Betty, It sounds like you had a wonderful French adventure this summer! I'd glad most of your plants made it. I cannot remember where you are in Oklahoma, but if you're in northeastern OK, The Tomatoman's Daughter is open now with fall transplants. I'll link her website below. Many local nurseries have fall tomato plants, some big box stores do or will in the next couple of weeks and some growers sell them at Farmer's Markets. I usually grow my own fall transplants, but even though I got the seed out at the right time and have it right here on the table beside me, I haven't started any. I'm still on tomato overload from summer and don't even know if I want to grow fall tomatoes. I do have quite a few plants that are really healthy, have fought off persistent pests, and will survive and produce for fall if I don't yank them out, so that may be the route I take. Tomatoes that look almost dead are pretty good about coming back given the chance, but there's no guarantee of that. Fresh fall plantings often have a lot more vigor because they haven't been fighting the pests and diseases for months. The advantage of keeping spring-planted plants going is that they have a huge root system already. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Tomatoman's Daughter

Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

Split is home to Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian was one of the later Roman emperors who had this palace constructed as a retirement home. Over the centuries different parts have been repurposed, which is why an old Roman Temple is now a Christian church. They've been digging out the old foundations which are really neat to take a tour of. From Split I'd recommend a trip to Trogir. Trogir occupies pretty well all of the tiny island it is built on and has some amazing ancient buildings. There is a very good walking tour on offer from the tourist office. Along the coast, you could stop at Krka which is similar to Plitvice but different enough to be worth visiting IMO. Then on to Zadar, which is really interesting and has the Sea Organ and the Tribute to the Sun. This is a large plaza at the edge of the sea, which has little lights embedded in it. The Sea Organ is pipes under the plaza which are open to the sea and which are tuned so that when the waves push air up them they make a sound. The lights light up at night and make random patterns depending on the sounds generated by the Sea Organ. It's really neat, and to sit there and watch the sun go down is a magical experience. Apparently Alfred Hitchcock said they were the most beautiful sunsets in the world. We visited a church there which was built around the year 1000 and is clearly made from chunks of old Roman buildings. Form Zadar you go up to Plitvice Lakes, which are amazing, and huge. You could easily spend two days wandering around in there. The scenery and waterfalls are just gorgeous. We did this trip in reverse a few years back and I would love to do it again. If you like cheese do try the Pag cheese which is delicious; it's a huge pity we can't get it here. Also try the Prsut, which is like Prosciutto. I really envy you :-)

I'm reading If You're in my Office, It's Already Too Late: A Divorce Lawyer's Guide to Staying Together and it's great! I've never been divorced, and read a review of this one in the NYT I believe so decided to check it out and am enjoying the author's voice very much as well as the advice. Most of it is pretty standard (communicate, have sex LOL) however hearing it from the frame of someone who is intimately familiar with what happens when people don't follow those rules is interesting. I'm also completely addicted to the Joanna Brady series of books from JA Jance. Someone, forgive me for not recalling who, recommended these on this monthly topic and I am SOOOO grateful! I've been inhaling them in sequence; am about to start book #6 and they are excellent. Luckily my library seems to have them all available as Kindle editions so as soon as I finish one I fire up my online portal, download the next one and I'm off. I think I recommended The Child Finder; read it last year and liked it. Sometimes I get into a genre rut and unfortunately there have been quite a few books out recently with the theme or subplot dealing with child abduction or abuse. It's such a dark topic and yet some authors do amazing work in exploring the psychological after effects. My next novel is Where the Crawdads Sing which has gotten rapturous reviews including an eye-popping 4.8/5 stars from 800+ Amazon reviewers. Hope it's as good as the folks praising it say!