It's Echium pininana. You're quite far North for it to flourish but we've had a mild Winter and you say it's South facing. Just wait until it flowers! Here is a link that might be useful: Echium pininana

CONGRATS!!! It is soooooooooooooooo exciting to see a new bird, and especially one as gorgeous as the Blue Grosbeak. I have lived in the South all of my life, and I have seen one of them. I was living just SW of Atlanta at the time.~Angie

Wow is right. It actually looks a lot like the Brazilian Duros I'm engaged to (just a little more variation and movement than my particular slabs.) I was at M Texeira (NJ) a few weeks ago and they had nothing like it. Interesting too, I think that the more movement ...rivers, as you call them... and the increased hardness are "coincident". In other words, it has more movement than most soapstone because it has less talc and more of some other element. And that's also why it is harder. Same thing with my Duros...wonder if they're from the same quarry?

A cool front has passed through southern WI and is headed to the east coast. Relief is on the way. Behind the front, day temps are 70s to low 80 with drier air: Dew point 60 F. No wind to speak of so can not tarry outside because of misquitos - have to keep moving or get eaten. We've had our share of rain the past 3 days. The problem was the rain clouds were strung over 200 miles and were aligned with the direction of travel. The rain front was not exceptionaly wide. The result was 200 miles of rain clouds passed over the same spot. Menomonee Falls and Milwaukee, WI got flooded. Nicolet High School in Glendale, WI got flooded: 6 to 8 ft or water in the basement and 1.5 ft of water running down the halls on hte first floor. The gym floor went under. They had just gotten in new sports gear for the fall term and it was stored in the basement. Official's preliminary estimate is $1 million to clean and repair. They think that if crews start now and work 7 days a week, the school may be in shape in time to open for the fall term. And of course by now, you have heard about the Cadillac Escalade swallowed by a sink hole. The vehicle pulled up to a stop light, the street caved in dropping the vehicle into a 15 ft deep hole and to add insult, the stop light also fell and leaned on the car. Its going ot be interesting to see how the insurance companies react to this one. I can hear it now: This was flood damage and your policy does not cover flood. The real sob story goes to a the owners of 5 to 7 homes on the north side of Milwaukee. Their basements caved in; the city condemed the properties as uninhabitible and has ordered immediate demolition. One woman lamented: "I bought this house not long ago for $120,000 and have 20 more years of mortage left. I'm loosing my house this week, but the mortage lives on." She'll get nothing from her home owner's insurance because it is flood damage, and most homes in that area do not carry flood damage because they were not in a flood plain and up to now, it was not needed. A number of cars parked in underground garages were flooded. If the water level got up to the relay box under the hood or the fuse panel under the dash, these will be totaled by the insurance firms. Yes sireee, the is the second time in 15 years that we got a 100 years rain.