Congratulations Bob, your ID is right on the nose! Not really ours, just one of a pack of ferals that treat my shadehouse like their own personal playground. I usually see them overhead: ...or climbing the sides of the shadehouse: ...but they come inside and hang out amongst the broms too. We have dogs, though, so their safest spot is really on the roof or up in a tree. They seem to come in 3 basic color schemes: grey tabby, solid black and (part) siamese (with tabby-striped tails). You can see the mixed bloodlines in that last group but not in the others, I'm not sure why. Kind of an interesting study in genetics. Of course there wouldn't be so many of them if we didn't FEED them, but my husband's just a big ol' softy.... ;-)

I read with interest this posting with pictures showing curvatures in the trunk of the tree describing it as 'noodle' and 'funky structure'. Could someone explain please how such repeated curves are created? That tree seems to be at least 20 ft tall, and is still doing it. Is it simply weak wood? These are permanent kinks in the stem. I have a 5ft Picea orientalis 'Skylands', 8ft Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns' and 4ft Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst' which twist similarly after planting them in 2010 and 2011. Skylands seems to be straightening out, I staked Pendula Bruns. All 3 turned away from the sun the first year, Pendula Bruns is still doing it. Bernd

Hi Helen, I started by emailing Cliff directly at the email address I have from when we did the exchange. I've not received a response. His username is "tropicalfreak" and if you click the link in his name in my first post above, his profile shows that he has not posted here since August of 2011. :( He's another person that I miss - I hope he's ok. So generous! I would love to show him how well his plants are doing and that I turned a few into many, many. I've shared them all over the neighborhood. I did email him several times to tell him how much I was enjoying them but that was a few years ago. It's been seven years since we did the exchange. Carol

I'm not sure of what Jordan (z7) motivation may be, but there seems to be advice/opinion offered in search of a question. If recent statements are referring to what I posted, I specifically mentioned herbicide drift onto smooth barked tree trunks, as might (and often does) when one is applying glyphosate or other herbicides to mulch rings or the ground around trees. That's a very different thing versus herbicide drift onto foliage. Many gardeners - and licensed commercial pesticide applicators - do not recognize that cells in a tree's trunk (especially smoother bark trees like Beech, Yellowwood, Magnolia, etc.) can absorb herbicide. The result is not immediately evident, but death of cells can occur nonetheless. Translocation of the herbicide will result in effects elsewhere in the tree. Providing accurate information that doesn't apply here - well, I don't quite know what to think of that.