Susie-Happy New Year to you. Hope we all have lots of great trades and fun in 2007. Earthly-The Eon markers are the metal ones that work so well for keeping the right names with your plants. They go deep into the soil and stay there, not much chance of being pushed out of the ground with the freezing and unthawing of the ground. I bought 750 last year and will need more for 2007 I'm sure. Yes do have the lasik eye surgery...it is wonderful...I take it for granted now but I love to wake up and be able to see the alarm clock, my cealing fan and all the things in the bedroom. I never had that luxury before the lasik. My Aunt had it done and she is in her late 70's and she loves it also. Contractors here have gotten greedy so they want paid by the hour and they take their sweet time doing the job. DH and myself both work so it's hard to know the hours they really work. I do know they even count their lunch time in as time worked. I have never worked for a Company that would pay you for lunch. I told DH he was in the wrong business. Remy-Nice gifts you received.I will keep you posted when the senior games begin. Oh I agree it is very sad when you see someones beloved garden unattended. Have you ever watched someones clothesline. You never have to go inside their home but you know they have a new baby because you see the little boy or girl clothes hanging out there. Then the kids clothes get bigger when they start school and so on and so on. Then when they are elderly they have just the man and womans clothes hanging out there. Then one day only the womans will be hanging there and eventually none will be hanging there. Then the cycle starts all over again if a young couple buys the home. I don't even know who lives in some of the homes I see on my way to work but if they hang out clothes I know alot about the family and the same thing with the flower or vegetable gardens. Alot of the younger generation don't have clothesline or gardens but I prefer to have both. Whew I'm sounding like Paul Harvey now...GOOD DAY Shirley

found this on search! guess it was last year? maybe they're repeating it... Airs Next:BBC at Sunday 9:00 PM (105 min.)Status:New SeriesPremiered:March 23, 2008 Show Categories:DramaAlexander McCall Smith's popular detective series comes to the small screen courtesy of HBO and the BBC. Oscar winner Anthony Minghella shepherds this project with a two-hour pilot shot in Botswana.

My son emailed me the NY Times review. Here it is, if I have entered it right, to pique your interest. Here is a link that might be useful: ny times review

All the plants have buds and Munstead Wood is the first to bloom-- 9 flowers have opened and 9 more developing. I gave them water and nothing else for weeks, then as they started getting bigger, sprinklings of bloodmeal and half-doses of fish emulsion. At some point I tried giving them a bit of diluted potassium with indeterminate results. (Maybe because I got muriate of potash instead of the potassium chloride, sulfide or whatever it is that's supposed to be better?) Once I gave them water left over from cooking beans (no salt) and they seemed to like it fine. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the whole plants yet, but they do seem like they are taking off. Though Munstead Wood, Lady of Shallot, and Jude the Obscure are growing with big open spaces between canes-- I don't know if these are the reported David Austin octopus arms, or pest damage to terminal shoots that would otherwise fill out the center of the bush, or particular growth habit in Houston, TX weather, or if it's just something it'll grow out of after a year and some pruning. The other, younger two plants that I've messed with the least, Lady Emma Hamilton and Brother Cadfael, have much more attractive foliage and look more bushy/shrubby. LEH has sixteen buds already and is nicely rounded, while BC, who has been growing tall thick canes and took the longest to leaf out and bud, looks more like a sturdy column shape. They are all at least two to three and a half feet off the soil level. So far the scent on MW is very sweet, like berry candy and rosewater (rather than dried rose petals), and seems stronger after a fish emulsion feeding. Can't wait for the others! Thanks to everyone for being present on this forum. I've been going through a lot of posts and learning a bunch!