Lauren just count yourself lucky--I had an inchworm in my salad once! The waitress offered to get me another salad, but the colleague I was at lunch with (who had quite the warped sense of humor) piped in with it probably came with brothers and sisters and lots of friends. I opted for soup.;) Baldo, thanks for the great link. That info has already come in handy. I noticed this foamy spit stuff on a couple of my roses and was wanting (hoping?) to blame the dog, but spit that stays for days at a time? Nope, Zephyr didn't cause THIS on the plants. This time (no his m.o. is to sit on them with all his 110+ pounds of blunk and smash them *g*). Thanks to your excellent bug info I now know the culprits--spittlebugs! Also was able to identify another pest that has been happily munching on roses. Katydids. Melissa

Salvia 'Indigo Spires' is a very tall Salvia with truly indigo blue blooms. (A lot of pics on the net don't do it justice.) Lillium regale gets to be almost 6 feet tall in my garden and has huge blooms that are maroonish pink on the outside, white on the inside. It's a spectacular plant and loves my cool coastal climate and shady garden. Campanula primulifolia is a bellflower that should be more widely used. It gets to be about 3 feet tall and is covered in starry lavender/blue blooms over a long period. -Reseeds too. Digitalis mertonensis, Strawberry Foxglove, has been a long-lived perennial for me and adds a nice spikey touch in an interesting shade of pink. I also like to use fancy regular foxgloves for this effect, like 'Candy Mountain', 'Camelot Mix', 'Pam's Choice'. Although it is only hardy to Zone 9, if I were you I would be tempted to push the zone envelope in a protected spot and try Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'. It definitely gives that lavender like effect in a shady spot, and both the foliage and the flowers are spectacular. Here is a link that might be useful: Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'

You all are very kind as usual..you're not being blunt, and you're being very helpful (and I'm a psycho-more than usual. But it might be my new usual. Things are moving this way) running, I wonder whether it's one of the approaches I love the most..it was developed by Michael White if I'm not mistaken. It does sound like it. There, one does create a story ..and picks certain bricks to build that house so to say, a house of his story..out of thousand brincks that he has, he picks hundreds -and chooses not to pick others, as to confirm his own story. While other bricks continue to be at his disposal..they don't fit. They don't fit whatever he builds, and thus he never uses them. Maybe he doesn't even see them, at times. Sounds familiar? It might be called a narrative approach, I'm not very sure about English terminology. And I'm desperate to continue to write my story. And I want to have some control over it. Who doesn't. It's damn hard to do. Because my control is getting very small precisely when it had a chance to be bigger, and precisely when I sorely need it. It shrinks by the day. It shrinks and it doesn't depend on me that much already, and will depend less and less. So I have a very little time. I'm revisiting my past a lot, that's true, and I'm bargaining about some of "what ifs"-but I probably think too much about future right now because it comes faster than I thought it would. And future -whatever part of the story I have yet to write-it does include the current house. Say I don't want to sell it, or to rent it, or to get rid of it. I want to keep it in the family and all. I do love it. But it shapes to be my "forever" house too fast. Simply speaking-I don't want to die here. And it's very hard becoming a huge burden to your family. I'll be a very big burden. I already am-bui I didn't imagine the degree of how fast it goes downhill, and what will entail. It'll get worse, and it won't be pretty. It will be ugly, and very.. non-elegant. No white camelias.. And I want to die at home. Well preferably to live and die at home, but if living is impossible then to die. And my home is very very far away. And for millions of people that might be a brick that they wouldn't choose. Where they're'd want to die. It's a kind of a luxury too..I'm not even sure that brick is at my disposal)) I realize all that. Yet to me it's fundamental. It's like to write ..well I don't know.."Wuthering Heights" and leave out Heathcliff. My Heatchcliff is not a person, not a passion for something, not a..I don't know. Everybody and their Heathcliff. My Heathcliff is my land. I spent many years trying to write a different story. But that brick Is too heavy to move, I'm not taking it out.. My house of a story might be a pretty place without it. But it would be a lie. And I want authenticity. As with a house.. And to be a burden here...very practically speaking ..lots of money too. Pain to them and torture to me- and tons of money. I need to start leaving-well partially leaving, I'm not going to leave my family and this country once and for all, I'll have to divide my time between here and there, which will be very hard as well-I need to start leaving much faster than I thought. While l I have a capacity to do so at all. While I have my brain still computating things for me, you know? because it's not a given. I thought whatever happens-at least to the very end I have my dignity. I can be of some minor use to my loved ones. One can still think, talk, be a rock in a sense he's there for them.. That's not how things will work in my case, not neccessarily. One needs to be of a sound mind in order to have dignity..to be a rock..to be anything at all. And mind will most likely crumble as everything else does. I'm so so sorry to bring you into my vortex or how it's called. But there are very few people who know these details-and one of them is my husband, and the rest, I pay them money)) I don't want to make others too sad over things they cannot change-so add to it my huge effort to show everybody a different story that you write only for their sake. A story where everything looks better and holds a promise.. It's too many stories to juggle at once..))) And my fingers loose the capacity to hold a pen. I don't mourn my old place. I mourn my old me. After all I'm to separate from her soon. She's a very questionable person of course-but I didn't have anybody else)) I do want to live in the moment (to that end we yesterday went to the party and had fun)) we'd choose it anyway over open house lol, but you probably convinced me not to go at all. Maybe while I was writing here and reading your answers-I lost the incling to go to. Having this thread was enough ) And I do want to accept things .Desperately so. It's just hard because almost every day brings something else I have to adjust to and thus accept. Gardens and orchids do make me happy:) Believe me I'd rather stop writing where I was at orchids' part. Totally my fault to let it slide like that. I'm sorry about all this oversharing..I think it partially falls on you too because is easier to say certain things in English. It being not my native language. It's liberating, to a degree. Not fair to you of course, but you're too good for your own good ..)) I should probably have to just leave it all unanswered. Yet all of you wrote to me and shared with me your thoughts and stories from the bottom of your heart. I'm giving you back something you don't need. But it's also from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.. You are fascinating people, you opened so many new stories to me, and your existence in my life-virtual or not-is also a brick that I'd rather hold on to.

If you haven't already paid for the installation, withhold payment. Call the remediation company, and put it in writing if you can also (memorialize the call in an email). They might direct you to someone at the flooring company, or, considering they have been contacting the flooring company on your behalf until now, they may take care of it themselves. If they are not helpful, call the insurance company. Peeing in front of you and not washing up--during a pandemic, no less--is absolutely grounds to never let him in the house again. Not to mention his unprofessional and abusive conduct. Don't be shy about putting your foot down, and don't compromise just because you've already had to wait a long time for this to be done.