Well SHOOT wouldn't you know I have nothing special to offer you for one of these. Well I have some elephant ears and a Blood Banana baby, I am not too sure how reciptive you are to these. If you might be interested please let me know. Thanks, :) Fran

Several years ago I found a baby bird in the middle of the yard with no place to hide. I got our rabbit Snoopy in the house. I watched from patio but no birds seemed to be interested in it & it was hot so I thought I better do something as poor thing was shaking. I got a chair & put over it & filled a little saucer with water, pulled some long grass I hadn't trimmed to make it more hidden, dug up couple of worms & laid on little piece of wood & babysat from patio, kids babysat then until bedtime & in morning it was gone so guess parents were somewhere. Another time I spotted a strange looking brightly colored bird. Very tame but seemed like something wrong with it. Bird people agreed to come out but I had to go & buy 1 lb of ground sirloin right away & they were on their way. I did but this little hawk was about the size of a parakeet so how much sirloin could he eat? Bird ate a piece size of a pea & guy put it in a cage & took off with the bird & the meat!!Bet the guy had some nice burgers for supper!! Jan

Fascinating conversation. Here in the Ottawa Canada area I never noticed any Japanese Beetles until a few years ago, although I've had roses for about 20 years. I wish they "just lasted a few weeks", but even here in chilly zone 4B the irridescent green vampires hang around pretty much the whole summer and into fall, sucking the life out of the rose blooms. Sure roses are bothered by other things, but nothing like the Japanese Beetles, at least for me. I have a very early rose (Therese Bugnet) that gets a few blooms out before they take over, but then it's a free for all. I have noticed that the most fragrant (Hansa and Blanc Double de Coubert) are the most popular and they don't even open before the blooms are totally covered and devoured even with twice daily visits and "debugging". They are less aggressive on my Knockouts and my Carefree Wonder, the Knockouts seeming to be the very least bothered of all my roses, but they are also the farthest physically from the most scented roses. After they find the roses they are on to the raspberries (leaves) and they bury themselves into the hibisucs syriacus (rose of sharon) blooms. Ah, yest they certainly do fly and probably 1/3 of mine never "drop" into my soapy water container, regardless of how many partners they are mating with at the moment or how carefully I "sneak up" or how close I hold the container. I did see a suggestion of using geraniums to "draw the beetles away". They are supposed to be attracted to them, eat the geranium flowers and then fall over and pass out like drugged party goers so you could sweep them up. Sounded worth a try. This article didn't specify a colour and I had bright pink geraniums. Even when I put the pots of geraniums directly under my handsome "Hansa" they didn't land on the geraniums. Since then I've read that it's the white geraniums that they go for. So, if anyone wants to give that a try, I'd love to know if the white ones work for anyone. Or I've also heard of using catmint, or members of the onion or allium family planted close to the roses Going to give those a try since many are pretty and purple anyway, but I think you'd need something with persistant leaves to keep the scent going. I'm thinking perhaps I should get more of the early blooming roses like Therese Bugnet so that I might enjoy the blooms before the vampires descend, but I really want my roses to bloom all summer and for as long as possible. Just as a point of interest I do work in a garden centre and none of our roses had a Japanese Beetle. I had to fight off other rose thugs that I don't remember, but no Japanese Beetles. Perhaps it's the fact that the garden centre is on pavement and not surrounded by lawn where the lady vampires (JB's) lay their eggs and the adults winter over. Mary

I use newspapers when I'm eating fresh blue crab or oysters.....haven't ever had the need for Frogmore Stew! Fingers get nice and messy, but that's it. I saw the picture of the fish when you posted it earlier. It really whetted my appetite. Patti, I don't use a special brand of sausage....it's just a smoked sausage along the line of kielbasa. Hillshire comes to mind. Coming in a close second to the taste of this dish is the aroma of it wafting through the house. Hmmmmmm, it's those aromatic spices in the Old Bay. Back in the Lowcountry, it's everyday fare but no one gets tired of it. It's served at every big and small gathering. It's easy to cook up a small batch as well as big kettles of it. Raven, I've also had it with blue crab. So good. That's another sea food I dream about having again.