My birds eat apples two months before ripe and grapes a month early. I won't trust them one inch with blueberries. And how do you tell which ones they're eating? One trick is to look at the back side of the berry. That turns dark last. But that's hard to see on some varieties with tight clusters. Furthermore some need a week or several past being dark to lose the tartness. Protect from birds and force yourself to go without berries for a week. Test and if still not ripe enough wait another week. Another suggestion is to try other varieties. Living in FL you have many choices if you get enough chilling. Try Springhigh it tastes great even when still not fully dark and is very early. Sweet, low acid, and great blueberry flavor. Also get a Sweetcrisp which matures later. After you taste it you won't want another except to lengthen the harvest season. I think your Sunshine Blue would ripen last. By then you'd have it figured out.

I plan to make all my seedlings (that I can handle) flower, then force them for the following year, and give away. I already promised the first one for Cindeea, for she sent me seeds, the second one for Maria, for her seeds... And then the rest will go to Project Angelfood. Hopefully they will see it as a nice gesture and not an unnecessary burden. :o)

We recently returned from my son's home in Copenhagen. When he & DIL moved there 7 yrs. ago they acquired some furnishings from what's essentially an upscale Craigslist. Among them were a beautifully patina'd big chestnut colored leather chair & ottoman. It has tufting and nailhead trim and is just gorgeous & comfortable. My DH loves that chair & sits in it all the time when we visit. On the flight home told me he wants something similar. Well, DS's home is stately with 12 ft. ceilings built in 1899. Our home is a typical 90's era New Englander. I was actually going to start a thread asking where one finds such a chair and what style would fit a home like ours with a mix of clean-lined traditional & Shaker furnishings. I could see one by our upright piano and fireplace for reading. i love the OP's & it's a style I'd gravitate to whether the gurus said it's in or out.

I think it's a swell gift idea and would be pleased to find it in my stocking so I hope your gifts were received with good cheer, Lynn. My friend's son recently had his done and was tickled to find some Australian native DNA in his background. Scandinavian/German/Italian was all that was in the oral tradition of the family, so it was a neat surprise. Our family's Ancestry.com hobbyist received an email from a "surprise" cousin that we did not know we had, after several family members' DNA was registered. Photos were exchanged and yes, there is no way to deny the blood kinship--he looks just like the rest of us, poor fellow. The generation of folks who might have been shocked/hurt by this surprise family member are all gone, and I am glad for him that his lifelong question of paternity could be answered. I can see that it might be awkward for younger families who find out they have siblings they never heard of, but I'm a fan of sunlight in dark family corners-- and I also think it's time that some kinds of families stop acting like those situations never happen "among our kind of people", lol. I also had my dog's DNA done and I'm getting our newer dog's done, too. Very fun to find out what went into these rescue/shelter mutts we love.