Estelle, nice to have you posting! How wonderful that your job will be so close now! My commute is 25 mi. one way, so I hope we have a mild winter! Have fun with the in-laws! Meghan, Your wicker set will be a delighful addition to your patio. Hope all goes well in court. GOOD LUCK! MeMo, What a big house you'll have when that dear little grandson goes home. I bet he had the time of his life with you on the farm! Very interesting about your steers. Tracy, I thought of you all weekend. Hope your move went well and that you're enjoying a quiet cup of coffee in your lovely new kitchen this very minute. GGG, YOU just CRACK me up with all of your endeavors. Kids or no kids you have a load of stuff going on by any standard. Congrats on that grant! G'feffa, LOL "looking for the feffa". 38yrs, how special! Congratulations and best wishes for many more wonderful years together. Leasa, I've enjoyed all of your new/old house related photos and comments that I've had a chance to view. Hope things are going well and that you're not getting "housemaid's elbow" (or knees or whatever it is) from all that scrubbing. Flowerlady, "The Perfect Mess" sounds like it was written for ME! I've put it on my MUST READ list. Thanks! Hoping you'll have better weather down there for the rest of the summer. TMan, I can't wait to hear how things go with your sunflowers. I'm toying with the idea of selling flowers by the bunch next year. Between the colleges in the area and the scenic drive we have a LOT of traffic going down our country road, so I would put out a little stand here instead of going to market. Will need to consult that Flower Farmer book by the lady with the long name. Kent, How cute about the little girls that are drawn to you and your chickens. They will remember those little visits their whole lives, believe me. Hope you had a great vacation! Thanks to all for the nice comments about my new job. I'll be "on my own" soon and am trying not to lose sleep over that prospect. Unbelievable what some of these folks have been through in their lives and yet they all manage to have a smile for me! I'll tell you, I go home every night counting my blessings! Hope you all have a wonderful week! Patti

So an update of sorts - I think I'm in LOVE with the Michela Alba scent. I had the chance to sit close and personal with Mike Meyer's Alba on Sunday - I sat on the carpet and the Alba was at my shoulder and the blossoms just wafted at me... it was such a delightful experience ... I kept sniffing - not knowing the Alba was there - because I'd been in a deep conversation with his mom. And when I realized where it was coming from... WOW! such a shame that those plants are so big. I know Mike cuts his down a LOT - but it's still to big of a plant for my tiny apartment. I know I can't fit one ... but doesn't stop me from wanting one. I wish they'd bottle that scent. I worked on my yard on sunday and my fragrent roses are finally in resting in my front yard. I'm ready for some blooms any time. My older roses are all in bud. I must have 20 buds getting ready to open. I may not have many pictures for May - but June will be a challenge to keep up with them. :)

Hello folks, I'm something of a connnoisseur of the Mock Oranges, n don't get on the site that often....anyhow, here's some things I've learned over the years from experience..... 1st off, many of the species available thru 'reputable' nurseries are not of pure strain (i.e. their integrity is 'shaded' or 'uncertain'). I have several forms, of which three I know are 'true blue' to their labeling. P. coronarius (and be careful with this one as well, see it in FULL flower to be sure, the flowers are white inside n out, n very fragrant if authentic, n old wood is chestnut brown outside) P. lemoinei X 'innocence' usually has some variagated leaves, is slower growing but flowers well n is perhaps one of the most fragrant mock orange scrubs I have....rivaling one of it's parents, P. coronarius for fragrance! Finally, there is P.lemoinei 'belle etoile' (Fr. Beautiful star) and this is a dependable bloomer has vigorous growth n has a purple splotch at the base of ea. flower, and is quite fragrant as well. I also have a form of P. lewisii from the N.W. U.S. that's in flower now, n is enchantingly fragrant. Hold it's flowers in panicles of a dozen or more at the end of ea. stem producing the flowers. This scrub was sold to me as cv. 'Goose Creek' but the description given now is of double flowers which the one I was sold was not! There are so many issues involved when dealing with retail growers that really have little or no knowledge of what their really obtaining and/or selling when it comes to this particular breed of scrubs!! Finally, I'd be dubibous, based on my own personal experience alone, from buying Mock orange scrubs from any retailer/wholesaler you don't have experience or knowledge of, 1st hand. Btw, I'd had the same problem with P.lemoinei 'virginal' from Wayside, and I wouldn't recommend buying ANY Mock orange 'Minnesota snowflake' scrubs, unless you see them in FULL flower.....I canned at least 6 scrubs I had bought yrs. ago, that failed to flower over many many years.... Brief, shop with much prudence!!

We used to have get togethers on Kitchens. Cat_Mom organized one in Manhattan in 2007 and we had 13 of us at lunch and shopping and Union Sq afterwards. She had one more after that and I couldn't make it. We don't get up to NYC like we used to. My DH and I have gone to WA and met up with Rhome and her DH...we actually all got together 2 times in one week ! It was great. Perhaps we need to try it here on Deco. Mustangs that is a very impressive number 33 !! Love the puppies on the pillows and the food pics and the cartoon ! Motherof3sons...what time ?? I have bagels !! Thank you patty sweet compliments. This is what I was watching out of my sitting room window last evening. So beautiful. c I just scrolled through part ll...there were several pics that I missed. Betty's birds and a pic of Venice/boats were two. So many moments shared. Please link to this part lll when you start part lV. That way they won't get lost. Here is a link that might be useful: slice of life 2 link