Mourning cloaks? Now I'd love to raise some of those, Tiffy, but I've only gotten one visit from one, and that was years ago - it was a very worn looking individual, surely on its last legs. I'm on the southern boundary of their range, so it probably came a long way. That burgundy or eggplant coloring on their wings with the gold rims is gorgeous! Hopefully, the monarchs will find your milkweed. I've got a lot of milkweed this year in my garden. I decided to go ahead and plant more, because the A. curassavica is so easy to grow, it comes back every spring, and it flowers all summer and fall with flowers that are as nearly as popular with the butterflies as lantana and butterfly bush. I'm hoping to get some monarchs in late summer or early fall - that's the only time I get eggs and cats. I just see a few individuals in the spring, flying through. I keep finding more giant swallowtail eggs, but a few of them look like duds, I'm not sure. I've also found a few more black swallowtail eggs, also more gulf frit eggs. Something weird happened yesterday with gulf frit eggs. I walked through the gate on my picket fence to go into the house, because it was about to rain. I saw a gulf frit flying away from a passionvine just as I was going through the gate, so I checked it out, and she'd laid three eggs. Just then, a downpour of rain came, didn't last too long, followed by light rain. After the rain, two of the eggs were gone! This is the first time I've ever seen eggs washed off a leaf. I assume that, since she had apparently just laid them, the 'stick-em' hadn't had time to do its job. There were a few other eggs on other vines that I'd seen earlier that stayed put, thank goodness. The little gulf frits I'm raising are getting less little every day - their growth rate is amazing, so much faster than swallowtails! It rained a little again today, and there's a good chance for more tomorrow, so the drought is better, but, as we've discussed before, I'm not seeing the butterflies like I did when it wasn't raining. They couldn't have all suddenly left, so I guess they're just hanging out somewhere waiting for fair weather! :) Sherry

We made a lowball offer on this current house, but only after doing some careful research. The first, and most important to us, was that this house was one of 14 rentals that the owner had, and he HAD to dump this house because he was at the end of the period where he could deduct it on his taxes. Second, we looked at similar houses that were turn-key, and figured in how much the house would need to get it to that level, and deducted it from the asking price. Then, we looked at DOM-over 365 because of disrepair and a Harry Homeowner single car semi-detached garage that was falling down. The house itself was a diamond in the rough (ok, very rough!), with good copper piping, solid build, and what looked like an exceptional amount of thought put into the design by the original owner 37 years ago. So. The listing was 374,900. We made an offer of 300, which was rejected outright. We then let them sit for three more weeks, came back at 340, and got the house for 350. The guys next door with an indentical turn key house just sold for 500. We think it will take us about 5 years and 100k to get it turn key, which puts us at a total investment of 450. No big profit there, and when I mess up an improvement I sometimes wonder why I didn't choose the turnkey, but there are ways that lowballing can be effective. Let me emphasise that if this had been someone's home that they had loved and lived in, we would have passed on the house at the price they were offering because it's not an investment for them, it's part of their heart.

I think this house was posted last year on this site. UNless there are two houses like this in Horsham, which i highly doubt I remember it, because being a Bucks County native, I know of Horsham and it is not a place I think of for cutting edge architecture. A look at the "newspaper" Sochi linked to, and I think this house is in an area unlikely to appeal to the type of buyer for this house. To wit, one large tenant moving out of downtown is being replaced with a rent-to-own furniture store! And the one business that sounded hip, a farm to table restaurant, stopped paying rent after one month in business and closed its doors after 4. I'm guessing they tried to sell it thru MLS first and then went the Natl Trust route.

I love TJs....we don't get wine in grocery stores here so I've never had the $$ chuck...but would love to try it some time. I've been addicted at various times to various things at TJs including their meringue cookies and their chocolate nonpareils. While their cookies are very tasty, I don't find any soft and chewy type. Great selection of chocolates from around the world....can use it like wine tasting. We always shop there for crackers as their selection of whole grain and multi grain is the best. Love their edamame crackers. I also get my whole wheat english muffins there. If any of you, like I, have certain issues, try their 100% cranberry juice. I put just a splash in a tall glass of seltzer and it is amazing. So different from the usual sugary water with some cranberry in it. Lately I've been buying their grass fed beef and it is incredibly flavorful, besides not having any pink slime (bleccch). But whenever I'm baking anything that calls for chocolate, I always buy their belgian chocolate. I make a chocolate lava cake using their dark pounder plus and it is A -MAZ -ING! I recently made Awesome Brownies using their chocolate as well. Excellent! I also buy their lightly salted mixed nuts and get other nuts there for baking and eating. But in our area, TJs prices their bananas by the "each" not "lb". Once I bought one of their chicken sausages that was really good, but since then, i can't seem to buy the right one again....they have several. I've been not happy with their frozen foods but based on your recommendations, will have to try some again. I typically don't eat any frozen prepared foods as I make my own.