Thanks, Bleudolphin. I emailed Brushwood about the color and they were quick to reply....they are so nice about answering questions. They say it looks like the picture but added that they've only seen it blooming in the greenhouse which can make a difference. I ordered it from them as well as Viola, Emilia Plater, and a white one called Shirayukihime.

hmm, thank you all so much for posting, I was planning to make non refundable reservation. I did look up the temperatures already and I am not too worried about them; we are on the CT/NY border so it is just barely new england, ie we do get some hot and humid weather. It's the insect thing that gives me pause. I have already emailed the woman three times getting accurate room descriptions, she is going to think I am a PITA guest! Plus of course she would downplay it, right? ... i will think of how to broach it. In the meantime, where would you go for a romantic weekend leaving from the NYC area. Up to a 3 hour flight. Not Bermuda, used to go there annually. Not anywhere in New England (we are spending 3 weeks doing NE and Maritimes in late summer). Charleston?

A friend (the librarian) sent me this info this morning on Amelia Earhart. "I love the name Amelia. As I was listening to the news yesterday and NOT READING I heard that on a uninhibited island, bones from a human finger, a pre-war bottle and a woman's compact was discovered. Now, they are thinking that perhaps Amelia survived the crash and may have died from lack of water. They also found fish bones and clam shells that were lined up to maybe catch rain water for drinking." Kathy G in MI

Update: Mary, I reread the part about the Greenland Norse in Diamond's book Collapse, and this time picked up on something that I must have forgotten previously. Apparently there had been at least four waves of Native American hunter-gatherers who preceded the Inuit who came and went from Greenland because of similar climate vacillation that the Norse eventually experienced. The Norse did encounter native peoples at some point but it is not completely clear if the Skraelings were proto-Inuit or Inuit. Unfortunately these meetings did not go well and the Norse inclination to bellicosity certainly didn't help. Diamond speculates -- plausibly, I think -- that the surviving Norse of Western Settlement fled to the Eastern Settlement, but the Eastern Settlement had its own problems and would have been overwhelmed by the migrants. (The names Western/West Settlement and Eastern/East Settlement are used by different historians.) Yes, "ancient ones" is the most common euphemistic meaning of Anasazi. Another is "old-time strangers." However, I looked it up and found that Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning "ancient enemies," sometimes enhanced with other uncomplimentary adjectives from the Navajo language. The guides at Mesa Verde give a little speech to visitors who don't know any better than to refer to the cliff-dwellers as Anasazi, but they, the guides, will not be saying it and they encourage others to refrain from it as well. However, I don't think the word will go away in common usage any time soon. Have you read Charles C. Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus? Among many things that I was not aware of: The Amazon rainforest is largely the result of intentional plantings by pre-Columbian natives, perhaps beginning thousands of years ago. It's a giant orchard! The "Indians" of North and South America (perhaps Mesoamerica as well) deliberately set fire to the plains grasses and forest undergrowth as part of their "land management." What texts are you using in your American West study? I'm always curious!