Well, Campbell revived! His energy is back! He rested last night & all morning while I was at Farmer's Market. When I got home, I suggested he get some fresh air & enjoy a 'Storytime' under the cool Jade plant: Ha! That was a laugh! He didn't even sit still for 2 min.! He hopped right off my treadle/floor grate table on the patio & headed for the pond! Guess he didn't like the 'Hens & Chicks' planted in the Dutch shoes! ummmm... Ahhhh, he found a friend here at the pond...a couple of 'em...this ol' Toad & Fisherboy (good ol' GJ) ...Campbell enjoyed a short visit (because Toad was a bit grumpy!) & so Campbell hopped off toward my garden shed flower garden. Where or where has my 'little Campbell gone?' 'Or where or where can he beeeeeeee?' Check out those bushy eyebrows...yup, he's trying to hide in the Hydrangeas! I'm toastin' today...it's in the 90's this afternoon! Come on, Campbell, let's go for a dip in the pool! I tried to put him in the 'safety float' for the little ones & even loaned him a pair of GGS's cool shades! But wouldn't ya know it...he wiggled around & got his rear-end wet! So I put him on the "Surf-float:" He enjoyed that surf-float but the sun was hot & he was turning a 'brighter orange!' Would he listen? No, kept floating away...away...& away from me! Ribbit! Ribbit! So, I didn't want to do it...but I had no choice.... Timeout for Campbell in Gpa's Rake Garden...one of my fav gardens...there he be ...looking a little perturbed!! He does look awful lonely on that old hay rake! Nellie, my dog, felt really sorry for Campbell ... so I had to rescue the little frogger! Here he is, meeting Nellie & I think he looks a little hesitate! So that ends the day for Campbell in Iowa ... I'll be packing him up soon & he'll be heading out at the beg of the week...on Tues. I'm hoping for a peaceful evening...I wish Kermit lived closer by! TFLookin'! Jeanne S.

Hi-- all I just wanted to apoligize for not posting/ getting my package out on time and not communicating well. Tina - I'm so glad your DH is doing better! It's heartwarming to know that love like yours lives today. I vow to stay off the trades for a while as I think I've bitten off too much for me to chew for a while. My apoligies to snyder and gardeningmom - I've been sick with morning sickness, had to leave my job, when I signed up for the trade I thought it would be over by the time the trade began and as it turns out I'm one of the lucky 10-20% who have it for the duration of the pregnancy. Anyway, it's kind of thrown me for a loop along with all the normal chaos of life. I feel just awful for being a bad trader -- I did send -- but not like I normally would (on time, etc.) no more swaps for me for a while - as I don't like to keep you all waiting and wondering. Snyder thanks again for the wonderful package- I'm sorry for not acknowledging you publicly here on the board until just now. Thanks to all my gardening friends and please accept my apoligies for the lateness, and troubles communicating. Hope to trade with you all soon again - once life isn't so chaotic.

Oh Crikey, here we go again Sports  BAD. Competition  BAD. Humans in Texas, living naked in and under trees, having minus 3.2 children per pregnancy, foraging barefoot for dandelion leaves, sea oats, muscadine grapes and mayhaws, alligator eggs, and Africanized bees honey  good, yea, PRICELESS. Forget playing bridge. Forget "playing" anything. Jeez, we wouldnÂt want anyone to go so far out of line to suggest a game of Wildflower and Native Grasses Monopoly, would we? The heresy! "Do not pass pee in wetlands, do not collect unfallen pecans." The sentence for sneaking so insidious a reward as Drip Line or Root Zone of the Month? Twelve months exposure to mosquitoes - NO mud packs, NO grass skirts! The Thousand-Hour Reign of the Tejasexican Tree Tyrants would peak its power at its erasure of all vestiges of what used to be called Homeowners Associations. This would occur by spontaneous and simultaneous universal enlightenment of The Moral Code. All peoples would recognize and voluntarily, without exception, avoid trespassing in the forbidden territories and edifices of the Sprawlurban Reliclands, where the Unwise Ancients once practiced all manner of evil - including beisbol, futbol, and plant swaps - on BERMUDA GRASS! Every stray stem and stolon of Demon Augustine would be stripped out of Mother Earth and sacrificed on the Great Compost Pile of Penitence. Inevitably, inexorably, extinction of The Proud Race would occur. But of course, not because of any competition with or by any other species. The next re-writers of history would likely return to the Reliclands, collect and smoke crushed oak acorns in re-utilized sprinkler-pipes, kick baseballs and slobber all over soccer balls before throwing them, and pen the epitaph of the TTTs thus: "They had so many Strayhorns stuck in so many of the wrong places, they couldnÂt even think, let alone think clearly. Alas! In the end, they fared no better than the Bush Tribes." "Courage," ye Kinky whoÂd Rather be saved by the Bell. ------------------------------------------------------ Rant on, PJ! You might enjoy the article at the link as much as I did. Sally, I go largely with what you say. I think the problem is deeper than sports. It stems from a per capita coarsening of culture that results from excessive emphasis on leisure and "self-fulfillment" over kind, liberal and mutually beneficial other-interestedness, including the art of compromise. Basically, itÂs a reflection of (I dread) a possibly irreversible degradation of a societyÂs educational support system, where ignorance is celebrated, passion alone is the measure of credibility, and willful ignorance (blindly hateful bigotry, by any other name) is idolized as the ultimate "integrity." IÂm Rap, and IÂm one tough environmentalist grandpa. Here is a link that might be useful: Daily Mail - One Tough Grandpa

I had an experience in recent months where I offered to help my friends do some work on their house. After a visit one evening where we discussed dreams they had for their house, I offered to come help them work on a project. They were initially surprised and thought I might be just talking, but I maintained I was serious. We spent a week working on their house and they were really pleased with the results. I'm so happy we did that, because it turns out it was just the thing that inspired them to start working on other projects. And they're really happy and feeling good about it. So, I like to think that being a little pushy can be helpful, but I would only do it if I knew someone very well. I've had friends and neighbors over who tell me our place looks nice and how organized I am. They ask if I would help them do this or that, and I tell them I'd be glad to do it and to just call me and make plans. It's come up more than once with some, and I've repeated my willingness to help. But I leave it at that, because it's not my job to make their project a priority. This last experience annoyed me. I had someone, more of an acquaintance, ask for help with selecting something for their home. They were at a loss for ideas and asked me what I thought. I made a couple of suggestions, and the person actually responded with "ew". Yes, ew. Not, "I don't think I'd care for that" or something polite in response. I decided I didn't need to knock myself out for "ew". Tina