Thank you, everyone! It is definitely a welcome surprise here in my garden :). Terrene, the chrysalis on the bird feeder is still green (it's in my bedroom on the floor, by the window). I found another one yesterday under the little wooden porch where I keep my houseplants outside for the spring and summer. There were 5 cats that I found on my tropcial milkweed and I'm thinking that these three are from that group. LOL I've been hooked on butterflies for a long time! Between them and winter sowing, it's hard to say what I get more enthusiastic about!!!! Brad AKA Moonwolf

That is definitely a dirty dirty trick, and I would be feeling exactly the same way. We are supposed to get hit with it too, but it won't do us any real harm, since our gardens are still under snow. We will still complain about it though. Sorry, Annie. TM

Thanks for looking and commenting. Mantis, Panic in Detroit is about 3.5 ft tall - and the bloom is about 7" here - and I just got it in September. I checked the registration info just now and it's registered at 3' and 6.5". I guess I'll see what it does when it settles in here! Nancy, the pink flower is agastache - I have several around and a few are seedlings - I think that one is Summer Love or a seedling from it. Shive, both of those are definitely pink here. NF is pink, without a doubt. WEPD is pink, I could see when it's faded at the end of the day that it would be less pink, but still not lavender - not here for me anyway. I've had Ashwood Still Night for just three years, so it definitely is vigorous.

Not only can the HOA fine an owner if short term rentals are prohibited, but the city may as well. In our resort area, a short term rental permit is required and the city tightly controls short term rentals. Code enforcement is good. In addition, if the covenants of subdivision disallow short term rentals, the city will not issue a permit. Our current small subdivision does not allow short term rentals and, in 11 years, I only know of one homeowner (a builder) that violated the covenants when he couldn't sell the newly built house during the bust. We turned a blind eye and didn't complain given the circumstances. It turned out not to be a problem. The nightly rental was very high, which kept the usage down, and the house sold at the end of the season. However, although our little subdivision does not allow short terms, they are allowed in neighboring areas, so we do get some short term rentals nearby and have had a few noise issues. The subdivision where we have bought a lot to build does not allow short term rentals and is, for the most part, geographically protected from surrounding neighborhoods that do by green space. The few lots that do back up to another neighborhood were priced lower and still slower to sell. At the annual meeting of the HOA last year, a realtor proxy moved to amend the covenants to remove the short term rental restrictions. The motion was withdrawn when it became abundantly clear that all owners present bought, at least in part, because of the restriction. In resort areas, most folks (or their realtors) already know that you really need to read your subdivision documents closely for this issue. In fact whether short term rentals are allowed is often disclosed in the listing. Some second homeowners may want to rent out their home to defray the cost of ownership, while others want to be away from the bother. With this new phenomenon in other good-time cities, I would expect that a wise buyer there would also check the subdivision documents carefully and also check in with the city.