THANK YOU DEAR FRIENDS, for your concern, encouragement and words of wisdom....I am grateful. Dad has been enrolled in the Meals on Wheels Program so at least he will have a hot meal each day. He is getting around well with crutches and not in much pain. I will be looking into some type of day service for Mom one day a week so I can have a day with just hubby and I to be able to get out of the house. Between us we have 7 children (and one grandchild) and were just finally getting to that wonderful point when we could start having some freedom now that Tiffany is the only one left at home (14)....now its like starting all over! Gracie came over last night with her adorable new little kitten Zeus that she brought up with her from Florida and visited for awhile. We do not bring up the boyfriend at all and she knows not to talk about him, so we got to enjoy our time with her. He had 7 months of her all to himself wherein he bad-mouthed us and convinced her that we are all "conspiring" against him, so it is apparent that even though she still loves us there is still some hesitation on her part. She started a new job today and is already talking about saving up to get "them" an apartment. I wonder how this can happen when it comes time for giving references....they have been evicted from so many places. My neighbor told us today that he knows that it was the boyfriend who stole $700 from their home last summer while they were away because he saw him the night before the theft late at night walking through their property. They also had seen him sitting in Grace's car many nights smoking pot after he would drop Grace off at work. He had plenty of time to steal and do drugs since he didn't work. It makes me ill knowing that in the 3 years she's been with him her life has gone nowhere and her future is in jeopardy every day she stays with him. I am posting some photos of "Amazing Grace", which is new to me this spring from Roses Unlimited, and chose to open its very first bloom on the day Grace came home. This is eerily similiar to the rose I grew from seed which opened its bloom the day Mom went into the nursing home....(my first rose from seed ever)....I guess my roses speak to me in mysterious ways! My roses have always comforted me during times of trouble and pain....they are friends I can visit anytime and they keep all my secrets. My thanks for you all here and for roses!!! Celeste Mom in the screenhouse today.... Grace's kitten Zeus..... "Amazing Grace"....this has the most heavenly fragrance you can imagine and is drop-dead gorgeous. The reverse is pale cream and the inner petals soft pink. This was the first flower and it opened the day Grace came home...... Bloom lightened in color as it aged and retained its delicious and strong fragrance..... Today it is opened up fully, exposing its stamens in a perfect circle.....I love, love, love this rose!!!

Robin: Some S greggii form have developed the same way.Teresa and there are several other "Sports" that have developed this way. Some of my neighbors on my street have followed my lead and planted various Salvia's. One garden has had a solid pink greggii this year one branch mutated and turned white with pink streaks in it. Another plant Ruellia britoniana (3 foot tall)and has underground runners it developed a "witches broom".The resulting plant has the same color as the parent but smaller form ( less than 10") and comes true from seed. Not to be out done it comes in 3 colors. Original was Ruellia b. "Katie"(lavender flowers) two pink forms 1)colobe pink 2) So Sue me pink and White Ruffles or Katie white" the only color the species does not come it is white. Sorry about the novel... Salvias are amazing plants the forms of S.farinacea have the same ability.We had a "_Henryi Duelberg" throw a white with blue streaks in the lower lip branch. Lost the plant:( But as they say compost happens! Keep us posted on seed! Art Art

I am thankful that I caught it before the whole thing blew! That would have been 100 times worse. My husband (who I don't deserve) spent the entire evening cleaning the car. While the smell made me gag, it didn't bother him that much because he spent his summers through high school and college working in a commercial dairy, and was somewhat used to the smell. He was able to remove the soaked seat belts and is soaking them in an enzyme solution, which he also sprayed on the affected areas. We left all the windows open all night, and I wasn't able to detect the sour milk smell as I drove to work. However it is supposed to get into the mid seventies today, so the smell will probably come back. When my daughter was young she had a very weak stomach and threw up frequently. Once, she was sitting in the front seat and threw up. It got all over the dash and in the vents. I don't think that smell ever entirely went away.

Hey, on the upside, it's Nov. 1st and we're all still here--in spite of the predictions of disaster and the bad weather and geographical conditions of the past 6 months. I'm just hoping the religious kooks that have been telling us the world was going to end will take a break now, now that they've had two dates come and go without incident. My take is that the weather changes--it goes through cycles. I've learned in my decades here that some years are wet, some are dry. Some hot, some cold. Some stormy, some calm. And every so often they throw in something extreme--like unexpected tornadoes, floods in areas that usually don't or earthquakes. And now and then a bunch of those things happen in close time proximity. We're obviously going through an unsettled stretch, but as weather does, this will pass.