Hi all; I would like to introduce myself, too, although I'm afraid my story is more of a lab notebook entry than a fairy tale. I am a newbie in this forum, although I have been growing African violets for a few years. I have always liked the green and yellow ones, but most of my collection did not survive moving across the country 4 years ago. After that, I was content with my three survivors (Blue Dragon, Blueberry Splash, and a trailer that I grew from a Park seed packet). I enjoyed them, but didn't really feel like getting any more. Then I read this interesting book called "The Botany of Desire." The main premise is that just as plants and insects co-evolve, shaping each other's characteristics, we have a powerful effect on plants, and they have an effect on us. Offering something that people want, like fruit, flowers, or bioactive natural products, is a good evolutionary strategy for a plant. However, the downside of this comes when everybody wants the same thing - the huge genetic diversity of the ancestral apple tree is ignored because everyone buys red delicious apples. This made me think about my African violets, and how a lot of them have been selected to make a flat, symmetric rosette for showing, and I started wondering what other interesting things lurk in the African violet genome. And then I discovered the David Senk plants. I'm a huge fan. So far, I have a plantlet of Say What, and two leaves of Merlot. I can't wait for Merlot to produce plantlets. It's so weird! Longfolia, bustles, a little bit of variegation, what could be better? I also thought it would be nice to check out some of the older varieties, so I picked up Blue Tail Fly and Celery. Hooray for eBay! Anyway, it's nice to (virtually) meet you all -seems like a good crowd. Rachel

I'd like to write about my gardening experiences and somhow magically make them interesting...a tall order when I think how boring my life has been. But I guess if I could make it humorous it would be interesting wouldn't it? "A year in Provance" could have been pretty dry, if not for the author's ability to see humor in every little one of life's bumps. What would I like people to say about me after I'm Dead? Now that's an interesting question. When they file past my coffin, I'd like them to say, "Hey look, I think she's breathing!" Cheryl

I have all of her books, tho EGG is the most significant to me. Be sure to read the sequel, The Solitary Summer, and, if you can find it, The April Baby's Book of Tunes, not a children's book despite the title. That was illustrated by Kate Greenaway and is therefore somewhat expensive. Last book Kate G. did before she died (and what an interesting life she had!) The other very compelling book Elizabeth did is Mr. Skeffington, her last. It was made into a movie starring my fav, Bette Davis. In real life, Elizabeth had great trepidation about the Germans and feared WW2 would result in catastrophe. She carried suicide materials with her at all times, in case the Germans won! A cannister of cyanide gas, at one point. Moved to the US when the war brok out in Europe in Sept 1939 and died at the Doubleday family's winter home in South Carolina. Her remains were returned to England after the war. Quite an intriguing woman. And you might like Vera, a novel and account of her second marriage to Bertrand Russell's brother. He sued her for libel but she threatened to tell even more on the stand so he withdrew his suit. She never divorced him--I think she loved being a countess--because she said staying married (tho apart) would prevent any other woman from suffering from a marriage to him!

It is a true story. The original title is Au nom de tous les miens. The sites that claim it is fiction are usually "historical revisionists" ie Holocaust deniers. Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Gray's official website