Hi. Thank you. I looked at the pictures. Although the nuts look somewhat the same, the color is creamy white, and I would not describe these nuts as easy to crack. I think it was planted from a selection, from what I have read. These are good quality nuts and not terrible to remove from the shell. I really hate to lose this tree. It has fruit every year and not every other as the article states wild ones do.

Ladies we have a celebrity in our midst!!! This picture and article appeared in the Monday April 21st edition of the Quincy Herald-Whig. Way to go Michelle!!!! lOLLY WAGNER Herald-Wnig Staff Writer The gardener's house on South 19th Street is easy to spot from the street. Michelle Reynolds' minuscule front yard is more straw than grass, but the tulips poking up in bunches around a tree stump, and the yard ornaments and bird feeders distract the eye. But the real work is going on inside, where the cold, dark days have been banished by grow lights and win­dow gardens. "The plants keep me busy," Reynolds said. "It gets me through winter to have stuff blooming here all the time." Reynolds will be putting most of her vegetable seedlings into the com- munity plots on North Eighth Street. She also has the beginnings of several butterfly and kitchen gardens for her­self, friends and relatives. While she regrets that the garden is too far to walk to, she's glad that it's away from the curious fingers of her sons, 5-year-old Timmy and 2-year-old Jeremy. This is her second year, and she has plants to share with the other gar­deners and flowers to contribute. The perennials have already sprouted in two portable greenhouses on the front porch. Reynolds put the shelves of flats, encased in plastic, on the porch last January and the seeds started to sprout last month. "I just water them," Reynolds said. A lot of seeds need the freeze-thaw cycle to germinate. "I just let nature do it." Reynolds' kitchen is a laboratory with plants in pots, plants wintering-over, a shelf-top greenhouse, house plants, Timmy's seedlings and plants hanging and sitting everywhere they'll find natural light. Outside the kitchen door, protected from freezing temperatures in the "mud room" on the back porch, are two more portable greenhouses sheltering seedlings. They hold snapdragon, roses, and cardinal climbers that will bloom with red trumpets that appeal to hum­mingbirds. The tiny backyard is completely mulched. "I want to water plants, not grass," she explains. The wood chips also provide a relatively clean play area for the boys, "not that they wouldn't love to play in the mud," Reynolds said. Birdhouses hang from the garage wall, and in the corner are several raised gardens for flowers. The hard-working plants are in the base­ment. More than 100 tomato plants, along with eggplants, pepper plants, and more flowers sprout from flats on the shelves that line three walls, leaving just enough room for the washer and dryer. Each shelf has a fluorescent bulb hanging from chains so it can be raised as the plants grow. "It's taken me a couple of years to get it where I want it," Reynolds said. Here are the beginnings of several kitchen gardens and a winter's worth of canned toma­toes and salsa. While Reynolds has not gotten involved with groups promoting locally grown foods, she's discovered the pleasure of being surrounded by nature and helping things to grow. "I talk about them to anybody who will lis­ten," she said. hwagner@whig.com/221-3374 GARDENWEB.COM Michelle Reynolds plants more seeds than she can use. She plans to give away her extras, including trading plants online at GardenWeb.com. She also has several kitchen gar­dens planned for friends and relatives. At only a few feet square, "a kitchen garden is something anybody can put in their yards," Reynolds said. Her kitchen gardens hold a few tomato plants, eggplants, onions, radishes, carrots and lettuce, "just any­thing you can toss in dinner," she said. There are also herbs such as basil and fennel for cooking, for the butterflies and just for the delicious aroma when they are crushed between the fingers.

I think perhaps by definition we TKO are disproportionately fussbudgety. What's it all for anyway? You can't take those perfectly unscratched cabinets with you. Maybe have yourself buried with them like pharaohs? Nah..... Dings Happen. And as for dh's who can't refrain from cutting on granite - well, that's why we just need to teach (or have taught) our children well.... :) And in the absence of that, this is why we have MIL jokes... ;) FWIW -- I drive around in a minivan that has a cracked bumper; you can see its innards, the metal "I-beam"-like thingymabob in there. It is very out of place in LA where so much is just-so. I attract a lot of attention. But it is not worth it to me to spend the money (thousands; more than the car's worth) to fix it. And in all honesty, I don't care, though I recognize it gives many the willies. Thing is, it reminds me of an interlude in French Canada where the ding was inflicted by a snowplow. They have a very different relationship with snowplows, snow removal and those who perform said operations there. The previous winter there had been several individuals killed by errant snowplows. But subsequent inquiries had determined the individuals were simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time" -- like my car and its bumper (parked, on the side of the road with many others just like it). Things happen, and just about all that changes is our reactions to it. Seems a life's lesson I rather value leaving visible on my bumper. But of course that's way too long a story to explain to the guys trolling parking lots looking to "fix" it (not) for a few $$.

i've heard about breaking a rib before but the diaphram??wow...hope you're resting and healing... stella my mother was told to be very careful with muscle spasms in her back as they could do the same thing... my fil was taken to er and they found he has copd, among other things..he just got back home yesterday (2 day stay)...he's mad they put him on advair, at $65! told him if he uses it correctly along with his oxygen, and other meds he might get benefits of NOT going back to er!