Hi - this is Lisa P. from Pass Christian, writing from my Camille-Katrina-Gustav-tested home complete with electricity, restored by our fantastic power company last night. (MS Power rocks!) Mike - so sorry to hear about the 20 hour trip. What a nightmare. But I hope your home is okay. Let me know when you get back home. We had only 60 mph gusts here, but they went on for about 6-8 hours. Small trees and large limbs are down and some minor issues, but overall we are fine. I have family that lives in Slidell and St. Bernard - all evacuated so are safe, and I'm hoping that none flooded, but we don't know yet for sure. We may have a house full of people later today as they drive here and wait to get back home. General update from the local news: Some of the worst storm surge hit Hancock County in Miss, which unfortunately was also the worse surge area in Katrina, so there are a lot of folks who got hit again. The emotional toll is going to be heavy. The just rebuilt harbor area here is a wreck. I don't know about the city services (which are still in trailers) yet but we are going to drive to town in a little while to check on a friend's place. Pass Christian, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pearlington all got hit pretty bad. Pearlington had a report of a 19 ft. storm surge, but I think that may be exagerated. It was more likely 14-16 ft. but that is bad enough to wipe them out. A friend from the Bay reported a nearly 11 ft. surge at his place about 1/2 mile from the Bay. He is a scientist and probably has that pretty accurate. Power is coming back pretty quickly to places that didn't flood. I don't know what is going to happen here when so many people who have barely recovered have now flooded again. We are lucky - I joked with my husband that after only about a day of yard clean-up, we could get back to our normal Katrina repairs. But the truth is it isn't really a joke. We still aren't back to normal yet, but that isn't unusual if you flooded in Katrina. Slidell, New Orleans, and St. Bernard - reports are that there is still flooding in low lying areas of Slidell (Palm Harbor), but it is isolated. Several friends on the east side of Slidell - Cross Gates, Quail Ridge, have power and did not flood. The surge may have been as high as 9-10 ft. on the most southwestern part of Slidell, where one friend has a ft. of water in her yard. The storm moved fast enough that water didn't pile up in Lake Pontchartrain as it could have. They are saying the sewerage system in Slidell is out. Reports are the the levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard held although water was at the top of the Industrial Canal levee at the 9th ward. A couple of levee leaks in St. Bernard (one right near my sister's house) were plugged and prevented flooding. One report said that near Paris Road and St. Bernard highway did not have water. Terrebone Parish (Houma area, Brian lives there I think he might have flooded) flooded pretty bad, but I am hearing very little details about the damage. They had 10-12 ft. storm surge. Gustav was a high cat 4 storm with a bad surge predicted for LA and MS we were expecting a lot of damage. It went down to a 3 and even a 2 at landfall, but still had a solid 3 storm surge. It could have been much much worse that it is, but it is still bad enough, especially for the folks who got whacked by Katrina. This was nothing like Katrina, but it's harder than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened. Regarding the question of 'Why don't ya'll just move if you live in a flood-prone area?' I can say that personally, my husband and I moved from LA to MS where there is some high ground, and we did choose someplace that was never expected to flood at 23-25 ft. elevation. Well, it flooded in Katrina anyway, and nobody ever thought that could happen. Now if we want to move, we can't afford to. Insurance is so expensive here that nobody will buy your house. Some places can't get insurance. Also, our town isn't the most attractive place to live right now and probably won't be for decades. So unless we want to take a huge financial loss and sell our house for practically nothing, we are stuck. That is true for many people in the towns that got wiped out by Katrina. Who wants to move to a town with no grocery or pharmacy, trailers for city buildings, beat-up trees, perpetual road construction, and unaffordable insurance? Actually the people here are great and we have some beautiful areas so it has its good points, but outsiders won't necessarily know that and want to come here. I think more people who flooded are going to move away now, and that is going to make things even worse. The other reason, and perhaps the main reason people don't up and move away is that nearly all of New Orleans, St. Bernard, and Slidell are in flood-prone areas, at least for a bad hurricane, so unless you leave town, you can't get away. And people don't want to leave their hometowns where they work and have family and friends. I live within a hour of my 2 sisters, and I won't move away from them, so unless we all decide to move together, and we all get new jobs somewhere else, we can't leave without breaking up the family. It's unfortunate that cities got built in flood-prone areas, but way back when, people didn't have the knowledge they have now about oceanography and weather to help choose places to settle. Also, the terrible destruction of our wetlands and barrier islands due to decades of oil canals being dug, and the levees built along the Miss River stopping sediment flow have contributed to the flooding problem. As Mike said, New Orleans is sinking due to the Miss levees, but it is still an important city. Sorry to ramble, but I want to try to explain that it isn't as simple as it seems from the outside. New Orleans, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany are telling people not to come back home - that you will be prevented from going home even if you have electric and your home is fine. That is creating a lot of problems. Also, schools in all those areas are going to be closed until Monday, or at least that is the latest I've heard. Hope this is useful to somebody. Thank you all my friends for your concern for me and everyone down here. It means a great deal to me. I'm fine, my family is safe, and more importantly, my roses are mostly okay. Let's hope to hear from Brian, and Mike again soon. Lisa

Sorry you're not getting any gulf frits, Laura! That's too bad if the zebra range is shrinking, Mary. I got one visit years ago, haven't seen a single one since. If they're retreating, I'll probably never see one here again. I just released the gulf frit - she's a female. The sun came out, the temps went up to 90 degrees, and she was flying all around the cage wanting out, but now I'm hearing thunder out there. I sure hope she'll be alright! There is a pair of gulf frits that have been nectaring in my garden, a male and a female, but the female hasn't laid me any eggs, at least I haven't seen her do so. So I'm wondering if they haven't mated, maybe don't like each other, strange as that sounds? Maybe he'll like the female just released, and I'll get some eggs/cats! :) Sherry

Aggie, I agree about the silver spots. I always know it's a GF on the wing because the spots just glimmer in the sunlight. One of the easiest to ID on the fly, IMHO. Congrats on your GFs! MissSherry, I'm gonna have to pay more attention to the GF cats. I haven't noticed any variation in the markings, but I haven't really looked for them either. The caerulea is completely defoliated so they're going to have to use the P. 'Incense' now, and they're still flying around, mating, laying eggs, etc. Just the 'Incense' has so many predators on it, I see few cats that grow beyond the 3rd instar. The ones that do make it to the later instars seem to be "safer" (or is it my imagination?) from predation than the little ones. Susan

That's so weird, MissSherry, I've lost 2 successive plantings of P. caerulea, but was able to maintain my P. 'Lavendar Lady' since approx. 1999. I have no idea why. Anyway, the two years I had the P. caerulea, the GFs ate it first, before they started on the 'Lavendar Lady'. Sylvia, if you are planting for "attractiveness", I think all of the Passion Vines have very pretty foliage, and even prettier flowers. For me, the foliage is bothered little by pests, so it remains fresh looking all the time. There are some Passifloras with prettier flowers, like the 'Lavendar Lady' I mentioned. Much prettier flowers than the incarnata, altho it has pretty flowers, too. It would be hardy in your zone 7b - I am in 7a. The only drawback to 'Lavendar Lady' is that it will not be a host for the Variegated Fritillary, just the Gulf Fritillary, while the P. incarnata hosts both as Sandy said. Lisa, I'm glad that some of your Passi's came back. The 'Lavendar Lady' did not show up until late July, when I had absolutely no hope it would return after the winter we had. That's why I went ahead and purchased the incarnata. I have had GFs in the yard, just very, very few egg layers. In fact, I have only managed to save ONE little caterpillar, and I don't know if it will make it. It is growing very, very slowly. I have had Monarchs out the gazoo, Lisa. I still have some Monarch cats if you want to come by tomorrow evening, I would be happy to share 3 or 4 with you so you can at least see them pupate. I've had my share. I can also give you some seeds of the Calatropis gigantea to grow next year, if you'd like. Gorgeous plant; Monarchs love it. Did I give you an Amorpha fruticosa and a Button Bush? I have those, too, if you want. A. fruticosa for the Sulphurs, and Button Bush for nectar, and possibly for Cecropias. Do you also have Wild Indigo? I have tons of little Wild Indigo Duskywings on mine right now, and they will be overwintering as cats to come out next spring with the new growth. Very fun to observe. It took no time at all for them to find my plant! They found it the same year I planted it. Kellybird - it's so strange how the butterflies prefer certain species in one region, and another elsewhere, isn't it? Sad day today - my little companion spider, Charlotte, the Argiope aurantis, spider, died. She left me 3 big egg sacs, though, and hopefully I will get to experience her progeny next year. Kenna will be sad, too, cuz we've been feeding her this summer, and Kenna is in love with her. We have a hard time dealing with our animal losses. We have already lost Lady George, a stray female adopted as an outdoor kitty cat, and then, Wild Kitty, another outdoor adopted kitty. One from unknown causes and the other by hit and run. They were the only females in the neighborhood. Lady George left behind 4 babies that we nurtured and sent off to forever homes. Sigh....life goes on. Susan