When you first posted this I was still in the middle of making my crosses. Today I'm about 3/4 of the way through collecting pods. I have around 500 seeds collected so far and still quite a number of pods out there. 'Brown Witch' x 'Milk Chocolate' turned out to be a bust. I had lots of pods set but both plants aborted all of their pods early. I tried other pollen too and they did the same thing. I did get one to mature on BW x MC that gave me 3 seeds. I guess the plants just need to settle in better. It is a real mystery why they aborted. I asked Margo and she said that BW did not come out of MC so they should not be THAT closely related to cause a self-pollination block and BW is very pod fertile for her. 'Desperado Love' was a great parent both ways. DL x 'Cleopatra's Jewel' gave me 45 seeds in 4 pods. Looking forward to seeing those babies. 'Wild Horses' was another fantastic parent both ways. And I was successful using frozen pollen from this one (yippee, another process I must have done right). I have a pod on 'Sear's Tower' from it that I'm anxious to see ripen before frost. I also have some WH crossed with 'Cleopatra's Jewel' that should be as interesting as DL x CJ. My best diploid pod setter was of course (Murphy's Law) that NOID yellow though I thing Fairy Tale Pink will surpass it next year when FTP is settled & has more flowers. The NOID looks exactly like 'Mary Todd', even has her fragrance, but it only accepted diploid pollen so I'm calling it a dip. I started out just trying to see which ploidy this plant was to help with ID but then look at how it set! It does have some nice branching & bud count so I guess that's fine to have so many babies from it. Some of the pods were really full of seed. NOID 'Yel' x 'Royal Kaleidoscope' 52 seeds in 3 pods. NOID 'Yel' x 'Persian Pattern' 40 seeds in 2 pods NOID 'Yel' x 'Brown Witch' 15 seeds in 1 pod NOID 'Yel' x 'Milk Chocolate' 45 seeds in 2 pods Lots of others but these are what I'm most excited about.

A while ago I read this entire thread. Then I switched to looking at some antique patterns on line and I couldn't resist posting this leaf shawl which unfortunately is knitted but has the effect of staggered leaves on the diagonal. Its about 2/3 the way through the pdf of the old book. http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/pub/PDF/BeehiveShawls.pdf I just thought it was very pretty and also interesting because the quest of this thread has been to find a pattern for a motif (fans) staggered and made on the diagonal. I'm not much of a knitter, but I wonder if they are more common in knitting? I would love to crocet leaves on the diagonal! Kathy

You can love teal today and get tired of it in 5 years. You don't want to have the desire to change something that fixed in 5 years. Save the teal accents for things that can be easily brought in and changed later. Fun accents will bring a smile to your face just as readily. Since your counter is fairly busy you really need to rest your eye a bit by going with a solid color backsplash. I'd go light to contrast the cabinets and so that the pops of teal accents you place against it really shine. I think an updated subway tile in a non- traditional size such as 2x6 or 4x8 would give you the slightly offbeat look you want. You probably just need to match the color to one of the lighter tones in your counter material. Bring some pieces home and you'll find the one that gives your eye the most pleasure. Be sure you have a nice teal accent item so you can't see how it plays into the mix.

Hi all - thanks for your good thoughts and advice. I asked the vet about a sedative, but he was reluctant to prescribe one because of Angel's lifelong heart condition. She takes a heart pill every day, and you'd never know there was a problem, but he didn't want to risk it. He suggested a drug for dementia, but said it would cost $65 a month and it would take two months to know if it's working. So I passed on that. I do take both dogs out just before I go to bed. Last night she started barking less than a half hour later, so I knew it didn't have anything to do with needing to go out. My dogs are both large--a Husky Shepherd (Wolfy) and a Briard mix. Over the years I've had dogs I can let out by themselves, but not these two. Wolfy would run off for sure (arthritis and all), and I don't trust Angel to stay near the house either. When I put her out the door in the middle of the night she is on a 20' lead attached to my inside door knob (with the door closed). I can bring her in if I need to, but with her dementia she is not as efficient about peeing as she used to be. Sometimes she stands outside sniffing the air for quite a while. I think she sleeps while I'm at work. I base that on the fact that so far she hasn't had an accident while I'm away. I'm gone a minimum of seven hours; this past weekend it was longer. At night I don't dare sleep longer than six hours at a stretch, or I'll find a puddle when I get up. Usually she doesn't bark if I'm downstairs, but occasionally she'll start in. At those times she's not barking at anything--she's just barking. I've tried leaving a light on downstairs at night, but that hasn't seemed to help. You know, these disturbances during the night, the messes to clean up, the unexplained behavior, etc., remind me a great deal of what it was like during the years of my DH's dementia. Strange. I know family patterns sometimes repeat through generations, but I wouldn't think it would happen within one generation, from man to dog. I suspect my karma is involved. Susan