Ray Hartman is the longest blooming for me, blooming longer left than Julia Phelps and Dark Star. And ofcourse, the most tree-like. Mine only blooms a tiny bit in fall, but I have seen some around town that bloom sporadically in fall, maybe they get a lot of water? I too love ceanthus and got a little over eager and put in way too many of them. I ended up removing Tuxedo and Frosty Blue, only to make room for other plants. Frosty Blue got tree like very fast, and bloomed heavily, but I don't remember if it was noticeably longer blooming than the others.I also grew it at my previous house and was very pleased with it. I would recommend a variety of other plants, maybe some toyon and manzanitas which could complement the ceanothus so it isn't too monocromatic. And ceanothus do seem so boring at the end of summer and in fall, that is when I succumbed and pulled some out.

She is a little pudgy georgysmom! I thought the dress looked nice on her. Better than her tucked in shirt into too tight jeans look I see her in so often. The belt cuts her short frame off and she often looks chunky and uncomfortable! She has been putting on weight (haven't we all) as she ages. I just don't get the point of the dress? She isn't on the show from the article I read, she was just letting the costume designer play barbies with her. Maybe I skimmed too fast.

I've only had one very negative experience that scared the crap out of me. When I was a teenager, my friends and I were interested in a "darker" subculture and used to hang out in cemeteries and things like that. One night, we were at my house playing with the Ouija board. I know better now, and I won't touch them, but when you're 16 you don't really consider the consequences. We didn't really experience anything during the game because we were laughing and having fun with it. But later that night, after my friends left, I went to bed and woke up to a visitor at the foot of my bed. My room was dark, but this thing was the complete absence of light. It was about 7 feet tall, solid and black as sin. Just standing there at the foot of my bed staring at me. My two cats were sleeping on my bed and they both jumped up, hissing and ran for the closed door and clawed desperately at it trying to get out. I sat straight up and screamed, and at that moment it sort of dissolved into glitter and then shot under my bed. Upon further reflection, I think I invited something very negative into my house and I was relieved to move out soon after. To counter that, after my mom died, I had a few pleasant experiences. My mom wore the same perfume her entire life so I immediately associate it with her. I also collect perfumes and she knows I have a huge collection. A few weeks after she died, I noticed a small bottle of her perfume on the floor so I absently put it on a dresser in the guest room. The next day, I went in there and the perfume was on the floor again. I didn't think much of it assuming the cats had knocked it down so I put it back up, and then the next day, it was on the floor again. I thought this was really strange, so then I put it back up, right in the middle so it couldn't accidentally fall off and the cats couldn't easily knock it off, and put a bottle of my perfume right next to it. And then the next day, I come into the room and both bottles are on the floor. Now, it could have been the cats but I doubt it. Just something fun and it made me smile. Another really strange thing that happened was a few months ago, I really wanted to relocate from Boston to California. But it meant leaving a good job, leaving my apartment and leaving my friends, and I was really struggling with whether it was the right move for me or not. And I landed an interview with a company out in California, and while I was doing some internet research on the company, I Googled the company name and one of the people who works there and the 3rd result that popped up was my mom's name, which is pretty unique and not at all related to any of the search terms. I just thought it was really cool and I interpreted it as a sign. After that, everything fell in place. And now I'm here in California. :)

I've already read the book, but just wanted to comment that The Uninvited is one of my favorite movies. It is scary and creepy without being graphic, a really good old-fashioned ghost story.