Bon, Most bell peppers start out green, like tomatoes do, and then mature to whatever their mature color might be: yellow, orange, red, purple, chocolate (an oddity I'll address in a second), etc. There are some bells and non-bells that start out either ivory/pale yellow or lilac/purple, but they're not real common except in the gardens of pepper afficianados who want to grow them in every possible color. Oh, and the chocolate bells that I've grown do eventually turn red, but they stay at that milk chocolate brown color, which is a blend of their unripe green and ripe red color, for a really long time, and their flavor is decent while brown, but not as good as it is if you eat them after they've turned red. There are a few sweet pepper types that go through a multitude of color changes as they mature, and one of those types that I've grown is called "Blushing Beauty". It starts out very light colored, almost an ivory or cream color sometimes with a slight tinge of light green that then turns to yellow and then yellowish-orange and then to red. Often, there are peppers at all the stages of color on the plants at the same time, making each plant a beautiful sight. As with tomatoes (except the green-when-ripe types), when in the green stage, the bell pepper flavor is not mature and full and rich and sweet. The reason that grocery stores sell us green, immature peppers (and we have been conditioned to think we like them) is that ripe, fully-colored-up peppers only have a shelf life of a few days and the stores lose money if the fully-colored peppers go bad before they sell. It is better for the grocery industry, as a whole, to convince us we want to eat bitter, unripened green bell peppers because those peppers have a long shelf life since they aren't ripe. yet. If this sounds similar to the tomatoes-shipped-while-green-and-artificially-turned-fake-orangeish-red to make us think they are ripe situation that drives me up the wall, well yes...same sort of deal, but they don't bother gassing the peppers to make them turn their mature color while in transit. Thus, the green bell peppers we buy at the grocery store are harvested green and unripe, shipped, and sold to us consumers as if that is the proper way to harvest and eat a bell pepper---green. It isn't! However, if you grow up in a non-gardening family, you might not even know that because for decades all you really saw in stores was green bells. When bell peppers are allowed to stay on the plant another couple of weeks and mature to their final ripe color, the flavor improves tremendously. So, when I think about the flavor of grocery store green peppers versus the flavor of peppers allowed to grow until they reach their full mature color, the choice is clear to me---I don't want to buy and eat green peppers. Luckily, the consumers have made their voices heard in the last 10-20 years and most grocery stores now carry bell peppers in their mature colors of red, yellow and orange too, but often charge a premium price for them. I cannot comment on the flavor of the colored peppers from the store because normally I don't buy peppers at the grocery store, but the few times that I've bought colored peppers from the store, their flavor was good and sometimes their texture was good. Still, they weren't as good as fresh ones out of the garden. I don't necessarily think the flavor and texture of mature, fully-colored bell peppers from the store is as bad as the flavor and texture of grocery store tomatoes, but I still prefer the sweet peppers fresh and home-grown. They're just so much better when you've grown them yourself, harvested them, and taken them inside to use that day. Even if you are lucky enough to have a neighborhood grocery store or farmer's market that features locally-grown produce, peppers from a source like that still are going to have been picked at least the day before you see them on the store shelves, whereas I can walk out to my garden, pick a couple of peppers, take them inside, wash them, and prepare them for the next meal. I appreciate having produce that fresh. I really don't like green, unripe peppers any more than I like green, unripe tomatoes, so I tend to slice up whatever green peppers are left right before the last freeze and freeze them for cooking where their flavor is only a part of whatever dish they're in, but not the main flavor. Once you get used to having sweet, crisp, fully ripe, colored bells, the green ones taste like what they are--unripened, immature fruit. And, for the record, many of the hot peppers we eat also mature to colors other than green, and I prefer for my hot peppers to be allowed to mature to their ripe color too. I don't mind eating jalapenos green, but like them even more when they've been left on the plants until they turn red. It is just a bonus when I leave them on the plants while they red and don't harvest them until they start corking. This year I let everything stay on the pepper plants until November and when I harvested there were all kinds of red, yellow and orange peppers, hot and sweet, and some immature green ones as well. By everything, I only mean the late crop that came from August or September flowers. I had harvested tons of peppers earlier in the summer before the drought set in and it got too hot and dry for me to spend much time in the garden. Carol, I try to cage my peppers, but inevitably I run out of shorter cages before I get all of them done. This year I had about a dozen plants, mostly jalapenos, that weren't caged, but they produced great. They fell over once they reached a certain size and laid all over the ground, but it was so dry that I didn't lose many peppers to rot. I just had to be really careful because I kept seeing timber rattlers in and around those plants, which is one reason I stopped picking them in late July and didn't venture back into that bed until September. Then I had two more timber rattler encounters in and near the peppers in September, and stayed away from that bed until a day or two before the killing freeze in November. By then, the nights were cold enough that I felt like I wouldn't encounter a snake in the garden, and I didn't. I did cage all the poblano peppers this year, partly because they got so big last year, but also because I had a little voice in my head telling me to do it (and you have to listen to the voices in your head if you're a gardener because they are the voice of experience), so I used the last few pepper cages for them and let a bunch of jalepeno peppers and peter peppers sprawl on the ground. Actually, the sprawlers started out staked, but eventually got big enough to fall over and pull the stakes over with them. The three caged poblano pepper plants each got about 4-5' tall and 3-4' wide, and crowded out nearby jalapeno pepper plants lying on the ground around them and beneath them, but barely produced anything all summer. Then, undoubtedly influenced by cooler temperatures and the return of rain in the fall, the poblanos went crazy. At the time I harvested them, each plant had produced several dozen poblanos that were full-sized and red, and many more that were small and immature. It was the best poblano harvest ever, so I dried lots of them to make ancho peppers, ancho pepper flakes and ancho pepper powder. I've been processing peppers for a couple of weeks now and am almost done. I have been too distracted by all the remodeling and redecorating projects I have going on to even think about next year's grow lists yet, but the seed catalogs are piling up on the coffee table and one day soon I'll flip through them to see if there is anything I need or want. I have such a big stash of horded seeds that I might not need to buy many (or any) for 2014. I need to use up some of the older seeds before they get too old for good germination. I love the multi-packs of seeds that contain numerous varieties because you can get, for example, three colors of sweet bells in a pack of seeds instead of buying three separate packs. I don't necessarily like tomato seeds bought that way, though, unless I am buying them from Renee's, which dyes the seeds with non-toxic food dye, so I can be sure how many plants of each tomato variety I put in the ground. I especially like that some sellers now sell basil seed blends because I like to have lots of kinds of basil and would rather buy packets containing a blend of different types than have to buy a bunch of individual packets. Dawn

This was my first experience with Dees. Sialis says they fledge on the 16th day. Mine fledged 18 days from the day the first one hatched. There were 3 eggs so it may be 16 days from the last hatched egg. The chirping and feeding did pick up about 5 days before they left the box. By the way they nested in a side opening, hanging, wren box. I bought it hoping a Carolina wren would nest in it. Maybe they will use it next. Good luck with your Dees. Let us know when they fledge. Renee

Wow, NHB - that is one gorgeous view. We've seen our share of houses perched on mountain sides and that's not for us. I love the more rolling land with the distance views of the mountains. It's not all about the land, of course, it's also lifestyle, and we love the slightly off kilter, hippy aspect aspects of Asheville along with the great dining, outdoor activities, entertainment options, the variety of festivals in the area etc. Last year we went down there with friends for LoxFest which was a hoot! bgj your trips to Knoxville sound like ours to Asheville, looking for the area that fits and is far enough away for peace but still allows us to get there and enjoy the aspects we love. I do want to go to Oak Ridge, though, just to see it! I would prefer to find an existing home and remodel it like we did this one but we haven't seen anything worth putting the time and $$ into. Biggest issue for DH is he won't accept a block basement, it has to be poured so I imagine we'll build. that's another thing to freak out about. We want a smallish house on acreage and if the land is there the house is 3500 sq ft and up - way more than I want to deal with. ellendi I hear you on the need for medical care. Privacy vs isolation is the tricky part but DH and I are partners and neither one of us is going to play the martyr for the other. We'll find a balance or we'll move on. Bottom line is, when I'm happy, he's happy ;-) bpathome we're really neighbors, you know? Several friends live on the main drag east of town. You probably knew/know one or two. And do not get me started on the library! That is honestly one of the hardest things for me to leave - we have the BEST library. shee that fixture is from Sea Gull Lighting but it's old and certainly not current stock. I spray painted it with Rustoleum ORB paint years ago when the look of brass was totally passé.

There obviously is no perfect place to be all the time, and some of us will have to suck it up with the heat for the next six months. I hate cruise ships, they are huge polluters of the ocean. There are rules about that but it's so easy to just throw it all overboard. Been through all the traveling and moving umpteen times, now home seems best, although it was better when the garden was a happier place. Still, some of the roses give me hope, and I'm so looking forward to seeing La France bloom.