Good morning all, Well there is a white coating of frost on the lawns on the hill across the street but it looks like most of the plants here escaped by a thread. I was so tired last night we ordered a small pizza for dinner. You know, I didnt even really like it and it used to be my favorite food and then I got heartburn when I went to bed. Well, I havent had a problem with heartburn for four years so now I really have no desire to eat any pizza again. Today is going to be another heavy cutting back and disassembling the pots day here. Doug was such a peach yesterday and helped me dump the old soil out of the pots then he washed them out and put them away in the shed. That saved me a ton of time. Im hoping I can lure him out to help me again today. Im in a quandary as to whether or not Im going to save my original Abutilon pictum Thompsonii. The trunk on it is about the size of my thumb and is going to be enormous next year if I keep it over. Will I or wont I? Do I need a variegated abutilon that size? Im having a real problem throwing away all those potential nice looking cuttings. Im telling you, Im hopeless. Today is going to be worse when I start really cutting back my large fuchsias. Sue, bummer about your cold. Ive used the Zicam rapidmelts the last couple years and Ive never been sick longer than a week. I hope you get better really soon. So now where the heck are you going to put another Japanese Maple? You are too funny. Advice please, Ive got that JM Viridis that I bought with you last spring. Well it was in that pot on the patio and I need to find a place to plant it in the ground. Where do you think that would look good and do well here? ~~ BTW I think that is absolutely terrific that Tom thinks its a shame that the patio garden disappears. I think he is enjoying the gardens more than he lets on. LOL ~~ So next year that banana will get to the top of the garage you think? Just in time for the Conservancy tour? Eden, just love the apple orchard pics from yesterday. So much fun with the littles. So maybe you can get someone to snap your pic with Bella sometime? ~~ Sorry about your foot. If that doesnt get better really soon you should have it looked at. My mother actually broke a bone in her foot once and didnt even remember how it happened. Just woke up with a sore foot one day. Hope it heals up soon. Norma, LOL about Bob admiring landscaping with large rocks in it. Our guys certainly are good sports arent they? ~~ RE beer, I only like it when the day is really hot and Ive been working outside in the heat and at the end of a day an iced cold, I mean frigid cold beer is the very best thing on the planet. ~~ RE the phormiums after hearing Bugs story I decided that it was a great phormium conspiracy. Ill bet we arent the only ones who were lured into buying phormiums yesterday. So Saucy, how long are you going to have to take care of the annoying, snoring dog? Brenda! 11Ws!!! Wow, I thought I had large feet. Im just a size 10 medium. Interesting factoid, my feet used to be a double wide but have gotten smaller since I lost weight. It is so nice to be able to fit into a medium width shoe now. ~~ Id love to come out and have a ride on your combine! Kathy, I googled the fuchsia gall mite!!!! OMG that is just terrible! Thank heavens we dont have that horrible thing here. They just ruin your plants. I did read about one person who was able to save her plants by spraying with SEvin on a four day schedule for three weeks. So once you eradicate the mites can you get new fuchsia and they will stay free of the pests? Id be devastated. So Marie, I laughed so hard when I read your post about buying the huge phormium! I have NO idea how to winter it over but we can share our experiences this cold season. What kind did you get? Ill have to get a pic of mine with the pink stripes. It really is a pretty plant and Im thinking Im going to put it on the landing on the stairs to the second floor. ~~ So what are you going to do with all that eggplant? Im still drooling over that grilled eggplant Mary fixed for us when we visited. Speaking of Mary, I sure hope she is doing well with her camp out! ~~ Just love all the photos of the farm especially the on of the sun streaming through the fog. Lovely! Wendy your brug photograph is beautiful! You are a tease though, we can only see small glimpses of your garden behind it. Id love to see more of your gardens. Is that a Ligularia Brit Marie Crawford I see peeking under the flower? ~~ The house was 61 degrees this AM here too. We still havent turned the heat on either. The longer we can put it off the better. Martie, how great to hear that Rich has gotten work locally! Poor guy with the dental work. I have such a phobia about dentists just hearing about three hours in a dentist chair gives me the heebie jeebies. So maybe you both can come up for our February party in 07? ~~ You rock lady! A Pendleton suit and sweater for $10.00! Woohoo! Hi Michelle, Im looking forward to seeing some fall pics of your gardens??? ~~ Did you finish painting the house yesterday? And last but not least for our northern Idyllers HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I have lots of rules but find them hard to put into words. I agree with your original comment, Suzy, that matching colors that are close is peculiarly taxing. I think I would get along with Masha's husband, as I also place vinous reds with pale warm colors. I don't like too many pale or too many powerful colors together: one is anemic; the other too heavy or too leaden. Like Aimeekitty I like little dashes or flecks of strong color in the middle of softer tones: wild poppies self-seeding in the garden are perfect, and surprisingly, their brilliant orange-red goes with nearly everything. White is not a universal peacemaker, but a color like any other. I don't like pure white, just as I dislike primary colors in the garden in general, finding them impossible to harmonize; but I like whites that are are tinted with parchment or honey or cream or lemon. The leap from white to strong colors is too great a one for me: I avoid white beside red, for example (though I will consider purple roses and white ones side by side). I dislike colors that I consider hard--certain shades of brown-tinted orange-red would fall in the category, also the primary colors--but otherwise like just about everything and think it can be used to good effect, whether rich and somber, or pale and soft, or brilliant and flashy. The art lies in putting the right colors together and in the correct proportions. Of course I like lots of soft blues and violets and lavenders in the garden: a rose that can't get along with them is hardly a rose at all; and I appreciated purple foliaged plants with roses as well, especially cool pink roses and red ones. Gray-green and steely and silvery foliage is also excellent with many roses, though that hardly needs to be said. And let me put in a word for acid and yellowy greens. A lot of times I just don't know what will work, and I'll take bits of two plants if I can and place them side by side. With babies or plants I've never seen in flower, or that aren't in flower when I need to plant them, I just do my best, which sometimes isn't good enough so that I end up moving things. Just throwing things together doesn't work for me: some combinations make me flinch, while others are joyful and exquisite, so that I have to think out colors. Verbal rules for color matching are almost always inadequate; I suppose a fine set of charts and knowing how to use them would get the color designer a long way. I love talking about color, Suzy, thanks for bringing the topic up. Melissa

I checked the delivery confirmation # for Michelle's package and it stated it was delivered. Hopefully she will confirm soon. Thanks Jeanne for an awesome swap. We are still looking for someone to take January. I hope Maryanne, Remy, Margaret and some others in our group are ok, haven't heard from them in awhile. Jan. Feb. hazelnutbunny Mar. Apr. micyrey May mellen June brittneysgran July veeja11 Aug. Sept. Oct. flowergirl34 Nov. Dec. Jeanne, Margaret, Margo, Jen, Faye, Annie, Remy & Maryanne....step up and take a month if you can. I know we have more members than this but can't think right now of everyone. Shirley

We did not do much in the way of gifts this year but we did go to my neighbors home for Christmas dinner and we always exchange gifts. She has no family to buy for other than her husband and her dogs so she has started showering us with Christmas gifts because she enjoys it so much. I try to reciprocate. She is an avid gardener and works in my yard all the time. She often gets into poison ivy. I got her the very best quality leather gauntlet gardening gloves I could find in her tiny hand size. She was so thrilled. She said oh my God no more poison ivy on my wrist. I also bought them a Cajun pork Tenderloin wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cream cheese and jalapeños. She cooked it for their new years eve meal last night and said it might be the best thing they have had. That made me happy.