Somebody stop me!!!

It's a disease, I swear.

Despite knowing that after five years in this tiny garden, I have no room for any more perennials, period, this jumped into my cart at Fred Meyer (a local equivalent to about ten steps up from a Walmart superstore -- Fred's has a terrific nursery for a chain store) this morning. "I'm only $2.95," it whispered. "I'll be so beautiful next year." Ptui. I only went in the store to pick up a new pair of sneakers in the first place.



It's an echinacea. I've always admired echinaceas. And it was dirt cheap for a perennial of this size. But drat it, I don't have room.

Will someone please save me from myself?

Plants are one of my three categories of things (the other two are books and quilt fabric) that aren't clutter by definition no matter the quantity, but this is ridiculous.

Again, I say ptui. But it's so pretty...

AKICOLJ

Anyone noticed that Yahoogroups seems to be down today? I'm not bouncing, but I haven't gotten any messages from my Yahoogroups all day, not even ones I've sent to my groups myself. I even checked my groups on the website, and messages don't seem to be going through or posted. Just wondering if anyone else has been having the same experience today.

THE NATIONAL PARKS: My Parks

What can I say? My parents inculcated a love of the national parks in me when I was a kid, and I have continued to indulge it as an adult. They're probably my earliest fandom [g].

I can't wait for the new Ken Burns series on the parks to start at the end of September. I have loved his other series, and he's picked one of my alltime favorite topics this time.

It occurred to me, clicking through the pictures again, that I went to at least some of these parks (Florissant Fossil Beds, for one, but there are several others) before they were parks [g]. And several that have had their names changed since I've been there (Denali, which used to be Mt. McKinley, and Little Bighorn National Battlefield, which used to be Custer National Battlefield). Guess it just goes to show that I've been visiting national parks for a long time (the first ones I remember are Yosemite and the Grand Canyon -- the first one I've been to, or so I'm told, is Carlsbad Caverns -- I was three).