I guess I agree with Arthur. You start out trying everything and find what works. I have major limitations regarding environment and have tried so many different plants over the years and know what I can grow easily. I do grow some which take more effort, but I limit those. I don't have time or energy to struggle with plants which are not happy with me and my conditions. The kind of list Orchid 126 uses would not work for me. I use notes on each individual plant. I have nobile dens where some grow dryer than others. Hybrid plants all require different treatment. I could never generalize. I have a Blc which likes dry, another likes water. Some continue growing all winter, some flower, other do not. I use the individual notes to remember which responded to what treatment the year before and which ones did not. I've killed plants, in the past trying to generalize conditions. I grow indoors at windows and under lights. I'm not great keeping up notes, but I do note flowering times, potting mixes which seem to improve growth. I note what seemed to produce the best growth on individual plants - heat, light, dry/wet, outdoors/indoors. I have 8 Phals. Four fit the general picture of growth. Two like higher light and warmth. One spikes in winter with warmth. Growing species Catts and hybrids require notes on each one. They may be Blc's but behave very differently. I have one which loves dry. Is potted almost mounted and is happy. The others are happy in bark, sphag, etc. Some bloom twice a year, others once. I keep a index card file. Every plant has a number and a card. Some cards have a photo, but lots of notes when the plant first came to me. I play with conditions and make note about the results. There is always a plant which is difficult and needs to be grown differently. I like my cards because it is quick and easy to look up a plant. I keep them in a metal box which travels around the yard and house with me. I could never follow a month-to-month list. Every year is different, every plant is different. Jane

Yes, congrats to everyone! The "other" generous winner was buteau3rd, who made 3 blocks for us and declined to enter the drawing. What a lady! Congrats to calliope and carolnv. You're both getting a treasure trove! In order to get a picture of all the blocks together, I'd have had to lay them out in the yard and take a picture from the deck! So they're posted on the Google docs December 2010 page by participant (link below). Calliope, if you'd like, go ahead and choose which blocks you'd like so I'll know how to split them! No need for extra postage, our postage kitty has been gradually creeping upward, so there's enough to cover the split packages. Again. congratulations to EVERYONE for such a wonderful lotto month! What a great way to close 2010! Kay Here is a link that might be useful: December 2010 Block Photos

Book club and authors - first we pick a place we'd like to go, then we do some research on a local author. We look for someone who lives there, uses that location as the setting for a book, and is not a bestselling author. Bestselling authors are not terribly interested in meeting a group of middle aged women from California, though I do think the group met someone fairly well known before I joined, which was about 8 years ago. This group has been established for quite a number of years. Anyway, when we find a likely prospect we write to them and ask them if we can take them out to lunch to talk about their book. Sometimes they say yes, and those are the ones whose books we buy, read, and then go to visit. We have had wonderful discussions with a number of authors, none of whom are famous. There are some accomplished writers out there producing well-crafted books that do not become well known. Anyway, it ends up being a mutually enjoyable experience, and along the way we explore a city we might otherwise never have seen. It is fun!

I've read two of Anita Shreve's books, neither of which impressed me greatly. The first was The Pilot's Wife, but I can't recall a blooming thing about it. The second, The Weight of Water, was more interesting since it was about the Smuttynose Murders where a couple of Norwegian immigrant women were killed and a third escaped by hiding from the murderer on the tiny island where the killings occurred. I like historical true crime accounts (this happened in the 1870s), but Shreve's book is a fictionalized story which automatically makes me value it less, even if it is very well written which it must not have been or I would have remembered it better. Strange Fits of Passion doesn't sound very appealing to me. Vee, the U.S. law that you referred to is part of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which states (among other things) that there will be no "abridging the freedom of speech, [or] infringing on the freedom of the press..." It is the right of the American people to know of criminal actions and for journalists to inform them of developments in any criminal case that is considered for trial. As for jurors' names and identities, those are not published until after a verdict is found or a mistrial is declared if no verdict is rendered. Jurors have the option, then, after the conclusion, of talking to the press. Some are very willing, for whatever reasons they have. The freedom of speech and freedom of the press are much cherished rights in the U.S., but they are not without controversy: namely, for criminal trials there can be the danger of 'trying the case in the press/media' and the worry that a defendant cannot get a fair trial and a change of venue may be asked for. With today's media saturation all over the country, venue changing is not as effective as it once was. Sub judice drives American journalists and news followers nuts in countries where the practice of investigations and trials is to keep everything opaque, under wraps, and as impenetrable as possible.