Ohhhhh Shady, I'm definitely coming to eat at your house...grilled Tuna....fish...surimi and sushimi....yum. Mayo I think is just shortened for Mayonaise....you know, Arthur, the American tendency to shorten everything...including our present King. The only thing which worries me about making my own mayonaise is the raw egg thing again....but hey, I like Miracle Whip on pumpernickle. And yes, I like fried spam, but could never stomach fried bologna. I'm also an iconoclast because I saw these new "stemless" wine glasses and thought it was a sacrilege...the point to the stems on a wine glass is so you don't warm the wine with your fingers whilst holding the glass. I too like thin wine glasses, tea cups and coffee cups...but I have a strange problem...I get the urge to bite them. Fortunately, I have controled myself, but I get this urge.....

YEA! I just bought Chamomile tea - so that item is checked off the list for now, I pretty much have everything but the Thermometer and a marking pen. I'll be putting the set up together myself, so figure it will at least be an all day project. Dawn, yeah, I usually put my seed trays on top of the fridge until they germinate. Right after I see a few pop up, I move it to the lights and let the rest follow suit. I have grown African Violets before, and they are also easy to propagate from leaf cuttings. Regular AVs are small plants (can get pretty wide), but there are also some very small, tiny even, AVs that are super cute. As a former avid Begonia grower, I also used to grow a lot of them under lights, growing from seed (very tiny, dust-like seeds), and some will root via leaf cuttings like the AVs, pieces of rhizome for the Rhizomatous varieties, and stem cuttings from the canes, shrubs, semps, Rex (which I don't grow because they are just more finicky than I care to deal with), thick-stemmed, a few tuberous (not the large-flowering ones that like to grow in the cooler Northern climes). I used to show my begonias at the local, regional, and national show levels. But that is a very long time ago. I recall one of the entries was a fish tank in which I put plants I had grown from seed - about 10 different ones, that were meant for a high humidity environment, and it was gorgeous. I may get back into some begonias in a very small way. Begonias of this category really do like light gardens because they are shade loving plants and lights don't emit anything close to the intensity of outdoor sunlight. There is a local begonia show around March or April here in the city, of the Barkley Branch of the American Begonia Society, and they always have a plant sale along with it. If I can remember, I may go and p/u some there. The small Rhizomatous are better suited to light gardening. The fluorescent tubes that come with the garden are T-5s. Apparently this is a good blend of the red and blue spectrums for good growth. Mmmmmmmm, a Mesclun or microgreens mix sounds very, very good. Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I am thrilled - I always put everyone else in the family first - I don't buy clothes or shoes, except when I have to, or anything special, other than my coffee beans, so it's kind of a guilty pleasure I'm indulging in. But, life is short, and it only took be approx. 30 years to make the decision to go for it. I'm sure I have tons of seed in my "seed box" that will be suited for growing this time of year. I'm attaching a link to an image of several different rhizomatous begonia leaves just to show that there are so many more types of them than what we see used as bedding plats. Susan Here is a link that might be useful:

LOL Carol, I do have a bridge at the north end..but it's still a trip...I don't know how my hubby commutes daily so far..but he does it and I'm grateful for the ability to stay on my Island. I have purchased at Costco in the past too, and yep it's Canadian.. (BTW, Costco is exactly 33 miles from their gas station to my front door, over 2 bridges, and 45 minutes on a good day. TJ's is another 40 plus minutes on a non existant traffic day down I5.) I was kinda wanting to see if there was a difference from Canadian and NE syrup. I think I need to call my brother, he's supposed to be heading to the NE this fall or winter. I'll beg him to send me some... :o) Yeah that's it...

I wonder if I can buy stock in Harney & Sons! Just kidding. It's a family owned company, from what I understand. But, I've always enjoyed tea, and I really got more "into" tea when I was at UCLA for my recent surgery, Since returning home, I bought a bunch of Stash tea as well as a lot of tea from Harney & Sons. The Harney & Sons company impresses me a great deal, not only for the great tea, but for their customer service. Orders are received very quickly, and samples are always included. My first order included two individually packaged tea bags but ever since then, all of my orders have included individually wrapped tea sachets. Since the tea sachets hold loose tea, I think they're great. Anyway, I do recommend that folks click on the link on the Harney site to "request a catalog." When you do that, you are taken to a page where you can view a PDF of their catalog. I am still stunned at how many different teas this company offers. Lynn and Jakkom - please let me know how you like the tea when you get it.