Hi Lisah, you can always look for signs of life.I do this all the time get a small spoon and gently dig were you think the crown is ,if your General is alive there will be a little white shoot.Young clematis get stem rot and they appear to be dead but you will be shocked to see that its still alive underground a new shoot will be there waiting to pop up this could be as much as a year later

I read that it is legal to download as long as I am not selling it, playing the song at any place where you would normally pay someone to play a song- such as a wedding, big party... It is confusing... Nope - your not getting legal downloads. If a song has a copyright (and nearly all do) you cannot download, even for personal use. Tally- I DID buy Limewire- $35 for a year. You paid $35 for the LimeWire Pro SOFTWARE - that does not make any music downloads legal - it is confusing - but you actually got ripped off if you think you are safe from prosecution by downloading from them. Their own site states that - although you really have to search for it. When you sign up with LimeWire - one of the things you agree too (if you actually read EVERYTHING - is that you will not download copyright material. This is from Limewire: "LimeWire Users The program distributed by Lime Wire, "LimeWire BASIC and LimeWire PRO", is legal software, but like many legal things, it is possible to use it in illegal ways. Specifically, it is illegal for you to use LimeWire to share, distribute or download (all of which we call sharing) copyrighted files without permission, or to share unlawful pornographic materials. In addition, it may be unlawful to share certain other files that are protected, proprietary, personal or confidential or contain protected, proprietary, personal or confidential information. The LimeWire program is distributed and licensed for use only in an authorized and lawful manner and not to share files which the copyright owner has not permitted to be shared. Your use of LimeWire BASIC or purchase of LimeWire PRO does not constitute a license in or to share unauthorized or unlawful materials. Your download and use of the LimeWire software from www.limewire.com is per a license granted you by LimeWire. To view the license in its entirety, click here. Your license to use the LimeWire program is expressly conditioned upon your agreement to not knowingly use the LimeWire program to share files that are protected by copyright from sharing over P2P networks. Use of the LimeWire program constitutes your acceptance of and agreement with all of the terms of the license. " LimeWire is a Peer-to-Peer sharing service. If you recorded your own original song - and wanted to share it with others, so that they could download it - that is legal. Downloading of copywritten material - not legal. I also bought a couple iTunes, but now can't download them to the mp3- even the computer tech can't- so maybe iTunes isn't the place to buy songs from?? iTunes works with iPods - Apples to Apples if you have a different type of MP3 player - you need to use somewhere else for your downloads. WalMart.com has lots, and there are many other legal sites. If you choose to use an illegal d/l site - that is your choice, but you should be correctly informed going into it. Don't fool yourself into thinking LimeWire, KaZaa or others like that are legal. Read EVERYTHING when you are getting music from a site. It is a $$ fine when you get caught - several thousand dollars.

I have been patiently waiting (not really!) on the other blooms to open so I could get all of them at once, but for now here is a pic of a fully opened bloom

socks -- Yes, DGS tried hives in his Chicago neighborhood yard for two summers, but each colony decamped in winter. This summer he brought two hives here to see if the colonies will do better. Our DS and he come up avery few weeks to check the hives -- so far, so good. (DGS doesn't have his driver's permit yet.) The bees are so sweet! We had the exterior of our house painted recently, and the painters were unscathed, working right above the hives. How's Bird...and of course your sweet Westie?