I'll get those pics posted! The advice I got today was not to hurry to prune off any freeze damage until we're sure the risk of freeze is over. We haven't had any freeze in so many years, it's hard to remember what to do! Although the days are in the 70's, it is so dry that the nights are around 40 and could dip down further. Lots of fire risk right now, and no rain, oddly. So much looks bad (I've got to replace those impatiens and oxalis!), especially now that we're pruning the roses. Only the camellias are bursting with blooms. So pictures of the garden will demonstrate that all is not glitter in tinseltown!! Did you know there's a rose group called the Tinseltown Rose Society? Anyway, yes, the kids keep me busy. And Kitty. And our turtle Lili (or Timmy, if it turns out to be a male) and our fish (especially mine, Howard). I also made the mistake of missing a meeting at my son's school, and next thing you know, I'm chairperson of the hospitality committee, running around to Costco to get munchies and flowers for community events, open house, etc. How did this happen? IT'S A NIGHTMARE!!!! (just kidding!) I'm never missing a meeting again. Oh, and there was the "Macbeth" performance. I made several costumes, including my son's (he played Macbeth) and had fun creating props (like a torch made out of PVC pipe with a PVC cup on the end, a little flashlight thing placed in the cup, surrounded by tin foil and yellow and red cellophane (for flames). We covered the entire thing with dark brown duct tape (did you know they make that?) and it looked great! We donated everything to the school for future productions. Next play: Greater Tuna. Don't ask. I still haven't put my sewing machine away. Probably because no one knew I had one and everyone was completely amazed at how well I faked being a seamstress. I loved all the adulation! Max's friends thought I was so cool, they want me to make them costumes for the next anime convention they're going to this weekend. Forget it! I'm a lawyer!!!

Florida: My mom had nematodes that made a chumk of her rose gardem unusable so I dug it out and filled the hole with good nematodes liquid mixture, put the dirt back in and that area is now one of the best for roses. As far as planting I have two spots; one with sandy loam and one in black-gumbo. I actually do them fairly similar as I dig a hole, depending ns the size of the rose, from twelve to sixteen inches wide and sixteen to two-feet deep.(when I did potted roses some holes were wider) After mixing potting soil, bagged manure and original soil together (Using different compounds at times multi-roses are planted to see if one makes a difference) I fill the hole to the depth that the rose will sit on top of,fill it with water; with water that has liquid iron, Superthrive and Serenade that the rose had soaked in, plus other possible items depending on the needs or concerns, and let it settle a bit. I then put the rose in, fill with dirt and fill the hole with the water again. After that water has settled I finish the hole for mulching it in the future after I am sure all is well. In the black-gumob one I will always dig the deeper hole, and mix some sort of mulch, or possibly put a sand bottom, into the bottom before I refill the hole with a mixture that contains zero gumbo. I am also far more attentive to drainage rate there as in in the sandly loam the water is gone in seconds whereas in the gumbo it varies by minutes in holes only a few feet apart. I used to mulch with Eucalyptus but now use Cocaa Bean Hulls as Eucalyptus got too expensive. I have the bud union at many different depths due to the fact I now have buried roses and the higher the union the easier to tip the rose to bury, but as burying has become a bit annoying, two I just planted were planted with bud unions actually slightly below surface level.

There was a program on Channel 13 not too long ago, titled "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life". If you can get the book or DVD or whatever, by all means do so; it's a real eye-opener. Dr Daniel Amen (pronounced Ame-en), the psychiatrist/brain expert who hosted it dished out an amazing amount of solid information about the brain, how our diets & lifestyles affect our brains, & *how our brains are the most important 'things'* for our health & quality of life. He showed brainscan images of healthy brains & not-healthy brains, & said that the researchers had to scan 3000 people to get images of 90 healthy brains! The non-healthy brains were dramatically, disasterously damaged by alcohol, Alzheimers, smoking, crack cocaine, stroke, heart attack, inhalation of toxic fumes (don't go to work painting cars!), & probably some other stuff. The markers for brain health were diet, exercise, & refraining from bad stuff. Diet was to include fish & fish oil (people who live in countries where lots of fish is consumed have much lower rates of suicide & depression), Omega-3 fatty acids (the brain is 60% fat; don't eat any fat & you'll starve your brain), avocadoes, walnuts, blueberries, broccoli, green tea (lowers the risk for Alzheimer's), spinach, tuna, oatmeal, turkey, red bell peppers (have a whole lot more of the good stuff than green bell peppers). Exercise oxygenates the blood, making the brain work more efficiently & be less susceptible to depression. Learning new things keeps the brain young; if you're a gourmet cook, learning a new recipe won't do it, you need something *new*. Learn to speak Chinese or dance the Tango or built a ship in a bottle. He said that he'd no more diagnose depression than he'd diagnose chest pain; depression is a symptom, & the underlying cause has to be addressed. Several things that we can adjust very easily will help our brains. Gratitude: Every day, make a list of the top 5 things for which you are grateful. Gratitude gets the brain into positive habits. Challenge & correct negative thoughts; thoughts lie! When you catch a negative or obsessive thought, say to yourself, "oops, that's just my brain" & replace the thought with something else. Depression makes people feel more pain; Pain ages people & makes the brain function less well. Treating depression reduces pain. interesting stuff, sorry it's so disjointed. My plan is to type up my notes; I'll post when I've got them all together & email them to anyone who's interested. just writing out my daily gratitudes has helped me a lot.

Luvs, I think roosters may be popular for toile. I've seen fabric with it too. I was shocked at finding the horses tho. The one with the sleigh is part of a set but the other pieces don't have a horse in them. Punk, I have TEN china cabinets and curios. I need a bigger house. LOL. My collection of my dog statues is close to 300. My Trail of Painted Pony collection is around 120, at the moment. I haven't counted my rabbits. LOL. I have numerous small collections too. Then there's my Christmas "collections". Oh, wall space in my house generally refers to the area between frames. LOL. Luvs visited me in Jan when on a motorhome trip, she can testify to how how much stuff I've got. So I definitely do NOT need to be collecting dishes now. My daughter is hoping I'll live forever, she sure doesn't want to deal with all this someday. Her two brothers would leave town. LOL. hugs, Karen