onthebrink-I love it, I know others who hate it! We have it in a front raised bed by our living room windows. It's easy to shape and I love the burgundy/green/white color of it's delicate leaves. It does sucker some, but they are easily pulled since the bed is raised. We save the suckers and are going to use them along a built up wall by the side of house where we have a concrete pad for our boat. They also do get the white tipped black moth caterpillars munching on it from time to time, but then that means we don't have to prune so much. Good luck in your decision. I think it's a lovely shrub.

SE Wisc: Someone turned of the "snow switch" at 3 pm this afternoon. The forecasters are predicting 4 to 6 inches. I know it will be more than 4 inches becasue we have that much right now. Its messy to deal with, but we need the gound moisture. It'll be good for the winter wheat and hay grasses planted last fall. My backyard deer herd appeared early this evening to brouse. They usually come around at midnight or later. Today, they apeared at 5 pm - it was almost dark and snowing. There are 7 in this herd and all came out tonight. Often, only a few at a time apear in the open with the others staying under cover.

I am so tired tonight but still want to ask for prayers and hugs. The week before we came down, I had four days of extreme pain with an infected tooth which was removed the day before we flew down. Morning of our departure we had 12 inches of snow and had a difficult time getting out. Wait, you have not heard it all. Got here, happy to be out of the snow belt. Tooth thing really good but get a cough and cold. After two night of not much sleep, go to a doc. He gave me the wonderful codeine cough thing and an antibiotic for the rest. Wake up next morning with my face twice its size. Allergic reaction or drug interaction - I had told the doc down here that I had been off of another antibiotic for only three days. He said not problem. I guess it was. So, off of the new antibiotic (duh!) and onto prednisone and benedryl - I could have done my own diagnose on this one. That was Fri. Sat and Sun were horrible but not nearly as horrible as Monday. Monday am, hubby comes into family room and does not look good. Tells me there is something not right. I have my hand on the phone to 911 - I know he has had a stroke! The paramedics were here within 15 minutes. 6 of them! I will tell you I was so scared for my DH. DH spent almost the entire day in ER, doing tests, being observed. The docs and nurses and assistants were wonderful. Finally saw the neurologist at about 5 in the aft. He had seen all of the immediate test results and had confirmed stroke. It was in the lobe which affect speach and fine motor control - a nasty one for an attorney to have. However, no cognitive harm. He has done remarkably well in the last 24 hours and we are confident that he will continue to improve though it will take work. He has already stared with a speach therapist (I love her) and will have therapy for fine motor control. He has no problem with walking - we walked the entire hospital this aft. so tired tonight - drove home through an amazing storm with close to zero visibility. Amazing to look out the balconey toward Miami at this hour and see the lightning stikes-the entire sky lights up. I am on Marco, BTW and I am going to bed. MK

"I think the Florida / South cold weather *feels* as cold to the southerns as the cold feels to us in the Northeast". Really it doesn't. We know there's a big difference between 20 degrees and -20. I grew up in N.Dakota and lived there until after college so I've know what serious cold feels like and what 8 foot snow drifts look like. I remember going cross country skiing in Wisconsin when it was well below 0. THAT was cold. You're right though in that it's all relative. In the north and midwest, you're prepared for winter. Houses are built for it, people have the clothing for it. You can have extremes of cold or snow that can make it more dangerous or hard to deal with, but you're usually prepared. At -20 in North Dakota, our pipes didn't freeze because they were built to handle the cold. Here they often are run through our attics and freeze easily. Lots of us have solar heaters on our pools that are susceptible to freezing too; we've been running the pool pump at night for a week because if the solar piping freezes it will burst. At -20 in North Dakota, the farmers didn't panic because their crops are dormant during the winter. Here many citrus, fern/foliage and strawberry growers will lose their crops this year. I know ranchers and dairy farmers up north have it tough in extreme winters because they can lose part of their herd. The temps here won't harm cattle but the iguanas are dropping from the trees. (The iguana thing has been kind of amusing.) At -20 in North Dakota, people may have bundled up more than normal, but they owned coats, hats, scarves and expected to use them every winter. Many people here don't have the clothes for this! At -20 in North Dakota I didn't have roses and orchids blooming in January! Kate