This time of year when it's so dreary, it's really nice to read something like this. Kids and dogs. What a perfect pairing. Carol

Glad you like these shots. It was a bit past prime time when I went out, so the Kindle Fire HDX used the flash. Sometimes it worked, other times the rendering was too cool. I was pleased overall though. I could upload direct from the garden to Flickr and when I came inside, just put together the thread. Gesila, I am in awe of what is happening to my hostas this spring. There is much humidity, much direct sunlight as I'm trying for more hours in the sun, but it is a tricky balance. The golds are the most amazing to me, nearly all of them hanging with the bright colors. If they get a lot of hours exposure to sun in the middle of the day, I water them. Like the ones against the deck and the house get full sun until about 1-2 pm, or they did--I moved them this morning, at 7am, humidity so high I was wet with sweat in five minutes. I am reworking both ends of the garden for hosta, almost have the south end set up. The north end will be raised a bit and then hosta moved into the spaces between blueberries, with a couple of big umbrellas for shade. Once the 10 foot high latticed screen/pergola is constructed around the end of June, I will have my potting operation located against that screen. It should give some shade from the summer sun I guess from 2 to 5 when it is awful....then the sun drops behind the tall pine trees across the street, and we begin to cool down. If you can cool down, that is! Luuk, I agree, Brenda's Beauty is amazing. Not sure of its heritage now, but the leaf shape is like Gold Standard. It came into its own this spring, has been lovely from the time it pipped. I work in the garden during the morning, and stop about this time of day. (2pm here now) and do my inside stuff. Then around sundown, or slightly after, I like to go to the garden with my camera. I see the solar lights (individual stakes not strings of lights) begin to flicker, like fireflies waking up testing their twinkles. It cools considerably after the watering and of course the sunset too. If we had an early dinner, I stay until the lightning bugs/fireflies start to twinkle. Some of the pictures I took were just blind luck. I could see nothing in the viewer, but I knew I was pointed in the right direction, and I held as still as I could. If the flash does not glare off a leaf, it works out fine. I did not take time to alter any of the photos, the ones I uploaded were hot off the camera. I can imagine that someone with a good camera and understanding of night photography could have some impressive photos at this time of day. The one I really was pleased with was the shot with Sagae in the foreground, the garden in the middle ground, and then like some old-fashioned sepia/monochrome lavender grainy photo, the Teahouse (my Irish cottage, actually is the inspiration) appears like a spectre in some old southern town that time forgot. My garden is many things, and like Ken says about gardening being an opportunity for adults to dig in the ground, it is also the time in life when I have the skills and the dreams to make it like the play houses and towns we'd build/create in the sandbox. No reason why we should not all make our gardens the idyllic dreamscape we admire. I'm going to recommend a book to you and also the gardens out in Bainbridge WA. Little and Lewis have moved to Mexico now, but their website is still up. I admire their concrete and hypertufa leaves and objects of art, as well as their garden. They used to come to GWeb also. I think they were on Martha Stewart as well. But, I digress. Take a look. There is even a recipe for their concrete somewhere online. (And note that I am not getting any of these posts in my email, although I had checked to do so.) Here is a link that might be useful: Little and Lewis garden INSPIRING

Because I just found out that I should follow a low-salt diet, and because I am the only one, I find myself eating the same thing over and over. In addition, I have not been able to find a seasoning mix that really stirs up my passion for food, so I end up eating just to live and not really enjoying my food. I am not much of a meat or fish eater. Can somebody give me some hints that could help me to enjoy at least some of my food. Have lost quite a bit of weight.so need to be cognizant of this. Don't have any trouble with fruit, just veggies and protein. The stuff the dietician gave me has not helped much. Please help me if you have any help or can refer me to any other.I use Dash but don't seem to like theirs either and I understand that you have to be careful of Potassium salts in some of the mixes. Thanks in advance. Barb

No worries, DC. I just thought you'd like to know. PM, political fundraisers often look cheap on purpose. The food looks good quality and nicely prepared, but the foil and plastic reassures donors. I wish charitable were like that, where there's a lot of la-di-dah-ness and the events sometimes barely pay for themselves. I loved the one everybody was doing in the '90's where they sent a teabag and asked you to stay home and make your own tea so they could put all the money toward the cause. People give more when there's a fancy event, however. Whereas in political, the candidate/cause leader has to look and act like an everyman and very approachable, even when it costs five figures to actually get to talk to them. (I was stuck on a fundraising committee for awhile and took classes, and now I'm a bit jaded.)