OY! These are wonderful! Saucy you actually have an artful way with your camera already. Many of the shots you took have a lot of feeling in them. For instance I love that shot of the boat at the dock peeking out from behind the willow. I love the shadow of the boat on the water. I want to go down to that dock and sit in that boat lol. I knew from looking at the pics of garden 1 that they remind you of TN...I've never been to TN but I do imagine it looking like your pics. Girl,you are just a natural-before you know it you won't be just point and clicking! That pergola by the lotus pond looks heavenly! I could imagine sipping wine there and reading garden books. I like that stone edged pool! Some very different gardens but very interesting to see all of them. Thanks for your different perspectives ladies ~Babs

kgwlise, so funny you say this. Read on. First I was going to report that I tried on the whole shebang yesterday -- dress with Spanx hose and shoes. I was pleased. As pesky said, no one's going to think I'm supermodel thin, but somehow that saddlebag bulge did not seem as evident. And, I could breathe! (I bought the Spanx on the larger side.) Now here's the funny part. I got on the scale this morning and have lost 4 lbs. since Monday! Obviously I was retaining water, as kgwlisa suggested. But it normally takes me forever to lose one pound, so this was kinda thrilling. I am now one pound less than I was before the trip. Now, if I can keep this going...? I want to lose 8-9 more pounds! So, in the end, maybe the Spanx, combined with my actual loss, will actually make it look like I lost 5 lbs. in 5 days!! LOL.

I will echo the others against leaving the cats alone for five days. Talk to your vet and get the name of a reputable cat sitter. My cat sitter came to the house to meet my cats (years ago) and they grew to love her. Before leaving on a long trip, the sitter always reminded me to change the batteries in the thermostat (if it was winter) and she kept a folder with information about my preference for a plumber, electrician, etc. After all her years of pet sitting, she'd seen/experienced it all. Really, it's good to have somebody set eyes on them once a day. It's worth having that peace of mind while you're away and it's kinder for the kitties.

This reply goes way beyond your question, but hopefully there is an answer in here somewhere. Words have changed meaning over the decades so I'll try to define my terms. If you read the old Farmer's Almanac from prior to the 1940s they refer to manure as a fertility enhancement. Back then anything you put on the ground, ranging from raw animal dung up to purified chemical fertilizers, was considered to be manure. Everything. Nowadays the word manure usually refers to animal dung in the fresh state. It stinks. Once animal dung leaves the animal it begins the composting process, but the bagged manure you can buy at the store still stinks to high heaven. After you use it still sinks for several weeks. There is another product class called composted manure. You never know what you're going to get with this. True compost is finished when it smells fresh as a forest floor after a summer rain. I used it get "aged" manure at my daughter's horse stables. I looked every bit like fresh dung, but it had been sitting for a year. You could scoop up a double handful and plunge your nose in it and get the fresh aroma of excellent soil. That's what you should smell when you buy compost or composted manure. Sadly that is not always what you get. If you are using an organic fertilizer for the first time in years (and years) it could be your soil does not have the full population of beneficial microbes to decompose the organic fertilizer. If you are new to organics, you might apply at half the rate (10 pounds per 1,000 square feet) and follow up 4 weeks later with a full dose of 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000. The 'aroma' you get from the modern grain type organics is a mild sour milk. You will notice it, but your neighbors will not.