My gardening partner actually bought it for me... I can't recall which company it came from, but it's one we all commonly know. She saw they had a sale going on, and she was ordering some other stuff... I think she said it was about $3 and change, all told. A great deal, considering the size of the bulb! I do have small hands, but not THAT small! It is definitely a jumbo bulb! It felt like a rock in my hand... heavy and solid! And I had a tough time locating a pot to fit, from my available collection of empty pots. The thing that confused me was, it was labeled as Red Peacock, but the color was actually closer to an orange red! I didn't quite capture it, but those blooms were loaded with sparkly diamond dust! I, too, hope it performs well again! It's going outside this spring... along with many others. I hope the extra sun and outdoor environment help it to keep growing and performing like it first did! It was truly amazing! I'll find out the company it came from... it was an end of season clearance purchase. Well, it sounds like the Peacock series are all very good growers... strong and sturdy. And from Donna's picture, I can see I need to add Blossom Peacock to my collection! Funny... when I first began collecting, I didn't care for the doubles... and now... I can't get enough of them! :-)

I was told by a good friend that when she went to New England her favorite place was Salem. Is Salem truly interesting and worth seeing or is it just a lot of hype? I took a fabulous open air ghost bus tour in Savannah and it was one of the neatest things I have ever done. However, sometimes these sorts of tours are just silly. I also took an on foot ghost tour of New Orleans and it was terrible. So, does anyone have any thoughts on visiting Salem? Thanks so much again for all of your wonderful suggestions!!!

Duh! I didnt think about the hot pots! My little guys will have to stay on the back counter, which they will HATE. My little caique is a handful. I feel like I have a two year old with ADHD. He is CONSTANTLY demanding interactive attn. He loves to snuggle, wrestle and hop. And yes! He gets into everything. And boy does he have a temper...that pig squeal is something else. He is as happy on two feet as he is lying on his back. When I come home from the store, he is lost in the grocery bags and when I hear a happy BRRR! I know he has found something with sugar in it. pinch me, the house I purchased a few months ago in Phoenix on Camelback Mountain. It was built in 1958 by architect Al Beadle. The owner of the home owned the swanky Safari hotel. I found the original plans in the house and tried to restore the block walls out front. I gutted the house to the studs. The previous owners had done (in my opinion) some horrid things to the home. It is a true mid century home, with 128 linear feet of floor to ceiling glass. It's 3800 sq. feet with 5 bedroom, 4 full baths. It will take me awhile to redo everything. Right now, I am focusing on the kitchen, new flooring (concrete), new 6 ft. front glass pivot door, flat texture throughout, replacing the heating/cooling system and replacing the glass (!). I did splurge on a concrete ramp sink for the bathroom, but I'm on a budget and the other baths will have to wait. I am planning on custom walnut cabs. with a thin white concrete counter. Below is a link to Al Beadle's work. He is deceased, but I met his wife. She is in her 80's. We went to a movie together about her husband. She was wonderful! Here is a link that might be useful: beadle work

Finished Kathleen Tessaro's "Debutante". Not exactly "chick lit." since it doesn't stress designer clothes or "looking for 'Mr. Right' ". Has depth of character and good background development. One of the characters is partly based on the Mitford sisters. It jumps back-and-forth from a modern-day woman to a back-in-time woman. The woman from the past is revealed through a series of letters she wrote, which pop up in each chapter. A unique, intriguing way to tell a tale; but then I like these sort of parallel universe stories. In the Author's Note section I was disgusted to learn of how people (mostly women, it seems) were locked away in institutions for no good reason. In one case they only had typhoid (no mental problems), and after they were cured, they were kept locked up ... some of them for 60 years ! ! The cure for typhoid was discovered in the 1950s ... some of those women were locked up till the 1990s ! And this -- two women were listed in Burkes Peerage as having died, when they were very much alive -- were cousins of the late Queen Mother. It seems the girls' parents didn't want to deal with their upbringing; so just left them at an "institution" for life. They were later joined by three of their first cousins -- also retarded. One of those girls was sent on to Ketwin House, which was closed down amid allegations of sexual and other abuse. Her "stay" there had been paid by the NHS !! -- even though her family was wealthy. These sorts of things make my blood run cold. And to think, these are perpetrated by intelligent people. And -- worst of all --- in the case of children -- they were put there -- and abandoned, sounds like -- by THEIR OWN PARENTS.