My ivy leafed small light blue morning glories bloomed first and got to about four foot tall. The Early morning, or tall mix got tallest at about ten foot and bloomed much later. Because they needed to be sown after frost I didn't see a lot of difference between my direct sown and winter sown. I didn't use the best soil though and my drainage was bad. This year I'm doing more and will be direct sowing for ease of planting out.

Sounds Delicious ImHappy. Good luck with your snow and wind. We did not get too much wind but I did work out there yesterday while 4 more inches fell. I am FINALLY DONE with my roof. Such a relief. Now the ice is off of it it should slide normally again. The ice layer was keeping the snow from sliding and it was not warming up enough to slip the ice layer. Driveway got done too last night,finishing at 10PM,before the city got to muck it up with his tire tracks. NOW we are supposed to get a week of no snow then it could start again a week from Tomorrow. I would be happy if it did not start again. I and many others have had their fill of it. Talked to my friend in Planning and Zoning and he said the little town of Weiser has lost 150 roofs of one sort of another. Some sheds. Even so it is a loss. This has not been a normal series of storms. I am so tired I do not even feel like playing with my glass or anything tonight. Just sitting here drinking tea and dozing is working for me. Watched part of a video of them rescuing a man from under his collapsed carport. Showed how thick the snow was on their roof. No wonder it went down. Mine was close to three foot deep on the ridge. I had pulled it off a couple of times but could not break the ice loose until it warmed up a bit. A week of bliss I hope coming up for me.

I change recipes, too, because for the most part I know what I'm doing. There were a few I used for the holidays this year from CF where I held back some salt and sugar, adjusted for slightly different ingredients or whatnot, and I mentioned my changes when praising the recipes, because I didn't make them exactly. But I did use the recipes more than not and do consider that I "made" them. No butterscotch, though. :) OTOH....if the recipe didn't come out nicely (which didn't happen...they were all great), I wouldn't blame the recipe itself if I changed it! But there's also the problem of ingredients and basic methods. Like people don't know that they need to use butter (not the kind with oil in it) or baking sticks or that if it's not said, recipes mean size large eggs--unless it's an amateur recipe and the author doesn't know to specify if they're extra large--or that beet sugar might ruin your baking. They don't know that the "beat butter and sugar" step is for whipping in air and shortchange or omit it. They don't know that oven temperature is the number on the thermometer (that you put in the oven) not on the dial, or even that opening the door can affect the baking. A lot of people who think they're following the recipe as written and having failures, still may be doing it all wrong. I would never review a recipe that I hadn't made, though in certain situations I might comment "sounds good" or "do you think it would work with peaches rather than pears?" but I don't bother reading the ones that didn't either. You can tell from what they say. A useful comment is like for the GF pie crust that says roll between layers of plastic wrap because it's more like a sticky batter than a dough. A skipable comment, true or not, is the family liked or hated it. Somewhat more useful is "this is my new go-to". Re reviews in general, you can usually tell by the details whether they're authentic. Paid reviews, unless it's a real reviewer who's just being paid for the writing, can't know the specifics. Most are farmed to foreign countries, and the workers are chosen for their ability to write decent English rather than their knowledge of what they're speaking of. Speaking of which, a family member asked for pizza for dinner way too late for me to make it. I googled best pizza nearby and most of the listed restaurants had pictures of the dining rooms (and they all looked the same--trendy post-industrial charcuterie chic). One place showed a pizza (a tasty looking one). I looked up the reviews. On Yelp, the average was only 3.5 stars. The negative reviews, however, were about whether the delivered sandwich was cold, the waiter surly, the GF choices limited (they have GF pizza!), or whatnot. The five star reviews all praised the pizza (in long, detailed, multiple paragraphs telling all about their visits and experiences), and many praised the service and attention to customer satisfaction. We got the pizza. It was really good. Much better than many from "better" (i.e., more expensive, more established) restaurants. Reviews can be revelatory if you read them well and look for the things you want to know, rather than just accepting the things they want to tell you.

nickel_kg - I used to have a garter snake who lived here for three years, from a baby about 8 inches long to a big boy about 5 feet long. I don't know what happened to Henry. Hopefully, he just found happier hunting grounds and a mate. When he was little, he liked hanging out in my potted plants, and he'd scare the beejeezus out of me when I went to work on them, but he was never aggressive.