Oh, Florence--that New Dawn is gorgeous! I do hope it recovers. Just a possibility--last summer my new floribunda started putting out strange growth. I worried a lot that it might be RRD--cut the cane out as low as I could go, etc. Kept on worrying--until someone else posted a pic with the identical strange growth. That poster was also worried it might be RRD. However, someone from Florida posted an response identifying the strange growth as caused by chili thrips. So maybe (I'm trying to be hopeful) that was your problem rather than RRD. I've been watching that floribunda closely this spring to see if there is any more strange growth. Everything is fine so far. I figure the chili thrips were imported along with the new floribunda last spring cuz I don't believe they could survive our winter temps here. In fact, I'm hoping those chili thrips froze their little butts off this past winter and will never return to my garden! Just a thought. Kate

Donna, The story of your nephew touched me before I even read your posts. It was one of those awful things one hears on the news . . . hard to comprehend how something like that can happen . . thinking of the family and friends left behind, and how traumatic to deal with something like that, then I was reading your post, and thought, OMG . . . that sounds exactly like the accident I heard about locally. My heartfelt sympathy to you and to Sean's family. What a tragedy beyond words. There was a lovely article in this morning's paper about Sean, and how some of his students had a special yoga session yesterday in his memory. What an incredible young man . . . the article also told of how he'd let his hair grow long, then cut it off and donated it to cancer victims. Just glimpses into this young man's life. There was an Optimists Creed quoted that the article said that he held dear, . . . "Promise yourself . . . to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble." What wonderful words . . . Through your posts . . . through the newspaper article . . Sean has become much more than a "statistic", which seems to often happen when one doesn't know the family or situation directly. This senseless death has certainly affected people in this area . . . kind of a stunned disbelief that something so freakish can happen on our freeways . . . the kind of thing that it could have happened to anybody . . . that it did happen to this incredible young man with so much to give our world . . . And, this, on the heels of another very tragic, senseless death locally . . . that of a young 25 year old policeman, shot while assisting another officer with a routine traffic stop. He leaves behind his young widow, and two month old son. So terribly sad . . . as someone said while watching the funeral, and his widow holding their precious baby, the little guy has no idea how his little world has been so completely rocked . . never to be the same. Totally different situations, but two young lives snuffed out way before their time . . . Again, my thoughts are so much with you and Sean's family . . . May you all find the strength to get through all of this . . Please know that many thoughts and prayers are with you . . . Chris

Yum! We didn't have school yesterday. I baked a blueberry braided bread and an apple pie. Only a small sliver of pie was left this morning!

Oh, and my folks have been without power for the last few hours, along with hundreds of other people in this area. The winds are wreaking havoc with the power lines! My sis fired up their generator for coffee and TVs, plus they have propane for heat, so they'll be OK. Sure is miserable, though, even from inside the house! Some places north and west of us this morning already had 1-2' snow drifts from just a few inches of snow - that's how hard it was blowing!