Italy - I've been away from the forum for a number of years now but am still actively growing. Al - It's been a rough 5 years or so. Back in 2018 I started my own business selling high quality Adeniums (cultivated by me from seed) to local nurseries. When Covid hit. All the nurseries shut down and business came to an abrupt halt, I had 118 Adeniums ready to go but no one to buy them. I eventually sold some to family and friends, but gave most away (keeping my favorites). More recently, my mom died in May this year of an aggressive form of cancer (no one saw it coming). It's left me wanting to get out of Colorado; and move to someplace where Bougainvillea's grow naturally outdoors. Rob

Mary, are you saying that they make you mow the lawn on Mother's Day!? LOL Of course not. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. The Govenator finally declared a state of emergency for some counties south of here in Cali due to the rain. Luckily, most of the danger has been in agricultural areas and not residential...so far. I thought it was bad back in January... ...when this fisherman along the Sacramento River fell asleep while on sturgeon patrol. LOL Notice the toppled chair on the roof? That was probably from his wife high-tailing it out of there, like normal people tend to do. (BTW, no one was harmed in the taking of this picture.) Sorry to all of your allergy sufferers, though! :( Brenda

Welcome, Patricia, and please stay awhile. I'm Nancy, and I live in Western NC..also in the foothills and near the SC border. Chattypatty and I may be neighbors, for all I know. We have two cats, Casper and Cassandra, both white but that's where the similarities end. We garden, feed the birds, do all sorts of crafty stuff when the mood strikes. I spend WAY too much time here, just to keep up on the goings-on of some of the friendliest people on earth.

I don't make ginger tea or ginger cookies. And for cookies I'd use dried or preserved ginger. I don't make or drink smoothies. I don't make ice cream. If I did I'd use preserved ginger, not fresh. And I don't eat much ice cream anyway although if I do ginger is actually my favourite flavour. In fact I rarely make sweet dishes. But I do use ginger in many savoury meals. It goes with chicken, duck, goose, turkey, pork and fish. It goes well in fruit salads and compotes, especially with pears. It works well with onions, spring onions, leeks, peppers, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and tomatoes. I put it in the tin when making roasts. I add chopped ginger to braises. Its a key player in stir fries. I treat it more as a minority vegetable than a spice. Sorry I can't provide recipes since I don't use them but Google will turn up hundreds, I'm sure. I wouldn't waste fresh ginger root on drying and grinding. Bought ground ginger is fine for that and much cheaper. Fresh ginger flavour is citrusy and refreshing, totally different from dried. It has an affinity with citrus fruit, star anise and other S E Asian spices.