What a relief...no excuse for me not to stay outside all day now. But it is still a little too early for me to start putting things to bed for the winter. Maybe next week... We had a neat treat the other day. I found 16 peaches on a tree that heretofore has failed to produce anything. It was about 3pm and the fruit had been warmed through by the sun and had no insect or bird damage. We washed and ate them before the night was through! Do I 'have' to thin my irises???

By now you have surely planted your garden but.... If you want a different flavor, you've got to try Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Old German or Bradywine. Arkansas Travelers are easy to grow, medium size and wonderful flavor. Homegrown tomatoes are not "mealy" nor do they have "gel", not if they are ripe. I refuse to eat tomatoes from the time I get the last one off the vine (usually Thanksgiving week) until I get my first ripe one (unless I find a locally grown one, first!). The easiest to care for tomato I've ever grown is Green Zebra, they taste great, are small in size, beautiful yellow and green color. They rarely split from too much rain, either. Since you are growing them for others to eat, you could really WOW them with an Old German or Cherokee Purple. All of these I mentioned,(besides the AR Traveler) have beautiful unique colors, that you don't find in the grocery store, (orange and purples) and smokey flavors. Beware though, one of my Old German's last year was over 14 feet tall!

After this was posted the first time I got to thinking that maybe I should have picked something else for my counters. (I'm a marketing grad and still the biggest second guesser of all my buying decisions). My mom is redoing her kitchen and I was taking her around to a variety of places one of which was our counter place. They sell granite, marble and silestone products. I was surprised when my mom said she wanted to look at the silestone products and when I asked why (as I'm drooling over the granite) she said she found the granite too busy. I was shocked> We went and looked at the silestone which they had in slabs and she fell in love with the coolness and the calmness of the stone. I, on the other found them to be cold and boring. She walked through the silestone aisles and I went back to the granite aisles and we were both happy. That's why there are choices out there - none are right or wrong just what is right for each of us. This visit confirmed that the granite was right for us.

You're not the only one. All white would "grind my gears". I'm not a compulsive "clean freak" but white would show every bit of dust/dirt ... and I live on a country dirt road off another private country dirt road. Weather permitting, I keep my windows open from early spring to late fall because I go outside too often to want to be changing temp from ambient temp to AC and back again. To me, that makes hot weather seem even more hot . If you are wanting to reuse your current cabinets, you might consider researching products that would darken your stained cabinets a bit to get rid of any "orange" vibe -- that would be my first choice. Is there a cabinet, upper and /or lower, that is installed apart from the others -- one from which you could remove the door(s) and see if it might be either stained darker or refinished? Or do you have cabinets above the refrigerator that could be removed and replaced with an open shelf if what you try doesn't result in something you like?