talledaga fan for a Fringy fan. Dot

Some rangetops for islands use an island trim at the back which sticks up above the top of the counter. Our Bluestar for example: The back of the Bluestar island trim has a couple of screws so it isn't terribly pretty. Our fabricator made a trim to cover the back: Since this is an open burner range top, the trim allows air intake to feed air that comes up from under the burners when they run. In the range version of the Bluestar, it also feeds air for the oven. Perhaps the lips on the counter are covering similar island trim behind the burners under the hood or they may have just been put in as a small barrier between the hot surfaces and the back island counter. In any case, it seems an odd spot for a knife block - a utensil caddy maybe, but a knife block? Having your "sheets, cups and tissue boxes embellished" with your house number is kind of weird.