Good morning.... Delightful to see photos of Miss Mae and company this morning! Everyone is looking so happy! All that waiting rewarded. Really nice to see the light in the eyes and the beaming smiles after the year that you all have had. The little one is so serious! lol Reminds me of our DD when she was born who had a serious look on her face in many photos. She looks like she is deep in thought. Look forward to hearing about your homecoming when you are rested Gardenbug. :-) Julie...glad to hear you are getting busy with the garden. Sounds like you are going to have a great vegetable garden this year. Sorry to hear DD has knotweed to deal with. I guess I will think of that next time I am complaining about the minor weeds in my garden. Mary, what cuties! lol Very enjoyable story about Betty and Henny. My favorite is the amber colored one. .... Congrats to Annie on having her braces removed. I bet she is gorgeous! Marian...your Tommy is just so funny. I can just imagine the conversation he had with you. I wonder where cats have developed this dislike of water? The big cats in the wild have to put up with rain and I've seen some photos of tigers swimming. [g] A fox sighting! No chance of me seeing any of those in my semi-urban location. Lucky you! Saucy...that was the name of the book I was trying to come up with! No, I haven't read it. I have seen the title at the library and left it on the shelf thinking I might have to face the reality of how much my home grown vegetable crops actually cost me. I prefer fantasy over reality much of the time. lol You're having a vegetable garden this year, aren't you? ..... I discovered a patch of Poison Ivy the other day too. I thought we got rid of it last year. I continue to try to get rid of a weedy Campanula that is in the garden too and it just keeps coming back. .... We can't work fast enough here either. I was out looking around yesterday and I'm falling behind. .... Congrats on another new swarm of bees! I think you are really good at this bee keeping thing. :-) Woody...I was just checking the brick edge around our sitting area and it is disappearing under the grass. I have tried to cut corners I guess and in the end my efforts have been wasted. So you can consider that as you work hard installing your edging right. :-) Kathy...I love that Penstemon. I bought a similar one last year called 'Pike's Peak Purple'. It is coming up looking fine and can't wait to see it bloom. Your blue is so pretty, I will have to look for that one too. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to ration the photos you post. I love to see some every time you post. I'm in a lull in our garden right now and not caught up with mulching and cleaning so photos are in short supply. When you have as successful a garden season as you are having, it would be such a waste not to take a gazillion photos!! .... Oh, and so sorry to hear about Dodger's disappointing news about Manny. I am hoping that the rest of the team can rise to the occasion. It would serve Manny right, for them to get along fine without him! Woody and Kathy....I have the same kind of soaker hoses. Sears from recycled tires, I think. Plus the quick connect on all my hoses. What did we do before those were invented!? It sounds like you both are doing about what I have been doing with mine. I leave mine on for hours though Kathy in the heat of summer. Could I really get away with less? It never looks like they are getting enough water. I wish I could fill 100ft at a time Woody, that would cut my efforts in half. Chelone...Hurry it up willya! I'm waiting for work on the curtains to begin, so the tables have to get finished tout de suite! Gee, if 12 hour days would just stop interfering. :-) Ok...I need to cut this short too. I'm missing the FB defectors too. :-) Drema...very sorry to hear about dreaded deer in the garden and a woodchuck too? Horrible! Looking for a visit from Sue with news of how the renovating is going. Will check back later I'm sure... pm2 'Avalanche' Lilac, chose a rainy day to open and I took a photo between drops....

Man don't you hate the Post Office!! I do not know if you want to waste your efforts Amy as I have never found them to be sympathetic and the aggravation makes it worse. How could they ruin Lindt chocolate, there ought to be a law against that!! I have had a distaste for them but now it is real hatred! Was there anything salvageable? Hope things get better for you Susan, both healthwise and life circumstances. You know they are probably connected but that doesn't make you feel better. I will keep you in my prayers and you know what they say about the prayers of a sinner. diene

Hi Everyone! Rose, my guess is 13 for the planter contest. My box arrived from Vina today, and it was very, very nice! Loved the butterfly stickers on the box! Vina sent me: Blue Mouse Ears, a mini hosta, YEA!, which is already planted in between the tiarellas; A Columbine William Guiness, very pretty, and already planted; A pink Obedient plant, an Agastache Honeybee Blue and a Rudbeckia Herbstonne, all of which have been potted up awaiting decisions on where to put them! Also received a beautiful, orange daylily called Kwanza! Vina, thank you so much for sharing these plants with me, I am very pleased! Well, I have to have Willie, the cat, at the Vet's at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I'd better start doing bedtime stuff! Talk to ya all later! Shirley!

Shannon - best wishes for a smooth recovery! I almost passed up this thread, thinking "I check mine every month" but you have prompted me to call to schedule my mammogram - I haven't been in a year. I felt a lump in the tail of my right breast when I was in my mid-late 20's - we had moved, I didn't have a gyn, was going to PP for exams and BCP. Nurse there said it was probably from my underwire. A year or 2 later I found a practice with a midwife, she didn't notice it right away but one year (I think I was about 30-31) she did, I told her what PP had told me. She sent me for mammogram, then when nothing showed (too far to side - on ribs) she still sent me to surgeon. He removed a fibroid tumor and a fatty tumor that had grown one on top of another. It could have been much worse! But I have grown complacent about getting mammograms done every 12 months, and never thought about questioning radiologist. I have also b'fed 2 kids, but was in my mid-30's and early 40's then. I also have a family (both sides) history. Thanks for the nudge!