Oh, Campanula, you have my sincere sympathy. What an awful thing to see in your garden! So sad. Gardening has given me some understanding and empathy for the poor farmers and the plagues and pestilence they suffer year in and year out. No wonder they grasp the latest biological engineering that will make their crops bulletproof against disease and/or unappetizing to the pests. The dastardly villains in my garden are squirrels and armadillos. If I lived in the country, I would definitely sit out at night with a pistol loaded with snake shot, but with my neighbors house 15 feet away I have horrible visions of putting holes in her house - or mine. Picture Cameron Diaz in "Night and Day". Not to mention what snake shot might do to rose bushes. I tried traps without success. Yesterday I found an armadillo hole in the front circle and decided to act. Don't call me stupid - just desperate, but before sundown assuming they were down there, I took a plastic pot about the same size as the hole and hammered it up-side-down into the hole, essentially plugging it. I'm totally aware that they can dig out around the pot - that's what's stupid about it. Then I went to the hole under my bedroom windows and hammered a big square pot into the hole up against the house and a dishpan up against the pot with a bag of chicken manure on it and a couple of ceramic tiles on the ground next to the dishpan. This morning I checked them. They were not dislodged or dug around. Could it be possible that as we speak those armadillos are dying a horrible, thirsty death in those holes??? Please say yes. Kim, I loved the poisoned pigeons video. Are there as many words that rhyme with armadillos as there are that rhyme with pigeons? Sherry P.S. Oops, I just read that dead armadillos really, really stink terribly. How disgusting. Ya think the smell will penetrate a cement slab foundation? Oy vey. Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Yes Ann.....Our mail system seems to be faster than ever. Oh I will use it Ann, but I hate to, because I'm scared of ruining it, but I will use it, thats for sure. I sure like the way the grains run through the wood. I will be making a cheese ball to put on it first. I think a nice Cheese Ball will compliment it nicely.( Thanks for the idea Dixiedog) You really didn't have to do that Ann, but I just love it, and I shall look after it well.Thank you once again !!! You really are a Doll. Diana55

A news report from NASA says climate change is resulting in greater extremes: Dry areas are getting dryer; Wet areas are getting wetter. I don't know *where* we are in that spectrum. I would have said 'moderate' (30 miles north of Chicago), but after last summer's extreme drought...maybe there will be no more 'moderates'. The pears along our driveway loved our two days of 70's and 80's. It was like watching popcorn pop, the way they went from buds to full bloom. Our magnolia is full out, even dropping some blooms. Everything is hurry-up-greening, tired of 'holding it all in' during our long, cold Spring. Sorry about your pear, littlebug. A friend in Denver said her fruit trees had to be enjoyed the same day they bloomed, because they'd be covered in snow the next day -- but at least hers didn't split. Our pears are columnar -- are Bradford's more 'spreading'?

Doesn't it make you wonder what is happening to our society? Sometimes it feels like you can't have anything. This is the kind of thing that made me move to the country. 20 years ago, I had a whole lawn removed by some desperado while I was visiting my mum for the weekend. We sold our house and moved to the coast. I have not returned to the city since. In fact, when the coast catches up, I move a little further out. Cheers Julia