Hi Martie! I dont know if youÂll be reading this and IÂve been hesitant to say anything, but I could tell by your thoughtful post to Marian in "Mea Culpa" that you have been hurt by the email experience that you had and that it has affected you. It just bothers me thinking of you carrying this upset with you. When someone says unkind things, itÂs upsetting, more so when you can see no good reason why they would choose to hurt you. But, Marty, it isnÂt about *you*, itÂs about them. I find that when people *purposely* hurt others it's because *they* are unhappy. In their pain they mistakenly believe (whether consciously or unconsciously) that if they hurt someone else, bring someone else pain, it will somehow take away some of their own pain. It may for the moment, be a release for their frustration, but in the end they will still be unhappy....maybe more so. While I really try to be kind, I can think of times when IÂve thoughtlessly said something to hurt someone else and IÂve regretted it....the very moment I did it. In fact, I can recall those times as clearly today as when they happened. The negative things we do chip away at our soul, little by little, piece by piece. My very wise parents had two basic rules for their kids; to be honest & to be kind and IÂve found that when I follow those two rules, it makes all my life decisions easy ones. ItÂs not by bringing someone else pain that we find happiness, but instead it is in bringing joy to others that we live in true joy ourselves. ItÂs a truth that some may pooh-pooh, but all those maxims youÂve heard in your life; "beauty is as beauty does", "love your neighbor as yourself", "treat others as you would be treated", well they are well known and often repeated because they bear a fundamental truth. The way to be happy is to be kind, not for the sake of reward, but simply because being kind really does put us in the right place in our hearts and in our world. I believe that what you put out "there" comes back to you and not only does it come back to you, but it gets passed along to others. Therefore, I choose joy and kindness. There is an old Native American saying: "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Chief Seattle. Whether you are talking about the environment, humanity, or spirituality, it is a profound truth, I think. Martie, I donÂt know if I've made you feel any better, but I hope so. Please try not to let someone elseÂs ugliness poison your life...change who you are...how you walk in this world... or how you see others. And, just don't open any emails from people you don't know...I've learned that too! :-) Okay, now on to the lighter stuff! :-) I *loved* that Sly song...thanks for sharing. In fact, Sly & the Family Stone are a secret guilty pleasure! :-) Who knew they were so philosophical...LOL....I just liked their music! Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday people Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong My own beliefs are in my song The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then Makes no difference what group I'm in I am everyday people, yeah yeah There is a blue one who can't accept the green one For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one And different strokes for different folks And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee Oh sha sha - we got to live together I am no better and neither are you We are the same whatever we do You love me you hate me you know me and then You can't figure out the bag l'm in I am everyday people, yeah yeah There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair For bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor one And different strokes for different folks And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee Oh sha sha-we got to live together There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one And different strokes for different folks And here's my favorite Marvin Gaye song for Chelone: Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology Song)by Marvin Gaye Ah, mercy, mercy me, Ah, things ain't what they used to be, no, no. Where did all the blue skies go? Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east. Ahh ahh Mercy, mercy me, Ah, things ain't what they used to be, no, no. Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas fish full of mercury, Oh, mercy, mercy me. Ah, things ain't what they used to be, no, no, no. Radiation underground and in the sky; animals and birds who live near by are dying. Oh, mercy, mercy me. Ah, things ain't what they used to be. What about this over crowded land? How much more abuse from man can she stand? Finally, hereÂs a link to a song that has been a long time favorite of mine. Funny too, there are no words, but the music is so beautiful and so moving to me, that there were many times I couldnÂt listen to it without crying! :-) Hope you enjoy the music and the amazing photography! :-) Ei

Yikes! I am getting behind, and if I don't get caught up, I'll be left behind forever in summer (I can think of worse things). Cori Ann, how wonderful about your acceptance into your first choice of schools. Will you begin soon, or are there more classes to plow through like physics? I love your positive attitude, and I'm sure lots of success awaits you. Meanwhile, we'll all have some fall fun. Like a virtual Halloween party, maybe? I'm sure Jim can supply some gruesome photos! Vampire armadillos, perhaps? Jim, is that some kind of white filament growing under the bark of your Double Knockout rose? I just read on the Antique Rose Forum about oak root fungus in a rose, and the photo shows the white fungus filaments growing under the bark of the infected rose. I guess it can invade roses where it is wet. The thread is entitled Death of a Rose, and the OP was Rosefolly. I'm sorry I don't give a link, but I'm a computer illiterate old lady.....Your photos of Julia and MotH are beautiful. I keep saying you must grow more Julia with those marigolds. Carol, I was getting worried about you again, and am so glad you posted. Phooey on snow already. Our weather turned cold, windy, and wet several days ago, and it's really inhibited blooming and any ripening of cukes or tomatoes. Summer came to a crashing halt. I think the cold continued on up your way. Last year, summer and a warm fall just went on and on. We've had four days straight of light rain which is amazing here. Thank you for your nice rose compliment. How are your flowers and roses doing in the snow? I hope it melted promptly. Kate, I hope you'll be posting in the fall thread. I'm sorry you lost roses to the summer heat. And how are you doing yourself? Ready to plant all those replacement roses? I've got to do some tearing out and planting yet, and it's nearly October. I'll be doing this stuff on Christmas Eve if the weather doesn't let up.....As far as loading a lengthy thread--have you tried just going straight to the bottom of the thread using the "End" button? Some people have to hold down CTrl and End at the same time. I just punch End. Speaking of end, this is the end of this post, and it's onward to fall. See you all there. Diane

Farmgardener, I'm sorry you're having such a rough time with the garden this summer. It's this darned weather. Some years we just get to a point where you cannot water enough to keep the garden producing, and it sounds like your area is at that point now. (Mine is getting closer and closer to that point by the day.) There's no shame in walking away from the garden and waiting for better weather---either in the fall or next year. Jennifer, The chickens are fine. They are bored and they are aggravated with being held hostage in a nice climate-controlled area (and I don't care that they are aggravated because I want them safe from the extreme heat). I'm thinking we'll let them out tomorrow because our forecast high for tomorrow is only 106. There's only six chickens left, courtesy of the heavy predator population we've had the last two or three years. The predators get 1 or 2 chickens a week except when I lock them up in their coop/run and don't let them free-range. This is why I'm about to give up on having chickens. We have a much, much, much worse predator problem these last few years than we had when we moved here 20 years ago. The chickens get hot or bored or whatever and wander off into the woods, despite my efforts to stop them. They ignore me and just keep going, and if you try to pursue them, which is dangerous in snake season anyway, they just run deeper into the woods, which is more dangerous for them. Then, something gets them in the woods and we never see them again. If I didn't have these 6 locked up in the mudroom, we probably would have lost at least another one this week. I call these six the smart ones because now they stick close to the house when they're out, but I don't know if they're being smart and cautious or if it just has been too hot to roam around and get very far from the house. When these are gone, I doubt we'll get more. Losing them is hard to bear. If we ever do have chickens again, they won't be allowed to free-range. If chickens are never allowed to free-range and are always confined to a fenced chicken run, they're fine with that because they don't know what it is like to be free ranging. Once they've free-ranged, though, they hate being looked up permanently and it is stressful to them to be confined. So, I try to keep these as safe as possible while still allowing them to free-range, but I'm resigned to the fact that the bobcats or coyotes will get them eventually. We went many years with only losing a couple of year, but for the last couple of years it has been 1 or 2 a week. Jacob, You've had a very adventurous couple of days. I'm glad the garden held up to the hail, and glad the baseball-sized hail didn't fall at your place. My childhood home got hit by baseball-sized hail when I was about 20 or 21 years old, and by the time all the damage was repaired, my parents practically had a new house (and new cars). I'm envious of your cool weather. When we moved here, we thought we'd be able to sleep with the windows open in nice weather. Well, that didn't work out so well as the frogs made such a racket during mating season that you couldn't sleep at all. So, the windows stay closed now. Jen, That Boston terrier sounds very, um, energetic. I hope y'all survive the weekend. Nancy, I like gravel that has been taken over by grass (and/or weeds) just like Mike McGrath described. He's one of my favorite garden writers, and Organic Gardening magazine never was worth reading after he left his job as its' editor. You can have the appearance of a grassy lawn, but the ability to park on it no matter the weather. I'd like to gravel over our entire side yard that sits between the house and garage one of these days and then let the grass grow up through the gravel. The dense, compacted clay in this area holds puddles of water forever after it rains, turning into a lake when it rains a lot, so gravel on top of the clay would be a huge improvement. Kim, I agree with you. For the 3rd or 4th day in a row, we were over 100 degrees by noon. It might have been the same at your place out there west of us. This is ridiculous heat! I'm ready for a break, even though our break here still will include highs in the upper 90s. I bet 97 will feel fairly cool after so many days between 106-111. Tomorrow should be our last triple-digit temperature day for at least a week, if the forecasters are correct. I looked at the garden about an hour ago when I went out there to check on the plants in containers. Considering the excessive heat we've been having, it looks fairly decent. Not great. Not good. Not nearly as good as usual, but mostly still alive and likely to recover if the temperatures will drop down to normal or average July temperatures. Of course, August awaits, and our hottest weather usually occurs in the first half of August so it isn't like I think the garden's hard times are over. They aren't. Maybe, though, we'll at least get a few slightly cooler days. No chance of rain though. If the drought continues to deepen and worsen, though, all bets are off. Dawn

Just a follow-up here re Heirloom Roses. I ordered two from their website, then two more from their website, then changed my mind twice and changed my orders! I got the first two - in one gallon pots (far from the bands I got from the former Heirloom folks). I re-potted both of them into 5 gallon cans for later fall planting. I was very impressed with the roots fully holding the soil, but not pot-bound. Stems looked healthy. they are already growing and leafing out, even though I got them in the midst of a record heat wave for us. I had also found an Heirloom rose I wanted on Amazon, so ordered it there because I coudn't be bothered to go get my purse and enter my credit card info for the Heirloom site. I got the Amazon rose right away. My other two from Heirloom that I ordered a couple of months ago come tomorrow or the next day. The Amazon rose also looked great, and when I re-potted it to larger can the roots seemed perfect. I talked with someone at Heirloom who explained that Amazon requires immediate shipping - so that's why you get them right away. AND, I learned that with Amazon you get a 30 day guarantee, but direct from Heirloom you get a one year guarantee (or warranty?). Via the Heirloom website you can be part of the buds and blooms, but not via Amazon. So...if you want rewards and a one-year guarantee - shop the website. If you need to "hide" your rose purchases, shop Amazon. So far, I couldn't be happier with my Heirloom purchases. As I say above, ask me after a year if I still feel that way! :-)