I will pull out the spent summer annuals and replenish with new soil in those locations so that I can sow fall seeds for spring annuals and perennials that need cold to germinate. I sow seeds in late October at the same time that I plant bulbs. I have been gathering seeds as soon as they are ready to collect. I've been moving plants around just before each forecast of rain. Our first frost last year was October 21st. It's time to trim lavender tips back here in my zone. I'll tidy up the nepeta tips (no severe shearing now - I will divide by shovel in the ground in the spring). I have some Japanese irises that I need to divide, but I don't know if I'll get to it. As soon as frost knocks back my ginger, canna and colocasia, I'll cut off the stalks and mulch heavily. After frost, I will empty the containers and clean those up to store and be ready for spring. Since we have deer -- and deer will rub their antlers on the trunks of trees -- I've started getting out the wire fence (32" high edging from big box store) to fence around the trunks. Cameron

Jenk  as owner builders doing lots of new building science in an area famous for not changing... yeah, we had a lot of resistance from various subs. We found it helped to do two things. First - try not to see their questions as criticism or the sub not wanting to do it your way, but that they just may have not heard about the way you want it done. (even with the subs who really just donÂt want to do it a new way, it helps YOUR state of mind). Put it to them in those terms  "I know itÂs new to this area" (thus they are not expected to know about it) "but weÂre really set on doing it this way for these reasons." And while you may not feel like you should have to explain your reasons, you will get better work if they feel like part of the process. Trades people are not all stubborn mules against learning something new. Second  know what you are talking about  if you are vague nobody is going to take you or your ideas seriously. Graphics and visual aids are helpful if itÂs really new. When we discussed our plans to insulate our crawlspace walls (virtually unheard of in this county/state), we showed the people involved the drawings and research on the method. It took some arm twisting to get the county inspectors behind the idea but between the printed sheets and calm discussions they approved the finished work. Our HVAC people loved the idea and now they recommend it to other people. They hadnÂt heard of it before our house, but we presented in a way that they felt they didnÂt need to defend their experience. Even in the "just how you want it" stuff itÂs not always a matter of Âmy-way-itisÂ. We did two walk throughs with our electrician before he would string one wire. On both trips he would ask us, Âwhy do want this here? and Âhow about having that there?Â. This wasnÂt to discourage us from what we wanted, but to find out what our reasons were so he could make suggestions. He had wired enough houses to know what people tend to regret later, and he made some great suggestions that we went with. The stuff I was sure of I had reasons for and it didnÂt bother me to explain them to him. I hope this helps, and good luck!

"Browser Defender" is a legitimate program, but that DOES NOT mean that the "alert" is legitimate! This shows why these things work for the ones trying to cause trouble. They often attach a legitimate name or a similar sounding name and people go oh, that's safe and BAM, your suckered. Keep alert folks, there's more to it than meets the eye. When you have stuff like this popping up, it's time to double check your defenses. When you say you can't do anything on your computer, is that because you're infected? If so, you may well be infecting your husband's system too. Let's face it, IF your system is infected and that's causing the trouble, then it's likely that your husband's machine is no better secured than yours, and your surfing habits allow stuff in. If that's the case, it's only a matter of time before his machine is paralyzed too, again, assuming that your machine is infected. You need to take action now. You need a good antivirus program and there's a lot of good free ones out there too so there's no excuse for not having one. AVG, Avira, Avast are a few good free ones, but you need to understand that many malware issues are not viruses so an antivirus is only one tool you need in your defense arsenal. Don't think that just because you have an antivirus, you have everything you need. You may have a stove in your house but you probably need a refrigerator too. And a toilet. And a sink. Don't get fooled into thinking one appliance will do everything for you. Your most important and first line of defense is a firewall. Windows built in firewall is feeble at best but better than nothing until you can immediately get something better. I like Comodo the best of all I've used. Spybot, SuperAntiSpyware, A-squared, Malwarebytes and more are good anti-malware programs and supplement your antivirus. They do different jobs. Spywareblaster is an excellent program, especially if you insist on using Internet Explorer. IE is the swiss cheese of browsers, security-wise. You're inviting trouble by using it. Opera, Safari, Firefox, K-meleon, Mozilla, Chrome, there's lots of excellent browsers out there far more secure. Advanced SystemCare is a fantastic multi-function program to keep in the arsenal. Watch your email. Don't just open it because it tells you to! Although infections through email are far less common these days there's still enough of them to warrant concern. Most malware these days come from "drive by" infections. You go to a site and it installs it on your system and you won't even know about it when you don't use a firewall, real-time antivirus and check for malware regularly. But the most important thing to staying safe is yourself. Educate yourself on safe surfing. Don't be afraid to use your computer, but use it safely. I haven't had a virus on my system in over 10 years and caught all of them that got on there. (They were email attachments from foolish people who forward every "cute" thing to everyone in their address book.) I credit this to several things: 1) Using Opera as my primary browser. It's the most secure browser out there. 2) Having Spywareblaster on my machines. I was laughed at by many of the people in the Comphelp forum when I suggested Spywareblaster (at the time - *most* of those people are now gone) but it showed promise to me and has long since proven itself. 3) I regularly update Windows, browsers, antivirus, malware detectors, etc. 4) The firewall is the first thing installed on a system and it's turned on BEFORE connecting to the internet. Occasionally I get a caution that something is wrong and I can look at it and see that it should not be installing something like that. 5) I replace all feeble programs with better ones. IE and Windows Firewall as examples. For that matter I even replace the calculator, media player, even the clock and Notepad programs with better stuff. Makes "computing" more productive and enjoyable. 6) I don't click on popups! I close them. And by using Opera I get very few unwanted popups anyway. 7) If I am suspicious that something might have gotten past my multi-layered defenses, I'll use an online scanner like TrendMicro or Bitdefender to do an online scan of my system (or the system in question). and the last thing I can think of offhand, though there probably will be more I think of later: 8) I try to educate myself on cons. One of my biggest frustrations is when I see someone jump on the internet shouting "LOOK EVERYONE, I'M USING MY NEW COMPUTER!!! JUST GOT IT TODAY!!!!!! I know that's a service call waiting to happen. And then they blame the computer. (sigh) Happy and safe computing to all and to all a good afternoon.

>But even amongst those who are of British descent it seems curiously watered down in places such as, say, Colorado and Texas, two that I have experience with That may be, tho you'd be surprised by how many Angliophiles we have here in the southwest desert. In fact, perhaps more so - in this part of the country, people want everything new. In my city, just about everything older than 1950 is gone (with the exception of a few neighborhoods) People think 'antique' is before WWII. So my first trip overseas as a new High School graduate was eye opening to me. I was in Israel - and suddenly I realized how old the world is. I was fascinated by the cities made of adobe and the buildings that existed hundreds of years ago. I remember being in the Israel Museum and standing forever it seemed at the Dead Sea Scrolls. ASince then its been a love affair with the ancient. Which is probably why I love going to Britain (and I got my husband hooked on it too) So sometimes its what you don't have that makes you appreciate another place. >Would this have been the same in the US of that time? Yes, until the 60s. The main reason that memorization of such things was pushed aside is that it wasn't relevant to the kids. But they didn't think of a better way. If they teach about the rivers and lakes and main exports within the context of historic or cultural lessons, they'd find the kids much more intersted, and they'd even learn some geography on the way. >This woman's "dream" was to come and work for the royal family, and she emigrated and sought out this employment. I was a bit surprised at her ambition and devotion in this day and age We forget sometimes how very lucky we are, with the myraid of choices and options we have. Many others in other countries, esp women, don't. Working for the queen for this lady probably beat anything else she'd ever want to do, and had never had an idea that she could do better. Bet in a few years tho, she will! >What's with that? The one country they were taught about in school the longest was probably Britain, and so they associate historic fiction with it. Also suspect that there are probably more movies that take place in Britain than in other countries. Would be interesting to know. As for me, I have always loved cultural geography and historic fiction anywhere. But I do know what you mean. btw veer - we will be going to Ottawa (and Montreal and Quebec City) in June. Can I pick your brain about Ottawa? We already have a list of the usually museums and such, but maybe out of the way places, day trips?