A treasured moment in my life was the chance to sit down and talk with Adelma Simmons shortly before her death. The conversation was wide ranging and, of course, included the phenomenon of gardening as a hobby in the 80's. As Mrs. Simmons is undoubtedly the author who brought herbs out of the closet and into the mainstream, her comments suprised me. Though she encouraged anyone with a pen to give it a shot, her concern was that the garden book world would be overrun with "fluff" and little substance. This prophecy seems to have come full circle. There are just so many "how to design a border" books that one can read and gain from. Publishers took full advantage of the surge in interest and flooded the market for a quick buck. I really think that this is why there is a decline. Those of us who are serious gardeners (serious enough to "talk" about it on a daily basis with webfriends) will always buy anything that's there of interest. But the backyard hobbiest only wants one or two coffee table books, not anything of substance. So, while book sales may be declining, it could be that there's not a lot out there to buy that hasn't been rehashed many times before. You're right, Ginny, everyone wants to see their name in print and publishers take full advantage to make a quick buck despite the quality. I admit that I have stopped buying gardening books en masse. I don't have the room, nor the time, to read 10 or 15 new books at a clip. Substance seems to be what's missing. "How To's" have given way to "look how lovely this is." The "lovely" books rarely mention the financial part of designing and implementing a full-blown garden worthy of publication. So, IMHO, while I feel for the writers whose rights are contracted away, and I feel for those of us with this plant passion who can't get enough, I give Amy all the credit in the world for doing an ad hoc "market survey" and not putting out pages for the sake of putting out pages. And, I truly still believe, that the masses sway the market. The decline in sales is a perfect example of this. People still have money, people still have interest, and now the publishers need to catch up. Martie

i hope you got my send-to list kym? i sent it a good few days ago ok onto my pictures (because someone said how to do it LOL dont think they have watermarks? please excuse if they do they ARE older pictures as well) thats my angel i easily have TONS more pictures of her from me messing around with the flash and such i love taking pictures of her but shees just soo camera shy! --if anyone knows what breed she is im ears all i know is to me shees like perfect soo kind soo loving the first cat to llike me and really aware of her claws was taken according to its statistics (the website these are all on is an art site) in 04 i know this was before "taming" her at the time i think i took a step closer and she bolted so its OLD--anywho thats buffy who my mom thinks may be a coon and theres harley that was the first picture i took with that camera it was literally "har can you come? can you sit?" and took the pic he is OFTEN on my wing watching out and just being a good pup i think hees a border collie mix and overall i think great pup --oh lol aand GOOFY! ok that ones not a photo of my "pets" (lets face it you dont "own" them you care for them and if they dont respect you then youre theere servant as well--ill stoop my possible rant there as well) but its one of my many art projects it was hand drawn (1/4th of it) then scanned cleaned up colors inverted with the pattern put together on illustrater and border added on illustrater then saved as pdf and resaved as a jpg on shop (ok it SOUNDS a lot worse then it was) but i had fun and its been too long sence ive drawn too too too long this waas done in fall 07 i think its prolly been that long sence ive really drawn also in fox on 7 i right-click "copy image location" to get the url it works on xp and vista i think it also works on mac os (may require a control click on the thing in question an image here) yes i am geeky oh! lol aas for orniments i dont know yet i have hemp paper some atleast basic skills could prolly make something from them alone (thinking a square knot variation of a bead thing i made at the camper was the only 3d option ive done bead things and tho most were like gekos or so fairly common to find) hmm if i can find some wire thats soft enough i could prolly hammer out some design and all from there --hint the JOKE with me in high school was which art classes i HADNT been in so i think i understand the basics of some few things --ohh! ohh! i need to get our blowtorches over here! i could make real glass orniments (we have stuff for glass beadmaking which i rarely get to use) what does everyone concider "basic" matereals? (oh plus i have ALLL my 2d supplies and i think i could dig out some paper machet paste/powder/stuffs some add water and let dry sort of thing) thinnk ill start basics try to go from there? know theres an oragami star that i could make for the top i think it uses 4 like "strips" of paper and i did have the pattern to make it memorised at one time

Most of my girlfriends are teachers and I think all of the above ideas are fantastic and would be greatly appreciated. Every year at this time ~ and at Christmas~ I get to see and hear about "the gifts" they get. While they never expect parents to give them anything, a practical or fun gift (like the movie theater gift certificate) are always very appreciated. As many other moms here may be wondering the same thing about what to get their kids' teachers, I'd just like to add one more thing . . . What NOT to get a teacher (per my girl friends): ** PLEASE, no "teacher" anything! No cups, glasses, paperweights,windchimes, sun-catchers, ornaments, etc. that say something about teachers on them, More than a one over the course of several years teaching becomes only a group of dust-catchers. My bestfriend, who retired this past week after 25+ years of teaching, had a huge box in her garage of those kinds of things that she just couldn't use . . . because she already had a couple of each in her classroom! ** Another try-not-to-give gift is a knickknack. They get so many; let your gift be different and practical or fun and your teacher will be so appreciative. A couple more suggestions of gfts they might appreciate: * At my DD's high school they like to give the teachers giftcards to the Starbucks right around the corner from their school. Is that "practical"? All I know is that the teachers I LOVE them ;^D * if you know that they like to garden . . . and have a place they CAN garden, a gift certificate to a local garden center. * a gift certificate to a home improvement center like Lowes or HD. To all the great teachers on this board . . . a BIG THANK YOU for making a difference!! Have a great ~ and restful~ summer! Lynn

" I've always gone in spurts with my reading." Me, too, although there is always an undercurrent of at least one book going on. My Biggest Reading Year was 2009. I read 147 books In the last seven months of that year. Part of that mania was getting my first kindle and being able to get books at any moment. I downloaded books in the middle of the night, just because I could. I was like a drug addict in a full police evidence room. Part of it also is that I was taking classes at Oxford that summer and had to read like a maniac just to keep up. For every sentence spoken in a class, you could tell there had been at least five books read on the subject....that's why I quit my book club for awhile afterwards, I could not bear to hear anyone say pettishly, "Well, I just didn't like it, that's all, no reason I can put my finger on really." That frenetic pace slowed down in 2010 when I went back to work full time (and more). This year I am reading even less as we can finally connect our movie screen directly to Netflix and I am catching up on 20 years of BBC and ITV episodes and shows---Foyle's War, Inspector Lewis (which they filmed at the Randolph when I was in Oxford), Spooks, even Pie in the Sky (hanging head here). We havent had tv since 1998 and never had cable so this is all new to me :-)