DH and I wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We are planning to go to our DD#2's home for not lunch and not dinner. We are planning to eat around 3:00 so I guess we will say Thanksgiving meal. LOL. It is also an early Birthday meal too. The girls are doing all the cooking and baking so all I have to do is show up. I don't know how to act because I am the one usually doing most of the cooking. It has been pretty cool around here. We had a little sleet on Saturday evening but nothing major. It was a pretty and sunny day today also windy and quite cold. Still was able to do some outside work for a change. I have two little girls that I kept until they started school staying with me this week so they wanted to help. One of them is not afraid of work the other is a born supervisor. LOL. They helped me pick up where the dog tore up a faucet cover all over the yard and rake and pick up leaves and pinestraw. We had a storm come through about a week ago or maybe a little more that caught our young chick (almost two months old) out in a small pen inside the large chicken pen. DH was nice enough to go out in the rain and lightening and put them back inside. We have lost 11 of them. They were growing so good. It has really made me sick to see so many of them die. And if that isn't enough the hen that decided she wanted to set on 4 eggs waited until they started pipping and left the nest. The eggs were cold as ice when I got out there this morning. This is the third time that she has set and hasn't hatched one egg yet. She won't have the opportunity to try again. If she gets broody, I will put her up in a cage by herself. DH is out of school this week and we are trying to get some repair work around the house done. I am mostly staying out of his way. Letting him do the work and helping if he needs me. Again, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for everyday. Jan

Nothing growing... Except the neighbor's discontent. I'd have to agree, though; there are likely neighbors of mine that wonder just what the heck my wide assortment of plastic trash I keep peeking into might be! I live in an area where xeriscaping is popular, and there is a house on the corner that is our "landmark" when giving people directions: "Go until you see the yard that isn't a yard, yes the one with the headboard and neon-painted adirondack chairs in the middle of a bunch of weedy-looking things, turn right..." I frequently have to remind myself that it takes all kinds to make the world go round. For the record, if this yard were in my town, the yard-police would be out and the offending "trash" would have to be removed. There was a big stink in the paper last year about people with three or more offenses to the town's code (weeds, peeling paint, falling fence, trash, dead trees, etc.), would be fined. I guess someone got sick of the neighbors dandelions seeding their yard! I guess there IS an advantage to stuffed animals!?!

Just now seeing your post, Prof. Seems like you had quite a day! I've seen pics of that 'Coconut Surprise' dianthus - it's a pretty one. Have you grown the 'Black Krim' or 'Cherokee Purple' toms before? I've had the 'Black Krim' - very tasty. and you got your 'Hansel and Gretel' eggplants after all! Good show! I visited my mom yesterday - took her some roses. (She passed on a little over 4 years ago.) Came back home, packed up and delivered 5 containers of sprouts to a friend, then was in for the rest of the day. Not particularly productive - but a nice day all around. When is Father's Day this year? PV

I have sort of a "natural experiment" (aka "by accident") going on with restricting the size of Fortuniana by not irrigating it in summer. Late last winter I moved a 'Fabvier' up to a spot at the very edge of the cared-for part of my garden and grabbed the water line of the Fortuniana I also have growing up there (wild-and-crazy and regularly pruned) and gave it to 'Fabvier', figuring I would get around to fixing something up for Fortuniana later. Well, the summer went along and then it was fall without me getting around to it and I'm realizing that the Fortuniana still looked fine, though not putting on lots of new growth. Never did give it irrigation, and rains started in early November. Looked at it this morning -- lots of new leaves and flower buds, but no wild-and-crazy octopus canes yet, which it used to produce all the time when it got summer irrigation. I know of at least a few banksia roses at old houses around town that don't get any summer water but have persisted for a long, long time, and I am curious now to see how Fortuniana fares under that regime. Imagine this strategy wouldn't work in Florida, though, jin...