We have DST and it really doesn't matter much to me. I just go with the flow :)

By December the sun sets just after 4pm and doesn' rise until nearly 9am.

There is something calm and relaxing about the dark in the winter.

No to DST. The dark evenings are the worst. I'm not familiar with Asian pear apples. If that's half-pear, half-apple I'd like to try it, sounds yumm.

McIntosh is the national apple of Canada. Yes, they are still around.

Mich, even if a place didn't have DST the winter hours would remain the same. It is the summer hours that are adjusted the one hour. DST does not affect winter hours.

It's the darkness that is a challenge, but mostly the switching back and forth. It takes me a week to adjust, especially in spring. I just don't like northern winters anymore, but I think I'd like them more living in the country, where there's more to do outdoors. Do you ski, Rox or snowshoe?

Mich, I used to ski when I was younger, especially when I lived in Calgary as it is only an hour to Banff. When the kids were young, we skiied a lot.

Husband and I sometimes go ice fishing. I love that on a sunny late winter/early spring day.

Hate the switching too. I wish they'd leave it DST all year. It just gets worse until the first of the year. Feel like happy hour and dinner prep should start at 4:30. Can't figure how what I'm supposed to be doing.

Ya, the switch does leave you discombobulated. Michigan gets wind coming from the north west and that means it travels over lake Michigan and picks up moisture. the west side of Michigan will definitely get lake effect snow, but the east will get the clouds. So, anytime now, once it starts to get cold it will also get cloudy. Which gets old after a bit. Election day here is drizzly, not enough to keep voters home. Fingers crossed.

Beautiful in Encinitas today! High of 75, low of 62. Sunny. Slight breeze. High surf advisory. Its 10:30 and I want lunch. Ugh.

I'm still getting used to the late morning light as it is. Dawn was so early in Denver. Here it's 8 or 8:30. It's more the concept of having to switch back and forth. I don't think it's needed anymore.

It's been really cool here the last few days, for Savannah at any rate. The temp has been dropping to the 40-50's at night and 60's during the day.

The weather everywhere has been weird. A month ago, we had snow on the ground and the daily high temperatures hovered around 32 degrees F. At night it was dropping to 25 degrees F.

Today, it is 65 degrees F.

The snow and cold came early this year, but I think today will set a record high!

i do parts so i don't get confused. Apples, the apple store is just a very large apple orchard of peaches and apples, i think a few pears? anyway they have a store on the farm. fifer orchards they are called. i like i can go there fill a paper grocery bag to overflowing with apple seconds of various types and pay $8! it used to be $3.

RE; asian pear/apple. in greensboro, i bought various fruit from gurney's. planted, pears peaches, and apples, attacked by bugs, none edible. asian pears? perfect. and they are. kinda a pear flavor and not the gritty meat.

jmm, i don't have a zillion pillows at home? i own them in my ideabooks. I also own many rugs. i love all these things. i love what you have in your home! I like that i pay nothing and pillows i can buy many on my budget for them. almost everything in my books is very reasonable. so often what i give you is cheaper than anywhere else. instead of giving a $300 pillow that they really cannot replace. but what i really love is i shop nearly ever day. i have great lamps too! i have a couple of the multiples? for under $150! i get so excited!

oh roll, never feel shy about taking my things. have you ever looked in my activity thread? there are more people going in and out of my ideabooks! I do not even know most of them! figure if you do not even need to introduce yourself? what is a little theft between friends?

Thanks Having.

Now I want an apple store near me. I think I'll fuss about that. I'm sure that will work.

I'm loving the weather right now. This time of year we don't need air con or heat. It saves money over the summer when we have triple digit temps.

had to turn heater on this morning, yuck!

HF - virtual pillows are great. Now my problem is, my carpets and carpet-like-objects (hence to be known as CLOs) are not virtual. They are real. Any suggestions for what I should do with the carpets rolled up under the bed in the guest room, or the donkey and camel bags stuffed in a trunk in the garage? I do try to rotate, but I just can't quite get myself to get rid of them. So, the dog has a cheapy Persian rug on his dog bed. And at the moment, he's sprawled on an Afghan bag on the sofa. Do I possibly have my priorities wrong?

It doesn't sound like it to me jmm. I still haven't gotten around to buying any rugs. The noise of the dog's nails on the floor sometimes makes me a little batty.

no jmm you do not. but i do have questions, are you sure you should not be seeking some profit from some of the extras? if not, i am sure i could give a few a good home, will send a lovely bed for the pup! gobble gobble

p bear, give me colors and style, price and size, i will go pick a few for you.

I'll have to take a few photos Having. The most important right now. Nine to twelve foot round . The room is a pale rose pink . Something more traditional.

will look

Thanks Having.

Did I say something wrong?! :) Or has everyone been on vacas?!

HI Mich. I think we all forgot it was here. Thanks for remembering. I am going out of town Friday through Sunday. Does that count? :-)

I am done with my whirlwind tour of Australia with my friend, so I can now focus on important things - like trying to get some basil to grow in my front yard. And keeping the rosemary plant trimmed enough that it doesn't prevent the garage door from opening!

Only if you come back with tales of adventure and fun, RG.

jmm, my rosemary is one foot tall so it's grown 8 inches this season. I'm going to try overwintering tender perennials - like rosemary - in my garage. And cross fingers for a mild winter.

i guess just busy with other junk. i have to transplant my rosemary next year. it is suddenly outgrowing the planter it is in.

True story. Lived in Rome for a while, and we had a terrace with plants and some sad looking pine trees in big planters around the edges, with an automated watering system. I had no idea what most of the plants were. Then we took a weekend break to one of the Italian hill towns, we were walking down a cobbled road, and I saw this lady duck behind a wall and come out with a handful of what I thought looked like rosemary. So, I asked her, in bad Italian, was it rosmarino? And she took me back around the wall, pointed out the plant, and gave me a recipe for chicken with rosemary. I got back to our apartment in Rome, and realized that two of the plants we had were rosemary. And from then on, I clipped those plants every couple of days for cooking. And I haven't been without a rosemary bush since we moved to Australia.

Oh, and I bought two rosemary plants when we moved in last year. One was a variety that tends to grow long and narrow, was very root bound and therefore very cheap; the other was a six inch plant. The skinny one is now about 18 inches and spreading a bit, the six inch is 24 inches but only because I'm trimming it very regularly (it's the one that's a threat to the garage door!)

as with all plants you have to have the perfect spot. not always identified by known plant info.

It's a lot easier to grow something like rosemary in Australia - plenty of sun, no snow, and not a lot of rain - ideal conditions for the most part.

And lavender, I would think. They like a gravel soil as well as the sun and heat. Our native soil is more clay than sand. Amending to grow Mediterranean type plants doesn't work as well in practice as in theory.

Lavender is a very popular garden plant here. Tough, easy to grow, suited to the conditions. Most Mediterranean plants do well in Aus (well, in parts of Aus anyway) simply because of the climate. And of course native plants are very popular, though a bit trickier to grow than you necessarily expect. That doesn't stop people growing all sorts of other plants but because the soil is so poor, it needs a lot of work and fertilizer to maintain them.

no, pure, we have nearly pure clay here, and sand in FL i grew rosemary in both, don't think i grew lavender down there, do here though. and eastern shore has become big with grapes too. and it does snow, but snow rarely stays beyond 2 days. during the summer it can get very dry before it might rain, and definitely very hot in the sun.

found the same thing jmm. they say gladiolus is a natural for fl environment. but they would not grow. 6 inches up, fills with blossoms, dies, never to be seen again. same with pointsetta, saw one, once, in the country, by a pool, heavy shade, 4x4. hostas saw once, same situation. i have learned one important thing during all my gardening years. they all like certain spots. if you do not have it? you can kill yourself trying to get it and it require, hourly work and still it will eventually die on you. otherwise minimum care. i even put roses in a regular garden. something dies, i get something different. cause if you get the right thing? you will be a miracle worker.

First thing to do when planting anything is understand the site - the soil, sun, moisture, soil pH, etc. Those are very local conditions, not statewide. If you get strong afternoon sun or northern winds - all variables and then there's luck. :)) If you're growing lavender in clay, you are very lucky. ;-)

nah pure, it is more individual than that. i have planted a row of plants, i cannot tell you how many times, specially prepped the bed, everything all grow, but one or two, often not even next to each other. 3 clumped together in the triangle 2 die one grows. I refuse to test every inch of the darn bed. i used to blame the plant. would go get another. same thing happens. get a different plant, plant that there. it says it needs the same conditions. it grows to beat the band.

I would figure that out - no problem. But, not much I can do for you here. Maybe you don't have a green thumb? :))))

I need to get some plants in the ground . I have several herbs in pots, oddly rosemary isn't one of them. I don't have much planted in the garden yet. I really want to plant some lavender though. It's one of my favorites. For that matter anything with a purple flower on it. I have to say I'm having far better luck growing things here than I was back in Denver. Who knew?

We're heading out of town in the morning. If I don't answer right away I'm not ignoring you. Nite.

If you have a spot with sun and good drainage you could plant an herb garden. Your mum might like being able to snip fresh herbs for cooking. Basil, rosemary, chervil, pansies, chives and garlic chives, oregano, thyme - for starters. :-) Those are easy growers.

I'd forgotten chives. We always grew chives when I was a kid. We have a really good spot in back of the sun room. I thought a tiered garden would work nicely then we could both use it. I do know from passed experience that thyme needs to be contained. At least I think it was thyme. We once had spearmint run amok too. It took over half the back yard. The dogs loved it though. They used to nibble on it. The vet said to let them it was good for their gut.

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I like that alot. Thyme is not a spreader - oregano grows high, not a spreader. Mint is crazy. I had it in a pot that I think the roots were breaking out of. :)

Mary and I had a thing where we checked her chives a couple times a year - she used them for Green Goddess dressing. Half of the time the rabbits had eaten all but one plant. The other half the chives were taking over the garden plot. Garlic chives is nice to have, aso.

Oregano isn't a spreader? It seems to have turned itself into a ground cover in my garden. And it's climbed into a pot! As for purple, I've got purple sage growing (rather vigorously, I must say). Adds a nice bit of color. I planted basil but I think the possums got to it - I'm going to have to come up with plan B, because I use a lot of basil. And I've got a miniature bay tree in a pot too. I've just planted some Italian parsley, I've also got chives and thyme growing, so we'll see how go with those.

I've never done garlic chives. I'll have to try that. Now I want to remember what it was that took over my flower garden. Oh well. I was thinking I would do mint in a separate pot.

jmm maybe that's what it was , sage. We always grew sage when I was younger too. It has that almost dusty purple color? I know the heather was a problem but we didn't plant it, it's noxious in parts of Colorado. I loved it, my Dad not so much. When I took over the yard work I just worked around it. You two have given me lots of ideas to work with. :)

My neighbor puts her mint in a pot, then digs the pot into the garden so it gets watered along with everything else, and doesn't get overheated in the pot, but still can't escape it. At least, that's the theory....

Going to be hot here tomorrow. Wasn't I just complaining about cold, wet weather? We've had two gorgeous, warm, sunny days but tomorrow it's going up to 31C (about 88F). I think I'll be staying where I can enjoy the a/c!

Isn't that how it works jmm? I'm cold I'm cold I'm cold , blast this hot weather. It's cooling down here. Today it was cool and windy. I didn't see the news but it had to be in the 60's vs the high 70's we had earlier in the week. We need the rains to start. They're starting to make a little headway with the fires but some good steady fall rains would help.

Sage is a soft greenish purple, very pretty in a subtle way. Of course, many varieties.

My oregano gets tall, but no it stays in a clump. Another favorite is fennel. It smells like black licorice, grows 3-4 feet and does self-seed, but not rampant. I like to press the fronds and use on greeting cards. Pansy is an herb also, very nice accent in an herb garden. Allium or onion for height.

Pansy is an herb? Didn't know that.

My oregano is definitely spreading - I planted some in Bermagui and it went wild there! Well over a foot across and still growing. I know it's supposed to be clumping, but it seems to think a clump is larger than I think a clump is ;) It wasn't tall though - so I guess a different variety?

Italian parsley loved the environment in Bermagui - I planted some one year, and never had to plant it again. It just kept popping up in unexpected places, grew very large, got chopped down and eventually dug up, but would reappear the next year. I planted three seedlings last year in our new house, ended up with plants about 2 feet wide and high, and took them out a week or so ago. I've planted more seedlings, but I have a suspicion I'm going to get parsley where I didn't plant it again. It seems to love the soil and the sun of Australia.

I had nice basil last year, but I think that was before the possums discovered my yard. Drat.

Must try and find a spot for garlic chives. Did I mention, my garden is tiny?

No, you didn't jmm :) Herbal gardens are great in small spaces. My garden club is the Herb Society of America and locally we have two gardens we take care of, both compact. Oregano may grow more aggressively in a Mediterranean climate. It's a perennial here and yes it could be a different variety. Mine definitely doesn't self seed. I love parsley too and it comes back every year in the same spot. I'll be gardening vicariously with my Aussie friends to help get thru the winter. :))

up here two of my yards, which includes current have invasive mint. my oregano always grows like my thyme, low and spreading. i have a wall planter that goes beside my staircase up front. not very big. my thyme covers one end to the other. oh and chives grows wild up here. mowing always makes me hungry! i also always plant my with my regular plants, everyone seems to prosper.

don't forget 'take back the holidays!'