finally ripe cherokee black,and yellow boys coming in heavily as well as the beef stake,but few as yet ripe on the bs. have been up to my ears in yellow straight neck but the zukes are having hard time this year, as well as the cukes. the green beans are very productive and are wonderfull cooked fresh,scarlet runners bloombing but no pods yet. eggplants are producing but not too fast, have picked about a dozen or so from 8 plants but have lots of babies. all the chillies and bells are loading up and ripening. have enjoyed cabbage collards radishes,onions,scallions,as the climate here allows year round growing of these. have tried something new this yr celery slow to grow but here it allows cut and come again. have started my winter seeds of lettace,carrots,chinese cabbage, boc choi, kale and brocoli.

There is harly a nectar plant better, easier, and more persistent than lilliput zinnias or cut and come again zinnias. I maintain a small butterfly garden in a neighborhood wilderness park (south side for the sun, of course), and in Houston's heat and humidity the zinnias did very well indeed. Although the plants eventually succumb to fungal diseases and get pretty rank, nevertheless, I bring on successive generations on a monthly basis. Our growing season is around 8.5 months, and butterflies are around for all of that. I also notice a number of butterfly species' using the Asclepias curassavica for nectar. At the risk of going off-topic, I also advocate native plants for both butterflies and native bees. The native bees tend to be more targeted on particular plants as preferred nectar sources as opposed to the promiscuous selections of their European-honeybee cousins. I get leafcutter bees visiting my Gaillardia pulchras (my plants start out as native seed and are cultivated by me). Gaillardia is a long-season bloomer that will push out flowers even if not dead-headed. Gaillardia is perennial here, too. I also like the short but spectacular bloom of Centaurea americana, or Basketflower, which is a native annual that reseeds itself in my garden without intervention. The are butterflies and native bees all over it in the spring. I once observed my crop in full bloom only to find native bees were staging a bacchanal on the abundant and large blooms, something that I observed for the first time in 2005. It occurred to me that solitaries, which comprise most native bee species, need a place to rendezvous, and my Basketflower crop is one place where they do so. The clicking of chitin-on-chitin has delighted me when I have encountered small and large species pairing off for quickies. Since native bees need to get this done on an expedited basis, their reporoductive burst ends quickly, so regular observation is necessary for me to see this phenomenon in May here in the Heights section of Houston.

Buehl, please do! I was just trying to save something of use. I'd been checking the GW all night, turned my back for 15 minutes to watch the Health Care vote, and whammo! all the posts were gone. I kept refreshing, thinking, "This can't be!"

Well we're not done yet, so I'm sure I'll have more to tell you in a while..:) But, for now: -I went with a lot of vintage lighting. First of all I tried to save money which I did; second, they were charming and well-made fixtures. most of them from Europe. The wiring is fine, etc. However when the time has come to install them it appears some of them missing little things like crossbars and stuff..naively we go to Home Depot where we are told none of the standard American stuff will fit these lamps. So then it begins: running to specialty stores, ordering things on British website(why British? no idea. apparently they do have some of these parts. while other sites simply don't), and I-don't know-what-else. Yes, I saved a lot of money. Maybe hundreds maybe thousands I don't know (of course I'd like to think it's thousands)). But I really have no patience for another month spent trying to refit two thirds of the lamps. The GC has much less patience than me of course. You get the picture.. -Or: the countertop in the kitchen doesn't overhang enough. Doesn't bother me I must say, but my husband is really mad. We had no idea we should specify it, and the granite guy didn't ask. It also happened so that the inspector from the gas company came at the same time to look at something the city saw as problem(not related to the build; just a coincidence) when the granite guy was working on the template..we had to run between the two of them. The inspector is outside, the granite guy is measuring inside..no wonder we didn't ask. I don't know why he didn't; he then said that we seemed really knowledgeable and confident. No! That's how I look when I'm really tired lol. -Or: we went with a very complicated design for master bath. Or should I say, we wanted a lot done in a modest space. It looks good by the way. But they redid it so many times to fit it all, that now we'll have a) narrower vanity b) narrower bathtub. If I knew I'd let go some of our grand ideas. It would be still nice, and I'd have more functional space. -Or: I'd order some things more in advance than I did. I had no idea that oil rubbed bronze and chrome are usually in stock, but polished nickel is suddenly considered a special order and takes weeks. And you don't really know until you start actually purchasing. In short I did not know many things. So a designer wouldn't solve all of these issues of course. But he/she would anticipate most of them. Simply because of experience, better spatial thinking, better knowledge of the resources..because of studying it before and dealing with it a lot every day. Even me-not a designer-would be wiser a second time. Only I'm not going to do it for a second time, never ever..:) And if I'd choose to work with someone and had money for it-wishful thinking here-it would be someone significantly more talented than me. Sense of admiration from working with someone better than you not just helps. It creates excitement and pushes you forward too. When you're alone it feels different. Not right away maybe. But within several months, I felt less excited, less creative, less confident, less everything. It's not fun; when it's small reno it might be fun, when it's long and involves a whole house, it's already a job. Almost a full time job. And you don't necessarily enjoy it as much as you imagined. Every job has nice parts-and parts that are tiresome and very lackluster. You do the lackluster, a lot. And you pay for it too:)