I have to say that I never met a plant I didn't like... Until recently I had only few indoor plants, but a lot of plants in the garden - too many! and lot of potted ones that would winter outside, too. Need to control myself not to get just about everything I can. Plants I would not grow inside are because of mite/aphids magnets, and sometimes the size they want to grow to and space available, not because I don't like them. I have 2 bouganvelias, and one gets covered with bugs minute I bring it in. Other one doesn't - it's a mystery to me. Need to do something with it-it's getting on my nerves to try to keep it bug free-no other plant I ever had was so 'buggy'-poor thing ends up in solitary and chopped up every year. Does well outdoors tho. I find it amazing that from just a tiny seed, something so amazing could grow. I planted a ginko outside that was about 1.5"tall 7yrs ago, now it's taller than 2 sty house. My mother used to grow some plants in the apartment we lived. She had amazing hoya, euphorbia milii, passion vine and a begonia that was a 'forest' to me - many stems, growing upright more than 5' tall, and blooming non-stop (few other plants too). These plants were not very easy to get where we lived, and she did grow them really well. She also experimented a lot: grew palms from seeds (we got dates once a year & she would save the seeds), coffe & citrus plants from the seeds, and similar. My father had aquariums, one was about 90gal, with colorful fish. Another with betas only! There were at least 4 tanks at any time. Thinking back, they did amazing with all this flora & fauna under not very favourable conditions... Rina This post was edited by rina_ on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 21:49

Cynthia, SO nice to finally hear from you. I was getting worried about and "that fool dog of your's". I can't even begin to contemplate how hard this must be. At least with Rex he still had 3 legs left to hop around on... and while he may've been sore for some time he could at least move around and shift position without yelping. I really would like to see a picture if you're up to shooting it and then posting it. Hang tough! I love candles in the windows of a home (pictures? look who's talkin'). The only reason I don't do it here is that there are windowboxes under the roadside window and I fill them with greens that would hide the candles. But when I was a kid we used them. And, MARTIE, we added one for every Sunday in Advent! All the decorations were left up until the Epiphany (Twelfth Night) and they came down the next day. I finished the 3 pediments this afternoon and put them up. I like them. But need to add something pale/bright to the lower edge to keeping them from "oozing" visually into the window below... . Shoulda bought more .99 lemons at Wallyworld, damnit. I have the big pediment on the dining room table right now and am about to embark on that. Boxwood is holding up, and I'm a whiz at making white pine swags now. :) (smells really good in here and the cats are having a total blast... in and out, in and out, doing their wonderful kitty routines. (thinking of Cynthia and the candles). Norma, your photographs are lovely (no "blurries" here, either)! I see a lot more color than just green grass in those shots. I love the way Mother Nature changes the palette over the course of the seasons but gives us the shimmer of rain and snow, instead. Martie, Kyle should be excited about his position. He must be having the time of his life. I'm a bit envious, frankly! :) I'm still struggling with how Mum's life ended, Martie. Not that I think I could have done more (aside from the ususal regrets you feel when someone you love dies), but there are several things I would love the opportunity to go back and "fine tune". I've thought about your question repeatedly over the past few days and still don't really have what I want to say completely figured out. It's such a huge thing to face and I still feel the full force of the wave that overtook me and hurled me onto the beach. I'm still shaking my head and trying to "collect myself"; checking again and again to make sure "everything is here". A good, family plan is the perfect place to start and having the doctor know you is KEY. IF you're able, make sure your Mom's doctor "follows" her if she ends up living with her children or enters a nursing home. That's one of the things I most regret... I loved her doctor when she was with me. He was young, hip, and all about minimizing medications and keeping her ACTIVE. I deeply regret the loss of that when Mum entered that awful place. Many, many thoughts and reminiscences today... alone with my thoughts, the animals and my final project (helmeet working AND going out with his buddy tonight). Some tears, a lot of "singing along", and the appreciation that the decorations are really ALL Mum. I learned it somewhere, afterall! Thinking of my friends tonight and still hoping for some basic pointers on how to "light" a basic TECHINICAL shot with my camera. Please? (MY tent would have a perpetually warm hot water bottle, blue cheese and pate. A cat, a good biography... want to know more about Martin Luther and Abraham Lincoln. Sparkling water with lemon, and Pinot Grigio or a nice red wine. Clementines, olives, and almonds. It would smell like evergreens, too).

Yep, Phoenix is almost as far out as you can get.... 20 miles more and you'll hit Copper Harbor which is on the tip of the Keweenaw Penninsula! I've had a lot of problem with cell phone coverage in the Keweenaw. I had T-Mobile when I moved here and have since switched to Alltel (which supposedly covers this area, along with AT&T). Alltel doesn't give me any better coverage than T-Mobile did. I'm find in Houghton, Hancock, Calumet, and Laurium. I don't get coverage in Lake Lindon, Dollar Bay, or anywhere down that side of the penninsula. NOBODY gets coverage in Copper Harbor that I know of. Other places are hit and miss. Oddly, I have three bars at the cabin site, but I figured that out when I found a cell phone tower up on a hill only a mile or so from there. I don't think there are any towers out towards the harbor. I don't know why! How many towers could it take to cover one small penninsula anyway??? I do hear that AT&T gets coverage in some of the towns that Alltel doesn't, but no one told me that until after I signed up on a two year contract with Alltel :-( The camp really isn't so far 'out there' unless you call the whole penninsula out there :-) It's less than a mile to the town of Eagle River, which I admit, is pretty darn small. But that means less than a mile from Lake Superior and a beautiful public beach too! Then a mile the other way takes you to Pheonix. There hasn't been a settlement or cabin on our spot before, although there are a couple of houses along the highway that we turn off of to get into our camp. And we are bordered all around by Superior Timber (or whatever that logging outfit is called). That means no neighboring camps. And yes, I've heard of clearings before, although back where I'm from (Nebraska originally and the Rochester Minnesota area recently) it's pretty much all 'clear' and only spots of timber. It did take some getting used to here.... almost all wooded timberland, but it is just so beautiful! Thanks for the wishes for the long dry fall. We'll take you up on those! And yes, I've got a keeper this time. I explained this to my daughter just the other day and I'll share it with you too. Except for the fact that I moved further away from my daughter and son-in-law (Tulsa OK) and away from my son and daughter-in-law (Rochester MN), I feel like I've come home. Part of it is Gary and my step-daughter Emi, part of it is this house here in Laurium, and part of it is the Keweenaw. It's different then the farm country I grew up in back in NE, but it is home. Hopefully, you understand what I mean. It's inside of me and hard to explain. What I've just said is the best explanation I can give. Here's a link for Laurium (the town where I live): Laurium link And below is one for Eagle River: Here is a link that might be useful: Eagle River - camp is about a mile from here

ummm... i don't think smoking a bong is allowed! and drinking beer, well that would be allowed! i'm ok, jimi is my brother, but i raised him from a little thing!! LOL mom being a trucker and all. the other thing i can do pretty easy! pissing me off!! LOL he he he amazing aren't i! LOL funny how those kids are, when your not, looking they just do what they want!! my mom went and got tabor some of those heelys, so now he's like all cool. LOL sooooo, he wears them to church, so i make him change them, and he can wear them at break time, LOL the good news is my banana plant is comin out of it! before after like almost a week. so my banana plant is doing much bettr!! can't say much for the canna's. errr! one was just about to bloom too!! i was FINALLY gonna see this special yellow! LOL and one i've been waiting on never bloomed yet, won't this year thanks to the frost! that's it! i'm moving!! LOL :'))