Happy new year everyone! GGG - excellent advice on sticking with native plants. In fact, that would work well for me. One of the reasons I wanted to order heirloom seeds was that I'm kind of tired with the same old store variety veggies. So seeds would give me a variety of things to grow that one normally doesn't see or eat. But your thought on staying with native plants in a sense does the same thing. It gives me a chance to grow and try things I don't normally get to have. I'll still go with some things that I find interesting, but I would like to stick with natives as much as possible. It just makes sense, really. If you happen across your Jerry Hightower notes, I'd be most grateful. Being able to read up on and study native plants now gives me a chance to understand and learn well before I plant. I will follow up on the other references you gave as well. Liliumskygazer, I understand what you're saying in that the author is a bit judgmental at times. Please note though that I am very new to taking gardening seriously. So for me, nearly the entire book has brand new ideas, or old ideas presented in a new light. For me being a newbie and all, I found it one of the best gardening reads in quite some time. That being said, when I find an author who appears closed minded or single minded on certain topics, it's tough look past that to see the rest. But what I got most from the book, and what I respected most about it was that: - The author emphasized looking at gardening spaces as a whole, living, symbiotic system. - It gives several realistic, real world examples of the systems he was discussing; before and after. Too often, I find this lacking in most educational books. - That each eco system has a *tremendous* amount of variety, created using a very specific strategy. It is these concepts that made me rethink everything I had in mind about gardening, for the better. Good news y'all! I moved into my new home over these last few days, AND...!!! And I bought my first rakes, gloves and a shovel. I'm going to get some soil tests done this week some time, and Duane will be by next Saturday to kick off my gardening adventure. I'm going to take lots of "before" pics and post them on a yet uncreated web site so we can all get a good laugh from the newbie gardener. ;) Once again, thank y'all for the help and advice.

Bonnie, I bought a big box of pickle cucumbers from the farmer's market and the pickling mix at Walmart for dill pickles. It has no yucky additives listed. I did add fresh dill though and to one batch I added a chopped jalapeno for some spice and it was good. Maybe try a batch of freezer jam first before canning? My grapes are ripe for pickin, so are the tomatoes, pumpkins, herbs, lots of strawberries. Now I need to get busy and start canning. I'm going to try the tomato sauce recipe someone posted from the harvest forum and also the recipe out of the book that has cinnamon and nutmeg which sounds different and yummy. So far I've only read canning recipes that call for tomato sauce or puree to begin with. How do I make the raw tomatoes into sauce or puree? Slip the skins like Cnetter mentioned? How? Maybe I should invest in a hand crank mill like David--are they expensive? All of my grapes have seeds and maybe I could use it for that too? Any advice is appreciated :) I liked the homemade ketchup idea. Most of the ketchup sold is full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Heinz makes organic now that is just sugar instead of HFCS. How else would we get kids to eat most anything?! Peppers...we've eaten most of the sweet ones and have some orange ones just about ready and are they good! *Italian Roasters--I bought as transplants and the tag only says 'Italian Roasters" describing them as mild & pungent and they are not mild! I had a small get together where everyone brought their own meat to barbecue and we provided all the side dishes from the garden. I sliced and grilled only one of the roasters with a bunch of other veggies from the garden and all of our guests were on fire including my husband who loves anything as hot as possible. The jalapenos are milder. Maybe they were misnamed? I don't know what to do with them and about 20 of them. *Red cherry bomb peppers- best for salsa? *Lotsa jalapenos-I'd like to make jelly Cnetter I have crabapples too. Next year I'll try some jelly with 'em! Plum Jelly--gotta a good recipe David? A friend called and says they have hundreds ripe and falling of their tree and to come pick em. I need to turn down any request for a social life during the month of September!

Chris Bohjalian, who's been mentioned already, also had a book out of compilations from a column he wrote when he moved to Vermont. It's called "Idyll Banter," and I really enjoyed it. Right now, I'm reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," which is a few years old. I'm enjoying it. "The Distant Hours" -- (fiction) about a letter posted in 1941 that reaches its destination in 1992 -- is one of the titles on my to-be-read list. "A Vintage Affair" I read a few books back. Really liked it. A mystery to go along with your cruise theme? Mary Higgins Clark's "Santa Cruise."

I also read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and while I admire his wordcraft (albeit in translation) I will not read the rest-too graphically violent for my sensitivities. Others in my book club were not of the same mind, though, so maybe I am overly squeamish. So be it. I read to be entertained, not horrified. I am watching with interest the legal battle between his long-time but never legally married companion and his father and brother over the estate. So far, the father and brother have been awarded the $$, supposedly against Larsson's stated but not written down (!!!!a writer who did not make a will-astounding!!!!) wishes.....but she has his computer, and there is a rumor that on that computer is the 4th of his planned (I think)10 books in the series. Hope she printed it out and lodged it safely with an attorney....computers have a way of meeting with accidents. I am sure somewhere there is a book being written based on all this! Carolyn-I took an art class in college that covered most of the famous artwork across many cultures. For part of the final, we each chose a manila envelope from a table at the entrance, and had to write a blue book about the picture inside-who did we think painted it, style, technique, subject matter, etc. I studied harder for this final than any other that semester, since it could be any picture by any artist we studied. Mine was God's finger touching Adam's hand.