Greetings from downtown St. Catharines, Ontario, and must garden or die. I rent, don't own, but my great landlord lets me do what I want with the property. I just replaced the small front 'lawn' with shrub, perennial and bulb plantings, and will be putting raised beds (for veggies) on top of the unused back driveway, which takes up half the back yard. The other half, formerly just grass & weeds,is now planted with bird-and-butterfly-attracting shrubs, perennials and herbs. I've been here about a year and a half, and this past summer, my garden hosted nine varieties of butterflies, a resident toad and my first hummingbird, who stayed for a month. I am soooo looking forward to next spring!! Ummm ...... could anyone tell me what our Average First Frost Date is?? Been gardening for years, so you'd think I'd know, but I'm kind of in denial about the onset of Winter ....

Thank you Edward, I have considered sending that monster to be quilted, but I will do it. I understand why your wife prefers to piece, since it is almost a discovery process as the design come to life in your hands...Quilting, on the other hand, is work unless you happen to have one of the "long arm" quilting machines, or another very expensive machine. But I fell sure she has shared that information with you already. I would like to see more of your work. While I enjoy photographing blooms and wildlife in my yard, (The present raccoon visitor excepted) your lighthouse scenes (and your daylily photographs) reveal a professional skill level. kay

What terrific pics of all the kids! I love it and hope more will post. Nothing better than when the kids have on these cute costumes. Its just my opinion but I think if you're going to take your kids trick or treating they should be dressed as 'something' even if its done homemade and makeup. We had a huge turn out last night of both, some not dressed up at all carrying a grocery store bag or a pillow case for you to put their candy in and then complained when you didn't give them enough, lol. But most of them were just dressed so awesome, I begged them to let me take pics, they didn't mind and I've got some great shots. Anyway, here's a some of Julie & McKenzie. Also some of my step-grands..... Kenzie daytime with MeMa.... Mommy & Kenzie before T or T MeMa I don't care about your pic, I want to check this out~ The Cat in the Hat Hope everyone and your kids had a wonderful and safe Halloween! Sassy

The tree guys said that that beetle wasn't responsible for the tree dying, a different (and much smaller ) beetle, a pine borer was at fault. In July you could stand in front of the house and hear the bugs munching away on the tree behind the house. The other bug, the green and brown spiky caterpillar, one of the tree guys found with his elbow. As in he bumped the leaf it was on, and felt a strong stinging/burning sensation. I knew what it was because I had researched stinging caterpillars a couple of weeks ago when I found one with the back of my neck. Although the one I found was a different species that looked nothing like this one which is called a Saddleback Caterpillar.