First is the big labeled family photo. Citrus: there's seedling lemon, tangelo, pummelo, yuzu, along with an unlabeled sudachi. There's also a larger grafted yuzu and a grafted calamondin. As for non-citrus, there's three nightshades (tamarillo, naranjilla and coconas), two pots of seedling guavas, and a rather spindly ice cream bean seedling. [IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/davidals/Project1.jpg[/IMG] Second is the unlabeled pic. [IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/davidals/Picture547.jpg[/IMG] Third, is a closer view including the big yuzu and calamondin, the pummelo and tangelo in front of them, and the big naranjilla on the right side. [IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/davidals/CopyofPicture548.jpg[/IMG] Last, this is a close-up of some of the seedling (non-grafted) citrus - from top to bottom, yuzu, pummelo, tangelo and sudachi. The black pot is tamarillo sprouts, which I need to thin out. To me, the only notable thing here is how different papeda-type citrus look from other citrus when young - smaller, slower in growth, smaller leaves, but very lush, small (not visible in this pic) spines, but more of 'em than other citrus. [IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/davidals/Picture537.jpg[/IMG]

Have to agree with TJ. After all the rain this summer...my hosta have never looked this good in Sept. Even my dh. has commented on how the back yard seems brighter and has more of a glow this year. 3 possibilities 1. All that rain.. I did water regularly especially last year when we had a watering system installed 2. More light coming into the yard from death of neighboring trees 3. Somewhere I read or heard that someone put milorganite around hosta and had few slugs. Since it was always raining I was too cheap to put out sluggo I gave this a try.. I have slug holes but not nearly as bad as usual Hoping this is a sign for my garden in the future So the question is.. who has been sleeping on your hosta? Could a racoon be jumping off of a tree nearby and landing here?

Okay Ladies, that does it for me! I think we've heard from everyone who's going to speak up about their boxes. Everyone did a fantastic job for their partners! This swap had a lot of good times, and a few straight out of the Twilight Zone too. I'll peek in next week from New York to see how things are going for y'all over in the August swap. Linda, I'll e-mail you Friday or Saturday when I get the chance so you can let everyone know I made it okay. THANKS AGAIN FOR THESE WONDERFUL BOXES SOME OF YOU HAVE SENT FOR MY TRIP!!! I'm resealing the two I've opened so Paula will have fun opening them, and all others I'm waiting to get to New York to open. THANK YOU FROM ME AND PAULA!!! -Dan

"Inventories of unsold homes dropped to 7.5 months at the current sales pace." To me, that is probably the most important statistic in the whole piece, and that it, while still high, is improving, comes as a surprise. However, missing in this article is news about what is happening with foreclosure rates - I read somewhere that july 2007 foreclosures were almost double what they were in july 2006. That can't be good. I think inventories are likely to start rising again, unless new construction really comes to a standstill. Add to that a record number of ARM resets coming in october and it is still difficult to feel optimistic.