Ariel, thanks and I will be trying your salsa. I have made a lot of different tomato sauce but this one is preferred by me and the family. I have the book Small Batch Preserving and is very useful especially when I had a lot of fruit in previous gardens. After the sauce is done, I just put it in the freezer and take out when I need or I give as gifts, everybody like it! Sometimes I add red peppers flakes to taste. The only thing to remember if you freeze is to let it simmer for about 15 minutes to get the consistency desired after you take it out. The red wine that I use in the recipe is a Santa Rita Merlot that is a decent drinking wine for only $5 and I get it at Publix. Let us know if you make it and how you like it. I was just thinking this morning that I am going to try to get another recipe for tomato sauce from the chef, I really like his type of cooking! If I do, I will share it here. Elizabeth, my squash and green beans were looking ratty, so before the party I took them out, the ones in the picture are some of the last. I still have them in the fridge, but they won't last too long, that is the reason that I am cooking them now. I use all kinds of tomatoes for salsa or tomato sauce, even the ugly ones, I just use the good parts, they are very forgiving.:) In a sandwich or a salad have to have the best looking ones. The cherry are the best roasted in slow oven with thyme, salt and pepper, after the chef took them out he added a little bit of hot peppers, garlic sliced so thin, and such a big amount of herbs, for a moment he left the party and went to the garden to pick herbs, I was so afraid that he might find a snake, lol. Here is another salad that I improvise today with the beans and the roasted tomatoes. Silvia Here is a link that might be useful: chunky basil tomato sauce

Thanks, Michael/Lyra! (grin) she's darned expensive and time consuming for an imaginary child, sheesh. Nope, L, no plastic containers of potato salad in the refrigerated section. I suppose I should be grateful, I did find a plastic container of that ground up bologna and pickle with mayonnaise "sandwich spread" once. The grocery store originally had a small bakery and deli, with rotisserie chickens, but apparently those items spoiled before they could be sold and became a big loss, so now I can get a cold pre-cooked chicken on the weekends, donuts only from Sara Lee and sliced lulnch meats and cheeses. They have a small "hot" section" at lunch time, usually chicken strips, corn dogs and pizza rolls. I can get canned Bush's baked beans, though, and ice cream. Two brands, either Country Fresh or Hudsonville. tricia, I never said I was a manager. I'm a Mom and a farmer and at work I'm "Angela, The Pitbull". My employees know their jobs well, so I don't delegate very much, they just do their jobs and I make sure they get paid. I spend most of my time doing legal research, drafting briefs and motions and trying to make sure the criminals get locked up, while simultaneously trying to wipe the images of their abused wives/battered children out of my brain, along with the memory of the autopsy photos and the drunk driving victims. I'm not good at delegating, I'm good at doing whatever needs to be done to help those who need it. That, and I'm good at cooking, so i do what I'm best at. At least I enjoy the cooking! Annie

Cori Ann, that was a hilarious story, I could not stop laughing! By the way, I posted some pics of TRM climbing over an arch on your post, hope it can help in answering your question. By the way, I also saw you ordered Figaro Panarosa - you will looooove that rose - it is one of my favourites with very little thorns (I have it espaliered on the fence between Claire Rose and John Claire). Please update us later on how it is growing in your garden! Beth and Cynthia: Acropolis is very pretty! We don't have it here but I wish I could see it in real life. Koko Loko is not in commerce here either but I obtained one plant from Ludwig (I actually had two but one did not make it). I rarely see the brown colouring on it but I love the grey tones as well. I do however wish I could get a rose with the same colouring in a nice old fashioned shape. I will try to post some more photos soon but will do it on the rose gallery :-) Liezel

O, Melissa and Ingrid, my heart goes out to you both, and heartily hope that your loved ones will be well. My own problem is pretty scary: the chest infection didn't go away and a bronchscopy revealed malign cells in my lung,so now we are waiting for the results of other tests to see what the situation is and find out what might be done. So my heart is not light. It's also hard to work outdoors since I feel so weak: shortness of breath AND my bum hip combined. Some time ago we had a storm here, too, though not as bad as Melissa's was, I think. What happened was that it snowed,and there were fierce winds, but this was before the leaves had dropped,and the temperatures were not that low, so the heavy, soggy snow caused many big, thick limbs on the oaks to split and break. There's no way I can clean up the damage in all of my woods,of course, and it is sad to see those ugly wounds on my oaks. But the bright side is that, as Melissa points out, it gives you lots of branches for terracing,etc. One of the worst-damaged trees is this beautiful oak ,and it is sad indeed to see all those raw wounds, but even with this, there is a good side: this tree does block the morning light in summer,causing a large and prominent area of my garden to only recieve sun very late in the afternoon,which was pretty bad for roses. Now, I think that since the wind "pruned" off a lot of the branches,this area may have become rather good for roses: more morning sun and filtered light at midday. Best wishes to one and all.