Like scully, I think I have fruit trees in the garden. I see trees, it's just that I rarely see fruit. The "Snow Queen" Nectarine is kept very small so I can wrap it in wire, bird netting, and upside down vaseline-covered plastic pots at the trunk to keep out the squirrels and rats. That never works. We got one nectarine last year. The avocados are too big for that- so I eat squirrel-bitten avocados. I stand a fighting chance with the Oro Blanco grapefruit and the sour oranges that are supposed to be Valencias, because the squirrels find them unpalatable. I'm growing ground cherries this year- we'll see if I get to try one before they are stolen. You'd think the little wretches would be content with the endless supply of peanuts they steal from the scrubjays, the vegetables from the potager, my sunflowers, and the chickenfeed, but I guess they need dessert. Renee

I have a copy of, "the NEW Fannie Farmer-Boston Cooking-School COOK BOOK", 1953. My father, in his retirement, took on the care of several Summer homes in Southern Maine. He would check on them during the winter, board up windows against storms, uncover rose gardens when the time was right, deal with emergencies...that kind of thing. During the Summer, when people were in residence, he was sort of a general, all around handyman. His largest client was old money...there was a beach named after the family, a road named after the family, and a huge home, loaded with antiques that had been the original furnishings. An elderly Black woman came up every summer from South Carolina to be their cook for the season. Little bittie thing, set in her ways and stubborn as heck, but since she'd been cooking for the family for decades, she knew what they liked and how to manage them. I had been separated from my father at age 5, and when I found him again in my early 30's, I went out to stay with him and my stepmother for a year to get to know them. He took me down to meet Marguerite. She was a kick, and we got along...several years later, when she knew that she wouldn't be able to make it up again the next season (or ever), she gave my father her Fannie Farmer for me. It still has a bunch of book marks in it, some with shopping lists, some with her name, some with cryptic notes I can't decipher, all in the same, slanted hand. I actually use the book quite a bit, but I don't disturb the bookmarks. I sometimes puzzle over the marked pages, wondering which recipe she had marked... I also have my mother's copy of "The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook",1952. It has a separate section of Passover recipes. There are no pork recipes, naturally. Generally, the cookies and bread recipes are good. As for unique...I have an Ethiopian cookbook...the only one I've been able to find. "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking-Society, Culture, Hospitality, & Traditions. I've only made a couple of dishes out of it. I love Ethiopian food, and when I found out how much Nit'ir Qibe (purified herb & spice butter) is used in most of the dishes I love, I realized why I love them. For example, in dishes made from 1 pound of ground beef, it is not unusual that they contain a cup of butter. A typical lentil dish pairs 2 cups of lentils with 2 cups of butter. No wonder I love it!

Floral: Gooseberries grew fine for me, but they were always very tart, and I never found a use for them. I love plums, and the trees grow fine here (with irrigation), but the crop gets destroyed most years from late spring frosts (this is essentially the same story for all the stone fruits, as well as the pomes, to varying degrees). Melikeeatplants: Yes, prickly pears do grow very well here, although not the cultivated Ficus indica since it is far too cold, so just various wild species. The fruits do make an unusual and delicious treat (though they take a lot of work to de-spine). I have used them for jelly, syrup, and as a dye though. Too bad most of the really special species of cactus are more subtropical (the columnar types in particular I'm thinking of). I wanted to add an explanation why I pulled out each of the plants in the list above, but thought that would be too overwhelming for opening the thread! But most of them were due to: climate issues (specifically late springs frosts, winter cold, and aridity in the cases of stone fruit, blackberry, fig, pomegranate, hardy kiwi), poor production (such as with goji, seaberry, black raspberry), and underutilization by my family and me (gooseberry, golden current). One more thing: I should also note that I probably would never have pulled out any of these plants if it weren't for the fact that they require regular watering in my climate, and despite capturing upwards of 20,000 gallons of rainwater every year (I have 5,000 gallons of rainwater storage), I still pay a great deal in water costs, since we have some of the most expensive water in the world where I live. For most people it is the space that is limiting, which is much less true for me, on my 1.25 acre lot.

Excellent. Kindle app, updated iOS. So, to use Notes with it, if you want to write something down, check the little tray that comes up when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. If it isn't, find the Notes icon (yellow band on top, with paper lines under--it comes with your iPad and can sync to your iPhone). Press and drag that icon to the tray, then tap done at the top right of the screen. Now, when you're reading the book, if you want to take notes, swipe up to see the tray, hold and drag the Notes icon to on top of the Kindle app (or any app) and let it go. You should get a narrow page of Notes on top of your main app. There's a little gray bar at the top of that which is a handle. You can tap and drag it to other positions on the screen, and if you tap and drag it to the right hand side off the edge of the screen, it'll hide. Drag your finger from the right hand edge, and it'll come back, or show a tab you can tap and drag to pull it into view. Notes automatically saves and is yours to keep. To set a bookmark in the kindle app, which should be in your app, rather than the library book, so should be fine, just tap the upper right hand corner and you should see a little blue flag. Or you can tap the center to see the toolbar and tap the top rightmost flag icon. To see the bookmarks you've set, tap the center to see the toolbar, and tap the third from the top right icon, that looks like a page. That will show your bookmarks with a few words from the page (which may or may not be helpful) and a number which gives the location from the beginning, which you'd have to use a lot to make meaningful, but you can compare the numbers to get a better idea of which bookmark you wanted, like toward the beginning or toward the end. Tap the bookmark and it'll take you there. There will be a little box that will switch you back and forth from where you were to the bookmark, back and forth, if you want to compare, or use a couple of recipes together. You can tap the center to get the full page, and advance or retreat a few pages, and still have the toggle button. I haven't used the in app notetaking, but the link explains it pretty well. If what I've said here isn't clear, just ask and I'll do better. :)