Ann, thanks so much for the rose wisdom you spread; I've learned so much from your postings. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and as my small contribution, here is perle d'or, one of my favorite roses. Its beauty is displayed through its generosity of bloom and subtlety of color, its toughness and grace of form.

THANK YOU so much for the birthday wishes!! Yesterday was a great day... I got to spend a few hours outside (in the heat!) "playing" with the hostas, which was awesome... potted up some "give-away" divisions of hostas that are duplicates (I love to enable others!!) Then we went out to dinner at Fleming's, a fantastic new-ish prime steakhouse in the area. The food was fantastic, I was stuffed to the brim! They provided a huge helping of freshly-baked peach cobbler a la mode as my birthday dessert, and I shared it with hubby :-) Then we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, too fun! Hubby got me a gift certificate to a spa for a pedicure (I can't WAIT to go!), and hubby's parents sent me some $$ to get a new hosta, so Janice, you ARE psychic and I will be making a trip to Meadow View or Knollwood's, sometime soon! You all will probably laugh at this, but I had a bit of a "milestone" birthday yesterday... I turned 30 years old :-) I was a bit depressed to not be in my 20's anymore, but isn't 30 the new 20?? And I guess this is as good a thread as any to spill the beans on what Janice alluded to... I am 6 months pregnant with my first baby, a little girl, due on October 4th. My goal was to have my first child by the time I turned 30, and I *almost* made it! Well, thanks again for the birthday wishes!! Buff

Keith, The cold held on here just a couple of days longer than it did there. I covered up everything with row cover about 2 days a week (I would leave it covered for 2 days and nights without uncovering it) for about 6 or 7 ridiculous weeks. What was the option though? To let it all freeze? Not if I could help it. Unfortunately, even while we were having nights in the 30s we were having occasional days in the 80s and 90s, so some of the cool-season stuff starting bolting, in some cases, about the same time the cold nights stopped. The onions and taters are fine, the broccoli is okay but slow to form heads (at least it hasn't bolted or formed button heads), the cabbage is right on schedule, the onions may be a bit smaller than usual because I didn't water them much and we're still in drought (though we clawed our way back from severe to moderate drought on the latest monitor) but they haven't bolted...and the garlic looks great. The cauliflower and snap peas produced fine, but I harvested the last of them and took out the plants this week. The brussels sprouts are forming sprouts but they need to hurry up before the heat gets them. The lettuce and other greens have been bolting, and I've been pulling them out almost daily and feeding them to the chickens. There's still a few heads of summercrisp varieties not bolting yet, but I don't think they'll last much longer. The only radishes left are the rat-tail radishes grown for their pods. I just pulled the last of the Swiss chard from last year as it has begun bolting, but have new young seedlings to put into the ground as replacements. I planted okra almost late---holding off and waiting forever for the cold nights to go away. When okra volunteers began sprouting in the area where I've grown okra the last two years, I decided it was warm enough to sow seeds. Now I need to go back and dig out the little seedlings that volunteered and move them someplace where there is room for them to grow. The tomatoes are happy and loaded with fruit, but it won't be as big of an early harvest as last year. I'm okay with that. I am so burnt out on canning, drying and freezing tomatoes that I am pretty much hoping for a late harvest of the paste tomatoes so that I don't have to spend the entire summer canning. I've got three ripe tomatoes, all from Bush Early Girl, sitting on the kitchen counter. I think I'll make BLT sandwiches for dinner tonight. The only other ripe tomatoes so far are from the other plants in containers, but the BEG is in the ground. Oh, the cherries in the ground are producing an occasional ripe one. I don't think the big harvest will start until about mid-June. That isn't surprising considering how odd our weather has been. I think last year's early warm-up just made this year's late cold so much harder to bear. I kept looking at plants covered up in row cover and thinking to myself they looked two months behind last years plants....and they were! They are catching up now that the cold weather is gone. I only planted about 1/4 as many tomato plants as last year. Since the tomato harvest will be manageable, I planted tons of cukes, melons, taters, onions and garlic. I knew I needed something to fill up the garden so I wouldn't just keep sticking tomato plants in every empty spot. I would love a late spring. One year we hardly broke 100 degrees at all. Maybe it was 2002? 2004? Whenever it was.....it was an awesome year. The tomatoes never slowed down and I didn't get all tired and burnt out and let the weeding get away from me. In more recent years, I have just let the weeds win the battle in July and August, and then when it cools off in September I try to get rid of them. It is a real good garden year so far....I've only had two snakes in the garden. The turtle who comes and patrols the rows of potatoes for bugs just showed up the week, so things are starting to feel kinda normal---finally. Dawn

I just saw this today, you made me cry! Thank you so much. I thought I might skip this year and turn 44 next year but decided that this will just be my special year of life instead. I have myself to take care of, a beautiful dd to love and support, a crazy ds who is blossoming into an even crazier young man, and a dh who I look forward to another 20 years of marriage- and more- with. I did get a really nice surprise that did make my day. Besides having a great talk with my daughter, setting a foundation for the future, my BIL called with news. He married in his 20s to a gal who had a boy and girl with no father involved. They were 4 & 8. He raised these kids as his own and he and wife tried several costly procedures to reverse her tied tubes and have a baby of their own. Sadly, they divorced last year. Well, he met a gal with a 6yr boy and gets along with the dad just fine. We thought marriage was coming any day but I wonder if they have postponed knowing I cannot be there. Well, he announced they are pregnant, due in Nov. Just when my treatment will be done. So new life for me and a new life in our family. It is such a great blessing for all.