Stacey, I'm impressed that with such a bug phobia you were able to take such a great picture. In my garden I've seen hornworm poo (I mean hornworm 'frass'), the hornworm damage and some amber colored eggs on some of my leaves but I'm trying to avoid the hornworm... I think I would have a heart attack! The wind really picked up today and I was out trying to tie up some some loose stems...I had my head and arms stuck deep in the jungle imgagining the whole time that a green worm was going to fall on me...I never knew we had hornworms in Chicago! I don't know what the hornworm/fruitworm road may hold but you're not alone with you phobia. Good luck to you.

Thank you everyone for your very flattering comments. Sleevendog, you gave a very reasonable and fair criticism for my BLT. Thank you. Let me give you a little background on how I ended up with a somewhat challenging looking BLT. First, it is always my preference that a sandwich should not be too thin. Thin is for making cookies and pancakes. Also, a sandwich should not be too thick. You should not risk dislocating your jaw trying to bite into one. In trying to make a typical normal BLT with lots of flavor, there is a need to pack lots of tomatoes and bacon. So you end up with a drippy soggy mess that falls all over the place Here I tried to re-engineer a BLT that is very flavorful but just thick enough to be a reasonable not too thick BLT, with lots of flavor and not soggy drippy, one that does not require you to wear a bib to enjoy. Tomatoes – very thickly sliced juice fresh tomatoes, only sweet juicy center-cut slices, still warm from the hot summer garden, were put into the dehydrator for about 4 hours under low heat. The thickness of the slices were reduced to about ½. The slices were cut into halves so they would fit better on a square sandwich. They also happened to fit on my square platter. Bacon – Normal fried or baked bacon rashes tend to be fatty or too overcooked. They also come in all kinds of shapes which can take up a lot of room if you want a lot of bacon on your BLT. I came up with a way to bake bacon so that the end result is a slab of high density bacon that is very uniformly done, very flat, very crispy without overcooking or fatty. I am not a fat eater. Again, because the bread was square, so the slab of bacon was square in shape, which also fitted nicely on the square platter. Lettuce – from my garden, freshly picked, washed by rain. The bread – bread needs to be very fresh, I used 100% whole wheat bread, slightly toasted. Folks, I ended up with a very unusually tasty BLT with intense tomato and bacon flavor. I am spoiled. I highly recommend the above method. dcarch

Not sure what they did to the site, but it's been acting strangely for a few days. Whenever I click on an image and then close it I have to re-load the thread. Every time.

This is the first maiden bloom of Earth Angel, planted late spring, potted from Heirloom. Just bloomed a day or so ago, 100 degree heat in late summer. very small, low petal count, flat form, washed out. I would say it doesnt look like the online photos at all but still roughly in the same color category. New Dawn and Viking Queen are pretty different color wise. may legitim be a mix up unless very high heat is washing it out