Hello ladies! Been raking leaves like a crazed person as I live below at least a million maple trees and alders and wild cherry and they would bury my house if I didn't keep up on a daily basis. That wheelbarrow with the remaining corms is STILL sitting on my porch, taunting me every day when I stagger home from work. I wish they would just GO AWAY! And now, like the nitwit I am, Brecks sent me a catalog with a coupon for $25.00 worth of free bulbs! Guess who immediately sat down and figured out how to get those free bulbs without paying a single penny? Yup, yours truly. So now I've got the wheelbarrow full of the damn corms and another bag full of way too many iris bulbs! I think I need to go to "bulb rehab" or something, I can't stop myself and now I'm in even more trouble than before. I didn't know where to put the remaining 2 million corms and now where do I possibly think I'm gonna find a spot for the bloody iris? I'm sick I tell you....sick! It is nearly mid-Octobre and these things gotta get in the ground, so I think I'm going with the "dig a trench and dump" philosophy of corm and bulb planting! I know you real bulb people are all having cows regarding my sloppy methods but why didn't you all write to me and tell me to not plant things that were going to multiply like angry rabbits? I blame you. Totally! IT'S NOT MY FAULT. Nothing is. I am blame free and sleep like a baby. Only on occassion do I wake up with the fear that a huge bag of corms is lying under the covers. Ademink.......I'm gonna try to find you, just a warning! And if I can find this "plant exchange" you talked about, I will send you, free of charge, a massive amount of crocosmia corms and then maybe you won't find me so "amusing!" Greenlydia

I've got the double whammy here. We got this prematurely frigid winter weather like a lot of you guys, plus I gimped up my ankle last week. I'm waiting for it to heal and the swelling to go down but it doesn't seem to be getting better, its been over a week now. I must have really strained it with all that back and forth walking around I frantically did in the garden before the front hit, savoring the last few days and digging up that Flame Acanthus didn't help. I also broke the shovel trying to get it out. The arctic front killed stuff back and now there's piles of green leaves everywhere along with fallen branches but there's plenty of dead looking green leaves still up in the trees so its just the beginning of the leaves. I guess its good that its so cold which helps force me to stay inside like a good patient and off the ankle. I look out the window and it appears overwhelmingly depressing looking out there at the moment, like a disaster in fact. Today is sunny and 50 degrees and I'm dying to get out there to start cleaning up the mess but I don't dare. I guess I will get it cleaned up finally but usually I do it in stages. I'm kind of pitted with this weather and the rest of it.

Make sure there is a bowl under that strainer set in the sink before pouring your wonderful broth straight down the drain. A strainer full of boiled carcass bones and spent vegetables is kind of depressing. If you have pets, children - or a husband ;) - do NOT pick up anything from the floor to see what it is. If you can't make an I.D. without touching it, most likely you won't be happy to have it in your hand when you finally realize what it is. Ewwwwwwww! Similarly, if a young child hands you something, it is assuredly not something that you really want. Ewwww again! And one last one. If you are in a meeting and a person gets excited and starts talking loudly, and their gum pops out of their mouth and lands in their beard (both of which the shouter seems obvlious about), do NOT snort loudly then laugh hysterically. What, are you SIX? Apparently, I am :)

Oh, Deedles, you are so right about the stress. It's especially helpful when the mess that's bothering you can't go away because some of it needs to go in the closet and there's no room! Thanks, bpathhome, I still love the color! And as a bonus, painting the closet was a breeze because I didn't have to patch or prime the side walls, which were looking pretty sad. I cheated a little and only out on one coat of paint, I feel a little naughty. I've been working on getting the pegboard set up, and thought you all would like to see. It has been so much fun! Hopefully i'll be able to keep track of those things i'm always looking for, and have my most common tools at hand without digging out a box, then digging in the box. Got some totes to fill up too, so I'm going to be working on figuring everything out for a bit.