I was too late. I got home late last night so I decided to move them off the bush this morning. But they had already pupated! They were munching away last night when I went to bed but when I checked on them this morning, 3 of the 4 were gone. I always mulch my pots to help retain moisture and when I did some careful poking around, I found two of them in the mulch. I'm guessing the third is there too but I didn't want to disturb them too much. I did move the fourth one into a container but I'm guessing it will pupate soon, based on it's size. I'm thinking that after a few weeks, I can carefully pull the pupae out of the mulch before I plant the bush? Strange that you haven't seen many this year Elisabeth because I'm seeing more than I have ever seen before. I've also seen the snowberry but not as often. I thought you might find this amusing .... the potted nanny berry came from Cox! It was one of the free plants given to the members a few years ago. A friend has been growing it in the pot and decided she didn't have room for it and she knows my affinity for natives so she gave it to me.

Hi Pam! Saw your picture the other day and it was funny, but you look a lot like I had pictured you. Don't remind me about the Milsean chocolate - I try very hard to stay away from it! Terri - it could be fun to meet up in Bellingham - I love the "old part of town." We'll be away until the middle of October, but maybe we could manage before the snow flies. Vacuumfreak - I'm glad to hear that Orlando isn't crowded, as this is to be mainly a Disneyworld trip, meeting up with inlaws from Ontario. With 7 kids and 5 adults, we are a crowd all by ourselves! Jane

OJ, glad you were able to rehab the cultivator. We had a free-standing mailbox when we moved in, but it kept getting knocked down when we were negotiating the driveway. So we bought a large black box that mounts on the house. Love it, MIL saw it and liked it , a lot, or so she said. So one year for her Birthday or Mothers Day I bought her one just like ours. She looked at me and said her standard "I can't use it. Can you exchange it?" I took it back, gave her the money and more or less told her I wouldn't be giving her any more gifts, she never liked them anyway. That solved gift buying for her for a few years, then she passed away.

Big edit for this post, you posted the Kerdi shot while I was typing. So... 1) The flex in the floor that is causing the grout to crack: It's possible that the Kerdi Tray was not properly bedded in thinset, so as the slightly flexible tray flexes, the inflexible grout is cracking. It's also possible that the small size of the penny rounds is resulting in point loading on the foam tray. The foam compresses ever-so-slightly, the tile moves, the grout cracks. The floor...Is your guy using thinset as grout? Grout as thinset? With the penny rounds, it almost looks like he's doing an all-at-once installation. Setting the tile, promoting between-the-tile-squeeze-through, then grouting. All at the same time. A negative with that is that he's grouting and cleaning the grout before the thinset has fully cured. When I grout I'm pretty aggressive with the grout float in order to get grout into every nook and cranny. I don't want to leave any voids. If your guy took it easy when grouting so as to not displace the unbonded sheets of penny rounds, he could have left a few voids beneath the surface. If he wanted to be gentle while cleaning the grout, he might have used too much water during cleanup, that can also weaken the grout. I don't know why the floor is being grouted piecemeal. That's an easy way to get uneven grout color on a floor. As he continues to tile, he'll have to chip out parts of the hardened thinset/grout at the edges fo the already installed sheets to get the subsequent sheets of tile to mesh with the already installed sheets. He'll need to be careful to not ding the Kerdi membrane. It's also a recipe for mismatched spacing at the edges resulting in being able to see the individual sheets of tile versus the floor being one harmonious surface of penny rounds. With him sliding the floor tile under the bottom course of wall tile, I do hope he's not leaving any unfilled voids in the floor-wall corners. 2) Bullnosing. He bullnosed the tile after they were on the wall? Yeah. Probably not going to get a good outcome. Should be an easy remove and replace. The bowed wall? The tiler tiles on what he gets. If he gets a bowed wall courtesy of the framers, he can put the blinders on and tile right over it...or he can address the bowed walls with whoever hired him...the GC? The homeowner? Then the tiler can either tile right over the bowed wall, OR he can have the contractor fix the wall before he tiles, OR he can repair the wall himself and then tile. One added item...I can't tell what exactly is going on int he bottom left corner of the already installed tile. Could simply be that the tile spacing is skewed and he lost the pattern. After this floor is done and everything cured, I'd recommend having the GC pull the drain grate, install a plug, and flood the floor. As the floor tile is covered with water, watch for air bubbles. They'll indicate voids under the tile or in the corners. Once flooded, pull the plug to see how the floor drains. Make sure it drains completely and that water is not held in the corners. With a Kerdi Tray, the slope of the floor and a properly draining floor should be a no-brainer. But based on what I'm seeing and what you described regarding the bullnose, this could be a "no brain" installation. Sorry for that. Remediation after-the-fact is always a tough spot to be in. Good luck.