Those stories just make me sick. I've just been complaining recently about that sort of totalitarianism in my small town. The city comes by regularly and rips limbs off my trees in the back alley - they do not trim them, they rip them with some sort of huge machine on a truck. I know their goal is to kill them, and they did kill one old silver maple that I remember from my childhood when it was a baby. (I live in the same house I grew up in.) I try to flout them where I can. Much to my husband's dismay, I let my kids keep a small stand of corn in the front strip of lawn that sprouted up from last fall's Halloween decorations. I maintained it meticulously, weedeating around it, and handweeding between the stalks. That was cleaned up after harvest, but we still have the watermelon and pumpkin vines out front...Thank goodness I'm not the only rebel. My neighbor and cousin are both growing pumpkins in their front yards too this year!!! I really fear I may be cited soon for my "Green Globe" - an experiment gone awry. My daughter and I plant these beautiful foliage plants every year - well, ok, technically they're weeds...Redshanks...really cute. Anyway, we always stick a few in odd places where they don't have the best conditions. This year we had the brilliant idea of putting them in a heavily amended slightly raised bed right up in front of the porch. They usually top out at around 3 ft. in a good year. This year they are over 6 ft, and filling an entire bed. The stems are like bamboo, about 2" diameter in some places. And when it rains, it flattens the whole thing from the middle. I trimmed it back some, but it just keeps getting out of control. When it's at its best, it's really pretty and different. Even my husband admired it for quite awhile. Everyone asks me what kind of shrub that is - "Wow, that grew really fast..." I can't wait to relieve the city - and my husband - of this problem, but it is just on the verge of setting prodigious amounts of the best seed ever...

I don't know what happened here, but I can tell you that the ONLY reason for the text entry is to sort out the bots from the humans. TGF is besieged with bot requests for membership, and when one does sometimes get through, they collect email addresses for spammers, advertise, etc. A little history: TGF was started several years ago when a number of folks got fed up with the new terms of service imposed by the new owners of this site, iVillage. Without wanting to rehash that debate, some of us were opposed to this sites claim of copyright for any picture we posted, even if that photo was on a third-party web server, like photobucket. So Dan, a nursery owner, created TGF so we would still have a place to play. To his surprise, the C&S crowd far outnumbered any other gardening interest by a huge margin. We are all grateful to him for creating a fun and safe place for us to share without losing our rights to our own words and photographs. A few months ago, tired of the constant battle with bots, Dan transferred ownership of the site to Josiah. I have never known Josiah to be elitist, exclusionary, unwelcoming, disagreeable, etc. He is a good guy, really. Because TGF was started by a relatively experienced group of growers, the level of discussion over there is different than this site. There are almost never posts about dead or dying Jade plants, just to note one difference. After spending some years away from this site, a few of us started to post here from time to time. I am still very wary of posting photos like I used to, but I do enjoy discussions here and the opportunity to help some of the C&S beginners. So that's my story, and I'm sticking too it. Neither TGF, nor Dan, nor Josiah, or the members of TGF are elitists. When beginners find there way to the site, they are always welcomed graciously, assuming of course, that they are polite in return. It's too bad you decided to join and be obnoxious, R. Perhaps you could try again, as you certainly have a lot of knowledge to share. As long as you can refrain from posting oddly disturbing smoking rabbit photos, I'm certain you would be welcomed too. Brad

My block from Linda arrived today, and it just so cool! Very crazy-looking, sort of like her life has been for the past few weeks. I was looking at, turning it this way and that way, and then I turned it this way, which makes that brown patch in the middle pop out and look like a doorway, doesn't it? Remember in the original Twilight Zone, in the opening titles where that crazy doorway opens up and the hallway stretches back into infinity? This block reminds me of that, so I'm calling it Linda's Twilight Zone block. Lol, it's got me thinking about how to make a Twilight Zone themed lap quilt! Last week I discovered a site which allows you to design your own fabric, www.spoonflower.com, and I'm thinking that, if I used some images from the show itself, I could put Linda's block in the middle of it all, and have myself a quilt! Linda, Thank You!!! You've inspired me again! Dan

Not a frequent poster but I've certainly enjoyed following your home posts Bodica. You are in an intense phase of grief. "Did I inconvenience.." that is blaming the victim; don't do it. Remember that even though it was not installed, your mother knew that you were advocating for her right up to the end. Institutions can cause so much pain. I don't have experience with nursing homes yet, but the pain the hospital caused me and my daughter at her birth and in the following days took years for me to recover from. I wish I had spoken to a counselor or therapist bc it was very hard on my husband and I. What eventually healed me was the natural process of how dendrons/memories change in the brain (softens the memory; it's been documented), and also looking at how happy/free from hurt my daughter is now. Your mother is free from the pain now, I hope that is a comfort to you. Unfortunately many of us have gone through these nightmare experiences of intense pain; loss of loved ones, injustice. Some say call a lawyer, in certain cases I might, but also I just try to be more loving to the ones I've got left. That is what heals me and honors those who are gone. Best of luck, and fwiw, I'm sure this thread will help countless others. I'd never given a washlet a second thought before, but now it's high on my list for older loved ones and someday me.