Florence Thank you for the sequel to your story. I am like my little girl--always wanting to hear more. The photos of your father are a treasure as was he. What an amazing man! I sense his indomitable spirit in you. If your posts are any indication (and I know they are), you are a wonderful writer! I encourage you to preserve his story in paper and ink. I'm with Jeri. I worry about loss of connection to family and home. I worry about the pervasive rootlessness that has become so common. So many young people I work with feel like refugees. If stars could grant my desires, I'd wish us all healthy families (however we choose to create our families) and homes to come home to on land that has savored the work of kindred hands. I am so glad you are blessed with photos of your grandparents' home. Your paintings capture the spirit of the place. I wish my great grandparents' home was still in our family, but at least we, too, have some photos. My great grandparents on that side of the family (Dad's mom) were Missouri farmers, and my grandmother told me many stories about her childhood. I have a few items from the farmhouse--old books, a lamp made out of the barn's lightening rod ball, an old carved picture frame, my great grandfather's flow blue cereal bowl, and some photographs. Dad's dad came from a branch of the Lee family, and I have a photo of Great Grandmother Sarah and a couple of pieces of her Civil War era furniture. A chunk of my mother's side of the family came from closer to your neck of the woods--the Dana family from Massachusetts and New York. I have an ancestor that seems like he must have had some of your father's strength of character. He was visually impaired for a time, spent two years on a sailing ship and wrote about his experiences in the forecastle, and then returned to the east coast to practice law. He helped found the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. Wish I could travel back in time to meet him. Thank you for the second installment of your gallery show. Your work is such a joy! My grandmother (the one who grew up in the Missouri farmhouse) dabbled in oils and pastels but said she never stuck with watercolors because the medium is so technically difficult. I applaud your hard-earned skill with the brush! In return for your gifts to me, I'm going to attempt to attach images of two of my grandmother's magnolia paintings. Wish me luck! With great appreciation and gratitude, Carol This post was edited by PortlandMysteryRose on Fri, Jun 21, 13 at 3:42

Xtal. welcome to the wonderful world of clematis obsession. Just a word of caution about clematis in your zone. You would be much better off growing type III clematis than the large flowering hybrid type IIs that Nelly Moser falls into. The type IIIs are much less likely to succumb to clematis wilt and are less likely to brown out in the middle of the summer than the type IIs. In my zone 7a garden in the middle of NC, all of my type II clematis turn disgustingly brown in the middle of the summer. This however doesn't mean that they are dead, but that the leaves desicate in the hot summer sun. My treatment of type II clematis as a result is that they are treated as type IIIs and cut back severely in the winter or early spring to within 6 inches of the ground. They will flower later in the year and then by midsummer turn brown and ugly. At that point, they are cut back once again like in the winter, kept well watered, and given some fertilizer and they bloom again once it cools down in the fall. Another option is to do as gardengal suggests--only trim them back to remove deadwood in the early spring, they will flower sooner than if cut back as severely as I suggested, and then cut them back severely in midsummer after they brown out to get another round of blooms in the fall. Although the type II large flowering hybrids are the ones mostly likely in bloom and present in the garden centers in the spring, think outside the box and try the many different clematis that bloom later in the season and that fall into the pruning III class. I think you will have a much better first experience with clematis! Good luck!!

I don't know if this will work for you guys but I was having trouble with Powdery Mildew on my roses and on the advice on someone who is very knowledgeable, I started washing the roses/clematis off with water twice a week. Supposedly it washes the spores off and I have to say that it has worked. When I am watering, I just wash off the rose and clematis foliage (and everything else for that matter) and I haven't had any mildew on Rooguchi or any other clematis. It's worth a try.... Carol

I actually saw it in previews, along with some of my high school friends from brooklyn. It was very entertaining and enjoyable. There was a lot of singing obviously but it wasnt so much like someone trying to impersonate. If you like her music you will enjoy it. I know all of us who saw it did enjoy it and it's been on broadway for a few years - I say go for it.