WOW!! Thanks everyone! You all say the nicest things. This forum is a blessing. I've heard that you guys may be in for a pretty fierce winter this year so I'll be mindful of that and post pics of garden happenings regularly. My Our Lady Gardyn has become an overgrown mess and you can't even see the paths anymore there's so much growth. I cut them all back last month but they've grown quicker than I have time to tend them. My GF was over last week and complained that all my wonderful paths were blocked off and I better get out there and do some work. She's right, but I hate cutting off flowering stems. But I want to see the paths again, too. Such a cunundrum! I'll tell you my secrets LOL. OK, they're not really secrets, just what I've finally learned about where I live. First is an open garden that happens the first weekend in November. These people sell plants and 'junk', too, at extremely low prices so I always do good there. Then there's the church rummage sale. Whatever they don't sell they give away to the charity shops and, because they'd rather have the money themselves, you can bargain sweetly with them. My other coup is having a GF that works in one of the local CS's who saves everything that's chipped or broken for me. But the #1 'secret' is having faith that our Good Lord is looking after me and, wherever and whenever I go 'junking', what is really meant 'for me' will be there at a really good price. What do they say, "Leave you hands empty so God can fill them"? Something like that. Anyway, the Salvia Group is meeting today so I'm off to check out what promises to be a beautiful garden. You folk really are THE BEST!!

As a newbie, it's this kind of chaos that I'm aiming for. They're beautiful. Tiffy, I could not bear to rip out my lilies and I found the beetles were more aggressive than usual, but then I did not do my usual treatment which I got from the horticultural college here in town: just when the lily buds start pushing their heads through the earth in Spring, spray them and the surrounding earth with a 10% solution of household ammonia. It does not hurt the plants, but seems to kill of the beetle eggs/larvae. I have done this over the last several years and had only a few beetles, but didn't this year because I was too busy with WS and I had quite an infestation. However, I saved all my lilies- they have always been my favourite flower. Strangely enough, I had none in my front flower-bed where I have a collection of "Infiity" the so-called green lily, nor in my new bed against the western fence where I have all my trumpets and 4-5 footers (removed from the front). I guess they haven't found them yet!!!

Leslie, How many of the stepping stones are you & grandgirl making and by the way, when you get time, will you send the directons on making them. I have some directions, but it sounds like really heavy work. Westelle, I've been keeping track of your summer harvesting and preserving. Just love the olive curing and all the rest of the stuff. My tomatoes are so bad this year, no flavor at all. Bought two 1 gallon cans of diced tomatoes and made up my winter supply of tomato marmalade. I really couldn't tell the difference between the canned & fresh in this recipe. My pc is only a couple years old, so no it really isn't worn out. This last time MS updated is when a problem occurred. Homepage all screwed up, kept getting weather reports for every city in central calif. but not for Redding, Very strange! MS is sending me a new installation disk, so hopefully this will correct the problem. If not, the pc tech here in town said he'd be available to help me out. It's kinda interesting learning/trying to fix this stuff, but it sure slows me up and I've just got to stop and take care of other stuff, you know, like the laundry, dusting, etc. inside and whoaaaaaaaa the outside is quickly becoming a disaster area. I'll eventually get to it all. Brenda, I've got a jillion marigolds coming up. My intention was to collect the seed and carefully seed some areas that need filling in, but time keeps flying, so right now I'm thinking about just leaving them till they get a bit bigger, then transplanting. At the present time, like right now, I'm busy trying to get the "hay" out of everything. Forgot to tell you, DD & hubby have just completely remodeled their first home and move back into it. Their property is just across the creek from Gold Leaf Nursery. Now that sounds great, but I think they are mostly wholesale now, anyhow nothing I ever got there grew for me.That's o.k. though as Chris and Wnytour are just up the street a ways. Pat

I enjoyed the Ferry Building the last time I was in SF (and I'm due for another trip this year), but I felt that The Slanted Door was a bit overrated - there are better Vietnamese restaurants on Clement Street. TSD is more nouvelle Vietnamese, which I also like, but it comes at a higher price. I think it was probably better at its previous location. I very much liked the selection of mushrooms I found at the Ferry Bldg. SF is my favorite restaurant city (New Orleans is second), and Eileen and I went to a couple of restaurants there, as I remember. There are also many great cheese shops, and that is one thing I wish we had here. There is a good one in Beverly Hills, but there should be more! I can see Ilisa trying to hide behind the IX! I don't think I'd seen a picture of Jason before, but somehow I expected him to be tall. I hope I get to meet them at some point as well. Thanks for sharing, especially the picture. I used to live close to SFMOMA when it was in the Civic Center and went there often - or was that a different museum? I especially liked their Matisse collection. Lars