Vicky, Boy, we are much alike. Funny you should ask about sleeping schedule! I wrote my post right before going to bed a couple of nights ago. Went to bed -- then got up 2.5 hours later! I did get some more sleep later yesterday, and did some more catching up last night, so I think I'm back on schedule. I had a bout of insomnia for most of this year that was fairly resolved when we went on vacation. Anymore, I don't even consider one bad night of sleep per week as insomnia, compared to those long bouts. I've really been taken with alternative containers, especially since I can get them free while trash picking or keeping up with our local Freecycle Network. (People ask for or offer items that would otherwise simply be trashed, but still have some life in them. To find your area's site check out this link -- http://www.freecycle.org ) Granted, some times I do pay for the containers, but, if you know where to go (we just hit our local Goodwill Stores for the first time last week, looking for containers and found two -- a beatiful ceramic one for our small bay leaf and a cheapo plastic wagon that will only last a year or two), you can get the 5-6 gallon containers, for free or for $.50-$4 each. Below is the link to one page of one of my websites that gives a long list of unusual containers, and where you can find those 5-6 gallon containers, although I forgot to mention that my Dad gets his by buying kits to make wine, and gives many of them to me, afterwards. (I may not have kids, but I still enjoy playing and thinking young. LOL) Of course, once you get into containers, soil can get expensive. I've been buying much of my soil in the fall, when the leftover potting soil is on sale. I also supplement it with last year's dead annuals and the stuff that just blows into the yard -- leaves, buttonwood fuzz, and soil that leaches out of the bottom of containers, each time I water. (Last one is only doable if you have concrete for a yard, so you can tell the soil from the ground. LOL) My compost is left in five gallon containers with a multitude of holes on the bottom and lower sides, so the pill bugs can find it and enjoy making it into true compost during the winter. Add to that, I buy sandbox sand, which is more sterilized then builder's sand, a big bag of peat moss, and a couple of bags of perilite, to stretch out the bought potting soil more and mix it in with used soil and new compost. "Don't plant more then you can do," is my biggest problem! Eight years later, and I still can't figure out how much I can do. LOL Fortunately, I must be one of the world's worse seed sower, since only about a quarter of the seeds I start actually sprout AND grow to maturity. LOL (Yes, I use seed starte soil and containers, so it's not a problem with Damp Off.) This year, I'm even having trouble growing lettuce from seed! Last year, it grew quickly and easily. Well, good thing I read some good advice given to an advice columnist, when she brought home a whole pick-up truck full of annuals, and then realized how much time would be required to plant them all. She just sat in the midst of them, feeling overwhelmed, when her next door neighbor found her. The neighbor picked up a single container, handed it to her, and simply said, "plant one at a time!" Duh, now! LOL I guess that is part of the secret, realizing that we'll never get any of it done, unless we just set our minds to dealing with just one at a time! But, you are right. I do feel badly that hubby became disabled, but I'm sure glad I get to see more of him then I used to. I generally don't have to worry about dinner. He's a great cook and does most of it with great enjoyment and great results (as demonstrated by our great girths now, too. LOL) One thing I have learned in the last 8 years, that only other people in our situation truly understand -- the house will not fall down, if all the housework cannot be completed. LOL Sounds like something else we have in common -- a reduced sense of what absolutely has to be done for daily chores. ;) I sure hope your daughter can visit occasionally, so the two of you can sit in the garden and simply enjoy what you have so far! That's part of why I love gardening -- the amount of time hubby and I sit back there in the summer through September and just watch the tomatos fruit, the birds enjoying the bath and seeds, and the variety of herbs and flowers, as we just take it all in silently together. Lynn Here is a link that might be useful: Young Buds in the Garden

Loved the post kaboehm!!! I'm one of the funny ones that for the most part likes the leaves of many things.....on the odd occasion I get a flower I am excited, but the weird, above-ground (in some cases) bulbs with the glaucous or twisted leaves I love every day......Haemanthus montanus has beautiful leaves that have a slight twist to them.....like the Nerine krigeii, but much larger......usually just 2-3 leaves on the Haemanthus though. Here is one of mine from this spring: I did not take pics of any of the ones blooming now :o) Dan

Here's my update from the not used and not yet blooming lists. Four o'Clocks--Are blooming nicely now, but whenever I look inside, there's no nectar. None at all! I haven't seen the hummers at them, and this is probably why. They look great, but how disappointing! Blue Lobelias (Lobelia "Fan Blue")--I just saw a bird visit these this afternoon. I'm not sure if she got anything, but she dipped into a couple flowers before zipping over to the feeder. Interestingly, this summer I've been experimenting with making feeders out of Sculpey clay which closely imitate the hummingbird flowers in my garden. I made a blue Lobelia last week that is very realistic looking. I'm hoping that my feeders are habituating them to new colors and forms. It's hard to say because I'm not doing a round the clock study, but it seems like they didn't touch the lobelias until I put that feeder up. I put the feeder up a few nights ago, and when I got up the next day they were already using it without hesitation. I wonder what their reaction was when they first arrived in the early morning and saw a purple flower, instead of the usual red ones I've been making! I'm sorry to say I wasn't up early enough to see their astonishment. All of this probably deserves its own separate post, because it's pretty neat trying out all these different shapes and colors of flowers. I'm going to try making a nasturtium next. Cardinal Climber and Cypress vine--They're blooming sparsely on bushy, 20 foot vines. I just started fertilizing them with some "Bloom Booster," but they still aren't getting as many flowers as I would like. Maybe they don't like this ridiculous heat wave. Thank God it's finally cooling off. This afternoon, a hummer flew very near the vines, which made me think they might be getting used early in the morning. It seems I'm never up early enough to witness this, and then the blooms are kaput by the afternoon. I've still seen no action at my annual verbenas, my red petunias, mixed color snapdragons, Pelargonium geranium, Dianthus chinensis (although they might be sneaking into these), Impatiens, pompom or cactus zinnias, or my Oriental lilies. Bummer! I'm still waiting on the hardy Hibiscus (bunches of buds), and the Lobelia cardinalis is just beginning to bloom. They will be my last new flowers of the season. I'll let you know!

Have you rebooted your computer, just in case it was a glitch that rebooting would cure. My hubby has no problems on u-tube watching videos, on his older 98 computer and he has ie6. I would also recommend Firefox. Some XP computers do not want to accept ie8 very well. There are some that do not want to accept ie7 for some reason. A Vista computer seems to like them pretty well. I have had no problems here on this XP, except that I dont much like ie7 or 8 so I removed it, since I rarely use IE anyway. I do have ie7 on my Vista.