That's the first one that I've seen with the 5 petals but there's been a number of unusual flowers on that vine. It's had some that looked like a regular Star of Yelta or Grandpa Otts type bloom but it has been putting out mainly shredded hige type flowers. I figured that it might have been from a Star of Yelta/hige cross. I did have the SOL type vines as well as several hige varieties last season.

Philander is different from Philanderer. See the extra er? We have a road near our house called Hodgson Road. I can't tell you how many people call it Hodgkins (as in disease). There is no "K" in it! And it ends in "son" in "ins". Detail people, detail!

I have walked several cemeteries looking for clues about my ancestors, and photographed important finds. The sadest one that I found was a husband-wife grave flanked by 5 smaller, closely spaced stones in a neat row. These 5 stones held names of their children, all who had died in infancy. The ages ranged from 2 days to 1 yr, one child immediately followed by another in time. This couple did finally have two more children who survived. Your first photo shows a tree with a stone at its base in the roots of the tree. This is a very good clue. The age of this tree is indicative of the age of this grave. The stone showing the names of a family with the same death dates were likely killed by accident - maybe a car crash, train or bus accident, or house fire. In rare csses, it could have been by murder or a muder-suicide. I have found a stone bearing the names of granddaughter and grandmother. The grandmother had been married 3 times - 1st marriages had ended by death of the husbands. However, the 2nd husband had died by jutifiable homicide and the family who buried this pair left off the surname of the husband who had been killed by homicide. On occasion, dual dates maybe found on very old stones. These dates will be in the range of January through March. This occurs due dual calendars that were in use: the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The Julian calendar began the year at Spring, or near the first day of April. because it was not an accurate calendar, it had drifted off by 10 days. The Gregorian calendar was devised to replace the Julian calendar. A system of leap days were added to keep this calendar in sync with the equinoxes and the New Year's d Day was moved to Jan. 1st. Adding a leap day every 4 years is tiny bit too much so about every 400 yrs, one leap day is omitted. Even with omission adjustment, the Gregorian calendar is not perfect, but is quite good and will not require other adjustments for several centuries. When the Gregoian calendar was introduced, it was not accepted by all, mostly those of certain protestant faiths because the Gregorian calendar was a Roman Catholic one, and it had 'messed' with the New Year Day. Easter Day did not change (much) since this day is based on a lunar calendar. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring, therefore, Easter moves around by almost a month. (Also, in the first year of the Gregorian calendar, all holidays took a move of 10 astronomical days, the error that had accrued in the older calendar.) However, much of the rest of the world adopted the much improved Gregorian calendar. The result was that in the religious settlements of the New World, both calendars were in use.

Hi Judy - I volunteer at two websites, FindAGrave and Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK). The assignments consist of a cemetery name and the name(s) of the deceased. Sometimes the cemetery is too far from me, and I turn the assignment down. And sometimes the requested graves don't exist at the cemetery. Records are not always accurate. But even if I don't find the grave I'm looking for, as long as I'm there I photograph numerous gravestones and then upload the pictures to FindAGrave, adding the names of the deceased to their database when necessary. Sometimes I discover that the names are already there, needing photos. I'm not the only person at the KT doing this. In fact, I started at RAOGK and then heard about FindAGrave here. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Susan