This Sunday I went kayaking with family at Mallows Bay on the Potomac River, the site of over a hundred rotting hulls of World War One era wooden ships. This website describes the history behind the site well: The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay

Audrey, Consider this - in October when it looks dead and ugly, dig up the bulb. Store it in a cool and dark spot. Replant in March (including a bit of bone meal to encourage the root growth). I do that with my cannas. Those who grow gladiolus around here do the same.

Amelanchier has many names, depending where you live. Here in PA most people know it as shadblow serviceberry or just shadblow. I did make a pie from the berries the first year that the trees bore. Apparently it took the birds awhile to realize how good they were. My reason for planting the 6 trees in the first place was for the birds, so I let them have all they want. The berries are very seedy, more so than elderberries, so making jam or jelly would mean more work than I want to do. Littlemonkey, that jam recipe does sound good though. Mine are shrubby trees that sucker profusely. Dh keeps after the suckers to keep them from taking over the yard. Here are 3 of them in bloom in mid April. They like moisture and are planted here with a River Birch.

Pompeii is AWESOME. Visiting it and Herculaneum permanently and dramatically changed my understanding and conceptions of "ancient" peoples and their lives. Romans had such an advanced civilization (the positives in obvious and well known ways on display in these locations, without forgetting the negatives that were present in their society too in obvious and well known ways) . Their lives and surroundings (also visible in Rome, of course) had so many engineering and public works features two thousand years ago that are recognizable today as almost contemporary and modern in comparison to the abject poverty and deprivation that prevailed in so much of Europe for most of the medieval and later periods more than 1000 years later. And that remain lacking in many parts of the world today.