Hi d_giffin, thank you so much! I like the white peonies very much now. Yes, sometimes mistakes can make it better! :-) George, I want to first of all tell you how much I really appreciate you giving me all the advice! Thank you! You know, I actually realized that I might be overcrowding these paniculatas. However, I did it anyway, thinking that I might be able to severely prune these lovelies every year to keep their size down, and more importantly, I did it for a selfish reason - I know that this is not my forever house, and I probably will only be here for a few more years. I wanted to enjoy these paniculatas and so I just planted them there, realizing that they may not be fully grown before I leave... ouch! I hope that is not too selfish. You know what? The worst thing is that someone or myself will need to chop down the shrub(s). The physocarpus is Summer Wine, which is actually supposed to be only half the size of Diablo and Coppertina. So it is much more compact. The crabapple is supposed to be about 12' tall when fully grown. Yes, it may create some shade, but with crabapple, the foliage is not that dense so it should not be too much of a problem. The neighbors' shrub was always a mystery to me, until recently! They did not even know what it was - they just planted it there several years ago!!! Anyway, it's a lilac... yikes! It might get big. The thing that gets me is that the buds get eaten by the deer every year before they bloom! Sigh... I am going to advice my neighbors to prune it hard every year! LOL Anyway, if I do want to move the Limelight, since it was in a 5 gallon pot before and this is its 3rd season now, how deep and widespread should I expect the roots to be? I want to make sure that I will dig carefully just so that I won't damage the sprinkler system. The trouble is, if I did move it, I am not sure where to put it then... Hey, George, if you remember, I already removed the Pink Diamond from this bed to another corner after your advice last fall!!! :-) Thanks again!

She went to her first chemo day today. I am not sure if she got treatment or if it was an education day. She does not do computers much. She has a hard time with her smart phone. She is in my garden club so we are all close. At least she has a support group. Thanks so much for helping her with your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks for all the advice. I used the food processor to shred the apples and carrots. I didn't have any frozen cranberries left, so I used 1/2 craisins and 1/2 dried cherries. I think the zip of fresh or frozen cranberries would be better. I used pecans, and with all the cinnamon flavor in these muffins, I couldn't taste the nuts, though the texture of a little crunch was there. So I would advise to use walnuts for their flavor. Very nice, moist muffins. I am bringing half to my sister. My recipe made 2 dozen muffins.

John, my "good" knife isn't anywhere near Shun good and totally replaceable. Most important, my toes are still all there. :) PART II There's a twin of my own good knife where I was cooking the actual dinner. I tend to use it because it feels familiar enough, even though I don't really like the angle of the edge they have on it. I think the flipping German knives have twin telepathy or something. The mixer and food processor were gone! They conspired to boot them out of the kitchen and I was way too stressed out to go looking for it. My pumpkin was stringy, so I ended up tearing the fibers by hand. I wasn't trusting that sneaky knife! Then, we got out a carving knife for the goose. It's a distant cousin to the testy chef's knives but I guess not in the club. The twin knife got mad, and, you guessed it, jumped off the cutting board and onto the floor! I have to admit I was too focus on the obstreperous bird and didn't inspect the edge. Later I did wash it, having forgotten its snit, and I would have noticed if there were nicks. And if the edge needs truing, well the regular cook must know how to fix it. I never thought they'd get jealous of other knives. It was my chef's knife, last night, that volunteered that I might rather chop the nuts with the spring chopper. :) I do like some specialized tools, even though I can do just about anything with my chef's knife. The chopper is purpose made for nuts and is so much easier. I'm no good at the smush garlic with the side of the blade thing, though my knife works better for slivers than a garlic mandoline, which inevitably gets bent out of shape. I love a good, heavy garlic press. I can press the garlic right over the pot and let all the juice go right in. I also really like the texture of the garlic. That's not just any press, mind you. It has to be a good one. And I love the chopper. And my strawberry huller. And (hush!) my mandolines. (...and the new food processor...)