The pictures are so lovely! Speedy recovery Joyce. You are incredible. So this site is not only about lotus, also about survival-? The lotus seems so full of life maybe there is a connection-?:)) I am looking for advice and tips too - being a novice lotus grower or wannabe. The lotus out on my balcony, which are all in containers, are struggling but haven't given up yet. I planted them in regular potting soil, so perhaps not enough nutrients, and they are getting half a days worth of sun? Should I replant them in early spring with compost? I have six from seeds, but I haven't seen an aerial yet... still they are trying but the leaf browns out of water... one grown from root has a few floating ones... which is probably Momo Botan, the seedlings I don't know. So they are not dormant yet, with Mediterranean climate. I really don't need seven lotuses, but who knows if they make it! Other question... the seedlings are in jugs, like big juice jugs, should they go into bigger pots packed with compost even now they are struggling? Thanks... Tarja

Bump. The Prizer website now lists a bunch of retail outlets in Ontario, including Tasco. So, I called the Dufferin St. store (Toronto) and the salesman had never heard of them. He talked to a colleague, who had also never heard of them. Not a good sign on a number of levels. But, they're in the system there. He told me a 30" RNB would retail at @ $4900. Which is about $400 more than Grand Chef quoted me several months ago when the dollar was lower/ exchange rate was higher. (Note - from memory, but I think it was in the 42 - 44 range. Mightv'e been the RNP though, but I don't think so). Sigh. And Tasco doesn't have one in their store. Sigh. They told me they could order one for me, but the sales guy didn't know when, if ever, they might have one on display. Sigh. I, like some others, am hesitant at plunking down that kind of $$$ sight unseen. And, the difference in price between th US and here is also a sticking point. The list price in the states is $4320. With exchange, that comes out to about $4700 Canuck. Add a couple hundred for customs hassles, shipping etc and 4900 doesn't sound unreasonable. Except that Universal has them for $3500 US, and Select for 38-something. In other words, 5 - 8 hundred less than list. If I know that someone is capable of selling them for $800 less than list and still (presumably) make a profit, I'll feel I'm being played for a fool to be charged list plus some change for border issues. I'd like to buy a Bluestar. I really would. But ... Has anyone else found any of the stores listed as dealers of Bluestars in Ontario on Prizer's website that actually have one? Does anyone know if Grand Chef can still sell in Ontario? Thanks!

No problem, maybee. If you don't want to read it - no one said that you had to. The reference to the high living related to students in Univ. that go to sleep at the beginning of the class that they paid expensive tuition to attend ... because they celebrated a bit too loud and long on the previous evening ... was that I would feel it necessary to help them get their money's worth! It was made substantially tongue-in-cheek, with regard to your situation. Anyway - what responsibility do I have to waken you ... you didn't pay any fees, here! Sorry if I offended you ... I do instigate some levity around here, at times. However - would you like to deal with the issue? Rather than shooting the messenger. I was checking my old copies of the financial magazine that I respect, this evening. I found a saying that I like. "Financial freedom is ... priceless! Pass it on!". Learning how money works is useful, and pays. And I've been offering my viewpoint regarding using money more effectiely for some time. To help people achieve financial freedom. Free ... here. Anyone who wishes to check it out is welcome, and if many choose not to, that's fine ... I wouldn't twist arms, even if I could. I don't appreciate others trying to live my life for me, though I take heed of their comments regarding it. I have felt for years as a counsellor that my task with others is to help them examine and deal with various aspects of their life that they invite me to do, in ways that will enable them to cope with living more effectively, on their own. It's not up to me to make others' decisions for them - they need to become increasingly capable to manage their own lives more effectively. I want individuals and families to learn how to run their own money. A local man who makes presentations about money management laments that there isn't more of it taught in schools, and I agree. Is it possible to buy a dollar's worth of value for 60 cents, as that mutual funds' manager said? Who knows. But I still think that it makes sense to do some buying, as time goes along. As many say ... trying to time the market is a fool's game. "What's the greatest risk in the investment market", asked one writer in the mag, "being in the market when it's going down?". "No - not being in it when it's going up!" was his advice. Good wishes for managing your income and assets with increasing skill. ole joyful P.S. I want to be able to fund what part of my future medical services which are not covered by the Canadian medical and hospital care system, for which I am mightily thankful, though I've made minimal use of it, thus far. Plus cover residential and nursing home care, as may be required. Plus pay for funeral and final income tax. I want to leave some assets for my offspring, for I feel that there may well be some troubled years ahead for our economy - and I'd like to leave as much extra cushion to enable them to cope with it as I can. And I want to support some charities at the end of my life, as I have during it. I lived for years where people had to scrounge what they could to build themselves a shack and wondered where the next meal was coming from. That has an effect. No way could I justify owning one home for year-round use, plus a second for a short stay in summer: millions have been able to (so far) ... I can't. Also - it takes a great deal of energy, which reduces the remaining supply, plus adds to both global warming and pollutants flying around the air and water, to build an automobile. It cost me more a few months ago to fix my 20 year old car than I paid for it less than a year previously, but I think that there's a good possibility that it will run for quite a few miles yet, so felt that it was the responsible thing to do to repair it. We should get on the backs of the builders of our appliances, requiring them to build appliances that will last for 40 years rather than 10, as it takes a lot of resources plus much heating and polluting energy to build a fridge. Soon after they began building fridges, 70 years ago, they were building ones that would last for 40 years. They won't do it now, for they want us to buy new, again ... soon. We can no longer afford such foolishness. They say that it'll take the resources of four planets like ours to serve the needs of our world with its present population, if most of them get to live higher on the hog, anywhere similar to what we've been used to. Further ... I grew up a few years after the Dirty Thirties, the Great Depression ... and during the six years of scarcity during World War II. o j

I'm making a HatchChili corn pudding this year. I ordered a big box of med-hot chilis from the HatchChiliStore. 28 bigJim 10inch chilis i roasted whole, then froze, and smoked a big batch with tomatillos for salsa. Similar recipe as above but uses corn flour and green onion, fresh frozen corn, half of that is pureed. No added sugar. Canned corn is full of sugar. I froze lots of corn this year, three varieties. The tiny white corn is very sweet on its own. Our plans are so heavily veggie but i used to make a pearl onion and pea dish. I just might have to make a small dish of it. LOVE peas. This is the time of year when i buy a big bag of frozen peas and limas and spinach. From a farm in Georgia. I always make a big tray of mixed roasted root veggies, one of everything the market offers. 3-4 varieties of yam/sweet potatoes. Along with baby whole brussels, yellow beets, etc. Harvested a boatload of purple carrots from the garden. That pleases everyone so i don't need to make any one-up casseroles of those. Leftover roasted roots make a great next morning hash with a nest of dressing and an egg in each nest. Baked. My dressing/stuffing is a traditional one from Food and Wine mag years ago. I add wild rice, porcini, apple diced, pecans and a small wheel of lamb sausage. Usually 3 types of our fresh frozen bread, one toasted like croutons and some corn bread. One 1/4 loaf i always thaw and leave soft for that good smooch wet texture. Lots of homemade stock. BourbonCranberry sauce, from the same vintage issue of Food and Wine. Warm escarole salad with roasted radiccio, matchsticked celery root and golden beet, pears, pomegranate dressing, toasted pepitas. That magazine is so stained and tattered, '89 i think, but even has a shopping list tucked in that makes shopping easy. I make Thanksgiving sliders with leftover dinner rolls wrapped in parchment, then foil that go off with those driving or off to the airport. Dressing, cranberry, turkey and a dab of mashed potato as the 'mayo'. All other weekend meals are seafood except for Saturday turkey soup. *vegitarians are covered easily if i have any. I recently made a veggie stock that i can make a dressing by taking out a bit of the ingredients while prepping and make a separate veggie dressing. Why i initially added the wild rice and mushrooms years ago. Pies are pumpkin and chocolate bourbon pecan. Tradition. The BourbonPecan recipe is from that same Food and Wine mag. I just tuck dark chocolate around the crust edge. We did duck one year, but turkey it is as it is just once a year for us.