The introducer of Castleton, Prof. Robert Andersen, Stone Fruits Breeder at the USDA-ARS Clonal Germplasm facility/Cornell at Geneva, NY, was a beloved and deeply respected teacher of mine, now sorely missed! There were several other prune-plums of the 66 series, meaning pollinated in the year 1966, that seemed also exceptional (to me) but were never released. Rosy Gauge is another release from the same program and I have a plant along with the Geneva Green Gage. One interesting fact I have noticed is that woodchucks will climb more than 6 feet up a welded -wire mesh enclosure surrounding these 2 varieties and then climb down INSIDE the wire cylinders wrapped around the plants to fend off deer. So much do they love the taste of the leaves and shoots! A revelation for me, living in a critter-infested yard, where I have given up growing anything. Another fun fact: Toka is extremely vigorous, the most vigorous plum I have, AND also very distasteful to deer that will graze everything [ especially my Stacey and Nova pears] to the bone left and right of the Toka, leaving it with only a few nibbles!!Slim fawns will flatten and insinuate their precious selves UNDER deer fencing to get at apple and pear leaves, when scores of acres of Cornell alfalfa, maize, and the entire Cornell Arboretum lie not 50 yards away! Why? There are other mysteries re: deer food preferences/wild & cultivated species of the Rosaceae that completely blow my mind. Konrad, thanks for your great inputs. I used to live in Logan, UT, a Zone 4 a & b climate, depending on location. Green Gage was excellent there, but never very high-yielding; I am envious of the grower who harvested 5-gallon bucketsful of GGs! For those who are so minded, please do visit the Cornell-Geneva Stone Fruits collection on a balmy day. It is situated in a remarkably beautiful location, with a lovely pond in the middle, next to a grove of wonderful apricot trees, part of the small collection. Nowadays, things have become more formal for visitors, since newer faces have taken charge. Not so in our times! We are told it is because of security issues since 9/11, when huge fences were erected all around the clonal repositories, the apple collection, etc. and admission + access severely restricted. Who knows what they were thinking! However, these repositories [and indeed ALL Land Grant Universities] are funded by CITIZEN dollars, and all US citizens have the right to request reasonable amounts of FREE propagating materials OR propagules for personal use from the USDA-ARS. That is expressly mentioned in the mandate for these repositories.

Just a quick, hopefully helpful, point to those trying to post pictures...if the picture doesn't show up when you hit preview, we won't see it either, so don't hit submit yet. Upload your photo to something free like photobucket. Copy the html code that displays there for your photo(usually just hover over it and click and it will say copied), then paste that code into the body of this message. Hit return after each picture to make sure they don't get too wide for the screen. Hope this helps. And remember that when you preview your message, if you don't see the picture then, we won't either, so try again before submitting. Now back to bees paint saga....

K9arlene, I do know what you mean. DD (the older)'s room (which is mostly a guest room since she's all but moved out totally), is calm and relaxing. Many of our guests stay there, because it has a convenient bathroom with no other bedrooms near by. DS's room (which is also mostly a guest room since he also has all but moved out) is a jumble of stuff and will eventually be streamlined a bit, but will be a more masculine room. This guest room is known as BFF's room, so it is being focused on her taste so that she LOVES the room. Everyone else who stays there knows it's BFF's room so they expect it to feel like her and her personality. But I guess you're right--I'd not really leaning towards 'relaxing'. I'm leaning towards lively. I do want it to be comfortable, though--it might be bright, but it'll be fully functional with a comfortable bed, a place for luggage, lighting to read in bed, a mirror, and either a reading chair or a writing desk. (I don't think both will fit.) DD (the younger) goes off to college next fall. When her room turns into an additional guest room, it's the most stimulating of all of them :-). BFF actually spends more time at our house in her room than DD the older spends in her room here, which is why it is reflecting her so much! Of course, I guess I can throw lots of big house parties, since there will be so many guest rooms!

Valley Mist has green undertones and your drapery looks more blue green, so when trying to build on this palette, you need to go to different coloring. In this case, a gray with possibly purple undertones would work well. But rug should be very subtle. Possibly a tone on tone gray or beige. Sometimes Pier 1 and World Market have some great rugs. I would do a wool rug in a dining room easier to maintain. I personally don't like Jute or Sisal. Tough in a dining room to get little pieces of dropped food out and wine stains, almost impossible.