Last week we had wonderful weather - 70's during the day 60 and even 50's at night. Beautiful. One more day of 90 degree temps the weatherman said and then we too are expecting some rain and returning to fall-like weather. Yesterday it was hot but I decided to prune the branches of the mulberry tree in the orchard. They naturally want to arch and these particular ones were nearly to the ground already, felt like driving through curtains when I was mowing. All this growth this year by the way. It was a volunteer and grew to be a tall tree and should have been cut down but I kept letting it go. Birds love the berries! I used my electric pruning pole saw that can reach 10', I thought my shoulders and neck were going to kill me today but I feel good. Too hot to haul the debris to the brush pile tho. I got ripe tomatoes just not a boatload like usual. I'm cooking and freezing them whenever I get a dozen or so.

I love reading gardening books! My three that I reach for at the end of winter to get me going are: The Cottage Garden by Christopher Lloyd (its like the Bible of garden books for me) English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners by Margaret Hensel (Tasha Tudor wrote the foreword) Front Yard Gardens Growing more than Grass by Liz Primeau Many of the plants are out of my zone but I just look at the pictures, read and get inspired. The Tasha Tudor book is amazing so if you like that you will love these. I think the Christopher Lloyd and Liz Primeau book are in paperback, the other one is a little pricey . Happy Reading!

Thanks, Lav. I read the whole thread, very nice. My escapades in the garden are not that interesting. Unless you count the time my rope hammock busted and I fell unceremoniously to the ground--which was padded by lush monkey grass, thankfully. Or the wintry day I was moving cement blocks in the rain. I had about 50 of them to move, to create a wall to hold back a terrace, so it was about 3 blocks tall. I was working hard, it was cold. But all of a sudden, I saw smoke. I turned my head and looked for something to be on fire. Did not see anything, so continued, saw the smoke again, and stopped dead still. Yeah, I was working so hard, I WAS SMOKING!!! My arm muscles were smoking, like a horse does in the winter time when it is exerting itself. So I was burning those calories that day!! Another day in the garden, I'd come home from working offshore after 3 months away, and was running the lawn mower in the tall grass down my the bayou. This was at my beloved little bayou cottage, MoccasinLanding. I took the clipping bag to dump out, and when it came out, guess what came out with it? TWO big fat sections of a snake! The diameter of the snake was like my wrist, both sections were, and there was no head and no tail. Needless to say, I stopped cutting grass that day. Likewise the day I was trimming bushes and left a pile until the next morning and went back to remove it to the front yard for trash pickup. I was using a heavy long handled garden rake, and when I picked up the entangled vines and branches, underneath the pile was this very unhappy SNAKE. I thought if I poked at it he'd run, but oh not so easy as that--he charged me--and I ran like a coward, into the house. I watched out the window to see what he'd do next, and he hung around for a little while, then slithered off into the patch of bamboo near the water. I am not really afraid of snakes, but I have a healthy respect for the damage they can make me do to myself. :)

Since I am the city clerk he has been going around telling every one I am doing things all wrong and illegal yada yada yada. This is a tiny town and there are many that will listen to him as I am not a favorite around town after stopping a good old boy ring of old town rulers that were dipping from the city coffers. This is pretty much a bass ackwards kind of tiny town.Gives real meaning to red neck. The stress he has been causing me is of constantly having to prove what he is saying about me is not true.Frustration because I should not be having to deal with this crap. I work so hard for this little city. With my careful watch I brought this town in 15K under budget this year in the general fund. Considering the budget was ruffly 59K I did very well handling the tax payers dollars!!! Not me actually I do not run the city. BUT I kept the council appraised on where they stood at every decision financially. Before me they were running amuck. I could go on for hours on the waste before I came on scene. Needless to say bad boys are not happy I have lightened their and their relatives personal pockets. Any way all of this started another psoriasis flair up for me. I have not brought it under control yet. It is very painful with hands and feet splitting and bleeding at the drop of a hat. Sunday my hands were clear of splits. Yesterday I had 16 new bloody splits on fingers and palms. And I did not do this with my mosaics on the hoosier Sunday.See gadget thread on the other side here. Hoping now the election is over and bad boy lost and the rest of my council but one are great the next couple of years will mellow out. Sorry for the rant. I am still pretty wound up.