I must have been depressed for the past 43 years because I stand by my kitchen window with a cup of coffee and a piece of toast and wait for the first light. The window faces west so there is not a lot of drama. I wish I had your view, but I can see the sky. All is well.

Hi all... So much for just sitting on the patio doing nothing today! I tried, but I couldn't just sit there and do nothing for very long. I HAD to trim off some tree branches. I can't remember what the tree is called, a bogart (?) the one that makes "horseapples". It's a horrible throny messy tree. But it's a mature tree so we decided to keep it and not tear it down. There were a few branches that were reaching out to attack me yesterday when I was mowing, so I decided to attack back. Dawn, I did some more research on the Yucca Extract, and found out that it provides very little value to the plants. It's useful as a "sticker" for water soluable fertilizers and pesticides. I thought I'd try it with asprin water to help the asprin adhere to the pants better, but when I went to Satterlee's last weekend, they had a sticking agent on sale, so I picked up a few of them for $2.oo. I sprayed 50% of the plants today. I haven't experimented with the asprin water before. It was talked about on the Organic forum awhile ago, but the person never posted their results like they had promised - bummer. I'll keep using it every couple of weeks and see how things look. I'll let you know how if I see any differences. Hope everyone had a good day today! The weather was beautiful. Dh and I finally got the little man an inflatable swimming pool - bot was that ever a hoot. DH and I spent more time in the pool than DS did, he had that hose in his hand and there was nothing that was gong to distract him from "putting out fires." I think I have a feeling I know what he's going to be when he grows up!!! You know how little ones are, they go from one phase to another, but this firefighting thing - I don't know if he's going to grow out of it, or INTO it! Time will tell, I suppose. Well, I think I'm going to try out that patio thing again. Hope you all had a glorious weekend! Courtney

Very beautiful sunny day here in the Houston area. We just had our Garden club meeting, we had 2 very nice officers from the sheriff's department come speak to us about safety in our areas, homes, and traveling. Very informative. We have been seeing a drastic increase in crime in the outlying areas around here. Not something we are accustomed to in this area. They said unfortunately the criminals are moving into new territory and are very bold. I don't go out alone but many of our ladies have no one left to go with them. Very sad that the elderly people are now afraid in their own homes and neighborhoods. It was a great meeting and I enjoyed the beautiful weather.

where is the logic that sun might not be sun .. what different iws intensity ... and that is important on heavy water needing plants ... sun in the heat of the day is bad for such.. weak sun at dawn ... when there is no heat.. is still sun ...but not a problem to water lovers .. keep in mind.. many things listed as shade ... are simply shade tolerant ... you dont mention what you are looking at.. so its hard to give any guidance ... e,g. i have a variegated viburham ... in sun its .. did i tell you this already ... its nearly yellow with green highlights ... in full shade .. but for maybe an hour at sunset ... its green with gray and white patches ... they are about the same size.. sop i would conclude lack of direct sun does not greatly impact vigor ... also.. things like rhodie/azalea ... have a fine fibrous root system.. that is usually barely below soil level ... so hot sun on the soil... might cause water shortages in the heat of the day in full hot sun ... and might droop or start showing other signs of stress ... so no full sun ... but a few hours at dawn or dusk would..imo.. be irrelevant ... and in fact.. probably a good thing ... ken