Morning all, Well my computer is finally fixed! Woohoo! Doug is a genius. I had some type of nasty virus/malware/spyware/Trojan.. something that completely gummed up the works. I couldnt keep a browser window open for longer than a minute and they it would randomly close, couldnt open aol and in general, nothing on line was working. Anyway, Doug spend the better part of 24 hours or so eliminating the damned things. They seemed to propagate themselves because hed get rid of one thing and then another two would show up. What a pain in the neck. I have no idea how I picked anything up because I almost never download anything off the internet and only when Ive checked out the source. Anyhow, it appears that my computer is fixed and thats a wonderful thing. The gardens are really going into their late summer foliage die off which makes me a bit crazy. I cant keep up with it. I just love daylilies but I wish they didnt look so bedraggled this time of the year. LOL I also had some powdery mildew explode on the lilac, heliopsis and a couple dahlias practically overnight. Id run out of my Garden Safe fungicide so Ive got to get to the store today and get something to treat this or its going to get really out of control. Oh dear V. I just hate those hornworms! They are so huge theyre nasty and give me the willies. I hope your peppers will be OK. I had a similar but different evidence of pests in the house yesterday. I had some sawdust appear under the light fixture over the kitchen sink. I didnt think much of it but wiped it down. When it showed up again I knew there was something chewing behind there. Well, midway though the day I walked through the kitchen and had a little mouse run over my toes. Euuuuuwwwww!!!!! It ran like h e l down the cellar stairs then hid behind the bookcase at the foot of the stairs. I told Doug about the situation and he ran outside and got the cat. I said to him, it doesnt work that way, you dont just put the cat in the house and hell find and get the mouse. Well, Mr. Rahjii, made a liar out of me. Within ten minutes he started sniffing at the base of the bookcase (I thought the mouse would have been long gone) so I moved it out and the cat pounced and ran up the stairs with a mouse in its mouth. He seriously caught that rodent in less than a second after I moved the bookcase. Incredible! Well, he proceeded to bring the mouse into the dining room and drop it to play with it there and it immediately ran under the sofa. Doug moved the sofa and Rahjii caught it again, brought it into the middle of the room and dropped it again. We finally caught the thing in a colander relocated it to the great outdoors. What a drama. Kathy, your daylilies are nestled comfortably in my holding bed here and theyd even put out some lovely new roots into that newspaper youd packed them in. They are amazing plants. ~~ Love those agaves! ~~ Ill have to grab some photos of my brugs for you. They are finally starting to bloom and it looks like they will be smothered with flowers in a couple days. Mary, how lovely to hear from you. It sounds like you had a terrific visit with Fuquan. Thats just marvelous. It seems that your summer vacation was just a whirlwind of activities. How are the gardens doing? Cindy, so sorry for the continued heat and drought you are dealing with. I use oscillating sprinklers here too. Ive used soaker hoses in the past but they dont uniformly wet down the borders and then I have to hand water the dry spaces and other problems. Then Ive dealt with the clogging problems too so I just do overhead watering. Its a lot more even and if done in the early morning or evening there isnt so much of an evaporation problem. ~~ Thanks much, so happy you liked the pictures. Martie, great score on that Bonfire. Ive got three of them and I read on the begonia forum that they overwinter well! How cool is that? ~~ Marvelous that youve got buds on your camellia. Bug, it sounds and looks like you had a terrific vacation. That wedding looks like it was fun and interesting. Brenda, you are absolutely a scream! I love it that you went out and bought a television with DVD player. So glad your Princess Weekend was a great time. Woody that photograph with the Disco Belle hibiscus with the Bacopa is lovely! It makes a beautiful combination. Michelle, I agree with you 100% about the joy the gardens bring. I love it that I go to a different place in my mind when gardening. ~~ Thanks so much, so happy you liked the photos. Yes, that is a four year old Sunray fuchsia in that photo. Its an extraordinary specimen and I just love it. Eden, lovely news for your family! OKie dokie, Ive got to get my day started. Have a good one everybody! Deanne

I am so desperate for seeds but more so for cuttings. I truly beg of you to let me have anything. I will pay the cost of your time postage and packing and for the value of the plants. I paid $35 for a stick with a shrivelled leafand the $10 postage. PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME I LOVE THESE PLANTS. Name your price. I dont like ebay plant buying any more. Half of what i paid for I never received

On Saturday I went to the public library booksale, and got 7 books, $1 apiece, among them: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor and The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine. Cece, Did you finish The September Society? Did you like it? I read recently the first book by this author, A Beautiful Blue Death, and liked it. Lemonhead, I read Moon Tiger years ago. I didn't like it. I'd be interested in hearing how you feel about it. Kren, They did a movie of The French Lieutenant's Woman years ago, with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. I haven't read the book, but the movie was pretty good. Kath, I'm with Vee, you have to tell us about your trip when you reach to your final destination. It would be interesting if you add which books you read in each leg of the trip.

I finished a bunch of books this summer while hunkered down. My favorite was Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. It is the story of an unlikely nanny to two high profile children who have the annoying habit of combusting. It is so wonderfully done and the nanny is a jaded badass with a soft side. Highly recommend. (Plus, every reviewer--NPR, NYT--has loved it.) In a close-second is Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara. In this book, the impoverished inner city of Delhi (I think) becomes a character. The story is about three nine year olds in India who try to solve the disappearance of a classmate. The main character, Jai, gets his detective smarts from what he sees on crime shows, although it is his smarter female friend who seems to ask the right questions, much to Jai's annoyance. The story is rich in details about community living, from schooling to the public toilets, to street food. It has a lot of "Slum dog Millionaire" about it. And like that movie, (which I loved,) It is both funny and heartbreaking as the book is loosely based on the huge numbers of children in India who go missing each year. Yes, life for Jai and his family is unimaginably difficult, but it would be wrong to say it isn't joyful as well. I also read Louise Penny's A Better Man. I love the Inspector character, but I felt the plot on this one was really weak. But in the end, it wasn't so much of a whodunnit than a conscience wrestling match. And for that this book was good. Eta: I also read 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. Meh. It's a hallmark movie by an author who writes two novels each year. If you like your chick lit set in Nantucket, you'll love it. I found it formulaic and the characters did nothing for me. It should come with a bottle of Barefoot brand white wine. I also read The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. It was captivating, sad, joyous and funny, though usually never at the same time. I passed it along to my parents who both loved it too.