Insurance companies hate vines that cover roofs, because they are fire hazards. My friend Jane just had to kill her bougainvillea to please Allstate. The potato vine was glorious, but it probably was a fire hazard. It was covering half of Mikey's office. I took this picture before it came down. I love the orchid colored violas. I go on a quest for them each year. I also like the deep red ones and the orange ones. I can't grow pansies very well, but I got that lovely rose and white one- just one six-pack. I have no place for them so I'll dump them on my mom :)

Second round rec'd today - thanks so much Kim! This should just about take care of the final few jugs of wintersowing I had left; very ready to be done with it :-). Will get the stamps out to you ASAP. For all the gripes I have with the PO, they did manage to get them here durn quickly I think, and for that I thank them; and I thoroughly understand, Kim... I'm not good with numbers myself... words yes, numbers no way. ;-) Re the move, Kim and stage_rat, that's just been a dream of mine for 20+ years... not going to happen any time soon (if ever). Yes, need to let things settle here I guess; I do tend to cut and run when things get bad (or just turn my music up really loud). My mom and dad moved 80 miles away several years ago (to get out of the city), and now my mom tells me I can't move to Oregon until *they* die... (???!!!) lol. This from the woman who moved away from her whole family in PA to *TX* and then eventually to *MO*. lolol. And she's only half kidding when she says I have to wait. Sooooo, here's hoping I survive long enough to move to Oregon. :-) Anywho, thanks for the kind words, and again thanks for the great swap and the great seeds. Best wishes to all. Terri

Yay! I'm glad to hear things are looking a bit brighter for you. Make sure you post some pics of your finds!

If you can recycle without too much difficulty, assuming you have a small space for items, or donate it to someone who might be able to use it, why not at least attempt to? I *don't* have a small space for items (I do have places for the things my city trash program recycles--paper, plastic, glass metal). I can't easily donate it to someone who might be able to use it--a trip to the Goodwill or Salvation Army (or any other such place) is an entire morning, and I have to plan my entire family's life around it. Also, as I look at the stuff the ends up at rummage sales, the Goodwill, etc., and the stuff in my house, I realize more and more that most people don't need or want it--any of it. If it were truly valuable or useful to ANYBODY, it wouldn't end up there. Also, stores like that tend to have more than they can use--more clohes, more old furniture, more out-of-date appliances and kitchen gadgets. one or two items less that end up in a landfill. Since I am not actually talking about newspapers, etc., which truly do get "recycled," I don't agree that donating stuff (as a form of recycling) keeps it out of the landfill. It just slows their arrival down. Things like chafing dishes, old clothes, etc.--those will WILL be in the landfill eventually. It's only a matter of how much good they go in the meantime. Filtering through another person before they end up in the landfill is good--but not if the cost of making that happen is too huge for me. And right now, it is huge. So I find myself just throwing things in the garbage. And it's a huge relief. It has changed my life. I'll pass something on directly to another person, who actively wants it, if I know about thema t the time. Or I'll pass on books to a charity's used book store, bcs my DH goes there anyway. I've occasionally brought something to work and set it on the "giveaway" shelf. But if I decide one day that I don't want a certain dish, or kitchen gadget, or piece of clothing anymore, I just throw it out. Then it's gone. It's not still in my apartment (which is bigger than it used to be, once I remeasured it--1,100 sq. feet ) making my life miserable, and getting in the way, and WORSE, looking crummy. Bcs I've discovered that "stuff sitting in the teeny little foyer (or worse, the dining room) waiting to go to the Goodwill" trashes my home MUCH worse than that stuff did when it was still in a closet. Until I gave myself permission to throw things away, I actually used to decide NOT to clean out a closet, bcs I didn't want to trash the place by digging all the junk OUT of the closet and into the open. I don't have a garage, a back porch, a mud room, a laundry room. If it's easy to send something on to a place where it will GENUINELY be useful, and it won't be a burden, I'm all for that. What I am NOT for is the idea that trying to donate it should become MORE clutter--chore clutter, or stuff clutter. It's stuff. It's not in charge, whether it's environmentally "righteous" or not.