Lucy darling, my oh my ! Some hybridizers are very picky and others not so picky. On BGI for instance, some of the seeds in the seed bank come with stipulations and some not. JT Sessions donates seeds free and clear, he wants nothing to do with them after he sends them in. You can do with them what you want. He doesn't have the time, and doesn't want to be bothered with them once they leave his hands. If you get a really nice brug from his seeds, he wants no credit, you can do with it what you want. You can register it or not, your choice. All of the other donors @ the bank want hybridizer's rights. This means you give them credit. The hybridizer has the right to deny the ability for you to register the brug if they feel it's not up to their standards. In other words, they don't want their name on a plant that isn't worthy of registration. Once you get a nice plant from a seed, you give the hybridizer one to grow and the two of you can evaluate it's potential. You can, and should let different people in different climates grow it also. This comes under the heading of trialing a plant. While you are trialing you shouldn't share the plant. You are growing it purely to evaluate. I also would think if you grew a nice plant from a seed, but not worthy of registration, it would be perfectly fine to share the plant. If you had any doubts you could check with the hybridizer. I also think (this is my opinion) that you keep the name of the cross, and not use NOID. This way you keep up with what the cross is for further use. Also I think once a hybridizer sells those seeds, you are given the green light to do as you wish with the seedlings. Clear as mud ?? ~Edna~

If the washer is adjacent to an exterior wall you'll have less chances of vibration than you would if the washer is against an interior wall. That's because exterior walls are usually more rigid than interior walls because they have to support the weight of the roof and floors. Locating the washer in a corner with two exterior walls is even better. If your house is still in the framing stage, ask the contractor to provide extra bracing in the floor to ensure that it's as rigid as possible. If it's too late for that, and you later find you're having a vibration problem, the floor can be strengthened by laying a 3/4" thick piece of plywood, large enough to support the washer on the floor, and screw it into the floor joists with long screws at 6"-9" intervals. That will provide you with a very rigid floor under the washer. If you're even moderately handy, I recommend installing the washer yourself, in exact accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions. It's not difficult, just a bit tedious employing the "trial and error" method of ensuring that you've got the leveling feet adjusted properly. You're likely to spend as much time as necessary to get it right, a professional installer may not want to spend the time it takes to get the machine optimally level and flat on the floor. It is vital that the machine be properly leveled and the weight of the machine is evenly distributed to all four feet. If you're unwilling or unable to do the installation yourself, be sure to get a guarantee of satisfaction from whomever you engage to do the installation. If possible, don't pay for the installation until after the machine is installed and you've ascertained that vibration isn't a problem. One other thing, be sure to specify that the shipping struts (or bolts, as the case may be) are not removed from the washer until after the machine is moved up your stairs. Bouncing up a stair on a dolly with the struts (or bolts) removed, will cause damage to the suspension. Delivery people always want to remove the struts while the washer is still on the truck. Don't let them, and insist that they leave the struts with you, so they can be reinstalled if you ever need to move the machine.

Birth control pills may help mask menopause symptoms By TOM VALEO Published March 28, 2006 All women can expect to enter menopause sooner or later, but women taking birth control pills may not notice, at least for a while. In the meantime, they can expect several benefits from the pill beside avoiding an unwanted pregnancy: They will avoid some of the most conspicuous signs of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats and irritability. "A woman on the birth control pill is getting hormones at a level above what her ovaries would produce,'' said Dr. Catherine Lynch, director of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa. "When a woman goes into menopause, the ovaries basically shut down and no longer produce estrogen or progesterone in any significant amounts, so a woman taking the birth control pill in the standard fashion of three weeks on active pills, followed by one week of inactive pills, often won't have any symptoms of menopause until that pill-free week. She may not even realize she's in menopause because she's getting adequate estrogen and still cycling.'' During the week when she is not taking active birth control pills, the woman may even have a "withdrawal bleed" caused by the sudden drop in estrogen. A withdrawal bleed is easily mistaken for a normal period. And if the woman is taking continuous-use birth control pills, she will take inactive pills only one week out of every 12 instead of every four, so she will have a withdrawal bleed no more than once every four months. "So a woman who's, say, 51 and taking Seasonale one of the continuous-use birth control pills isn't going to have hot flashes or night sweats for 12 weeks, because she's having estrogen provided for her by the pills,'' Dr. Lynch said. "She may experience symptoms during the week she takes inactive pills, but just as symptoms start to climb, she starts taking active pills again, and she won't appreciate that these are symptoms of menopause.'' But that's not all. Taking birth control pills also seems to reduce bone loss. In fact, if the woman is also doing weight-bearing exercises and getting plenty of calcium, low-dose birth control pills may even help build bone density. Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. The Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study, the largest to investigate this last issue, found a 40 percent decrease on average of ovarian cancer in women who had taken oral contraceptives. The risk decreased as the amount of time on the pill increased, so women who had taken the pill for seven years or longer experienced a reduction in the risk of ovarian cancer of 60 to 80 percent. Some Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. studies suggest that oral contraceptives might even protect against colorectal cancer, uterine fibroid tumors, Alzheimer's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Taking the pill has always meant an increase in the risk of blood clots, which can cause a stroke. But a woman who does not smoke, does not have high blood pressure, and takes a low-dose oral contraceptive can almost eliminate that additional risk. So why not just stay on the pill and enjoy all the benefits of hormone-replacement therapy, known as HRT? Because even low-dose birth-control pills deliver five to seven times as much estrogen as HRT. HRT simply gives the body back what the ovaries were producing before they were shut down by menopause. The birth control pill delivers a dose of hormones large enough to shut down the ovaries, and it's pointless for a woman to keep taking hormones after menopause has begun and she has stopped ovulating. She would be better off with hormone-replacement therapy, which would provide her with the same benefits but a lower dose of hormone. "The trick is figuring out when she is in menopause,'' Dr. Lynch said. "There are a couple of ways to test this, but they're not 100 percent reliable. She can go off the pill and see if she's still cycling, but if she's sexually active, there's an outside chance she could get pregnant. "While it's rare for pregnancy to occur at the age of 50 or 51, it can happen if you're still ovulating.'' Tom Valeo is a freelance writer specializing in medical and health issues. Contact him c/o Seniority, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail features at sptimes dot com. [Last modified March 28, 2006, 08:52:07] Here is a link that might be useful: from a Florida online newspaper

You have a couple of options - reduce the light (so the plants use less water,) or provide them with enough water to last 1 - 3 weeks. Herbs and flowering plants need a lot of light, so setting them in the bathtub may not work for them, although it should be fine for the ferns. You can set your plants up with self-watering systems, which may mean less work for you even when you're home, since you won't have to be watering every few days. Or if you like the way you're doing it generally, try this: When you get ready to go away, move the plants away from the windows 2 or 3', and set each of the pots in a dish. Water your plants, and allow a runoff of 2 or 3" to build up in the drainage dish. You'll just leave the water there, it will provide the moisture for the soil. When you come back, remove the plants from the water (if there's any left,) and allow the soil to dry out enough so that it is barely damp, or however it usually is when you water normally. The plants will not be harmed by sitting in wet soil for a couple of weeks. This is basically what happens with self-watering systems, unless you have one of the sophisticated ones that have moisture sensing devices that release water only when the soil is dry. Roots don't "sip" water when they need it - they're little gluttons, and will suck up whatever is there, for as long as it's there.