I was doing some serious weeding for the first time on Wednesday - Gotta get them weeds outta the onion seedlings! Anyway, there were some tomato volunteers in that bed! They are the first I've seen but since they've just got their first true leaves, I wouldn't have recognized them as tomatoes last week. I don't really know how late the seed germinated this year but they sure can't be early with the weather we have had up here! I've saved several volunteers thru the years and they almost never ripen fruit. Even tho', I don't grow any tomato that is a late-maturing variety. The point I'm trying to make is that in a normal year, a tomato volunteer won't ripen a tomato for me. In a cold year, a volunteer just getting its true leaves in mid-June has a sub-zero chance in HE-double L. Don't kick yourself about this, Bonnie. There is usually more than one way to skin a cat. Steve

Hi I had a similar situation from my first marriage . Saw my daughter once at two months and then again 35 years later lol The meeting was arranged by friends and she was at their home during a visit to my home town . Total surprise for me lol Interesting that during the meeting I had no idea who she was but immediately noticed how much she looked like her mother 35 years ago of course lol She was married and had children of her own my grandchildren which were almost teenagers . had intentionally avoided the meeting as I was totally unprepared to explain what happened . Interestingly that was not a problem we talked mostly about her kids and her mother her life but almost nil about the past. She said that she was very happy to have finally met me as my name had come up in conversations over the years lol Wasn't bad and am sort of glad that it happened though I certainly wouldn't have arranged it She returned to her life and me to mine naturally and since we live almost 2000 miles apart we do exchange info a bit. Has tapered off in the last few years My grandchildren send me Christmas and Birthday cards As to your problem there's really only two choices either do it now or much much later?? Good luck with whichever way you decide!!! gary

I've tried two different BB's so far: first was Miss Molly and it smelled so great, but it did not survive it's third winter. I couldn't find that same one so I replaced it with a Miss Ruby. This is it's third year and it has a little bit of new growth visible (earliest ever that I have seen). Despite how easily they seem to die here I do love these plants. So many incredibly fragrant panicles that keep coming when I deadhead them. No invasiveness issues, and butterflies definitely love them. Someone else mentioned Rhododendrons. I have 2 PJM Elites. One in my more sheltered backyard and after 6 years it is doing fine, and had a nice bloom this spring. The other one is in the windy, exposed front yard and it struggles. The leaves desiccate and the foliage is pretty sparse. This year some heavy wooden screens leaning up against my neighbour's house fell over in heavy wind and broke a few branches off the struggling rhodo. TWICE! I would be more angry if I wasn't going to rip it out anyway. Might replace it (and a nearby Summer Snowflake Viburnum that has never grown larger than the original planting size of about 20 inches high) with a small dogwood or maybe an Annabelle hydrangea. The one plant type that really gives me fits are ferns. Ostrich fern, ghost fern, and even ferns native to this area...for whatever reason they just diminish and die. I'm done with them now. The last one just got replaced with a Chionoides rhododendron.

mgmum, your messaging is not enabled, so I'll post a link to my OneDrive Kitchen album (scroll down to skip my wandering explanation). It starts with the hand-drawn plan--I found GW before I knew how to upload pics or use a Paint program. I did a DIY mini-remodel using some cabinets from the old kitchen, some new cabinets, and some salvaged cabinets and other recycled/upcycled elements. If you click on each pic, then click on it again, the captions should appear. The whole mess is documented, so if you just want to see the final result, scroll to the end. I mentioned hosting big family dinners--the kitchen is set up specifically to facilitate feeding a crowd. I could have a better working layout, but I need the long counter with no appliances, and a direct path to the new dining room. The range used to be on that wall, and the burners would still be hot from cooking, when it was time to serve the buffet. Many times I've covered the still-warm burners with a noodle board, so no one would accidentally touch them. I moved the range across the room, in part to clear that wall, but also to vent it to the outside. My vented hood is one of my favorite parts of the new kitchen. So, we start in the LR, file past the buffet serving counters (counter on one side, island on the other), and walk directly into the new dining/flex room. I'll include the link for that album, too, although you can see it in the background of the kitchen pics. Scroll down for a pic of the table set for 20. We can seat 6 at the kitchen dining table (usually the teens/young adults), which is open to the kitchen on the other side, and four more at a drop leaf table, which we move from the new room to the LR, which is connected through another opening, so no one is isolated in another room. I live in an older home with a circular traffic pattern--I guess now it's more of a figure-8. Before adding the new room, we had to move chairs out of the LR, push everything else against the walls, and squeeze around each other to seat the whole family together. One Thanksgiving we seated 24 at tables in the LR, and I said, "Never again, unless we have a separate dining room!" I think I've posted the story before, but that year my FIL had a friend visiting from the UK, and they decided to come early and visit with my DH, which left me without my usual help, so I was really running behind schedule. Then my mother arrived with her friend, who became bored because the British friend was getting all the attention. Mother's friend decided that since I was alone in the kitchen, he should come in and sing to me--'Devil in Disguise', while I shooed him from one spot to another, as I needed to check the oven, open the fridge, grab something from a drawer, etc. My mother dragged him back to the LR, but as soon as her attention was again on the interesting British friend, 'Elvis' returned for an encore. As more family members arrived with their dishes, he decided that holding court in the kitchen suited him just fine. I was ready to wring his neck by the time I had the buffet laid out. Now, I can set up the tables the night before, place the serving pieces on the long buffet counter early in the day, have everyone seated comfortably in the LR before the meal, set the drinks up on the island at the last minute, give the signal for the blessing, and breathe a sigh of relief. Everything is arranged for point of use, and my relatives know where to find things without asking, so if I'm running behind, they can set up tables and chairs, set up the coffee maker, set the tables, etc. I have trained them well. ;) Kitchen album New addition/dining room/playroom