Sweetness had about a 4"across bloom at her peak this weekend, with two more on the way, one should open up this week, and another in a few weeks after.

She's also got awesome new growth, and more little nubbies coming. I'm tickled pink! Um, I mean purple!

=) That scent is this side of heavenly.

OK, pics are now requested, please..

Eating CWD deer...well, in short, I believe it works this way: the DNR doesn't have funds to test for it in all cases so they just identify populations of high incidence. Then they quite candidly open special permitting for those areas and the hunters go after them. They can use that just for a hunt, turn carcasses in (and those will be used for further testing) or keep the deer for food. Seems that most hunters just shrug, don't worry about it and harvest for food. Sort of an indirect 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.

When you eat meat, you can't really know what is in it, I think our youth population's obesity problem has a correlation with the use of BGH as well.

I just don't eat the stuff. still, I do eat seafood (which I know you don't like) and now that farming has been used to suppliment demand and since we polute the waters as we do, that's depreciating in quality too.

I HAVE to tease you a little now Toni: just slice up 1/2 banana atop yer oatmeal!...save the peel.

I know I know.. pictures pictures..

Some of the "camera fund" just made my horse riding arena bigger.. =)
(gotta feed the habit, you know?)

LOL!!!!!!!!

I like bananas. I do. But they don't like me. At least not in quantity. If I eat more than 1 nanner a week, my heart does weird things. Which sucks because nanners are the perfect fud.

And kids are obese because they're not out running around digging ditches & playing tag. Can't play dodgeball, someone might get hit with a ball. Can't play kickball, someone might not get chosen for the team & hurt their feelings. Can't play baseball, we're ALL winners. Can't play RedRover, someone's not going to get called. Can't play cops & robbers, someone might not get chased & hurt their feelings. Can't have metal playground equipment, gets too hot & someone might get burned. Can't have monkey bars, someone might fall & hurt themselves. Can't have swings, someone might get their neck caught & strangle. Can't play on a slide, they may fall at the end of the slide & injure their tailbone. Can't play in dirt, there's bacteria and germs. Can't play on asphalt, might fall & skin their knees. Can't play in grass, might develop asthma because of pollens.

BAH!

How in foofoo did we manage to survive as long as we did! We had dirt and rocks and sticks and metal playground equipment and asphalt blacktops and kickball/dodgeball/etc and WE WERE HAVING FUN!

cripes I sound old. :(

And, Angel - As the one person put it in Our Companions folder w/his baby foal, Dogs have masters, cats have servants, horses have financiers!

Agree!...not that you sound old but boy!...mom used to pile kids in the car, any seat, no belts and straps (just the right-arm-quick stop), run into the store and leave us wait out there even in the heat of summer. We were unlocked , smart enough to get out to the pop machine and shade if we got hot, kicked the can around the parking lot for exercise, and we were safe.

Seems now, the only "safe' play is in front of a VID with a bag of chips....but drive-thrus (where the kids can stay strapped in), and regular doses BGH don't help either.

Oh, I had a car seat: two pillows ducttaped together so I could sit on them and see over my father's shoulder!! Not allowed to leave the inside of the van, didn't matter than it was 110 degrees in the middle of summer (right outside of El Paso, TX on the Mexican border). I was just fine in the van by myself. My father would leave the custom made table in the back of the van & I would put the 6" metal tube that was it's single leg in the post & then put one of his Canadian-style crutches into the tube (the hand-grip) (http://www.fetterman-crutches....) and pretend I was flying over the Pacific shooting Japs outta the sky like in one my mom's WWII movies. Or I'd use my View Master & look at Yellowstone or Fred Flintstone.. (http://suzi.se/blog/wp-content...). Especially when my parents were rock hounding or looking for arrowheads. If we were looking for arrowheads, I was allowed out of the van but I was not to leave it's shadow for fear of rattlesnakes.

*sigh* Ah, the good ol' days. LOL!!!!!!!!

okay, really OT. Need to get back on. I'm covered in black toner, it's been a crappy day & I need to see a purdy picture of a Sweetness!

Sorry about your crappy day and about motivating you to reminisce. Aren't you glad childhood is behind us?

We kept moving to foreign countries where I couldn't speak the language when I was a kid. Luckily, I had a sister only three years older than I, so I always had someone to play with.

Zuzu: why were you moving? Where did you spend time?

I was born in Korea, but we had to leave when the war started, so we moved from there to Japan, and then to the United States.

That must have been both interesting and a bit confusing. Did you move right to CA then?

wow! I've only lived in the US.. lucky!!

Yes, we landed in San Francisco and that's where I grew up. After that, I visited almost 30 other countries but always came back to the United States and always to San Francisco. In fact, I still live only 60 miles away from San Francisco. California is such a beautiful state and has near-perfect weather.

Check her out yesterday.
First, the big bloom - on the way out.

Secondly, the next bloom beginning to open.

I also looked at her super close last night . The web I saw? It's a real spider web. The spider is brownish, and TINY! But it's got all six leggy legs visible.

Beautiful!

Zuzu: what an interesting experience! How nice to have seen so many countries. I certainly understand why you return to the Bay area. I have had opportunity over years to spend time in the area and in the more northern part of the state. I have had friends (and some still there) in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Berkeley, and San Francisco. North, I used to have friends in Redding, and my ex (prior to our marriage) worked for some time on an extended internship with the Gasquet Natl. Forest service where he lived on base near Crescent City. I used to rent a cottage on the Smith river when I visited,and almost ended up moving there but, after a couple of years, his internship ran out without renewal so he came back to Madison where I lived. (Retrospective view: I wish he just would've stayed there...Tee!)

Now I am so OT that I'd better say that my coop roses are happy and will get planted in new ground (prepared) tomorrow after I finish one more banana. One even has a tiny little bloom (in porportion to its stature) already.

Angel - Crapzilla, Batman, that's one big rose! That's a definite competition to Dolly Parton or Memorial Day any day as far as size alone! I don't even think my Medallion got that big (but, then again, last year sucked as far as roses). WOW, that definitely put that rose much higher up on my acquisition list (doing rose shopping Thurs & Fri). BUT! Spiders have 8 legs, not 6. 6 = insectoid, 8 = arachnid. Pic of speederspider?

And in off topic: California is one of the few states I've never been to. I've been to all but the western side of the US.. missed out on Cali, Oregon, Wash, Alaska, & Hawaii. And haven't traveled much, don't have time or money (especially with my canaries.. really can't travel when you have 30+ birds at home that need daily care).

You're so lucky!!

Yup, Toni, I can imagine. My last trip was the drive to pick-up my dawg in MO. I made him a promise that he would never be hurt or alone again. My duty now is to outlive him...and if I do it in good health: have means will travel. Either way, the next trip is a long way off.

Maybe it had 8 - it's super small.. ain't no way my phone camera can capture it. And I still haven't bought a real camera.