I'm planning on taking up Yoga again myself and bought myself some yoga DVDs for my birthday. My father has Parkinson's, but I think it's too late for him to take up yoga, and I think that I may be developing arthritis in the middle fingers of both hands. I've given my doctor a note to check that when I see him again next month. We had a pond in Venice, and in the 15 years that I was there, we only had one raccoon attack, but it was devastating. At one time I had over seventy fish and two to four frogs. The raccoon murdered my one remaining frog, and it was very sad. Pam should be able to fix the keyboard! I had not thought of doing yoga outside, but that might be a good idea. I have enough yard space, and I also have enough concrete patio space for the mats that I recently bought. I have the mats in the sewing/exercise/guest room, which I think I need to pare down a bit - maybe to just a sewing/guest room. Lars

peren.all - yeah, the mosquitoes are out in force and hungry here too! Yesterday I did a quick foray down near the 'wet corner' to whack off fading goatsbead flowers/developing seeds. I didn't put on my bug shirt - and was immediately under attack! I did a very rough job, and was out of there within a minute! There is still one more goatsbead to deadhead - DH will do it as the mosquitoes are less fond of his blood :-) I'm also useless in the heat so, while there is deadheading etc. needed in the front garden, it's going to have to wait until mid-week when it's supposed to be cooler again. ruth and rouge - the Niobe and regal lily combination is a 'happy accident'. The lilies were planted maybe 8-10 years ago. The cursed lily beetles do less damage to the regal lilies than to other lilies, in my experience (the regal lily foliage is very narrow and somewhat coarse-textured; I think the beetles may consider it a poorer food source for the larvae perhaps.) But the lilies gradually faded away (too dry/too heavy soil maybe....?). The Niobe (and Henryi) clematises that grows on the arbour wilted badly early last summer so I wasn't expecting much from them this year. I thought dryness might be an issue, so asked DH to water the base of the arbour whenever he was watering his veggie pots nearby. Bingo! Great looking Niobe this year, and the lily on the right ride of the arbour returned from the dead! :-) Thyme - I thought you'd like to see the heptacodium :-) I just checked my records - I planted it in 2002. I couldn't find a tree-form one so bought a small shrub one that only had 3 stems. I cut off the two smallest stems and let the other one become the tree trunk. It has certainly now surpassed the size I expected it to get - but we love it! (and so do the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds when it blooms!) The past two nasty winters didn't bother it a bit, so it's obviously very hardy. It doesn't have much in the way of fall color, and it gets too cold too early here to have the pink show from the calyxes make a show after the flowers finish in areas further south. But it's definitely worth growing! I can't imagine how much space it would be taking up though if I had left it as a shrub! Tree-form is certainly the way to go unless you have a huge space for it....

Indeed, the hemlock wooly adelgid is a terrible evil. Those tags look nice! I've considered getting some, but they'd be more for the infrequent guests than myself. @Paul, how many references would you like that flat out state eradication efforts directed at black currants were part of federal and state efforts? I can understand that it's something that wouldn't be as prominent knowledge in the west, but so much information is available to us, I most definitely don't appreciate your claim you "can't find anything to support" that and I seem to be detecting some attitude which is so unfortunate! eradication- the complete destruction of something From a nursery: http://www.twisted-tree.net/white-pine-blister-rust-and-ribes From Missouri Department of Conservation: https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/american-black-currant UofMA: https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/white-pine-blister-rust-ribes-species http://landsteward.org/page.cfm/8886 There are plenty of references that cite the fact that state and federal government were involved in the planned eradication of ALL Ribes species in the east. CANADA did not participate in the madness from what I've gathered. Also, just in case these other facts are needed for an educated opinion: Ribes are NATIVE to my area and if I wish to grow natives in the interests of the natural ecosystem because I want to, I will. White Pine are native, but NOT naturally occurring in my area but exist only as ornamental plantings (too far south). These efforts were more to protect an industry that brought this disaster than to protect the magnificent Pinus strobus itself. This isn't about being "that guy" erroneously "railing" against anything in a self-idealized notion of what I've imagined. What you've done in my mind's eye currently is equal to telling someone they're directly responsible for a RRD infection happening because they planted a Knock Out despite feral R. multiflora all around (and it's not even responsible itself!) and that's tragic to me. I'm sorry. Steven

Rosecanadian, the fragrance isn't particularly strong. You have to take your nose there. Also, it is not consistent - I am not sure if it is the time of the day, temperature or humidity that makes the fragrance stronger at sometimes but not others. I think the roses have maximum fragrance right after a rain when there is a lot of humidity. I will keep a mental note to see which factors affect fragrance. Seasiderooftop, thank you for the encoragement. I am partial to showy flowering plants. They are such a joy, more than the herbs, veggies and foliage ones imho.