Lovely to hear from you MIMS, Big changes in our life this year, my husband retired from 25 yrs in the USCG and we moved from Cape Cod Ma. to E. WA to be near our youngest daughter, we took a rental house for a year so we could really look around to find our dream retirement home. Our garden was very small this year, I didn't get to wintersow last year so I'm really craving it this year but I'll keep it light as we will be moving again. We got our first snow fall it is beautiful and so serene, it will be interesting to see what winter is like here in E.Wa. I hope you get lots of snow and have a peaceful winter. Wendey

Sylvia, Could your Milkweed have White Fly? Is it webby? YES The tiny seashell creatures are probably snails. I have lots of snails in my garden this year, THAT IS HOW THEY LOOK If the tiny sea-shell-like things are cream and somewhat pointed, they're probably monarch eggs! I'LL CONSIDER THAT Sunday evening I had over a dozen cats (some on 4 out of 5 plants) Tonight I found only 3 and I had to fight a wasp to rescue one. So now I have these each on leaf sharing a plastic box from WalMart. I had not planned on bringing anything inside. There was a beautiful white moth on under side of one leaf; I moved her off. I need to get busy reading about what to do. Thanks for response; guess answer is protect & enjoy! Sylvia

Don's latest update... ----------- Hi all, This crew of hosta fans never ceases to amaze me. Many donations are in at this point, around half what we usually have as a total, and we have yet to hear from many of our long term donors yet. Amazing! We are on track for one of our best auctions ever if things continue in this direction. Some time this coming week look for a link to be posted to get you all to the auction site. I will begin to post announcements and have one for you all to test out your existing user name and password. Forgot? Use the same news item to initiate a new one. You will then be good to go! I look forward to the usual fast paced action and generosity of the bidders that matches the generosity of the donors! Again, help your friends and the society out by relaying this message to any hosta fans that may not be on the mailing list or have not relayed their new email address to me. As usual: 1. I (dabber) enter all items ... attempt to protect donors from numerous unwanted contacts, prevent malicious entries 2. a reserve price is posted as a target or goal ... not required that this be met unless stated in the text of the item, some are suggested to me, some are estimated by me to indicate a minimal goal we would like to meet fundraising 3. closing times are staggered ... allows an individual to bid on as many different items as they wish and time to do so 4. results will be posted as soon as completed and double checked ... aiming for some time Sunday, stay tuned to NEWS ITEMS ... several will continue after the bidding is over 5. corrections, changes, reminders, payment info are all posted (or in process of being posted) under News items (these are ALL none bid items and bids will be trashed at the end, there are no items to be had here - just pictures) 6. payment may again be done on-line ... PLEASE help out by being sure to include the item title AND alias(these are a nightmare to sort out if only your real name and amount are included) 7. make payments within the 10 days ... many reasons (one is personal ... I really do have another life in addition to the auction) 8. estimate 99% of those participating are quite positive and appreciative of the donors and the people involved to put this together (several have input) 9. Bob Axmear has continued to allow us to use his site and lent invaluable assistance ... a HUGE THANKS TO HIM Different: (ONLY ONE this is posted in News items) CHANGE IN ENDING FOR AHS ON-LINE WAS INITIATED IN 2010 and CONTINUES THIS YEAR Each year we try to take what works and improve upon the way the auction performs. The way that items end will change this year. End times will STILL STAGGER as in the past. Past years the items closed the moment that the internal clock hit the posted closing time. This time IS STILL important for you to pay attention to. The time posted initiates a type of "interval timer" that allows bidding to continue until there is a 5 minute lull in the bidding. Once a 5 minute break of no bids occurs, the item will close. There will be no need to "out bid" yourself. Restated, bids will continue until there are NO bids for 5 minutes beginning at the posted closing time. We hope that this will reduce frustration for the new comer and even the playing field for all in terms of technology skills and equipment. Some participants have dial-up service, others vaguely recall how long it takes a screen to refresh especially with a picture included. This is especially true with todays speeds on DSL and CABLE. Thanks, Don Dean Here is a link that might be useful: Contact Don here

Hey Red, like I was saying I was thinking about you and your kitchen. If you did a brownish color I would keep it in the cream range like the Jonesboro Cream or Deleware Putty. You have so much brown going on in your kitchen that I wouldn't go w/ a brown, brown. That said I was thinking a blue color when I saw your kitchen but you know, that Baby Turtle is so deceiving. I swear it fakes you out and any blue that you put against it will go super blue. Even some of those blue greys. So I was flipping through my fandecks and came across a color called Sea Haze #2137-50. I couldn't find my Bosp sample to hold it up to it though. It's def. more on the grey side than the blue but I think BT will pull out the blue in a good way and it will all still keep a nice rustic feeling. Oh, and did I mention that it's one color card away from Carolina Gull?! Don't let the Jonesboro Cream swatch fool you either. I think that it looks really dull on the card but it is so perfectly rich on my walls. 1 more patch to go and rearranging then I can take almost final pics for you all.