The specialty mail-order nursery seems to have been well established before the Civil War. Definitely by 1900, a pretty close relative of the mail order business as we know it existed. Nurseries would place ads in magazines, offering free catalogs for the asking. Customers would mail in orders, and receive plants by mail. Since there were no agricultural inspections in those days, international mail order was simply a matter of money, time, and interest. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many old catalogs available on the web. Old horticultural magazines are findable in a hit or miss manner. You may want to look at scanned copies of 'Meehan's Monthly', a horticultural magazine put out by Meehan & Sons nursery of Germantown, PA. Among other things, they sold conifer cultivars.

Stephanie, I understand your confusion, and agree that it is not a true bully / victim situation. However, I really think that what my son did was over the line, and wanted to be sure he realized it, too. If they were playing out in the yard, I would have handled it differently, but there are different rules for the yard than for school, and he is old enough to save any roughhousing for after school. I don't know what, if any, punishment the other boy received, and truthfully, I'm not even sure it matters. Ds has never complained about "MJ", so what reason would the school have for punishing him? When the asst principal first talked to ds, ds only said that they were playing around - didn't mention the pencil-poking until later when he talked to dh. What I wanted ds to get out of this, is reinforcement of something he learned years ago with my niece. My boys and their friends all play rough with each other, and know not to expect any sympathy from me if they get bruised while wrestling or playing dodge ball. But when my niece would come over, ds would play with her the same as he plays with his friends, she would screech, and he would get in trouble (because she had made it clear that she was not interested in their games). Pretty soon she would screech whenever he came anywhere near her - I think just for the fun of getting him in trouble. So I told him, I know that she is overreacting, but I can't defend you if you have so much as touched her. So just stay clear of her, and then you'll never be in trouble. I know it isn't exactly fair that he has to walk on eggshells around her, but in life he'll find there are always a few people who don't play by the same rules he does, and I wanted him to be able to differentiate between who is "safe" and who is not. To me this is nearly the same situation - the school makes it clear that students are not to touch each other, but he did it anyway and paid the price. Yes, the other kid seems to have changed the rules between himself and ds midstream, which is unfortunate, but still, I really don't feel that I can defend ds' behavior here - he has to be responsible for what he does regardless of what anyone else did. Probably will not call "MJ"'s mom, though - your comments made me realize that there is really nothing I can say to improve what will be an uncomfortable situation. "MJ"'s mom will eventually see ds out playing with his friends enough to realize he is not a big bad bully :)

well, I've always been akin to dark, moody, thought provoking art and without a doubt, this group of examples is by far the most interesting/weird/intentional/and hilarious bunch of playgrounds I've EVER seen...after being offline for quite a while from sheer depression from my baby granddaughters moving over to Ireland...anything is upbeat to me these days. this is the morning after I hooked up my computer from about two months of hibernation. what I think of the pictures is that first, it's allowed....and that's a good thing, considering most are not exactly free countries, with the same freedom of expression ot freedom of speech we have. the quality of them is raw and unrefined, which I really like...they're thoughts from someone's head that have been put to 3-D....come on, you gotta admit that it's the purest form of free form in a public place most of us have seen..lol I absolutely loved the card table with the skeletons! and the graphic one of the kid sitting inside the woman? that's gotta be rebirth in the most basic explanation.... and for heaven's sake... who in their right mind hasn't wanted to be pooped out an elephants butt??....lol...lol...lol it's given me something to see, and feel more alive and inspired to do art work.... I have nothing to lose, after seeing what some will display...right? Becky, here in the dreary, snowy, strangest weather in recorded history, in the middle of spring in the pacific northwest!

What a lovely thread! I love and adore the birds in our yard. I never noticed the mockingbird " mocking " or singing at night but I'll listen for it. We have one in particular that is always been by my garage and twice this week gotten trapped in my SUV when I leave the trunk open to unload. I have many cardinals , a few blue jays and one downy woodpecker. Lots of mourning doves and to my delight a handful of eastern bluebirds as well . And in late summer sometimes I'm blessed to see a pair of quail . I have a cavalier spaniel who is very quick so the quail tend to move along :( lots of frogs / toads here too This middle bird: no idea what kind but one of them flew into our garage and got let into the house accidentally for 3 days! He stayed in our Christmas tree! It was hilarious. He was very hard to get out of the house Love the hawks and the herons when we catch them too . Birdwatching is a favorite hobby of mine !