Can't be sure, based on what you said, but something is amiss. Ca and B deficiencies are noted for producing the symptoms shown in your images. B deficiencies are rare, Ca deficiencies not so much and can be a cultural issue as opposed to a deficiency caused by an inadequate supply of Ca in the soil. When Ca is present in appropriate amounts, soil saturation often inhibits uptake. Low light (and the plants are not getting enough), cool temps, and other cultural influences that slow transpiration all contribute to reducing transpiration, which slows the nutrient stream and limits Ca supply to forming leaves. Ca is immobile in the plant, so it must be present in the nutrient stream at all times. Are you actually checking your soil for moisture content before you water? Did you screen the Turface, and did you use MVP or Allsport and not a finer grade? My sense is that watering the plant in the image, indoors, every 2-3 days with a mix heavy on Turface is probably way too much water. I have trees under lights (which increases water uptake) with twice the mass and in half the soil (the basic gritty recipe) that I water every 5-7 days. The other thing that strikes me is, it also looks as though there could be a toxicity issue. Can you think of anything that might have made it's way into the soil that is potentially phytotoxic? What did you use for bark? grit? Al

Wow, lots of neat traditions. I find shopping for gifts wearying. I usually start in October and try to be finished by the end of November. I try to leave time in December for decorating, cookie baking and wrapping gifts. We are also away for about 9 days total in December as our kids play in 2 international junior squash tournaments and so this takes a huge chunk out of our Christmas preparation time and also means we cannot have a real tree as we are away and can't water it. We buy for our 3 kids, in-laws, our staff (about 8 people), couple of aunts and uncles, and assorted family. We have done a draw for the family in previous years so that all the adults names are put in a hat and each person then draws and only has to buy 1 gift. But this has fallen by the wayside as part of the family had moved away and sometimes comes back for Christmas and sometimes doesn't. I am more conscious now in trying to buy gifts that are useful or consumable as we all know how easy clutter comes into our homes and how difficult and time consuming it is to take it back out. Traditionally my DH and I usually buy small gifts for each other, most of which will fit in our stockings, requisite gifts are chocolate bars, socks, paperbacks, I always receive a "For Better or For Worse" comic book and the year's stamp set (Canadian), and a CD, you get the idea. We also buy lots of little things for the kids' stockings. Sometimes there may be one big gift for the family (one year it was a large screen T.V. ) and then, the other gifts will be smaller and fewer. I usually get an Odyssey set of tapes (from Focus on the Family) as one of the gifts for the kids as we do lots of driving trips and the kids like listening to them in the car. Just wrapping all the stocking gifts takes forever, but they are so much fun to open Christmas morning. Christmas Eve, the family goes to Church as our Church does not have a Christmas morning service. Then we open presents Christmas morning, have brunch and relax and then start cooking Christmas dinner late afternoon, in-laws come and another round of gift opening takes place. I really like it that we don't have to go anywhere on Christmas day, it really is quite relaxing. My DH jokes that it's the only day in the whole year when the car doesn't leave the driveway!

Okay, you twisted my arm. I've bought a new card reader for my camera and I'm posting some temp photos which will be deleted soon. I'm making supper here--chicken to work over (fat globs and other scraps go into trash), sad looking salad greens and peas (too hot outdoors and the lettuce has bolted), herbs to chop, veg and onion ready to be cut up. I usually sit at stool but DH stands here. Compost tray runs along side of blue drawer organizer (repurposed container we got with Alaskan shrimp in it). Remember--our top drawers were made shallow because of pull-out board. If I had it to do over, I'd make them just a big deeper by shortening the drawers and bins below--to prevent items from jamming drawers. I am grateful for 90 degree countertop edge because I can brush things into the trash or the pan so reliably and it cuts down the cleanup. If I did not have the pull-out board, I'd put the pan parallel to the countertop, as suggested above. Makes good sense. We used to put a big bowl or dishpan on a stool below the edge of our chopping surface when we needed to work over lots of veg or apples for freezing--same idea. I can put this pan into my top drawer under baking area pullout board also--can receive excess flour sprinkled on the countertop or the breadboard or dough scraps. You could do the same in any drawer next to a baking surface. I've extended the drawer far enough for you to see the pan within; usually we don't pull it out very far unless the front of the pan is already full or unless we're working with sloppy things like tomatoes. I put my eggshells into the pan when making breakfast--the drawer glides out so easily! I try to remember to crush them in my fist as I do this so the composting begins sooner and the shells get mixed with other items sooner. The compost bin is an Ikea item which I think has been discontinued; you buy taller ones now with the same footprint. This one has built-in handles. The boot below it allows me to roll it out with one hand. Lid is not tight and can be opened with one hand. The long compost tray is a bit awkward to handle when it's full and needs to be emptied--in an earlier moment in the evolution of the kitchen I used a different skinny pan and it was perfect to sling around, but it held a lot less. I'm used to this one now so it doesn't matter but at first I dumped it on the floor a few times when using one hand, aargh! The lesson is...don't put off emptying it when you're cleaning up the kitchen.

Vee, thanks for the link to the woman speaking Welsh. Mary, I listened to the woman in the video and detected the back-of-the-throat gutturals similar to the German (e.g. the /ch/ of Bach) and Scottish (e.g. /ch/ of loch). Those sounds are probably difficult for English speakers over the age of about fifteen to produce. Those under fifteen, unless they have a speech disability, shouldn't have many/any problems. I didn't notice much 'R' rolling from this particular speaker, a feature of pronunciation (such as in Scottish and Spanish) that many (adult) English speakers can't reproduce and have a tendency to disparage because of it. Many Americans, interestingly to me, don't have problems 'rolling Rs' but, of course, some Americans can barely pronounce 'R' at all. The double letters and the sounds they represent are interesting. English speakers, of course, wind up in most cases just pronouncing them as single sounds, such as giving the Ll of Welsh the sound of English L. The Welsh start with the tongue in the position to say L but barely get the sound initiated when they switch to the guttural sound of /ch/ (as in loch). Now that's a feat! It's the perfect shibboleth for the Welsh, isn't it, Vee? Instead of persisting in saying 'Welsh', I should be referring to the language as 'Cymraeg'. From the etymology of the word 'Welsh', it's a wonder the people of Cymru put up with the unflattering derivation.