Just a couple sidenotes that recently occurred to me: By kitty-corner, of course, I mean wheels that are diagonal to each other, so Front Left and Rear Right. Also, obviously this won't work with single-lever deck-height control. You know, that's the feature some mowers have that lets you change the deck's height with a single lever, instead of forcing you to change the deck's height by having to individually adjust each of 4 wheels. Last year I thought single-lever deck mowers were the cat's meow, but now that I stumbled upon mower wheel interpolating, give me 4 individually adjustable wheels anyday! So many more cutting heights to choose from! Lovez it! In my book, single-lever control is not a benefit (and high-end feature) anymore since it robs you of interpolating. Would you believe even Walmart this year has a mower with single-lever deck control. Saw it tonight. It's called the Brute (that's its brandname) and it has a Briggs And Stratton engine with rear-wheel transmission for $217. Also has a wide 22-inch cutting diameter. Didn't see the horsepower printed on the box, though. Last year, single-lever deck control cost you big bucks and was found only in high-end models, but like I said, single-lever deprives you of many height options. I'm not interested in it anymore. Lawn newbies may be wondering what the excitement is about a change in cutting height of 0.15 inches or 0.25 inches. It's counter-intuitive, but when it comes to grass, a small change in cutting height makes a big difference, even a quarter-inch (0.25). You can visibly see the difference between a lawn cut at 2 inches and the same lawn cut 0.25 inches lower or higher. The eye definitely picks up on the small quarter-inch change in cutting height, and even a 0.15 inch change.

Even though the last picture is very Tempting, it's not Temptation..it looks more like Aphrodite to me and the one you have labeled Aphrodite may or may not be, it's gorgeous with that beautiful picotee feathering into the flower..could the next to the last one be Double Record..? There is one called Rainbow also that in my case turned out to look exactly like my Aphrodite... Anyway, you have produced such beautiful flowers from your crosses, I just hope some of mine are half as nice as yours and not a bunch of duds..can't wait to see more of your creations... Donna

Jean - Jeanne Deaver's Dream does have a dark,rich purple color. Very little red in this purple. Julia - Sometimes the petals on the white seedling look more narrow. This is the first time I've seen the sepals quill on it this season. Last year the sepals quilled about 50 percent of the time. Jason and Kay - Thanks for your comments! Mantis - Jeanne Deaver's Dream was opened a lot flatter later in the morning, but I didn't have time to photograph it. My seedling's petals may have a delicate color, but they are as solid as rubber. I've been so pleased with that one. Debra

Jacob, Every year I always hope that the first frost of autumn will be later than average. It rarely is. There was one glorious year in the early to mid-2000s when the first frost/freeze (and it was both at once) didn't arrive until around December 17th or 18th. We had the best fall garden production that year anyway, and then it got to go on and on and on forever. We went from not having had a single frost or freeze to dropping down into the mid-teens. It was a very dramatic ending to the growing season. Filling the garage/shop (1200 square feet of space) with 'stuff' wasn't as big of an issue 10-15 years ago as it is now because Tim always knew exactly where everything was. It might have looked like a mess to other people, but he could walk in there and instantly find what he needed/wanted (though no one else could) no matter how small or obscure it was. The problem is that as you get older, your memory gets worse and now that he is in his 60s, he has a harder time finding stuff. When you cannot find what you need after much searching, you go buy a replacement. I think when we do clean up and reorganize the garage, we'll find duplicates of a lot of tools and things. To me, that's a sign we need to clean it up and organize it. And, so we shall, hopefully on a few winter weekends. Our trees have done about the same as yours. One day last week I saw a few glimmers of red and yellow foliage in our woodland areas but everything mostly was green still, and this week the there has been an explosion of color. I am so excited. We often go from green foliage to falling brown foliage literally overnight, so to have a year where we are having glorious reds, yellows and golds is awesome. I want to enjoy every minute of it because it likely will be several years before we have such good autumn color again down here. Nancy, It is SO true that the older one gets, the older that 'old' gets pushed out there into a higher age range. When we moved here, we were barely 40 and had moved into an old farm and ranch neighborhood where everyone here had lived here pretty much their whole lives. Most of them were in their 60s, 70s, or 80s and seemed impossibly old to us, although our next-door neighbors were about our age. Some of our new neighbors had kids our age or older, all of them were grandparents or great grandparents. Not some of them are great-, great-grandparents. Of the original neighbors still alive, most are in their 80s or 90s, and to us, 60 no longer seems old at all. (grin) Even the 80 year olds don't seem as old to us now as they once did because we're getting closer in age to them. When a younger family moves into our neighborhood now, I am all too aware that they undoubtedly see us as the old folks..... The bad thing about moving into a neighborhood where almost everyone is so much older than you is that you find yourself going to tons of funerals over the years. But, then, on the other hand it is an awesome blessing to have neighbors you love and adore so much that you truly grieve for them after they pass away. I'm glad you can see in the formerly dark room. I have been amazed to discover how much good lighting can improve any space. Larry, That tree is gorgeous! Nancy, I totally understand about wanting someone to be at home taking care of the animals. That is what we usually do, and it usually is Tim who travels to PA for family stuff, and I stay here and mind the zoo. It isn't that I don't want to go to PA with him, but rather that it just would be so hard to find someone to take care of all our dogs, cats and chickens. When you go, I wish you safe travels. Cats are such a hoot! They are incredibly entertaining and, yet, they steal inside your soul and capture your heart as well. When going through a box of stuff in the closet the other day, I came across a calendar I had saved from 2014 because the cat poems in it are too precious and at the same time hysterically funny. The cat calendar is entitled "I Could Pee On This" and it has a cat poem (theoretically written by the cat in that month's photo) and I believe it is the January cat who wrote "I Could Pee On This". That poem completely cracks me up because it is so true---if you seriously upset some cats, they will retaliate by peeing on something precious to you. Earlier this week, two of our cats were playing with each other---but one (Lucky) was inside sitting on the desk in the girls' room and the other one (Pumpkin) was outside. They were play fighting with one another, separated by the window. I had a hard time focusing on the cleaning task at hand because I was watching them and laughing at them. We finally had sunshine on Friday. It was pretty chilly for much of the day, but got a little warm in the afternoon. The important thing was that we had the sunshine! The foliage here still is largely green, but there's big bursts of reds, golds and yellows now scattered around all over---still mostly elms, persimmon groves and, for the red foliage, a handful of red oaks (most red oaks are just beginning to change color), sumac, ornamental pears, Chinese pistache, and poison ivy. For anyone who doesn't think they have poison ivy running wild in their native woodland areas here, all you have to do is stand and look into the woods and you'll see the poison ivy now a scarlet red wherever it has climbed upward through the trees. Later on the Virginia creeper vines will change color as well. There's still a lot of red in the garden, mostly in the form of the flowers of zinnias, pineapple sage and Texas hummingbird sage. Oh, and autumn sage of course. I'm going to miss all these colors when frost and freezing temperatures arrive and take them away from us. We're supposed to hit the lower 80s today and tomorrow, so I hope everyone will remember to watch for increased snake activity. Why are we hitting the 80s? Well, I'm not complaining, but it is making me rethink my costume for tonight's Halloween party. I based the costume (I'm going to be a black cat) on wearing a black sweatsuit. Hmmm. That might be too warm, so I guess I'll switch to lighterweight black clothing and attach my cat tail and cat accessories to those clothing items. Here in OK, you never know if Halloween will be hot/warm or freezing cold. I think the actual Halloween will have cold, rainy weather, but most of the community Halloween stuff here is happening this weekend during the heat wave. Of course it is. At least the kids who go to the Trunk or Treat event in town tonight won't have to wear coats over their costumes. I saw some persimmons on one of our trees yesterday and am going to try to get them today (they're too high to reach but maybe I can knock them down with a pruning pole). I want to cut them open and see if the southern OK persimmons also are showing spoons like those in other parts of the state and the country. Dawn