Mother’s Day is coming Sunday, and The Sacramento Press has a few gift ideas that are sure to let mom know how much you love her.

 

Gift idea No. 1: Send your mom on a relaxing getaway.

Super Spa, located at 1722 J St., Suite 1, offers a variety of massage services. Relaxation or therapeutic massages range from $40 to $120 depending on the length of the massage.

A warm stone therapy ranges from $90 to $140, and a head and scalp treatment for 30 minutes costs $40.

Every 60 minutes of massage includes an organic aromatherapy steam.

According to owner Suzanne Saunders, Super Spa's "Treat Mom to 90 minutes of bliss" special includes a L'initié facial care with Univera's super hydrating line-reducing face cream.

"We we will finish with their radiant and tightening skin toner," Saunders said. "She will be glowing for days."

Super Spa offers a chiropractic service, nutrition consulting, yoga sessions and a rain forest tub with Super Spa Me Organics bath salts, soaps and organic teas.

They have couples and single spa packages, including a chocolate rub and scrub package with a steam, 90-minute massage, body scrub, one-hour rain forest tub soak and organic chocolate.

Gift idea No. 2: Make her garden special.

The Gifted Gardener, located at 1730 J St., is a family-owned store that has an array of garden accessories, bird feeders and chimes to spruce up mom’s garden.

According to sales associate Taffetta Lassen, customers can expect store items to range from 25 cents to $270.

The two most popular items for the Mother’s Day holiday are chimes and bird feeders.

“Ninety-five percent (of our items) are meant to be outside,” Lassen said. “(We want to) encourage you to live outside, preferably in the garden.”

Several notable gifts include handmade clay flowers from Thailand, a large rock collection with various inspirational words, shea butter-enriched soaps in rhubarb, linden and honey almond, and gnome statues.

Sales associate Xian Kwong is Lassen’s son. "(Mother's Day) is a pretty big holiday for us," he said. "(We offer) something pretty for her garden."

One notable gift is a colorful hanging slate plaque with a hummingbird and flowers painted on it, which can be purchased for $23.

 

Gift idea No. 3: Buy her beautiful flowers.

Relles Florist, 2400 J St., is having several specials for Mother's Day with their cash-and-carry option. If you go directly to the store, you can purchase flowers at a discount if you pay with cash and take it with you.

According to Jim Relles, the president of Relles Florist, they carry at least 200 varieties of flowers from orchids, lilies, sunflowers, birds of paradise, liatris and anthuriums.

Relles said he recommends preordering flowers, but they have never sold out on Mother’s Day.

“We’ll have plenty of flowers (for Mother’s Day),” Relles said. “Mixed spring arrangements (are) very colorful.”

Relles also said that the average arrangement costs $40.

The arrangement below costs $40 and includes carnations, stock, pink statice and purple pom pom chrysanthemums.

Below is another arrangement that costs $40 and includes roses, carnations, statice, solidago and pom pom chrysanthemums.

“Roses are beautiful for Mother’s Day,” Relles said.

 

Gift idea No. 4: Treat mom to some retail therapy.

Several downtown Sacramento clothing boutiques have plenty of gift ideas for mom.

Sugar Shack, 2425 J St., is the perfect destination for the trendy mom. Sugar Shack has cute spring dresses and tops, belts, shoes and sunglasses. Also, they have lots of locally handmade jewelry.

Several of the brands the boutique carries include Toms shoes, Chaser, Level 99, Ark and Co. and OBEY.

Clothing prices range from $29 to $150.

A cute gift for mom that you can find at Sugar Shack is the polka-dot blouse below, from Ellison, which costs $38.

Clothing Remix, 2419 J St., carries new and used women's clothing, accessories and shoes.

According to co-owner Julie Vue, although their fashion pieces might look trendy, she said they “don’t want to rule out anyone.”

Vue said that the accessories and clothing range from $5 to $70.

Starting Mother's Day, they will offer 30 percent off of new merchandise and 20 percent off used merchandise.

They also offer styling tips on how to spruce up your wardrobe. According to Vue, if customers like a particular item, she shows them how they can incorporate it into their style by matching it with a pair of sandals or a nice blazer.

“We believe in trying the pieces on,” Vue said.

Vue said that she uses today’s magazines as inspiration combined with the customer’s personal style.

Below is a flutter sleeve blouse, from Von Chic, which costs $39.99.

The Cotton Club, at 2331 J St., is a boutique that offers unique, natural fiber clothing and all kinds of accessories. 

They carry casual to professional women’s clothing, from tops, blouses and dresses. They also have a large selection of scarves, purses, jewelry and hats.

Their clothing and accessory items range from $25 to $120.

Several of the brands the store carries are Cut Loose, Tribal, Nomadic Traders, Color Me Cotton and Flax.

Was your mom obsessed with the Royal Wedding? Treat her like a queen with one of the Cotton Club’s colorful hats.

One gift idea at the Cotton Club is this purple top below, which costs $84, by Color Me Cotton.

Make your mother feel special this Mother's Day. No matter what you get for her, she will appreciate anything that comes from the heart.

The Warrior's Way DVD 2-Disc - First Press Limited Edition 2011/05/30	Bravo! Jazz Life DVD 2011/05/30	Naughty Kiss DVD (US - English Subtitled) 2011/05/30	My Fair Lady DVD (US - Ch Tr, English Subtitled) 2011/05/27	Battlefield Heroes DVD 2-Disc - First Press Limited Edition 2011/05/25	GLove DVD 2-Disc - First Press Limited Edition 2011/05/25
The Unjust DVD 2-Disc - First Press Limited Edition 2011/05/25	The Duo DVD 6-Disc Vol. 1 of 2 (English Subtitled Korean Version) 2011/05/23	The Yellow Sea DVD 2-Disc - Director's Cut First Press Limited Edition 2011/05/19	Secret Garden DVD 12-Disc (English Subtitled) (First Press Limited Edition) (Korea Version) 2011/05/19	The Showdown DVD 2011/05/17	Detective K DVD 2-Disc - First Press Edition 2011/05/17

More DVDs and Blu-rays

Ocean View Montessori is looking for the right person to join our staff as a Head Teacher. We are looking for someone who has their Early Childhood Montessori certification or is presently enrolled in a Montessori training program. Prior experience with pre school aged children is preferred but not essential.

Our small school offers a bright, spacious, well equipped classroom that has been designed to stimulate the curiosity and interest of the children. In addition to our indoor Montessori classroom, we provide a beautiful outdoor playground space complete with a children’s garden. Ocean View Montessori also provides art, music, yoga and various field trips.

We are a year round school. Our goal for parents, children and teachers is to foster a loving, relaxed, nurturing environment with a friendly and supportive staff. We have intentionally kept our school small to create a family-like environment. The children range from ages 2 ½ to 5 ½ years.

Terms of Employment:

-Job is available beginning June, 2011.
-Hours are 8:30-3:00.
-Holidays are paid (including 2 weeks for both Winter and Spring Break).
-Job contract required.
-Salary is dependent upon experience.

Interested applicants may apply by submitting resume. We look forward to hearing from you!

• Compensation: Dependent Upon Experience
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

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It’s getting down to the wire. Mother’s day is right around the corner. It will be here before we know it.

Trying to think of the perfect Mother’s Day gift? As a Walmart Mom, I was presented with the challenge to Build-a-Basket for Mom. So I headed to my local Walmart with my own Mom in mind. The challenge was to create a beautiful gift basket less than $30. Can it be done?

After looking around a bit I stumbled upon this very cute white Better Homes and Garden basket. What added to the cute factor of the basket was the lining of pastel blue and yellow flowered fabric. What caught my eye the most was the price. This basket was on clearance for only $5 which makes this basket the perfect base for my Mother’s Day gift idea.

My Mom loves flowers, and as I’ve mentioned many times before she likes to garden as well. So instead of grabbing some fresh cut flowers that maybe will last a week, I went to Walmart’s Garden Center and looked for a plant that would match our basket. I found a rather large, PERENNIAL Delphinium for only $4. Not only are these flowers great and absolutely beautiful sitting in the Mother’s Day basket but since they are perennial my Mom can plant them in her garden and watch them grow year after year. A Mother’s day gift idea that lasts, gotta love that!
Next up a little pampering. Keeping with the blue theme, I found a large bottle of Olay body wash (in a blue bottle) and a matching bath puff with a Better Homes and Gardens Fresh Ocean Flowers candle for that perfect scent.

No gift basket is complete without some indulgences, I think. So I added a reusable, freezable cup (similar to this tumbler set) that my Mom can use throughout the summer to keep her drinks cold, even on the go, and some of her favorite candy.

I’m so excited about this basket. I think my Mom is absolutely going to love it. I can’t wait to see her face on the big day…if I can wait that long :D

What are your ideas for a Build-a-Basket for Mom?

Disclosure: I am a Walmart Mom. This post is sponsored by Walmart. I have been compensated for my time and efforts in creating this post and given a giftcard to cover the cost of the items mentioned in this post. As always my participation is voluntary and opinions are my own.

Life is not a straight line. Living is a series of ups and downs, seemingly random, yet all taking us to a place we need to discover.

Charlotte Owendyk knew just what she wanted. A member of four local garden clubs, she envisioned a little garden house hideaway where she could look out over her Roseville backyard as she planned garden projects – or daydreamed.

Joe Hewitt helped build Firefox, he built the wildly popular developers' tool Firebug and then he single-handedly created one of the world's most widely used iPhone apps: the Facebook app. Today he announced on his blog that he's leaving Facebook and going independent.

What's he going to do? Build tools. "[T]ools for writers, designers, programmers, whatever," he writes. "Wherever people are using computers to turn their ideas into reality, I want to help." That sounds awesome.

Sponsor

Hewitt continues:

"I've spent the last four years of my career working on a very different kind of software. At Facebook, I've gotten to build communications tools that reach hundreds of millions of people. I've had the honor of seeing people, even my own parents, using my apps while walking down the street, in restaurants, on trains, in planes and everywhere I go. Still, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Firebug.

"Technologies have a way of growing faster than the ecosystem of tools needed to support them. Over the last four years, we've seen the rise of mobile apps, the cloud, and now HTML5. Most developers building on these new platforms are using the previous generations of tools along with a mix of ad-hoc scripts and Web apps to get things done. It works, but it is far from ideal. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the Ajax climate back in 2006 when I decided to make Firebug.

"And so, I'm independent now, and I'm going to pour myself into understanding the needs of modern developers and designers, and creating software to fill those needs. There are so many opportunities that I can't even predict what I will end up building, but I am pretty sure I know where I am going to start. I can't wait."

Other blogs will focus on Hewitt's incredible success building Facebook's mobile offerings, but imagine the wisdom from that experience turned to face outward. Leading developer and former director of developer tools at Mozilla Dion Almaer writes tonight, "I have never been as excited about someone leaving a company as hearing that Joe Hewitt has moved on for Facebook to become an independent developer."

Hewitt's plan to build tools for other developers (much less writers and designers!) points towards a future where the Web is a platform for democratized creation again. A generative force, not a new walled garden silo for passive consumption of media on a mass scale.

Facebook is many things; on the positive side it's been an incredible introduction to a writeable, personalized, feed-driven, mobile, social, place-aware Web for hundreds of millions of people. Just like AOL was too often mistaken for the entirety of the Web in the old days, though, there's a risk that many people will treat Facebook like the entirety (or at least the center) of the Web today and in the future.

There's nothing hotter right now than mobile design and applications and there are few things online more conflicted with potential and confusion at the same time as HTML5. Some tools-driven leadership could come in very handy in both departments.

Joe Hewitt creating for creators, on the open Web, sounds like very good news for the Web and its future.

Discuss

The Blade seeks gardeners for Weed It & Reap who are as varied as what they grow and who dig in gardens large, small, or with unusual content. In a sentence, tell us what’s unique about you or your garden. Contact Tahree Lane at tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075. Name: Don Stierman, associate professor of geophysics/seismologist at the University of Toledo, living in Old Orchard. Garden specs: 80 square yards (20-by-4 yards), plus flowers here and there, and two wine-grape vines (DeChaunac, a red). I’m also part of the community garden at UT, across from the law school, where my theme is perennial herbs: mint, horseradish, chives, lovage, thyme, and oregano.When did you start gardening?  Born into it. Grandpa was a truck farmer, became known as Dubuque, Iowa’s ‘apple man’ about 1970.  We lived on the 20 acres next door.  I weeded, hoed, and helped harvest in our home gardens and in Grandpa’s commercial operation (a couple of pick-up loads a week at peak production). I learned to be ambidextrous when picking berries, apples, beans, and tomatoes. Mom canned tomatoes, applesauce, pickles, and froze corn, peas, beans, berries, and cherries. I have seven brothers and sisters, and we seldom purchased vegetables from the A&P.  Any one of us can spot the best tomato or biggest apple in the pile at a glance. Two of my brothers  managed the produce sections of supermarkets, two are avid gardeners, and one sells at a farmers’ market. We continue learning from one another.  What do you grow? Tomatoes. I’ve found the varieties I like: Better Boys, Sweet Baby Girls, Park’s Whopper, and about July 1, I plant a Brandywine because they keep well into the fall. You store them by putting the green ones in a cool, dark place in the basement until they ripen. I had a homegrown tomato at Christmas. Five varieties of peppers (Tiburon, a hot poblano-style for chile rellenos; jalapenos; Hungarian wax pepper for pickling; the big Karma bell pepper for all-around use, and a sweet banana that is prolific and early. Every year I plant a different variety of pickling cucumber to make kosher dills, dill (of course), green beans, several varieties (“chef’s blend”) of leaf lettuce,  cabbage, kohlrabi, zucchini, herbs, blackberries, black raspberries, rhubarb, ornamentals, and flowers. By now, spinach, green onions, and endive have germinated outdoors. I started leaf lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli from seed in early March using a heating pad and a fluorescent desk lamp, and will transplant them outdoors as soon as it’s dry enough.  Pepper and tomato plants are growing in the sun room; will transplant those mid-May when the danger of frost has past.Favorite plant: If I could plant only one thing, it would be tomatoes. Give us a gardening tip: Frequent shallow cultivation. I get down on my knees and use the three-pronged hand cultivator to keep the surface loose and kill weeds, trying to get around the whole garden at least once a week. Hours spent gardening: Thirty hours a week in May (weeding, mostly, and transplanting), eight hours a week in July. In August, the blackberries come in, and grapes are at the end of August. Annual expense: $40 for seeds (mail order), $15 fertilizers (I use one tablespoon of bone meal in the bottom of each transplant hole, and off-the-shelf liquid fertilizer), $10 for pest and fungus control, $60 for flats of flowers (from a local greenhouse), $20 in 2010 for Fall Red everbearing raspberry plants, and $20 this year for two Pixwell gooseberry plants from which I’ll make pies.  Each year brings some sort of long-term investment ($20 – $60) in fencing, grub virus, posts, cages, or tools. Challenges: Now that temporary fences (24-inch-tall woven ‘chicken’ wire) keep rabbits from seedling lettuce and cabbages; Japanese beetles are my major pest but they attack mostly roses.  In 2009 a groundhog destroyed cucumbers, beans, and zucchini. After eight weeks of escalating warfare, I got him and he remains in the hole he dug under the blackberry patch. I’m still seen from time to time chasing rabbits. Also, getting autumn vegetables to germinate in the hot summer sun is difficult and not always successful.  I’m proud of my wine (about 12 to 20 bottles a year), thornless blackberries (they love being the ‘rain garden’, a natural low spot where runoff drains), producing enough tomatoes and peppers for our children (four) and grandchildren (nine), growing dahlias and gladiolas that multiply so vigorously I pass overflow bulbs and roots to relatives. Usually my dill pickles bring high praise. I use my grandmother’s recipe and take a couple of jars to my 89-year-old mother in Dubuque. Canning season runs from July 20 to early September.  I make pies from rhubarb and blackberries and taught my oldest granddaughter how to make pies; our family traditions endure. People passing in cars have stopped to photograph my dahlias. Our daughter in Los Angeles is successfully growing tomatoes in patio pots and our oldest son moved his family into a house with a garden, a feature he prefers over a pool.  What I’ve learned gardening: Gardening is a religious experience for me, a practice of the virtues of hope and faith, and there is so much to be thankful for.  Seminarians should be required to tend a few vines and make wine as part of their education.  “Fruit of the vine and work of human hands” takes on real meaning when it is your hands doing the work. The parable about Jesus being the vine, consistently there year after year, and people being the branches producing the fruit is probably best understood when you have to prune your own vines.

As the Queen starts making her own Windsor wine, the industry enjoys a record year

✒ It's been a tremendous year for English wine with our vineyards producing an amazing 4m bottles, a record. And it turns out that the Queen is going to start making her own wine at Windsor, though you won't be able to buy it for three years and will, of course, have to wear a ridiculous hat while drinking it.

I popped along to English wine's annual show this week and tried as many as I could without falling down. The days when a French vigneron could say to me "yurr English wine, eet tastes of rain" are long gone, and some of the sparklers are now quite exceptional – far better than champagnes selling at the same £20-24 mark. In fact, some, such as Camel Valley, Ridgeview and Nyetimber, strike me as being just as good as the premium brands from famous names being sold to footballers and rock stars for more than £100 in shops and at even sillier prices in clubs and restaurants.

It's a matter of prestige. People still feel that for really special occasions, the wine must have the word "champagne" on the label. Soon, however, I'm sure people will say: "We're laying this aside for our daughter's engagement; it's from Cornwall…"

✒ I really enjoyed the royal wedding. I know most people didn't – the viewing figures were comfortably less than half the population – but I saw no point in leaving the country as some did. You could always keep the telly switched off.

But here are the seven worst things about it, aspects of the event that were actually quite annoying:

• Tony Blair and Gordon Brown not being invited. Whether Blair "cashed in" on Princess Diana's death (he didn't), or because Cherie refused to curtsey, or because Blair's memoirs said too much about his dealings with the royals, the snub was to all of us and to democracy. And it gave what should have been a national celebration a nasty, class-bound, party political tinge.

• Beatrice's fascinator, or "repulser" as it should have been called. As if Medusa had gone to Nicky Clarke.

• The fly-past. A miserable six planes! A real, eardrum-rattling, fly-past would have looked like an RAF raid on Schwenningen.

• Prince Harry's speech. Obviously we only have press reports, but a proper, traditional best man's speech would have been packed with disgusting jokes and filthy allusions to the groom's previous girlfriends. That is Prince Harry's role in life and he let us all down.

• John Rutter's specially composed anthem. Sounded like Coldplay.

• Elton John's hissy fit when he asked to be moved to a more prominent seat. Calm down, dear, as we say these days.

• The kiss. Call that a kiss? A bit of tongue, please, Will.

✒ Why does the BBC insist on calling the soldiers and police employed by various tyrants in the Middle East and north Africa "security forces"? For example: "In Syria, security forces are said to have killed up to 60 demonstrators…" Security is the last thing these people provide. The Beeb wouldn't say: "A bomb planted by IRA freedom fighters has caused at least 10 deaths…" Just say, "government troops".

✒ I've been watching some of the host of new cop shows on TV. (The BBC says it has scrubbed Zen because it wants more women detectives. Well, many of the women I know think that Rufus Sewell is quite all right to be going to on with. You might as well say: "Men aren't interested in watching Scarlett Johansson. They want to see burly chaps pouting on TV…")

The new crop of women detectives are real people, damaged and with problems. If they get on well with their male deputies, then they have a terrible relationship with their male superiors. As my colleagues in the Guardian have pointed out, the more realistic the cops, the more fanciful and improbable the murders. And the cliches remain the same, whether in Vera, Lewis or Case Sensitive.

Here are some more recent ones I've spotted: the first murder is usually the weirdest and is unexplained at the end. Any group of children having a boisterous outing will always stumble on a body. All mobile phone calls come at the worst possible moment. When the sidekick searches for a crucial clue on the internet, he invariably finds it immediately, usually with a cry of "bingo, boss!"

✒ Labels and notices, continued: Suzan Carter bought a pack of "whole almonds" from Sainsbury's: "allergy advice – contains nuts". David Voas also went to Sainsbury's, for a steak. The label gives instructions for cooking rare: "2 ½ to 4 minutes each side… Always check that the product is cooked throughout, and no pink colour remains." Thanks, paranoid lawyers!

Les Herbert bought some fish in his local posh supermarket, the one that pushes up house prices by just existing: "plaice fillets in a bespoke Waitrose crumb". A bespoke crumb? Sounds like a very annoying tailor's assistant in Jermyn Street.

Vic McLellan photographed a sign mounted on a fence by a stream near his home: "Kew Angling Society. Strictly No Fishing."

A reader who requested anonymity to spare his wife encloses a leaflet for the Estring brand vaginal ring, used to replace oestrogen for post-menopausal women: "The Estring vaginal ring is not recommended for use in children," it says. Into what bizarre mind could that warning have wandered?

Linda Paramor bought some limnanthes seeds for her garden. "Handy tip," it says on the packet, "plant carefully as they can be evasive." I love the idea of the flowers coyly hiding when anyone tries to admire them.

I didn't love the leaflet that came with Dick Tuckey's penicillin prescription: "Unwanted side effects can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and black hairy tongue." No, please!

✒ David Scott startled me with a tale of a merciful guard on, of all services, Virgin. He was on a London to Manchester train sitting near two Norwegian tourists. One of them said he had lost his ticket and the ticket inspector let him off! "I won't tell you which train it was," David says, "because he would be sacked."

The Don's grand tour is small on horti and big on culture

One of the side effects of middle age is enjoying gardening and staying in on Friday nights. And every other night for that matter, though that's beside the point here. So an hour with Monty Don spent traipsing around other people's rather large gardens is never less than a pleasure, as Don is one of that rare breed of presenters who doesn't allow his ego to take centre stage; his enthusiasm and knowledge underpin the narrative and the pictures, rather than vice versa.

After taking us round Florence, Rome and the south of Italy, Don ended the series in the north of the country. And in the best traditions of the 19th- century grand tour, Don's journey has placed the emphasis on the cultural rather than the horti- in horticultural. If you want to know how to grow the best tomatoes, watch Gardener's World; if you want to know that tomatoes are non-native to Italy and that it took the Venetians years to realise you could actually eat the fruits of these strange plants that traders had brought back from South America, then stay tuned.

Starting in the Orto Botanico in Padua, the world's oldest garden dedicated to the study of plants' medicinal properties, taking in the Villa Pisani in Stra, the estate in Lucca annexed by Napoleon for his sister Elisa, the multimillion-euro lakeside villas of George Clooney and Richard Branson and winding up on the Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore, last night's episode was a lesson in Italian history from the Renaissance to the present day told through its gardens.

Fascinating as it was to see how the Italians assimilated both exotic plants and landscaping influences from around the world into their own distinct garden identity, the most remarkable thing for me personally was how Don managed to make me see the beauty in box hedges. Normally one glimpse of a formal layout with neatly trimmed hedges – Don showed us one that two gardeners spend four months a year cutting with scissors – has me wanting to run, but I found myself coming round to the idea. Is this the onset of old age for me, or am I just another to have fallen under Don's spell?

Want to maintain a garden but can’t because you invested your savings in a shoebox on the 23rd floor? Via Life on the Balcony, the internet giveth: The first thing you need to do is obviously find a pallet. I’ve had good luck finding them in dumpsters behind supermarkets. No need to be squeamish. It [...]

Syd Arthur London : Secret Garden on 2011-05-14

"Sugar" Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao stepped on the scales to weigh-in for their Showtime pay-per-view bout which airs at 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday night. Manny Pacquiao weighed in at 145 pounds while Shane Mosley tipped the scales at 147 pounds. Both men looked in great shape and ready to go for their bout.

Showtime Sports has posted a video with highlights of the event including both men stepping on the scales and plenty of shots of the huge crowd that showed up for the weigh in:

Speaking of that huge crowd, from a Showtime press release:

Six thousand fans, including the first arrival at 5 a.m., jammed MGM Grand Garden Arena Friday for the Free Public Weigh-in featuring Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. Another 2,000 were turned away.

This fight is doing some very big business.

Follow all of our fight coverage in this Pacquiao vs. Mosley StoryStream, which includes updated news, odds, and live results the night of the fight. SB Nation's boxing blog Bad Left Hook also has extensive Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley coverage. 

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Orange County Register, Price: $40.00, This is a brand new, never opened, signed, sealed, and framed copy of the January 1st 2000 front page of the Orange County Register. Its the limited Commemorative edition that was a gift to the rich and famous of the Greater LA/OC area back in 2000. This is for local pickup in the garden grove california 92841 area. No shipping. Its is cash on pickup only , no checks or paypal. If you have any questions, please ask. Price is $40 cash on pickup only. Please call 714-636-9576 between 9am and 10pm only.

Fox News

Once again, Carter in, Pronger out for Flyers Fox News BOSTON -- Philadelphia Flyers center Jeff Carter will make his second straight playoff start on Friday against the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal at TD Garden. Carter was re-inserted into the lineup for the first time in 14 ... Flyers skate update: Jeff Carter participates, but Chris Pronger doesn'tmsnbc.com Jeff Carter: Jeff Carter returns from injury in Game 3Rotoworld.com Flyers Notes: Carter rejoins Flyers for Game 3 | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011 ...Philadelphia Inquirer ESPN (blog) all 25 news articles »

The Philadelphia Flyers were swept by the Boston Bruins after falling 5-1, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at the TD Garden in Boston.

Man falls while climbing at Garden of the Gods Colorado Springs Gazette Firefighters are tending to a man who fell while apparently climbing rocks in Garden of the Gods. The Colorado Springs Fire Department received word at 4:51 pm that a man fell while climbing near the Kissing Camels formation, said Colorado Springs fire ... Firefighters remind people to climb safelyKOAA Colorado Springs News all 2 news articles »

As we were traveling across the ridge the other day, I happened to look at the roadside and saw...



Poke! That most delicious of wild greens was thick in a most unexpected area. I usually look for it in places where the soil has been recently disturbed or a building torn down, but this was happily growing right beside a little-traveled road. We made a note to come back for it later in the day. (And we remembered, an amazing thing in itself.)


We were working away when an SUV with a young woman at the wheel pulled up. "Yall picking ramps?" she asked.

"No, we're getting poke," my husband answered.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Well, it's a wild green, tastes a lot like spinach, only better," Larry explained.

The girl wrinkled her nose. "I think I'll pass," she said with a grin as she pulled away. We continued to pick,






That young woman doesn't know what she's missing. Prepared properly, poke is about as good as it gets when it comes to greens. BUT...

There are many websites with preparation instructions, including this one. There are also abundant warnings about poke's poisonous properties which should be well heeded before attempting to gather or cook this wild plant. I'm serious--this is not a plant to mess with if you don't know what you're doing.


I first learned about poke from a book by Euell Gibbons called Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Fortunately, Mr. Gibbons gave very careful instructions for preparing poke and I followed that advice then and now. I usually wash the plants, strip the leaves from the stems and boil in at least 3 waters before eating. Most poke recipes call for cooking it with bacon grease; I don't. I boil it in 3-5 waters, drain and add butter, salt and pepper. That's all. It's delicious.

There is some research now into poke's medicinal uses for such things as HIV and cancer. I hope the researchers find that this beautiful plant can be used for such purposes.

As children, we called poke "inkberry" and used its berries and a stem of grass to write secret messages. We knew even then that the berries were poisonous to eat and never were tempted to try them, thank goodness.

Native Americans believed that poke had magical properties and used it as a purge. They also used it as a dye for feathers, body paint and clothing. According to Dave's Garden, pokeberry ink was used to write the Declaration of Independence, but official government sites state that the document was written using iron gall ink, which I would think may or may not have been made using pokeberries for dye. It seems that the folklore about the Declaration's writing may have begun with a Wikipedia article since a lot of website quote verbatim the same language (which immediately makes their information suspect in my book), but I have not been able to find that source article. If you know of a site that can confirm this legend, I would like to know about it.

Another website details one blogger's experiment making her own pokeberry ink. I'm not quite ready to try that but it does sound interesting.



For now, I'll be content to gather poke where I find it, cook it carefully and enjoy its tender taste.

after contemplating what to put in my 1.5gallon tank rather i wanted a shrimp tank or maybe a plant garden and snails or a plant and cherry barb or neon tetra or zebra danio i decided to go with a betta...it started out as me seeing a little cup with a big huge finned betta in it and he was so cramped and miserable looking and the others were swimming around in larger cups fanned out....so i took the guy home and he has such beautiful fins and is blue and black...he was eating the flakes the store told me to use and he spits them out after he chews a piece so does anybody know what type of food i should try?

The Bears beat Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest 20-9 and the Highlanders downed Lake Brantley 17-5 in semifinal games Friday at West Orange

WINTER GARDEN – Winter Springs will get its first shot at a state girls lacrosse title and Lake Highland will get another crack at its first boys championship after both cruised to state semifinal victories Friday at West Orange.

how much lime is needed to raise ph level from 5.5 to 6.8 if using pelletized lime?

Topics: home & garden, garden & landscape

Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley may have faced off in one of the least intimidating stare-down photos ever Friday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. After Pacquiao and Mosley both made weight for their WBO welterweight title fight, which will air via pay-per-view at 6 p.m. Saturday, the two approached each other for their pose and broke into laughter.

The Guardian (blog)

Pacquiao, Mosley match gives Las Vegas economy a one-two punch KTNV Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – A Filipino superstar takes on a knockout king at the MGM Grand Garden this weekend. But Las Vegas is already a big winner in the matchup between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. Pac Man and Sugar Shane will battle for the WBO ... Mosley's secret weapon: an iron chinESPN From Baguio to Las Vegas: following the Manny Pacquaio trailThe National Keith Kizer on Pacquiao, Mosley Returning To Las VegasBoxingScene.com San Jose Mercury News -International Business Times -Bleacher Report all 961 news articles »

Professional garden designers have a trick up their sleeve - they inject colour into the permanent structures in their gardens...

Gardeners work their green fingers to the bone trying to coax colour from plants, but as anyone with a few grey hairs will tell you, sometimes nature needs a little help. So why not add some permanent colour or a few highlights to liven up your outdoor space?

As with so much in design, less is more, so sticking to a single colour will give the garden a sense of unity. It pays to purchase sample pots and paint old offcuts of wood. These can be placed around the garden to judge the effects of light, weather and associated planting, all of which can change how colour performs.

Colour on render and wood

One effective way to use paint is by taking a leaf out of interior design's book and creating a feature wall. Bricks and concrete will be transformed with masonry paint which you can have matched to almost any colour, even picking up the tones of a favourite feature plant. (Try Dulux masonry paint, from £24.98 for five litres.)

For easy maintenance it's best not to clothe the wall too heavily in plants. Grow climbers up galvanised steel mesh grids which can be lifted off hooks on the wall and laid on the ground when a repaint is needed. Masonry paint can also be used to revive old stone and terracotta pots, tying the scheme together.

If this sounds like a maintenance headache, there are other answers. Garden designer Jo Thompson is a fan of ready-coloured render. "I love the subtle tones with this effect and, best of all, because the colour runs right through the material, there's no need to keep reapplying." (Download a colour chart at k-rend.co.uk. It stocks a classy powder blue or pale grey.)

Of course there can be a place for brighter, stronger colours. A bright yellow bench, say, makes an eye-catching feature but can be put away in winter. (For wood try Cuprinol garden shades, from £19.98 for 2.5 litres; for metal check out Rustoleum CombiColor, from £23.50 for 2.5 litres.)

Perspex screens

Render or woodwork are obvious candidates for an injection of colour, but more unusual materials can help add a different flavour. "Coloured Perspex sheets are incredibly effective and I often use them as part of a screen to hide any ugly areas or create divisions," says designer Katrina Wells, of Earth Designs. "They have a funky, modern feel and they don't block out as much light as a solid divider." (Try Trent Plastics; from £1.47 per A4 sheet of coloured acrylic.)

Outdoor fabrics

Colour can come in softer materials, too, with the range of outdoor fabrics increasing year on year. (Try Osborne & Little's Zancudo outdoor fabrics, from £46.79 per sq m, at Curtain Up.) Exterior fabrics are UV resistant to keep colours fresh as long as possible and, although ideally taken in during winter months, can survive longer outside if you select those treated with an antibacterial agent.

Re-covering existing seat pads will freshen up a dining area and adding scatter cushions in a highlight colour can brighten neutral seating. To make a bigger statement, use a larger expanse such as a shade sail or even outdoor drapes hung from a pergola frame.

Material can also help tie together house and garden, as designer Lizzie Taylor points out. "Many of my clients have large areas of glass to link their living areas on to the garden. Soft furnishings are a really effective way to bring these two spaces together and sometimes it's as simple as picking up a key interior colour in some outdoor cushions."

Garden artwork

Taking this indoor/outdoor theme further, Taylor has also used artwork to inject colour into a garden. "Exterior prints can be pricey, but a simple trick is to take an interior canvas and paint it with yacht varnish for instant weatherproofing." (Try Ikea canvas printed pictures, from £25, and B&Q; for 1 litre of Ronseal yacht varnish, from £13.48.)

Although Stacey and I show our work together during our studio sales and open houses, this was a great opportunity to make special pieces that would hopefully involve collaboration and subtle influence. I'd like to say that we worked side by side making pieces together, but the fact of the matter is that we only crossed paths in our mutual studios a few times, and now realize how much focused attention and time it would take to develop the work to the level deserving of a gallery showing. Nonetheless, collaboration and influence appeared in the work we made, just at a more subtle way than I expected.

When I think of jewelry and the precious materials that Stacey uses to make her work, the word that comes to mind is refinement. In the caseof my pottery, there is refinement of earth materials for clay and glaze. Most of these materials are common and not precious, some of these are available to me here on our property. Instead, for this show, I wanted to go even further with the idea of refinement. I decided that I would take this opportunity to work with a very refined clay and explore the possibilities of an alternative firing process.

For the last 6 monthsI have been working with porcelain clay and firing the pots in oxidation in an electric kiln. In every way this process is completely different and foreign to me. Yes, porcelain is clay, and I used familiar pattern and imagery on the finished work, but the experience was full of searching and there was much trial and error. But in the end I feel that the work flourished and an idea that began in the vague notion of refinement grew into a new understanding of working and reacting to materials.

My home clay, that I affectionately refer to as my red dirt, is a craggy and nonplastic stoneware. It has very different properties and rules than the porcelain that I have been using. Both clays assert their desire to be formed to a point that is appropriate to their nature. I try to make work that revels in the natural qualities of the materials and am in turn inspired by these same qualities. This approach to the materials and the process lets me express my ideas through the medium without irony or code.

I think that Stacey and I influence each other in subtle ways that may be seen in our use of imagery, color, texture. For example, I don't think I would have painted snakes on my pots if I hadn't seen the "Snake in the Garden Pendant" that Stacey had made. I liked the way that the snake and the vine intertwined and thought that the imagery was very suitable to some kind of treatment that I am familiar with . But finally, a new motif emerged and while it wasn't exactly how I had imagined it in the beginning, it led to the use of the snake as a border on several pieces. The symbol of the snake eating its tail is know as "ouroboros". I owe my blogging buddy, Jim Gottuso, credit for alerting me to the symbolism to this imagery.

To sum things up, I feel that the important thing about all of this work is that it does reflect the subtle nature of influence. In our case, two people who share a life and family, as well as creative lives. Some influences are overt, like the use of color or lustre, others more private and personal. It has been a great opportunity to take time away from my normal production and work in an area that challenges my ideas and skills. It's also a great pleasure to be showing with my wife, Stacey, in my favorite gallery space (anywhere!) here at the Crimson Laurel Gallery!

Maybe there are influences that you might see that play out in our work?" - Michael Kline-Studio potter

Recently, Shockya has been reporting on the sneak peeks Lady Gaga has been giving her “Little Monsters” as a tease up to the big HBO event, “Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden”. The final exclusive clip has just been unlocked by all of her die-hard fans, and Shockya was given a heads-up about the reveal. The final video gives an exciting behind the scenes look at the upcoming Monsters Ball; if you’d like to view the video, it can be found here as well as below this story. Remember, if you want to catch the concert event, “Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At...

Boston Celtics playoff tickets are still available for the Celtics vs Heat playoff games at TD Garden this weekend.

Flowers are not just found in the garden any more. Designers have historically taken inspiration from the garden but this season's take on everything from fashion to interior design is lighthearted and full of fun.

THERE'S fun for all the family next Sunday when the Hospice of St Francis hold their annual garden party in the beautiful gardens of Ashridge Business School.

Today I joined 70 other Adobe employees and traded my high-tech tools for gardening and painting tools at a local volunteer project. We spent the morning at Burnett Middle School in San Jose, which is an Adobe Youth Voices site, painting educational murals, tilling soil and tending the garden beds. Although this project was not [...]

Via Inhabitat - If you're fascinated by the idea of having a hydrogarden, but have no idea how you would ever get one started, then let us introduce you to the GrowBottle! Cleverly repurposed...

I absolutely love to go to weddings that have beautifully decorated ceremonies. Whether it’s in a big, elegant church, or a rustic, old garden, or at a white, sandy beach, the backdrop and decorations of a wedding ceremony can really make a lasting impression. And luckily, a pretty ceremony doesn’t have to cost a fortune. [...]

15 Cheap Wedding Ceremony Decoration Ideas on a Budget is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog.

The pound-for-pound greatest boxer in the world, Manny Pacquiao, tipped the scales at 145-pounds while his opponent, Shane Mosley, came in at 147-pounds.

Their WBO welterweight title fight will take place tomorrow night, Saturday, May 7, 2011, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Complete photo gallery after the jump.

(Welcome to the TD Garden for tonight's Game 4 match-up between the Boston Bruins and visiting Philadelphia Flyers where it's a must-win game for the Flyers.) No, this isn't a case of deja-vu. One year later, the Bruins are back with a familiar edge over the Philadelphia Flyers. Holding a three games to none series lead in the Eastern Conference Semifinals with Game 4 looming tonight in the Hu...

Search Past 7 days Archives Boston Herald (blog) Bidding to complete a sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers and move on to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final, the Bruins lead 1-0 after a period at the Garden. Winger Milan Lucic, set up beautifully at the goalmouth by Nathan ... Bruins Look For Sweep TonightBostonist all 2 news articles »

 

RenRen, a Chinese social network, just had a very successful IPO that raised $743 million for the company on shares priced at $14 (the high end of what many analysts anticipated). Currently, the stock is trading at $16.76 per share, giving the company a valuation of $6.5 billion on revenue of $67.5 million in 2010 - up 64% from 2009 revenues.

There's certainly value in the network, but we have to go against the many media outlets who've promoted RenRen as "the Chinese Facebook." It's not.

Fortune notes some of RenRen's similarities to Facebook: a social network that started by targeting college students before expanding to everyone, members using their real identities to connect with people they know, a platform for app developers, popular social games, a Connect system with partner websites. There are definitely a lot of similarities, but it's the differences that account for why RenRen =/= Facebook.

1. Facebook is a big deal outside of the US, RenRen is only big in China

And according to their mission statement

"we aim to define social networking experience and to revolutionize the way that people in China connect, communicate, entertain and shop"

(emphasis, ours) they have no ambitions to change that. China is obviously a good market to be number one in, but so is the US. If Facebook had only focused on growth in the US, they wouldn't be anywhere near where they are today. Facebook is Facebook because they're the number one social network in the UK, in France, in Germany, in Canada and many more countries. Sure, there are plenty of countries where Facebook isn't the top social network - notably Brazil, South Korea and Japan.

But as lucrative as the Chinese market is - and it's certainly lucrative, being number one in one country just doesn't equal being number one in 20 (sizable) countries.

2. When it comes to active users, there's not a clear leader in China

RenRen claims 117 million registered users, but of that only 31 million are active. Percentage wise, that's slightly more than 1/4th of registered users. No social network is immune to abandoned accounts, but worldwide Facebook claims more than 500 million active users, with 50% logging in daily. At an advertising event in February of this year, Facebook's head of US Agency Relations broke out some country specific numbers. In the US (Facebook's home country), there are 149 million active American users, 70% of whom log on daily. {TechCrunch}

Since Facebook doesn't release registered user numbers (at over 500 million active users, it's kind of  unnecessary) there's no definitive figure to compare that with, but Google's ad planning tool estimates put the number of absolute unique US users to Facebook in March 2011 at 190 million. If we assume all of those users have a Facebook account, that would mean almost 80% of Facebook's US users are active, and 55% of their total registered user base - not just those who are active - visit the site every day.

RenRen's active user numbers aren't close. Add to that, even though analysts say competitors like 51.com are declining, they still maintain an equal or higher number of active Chinese internet users. {SAI/BusinessInsider} So RenRen isn't exactly losing the fight when it comes to Chinese social networks, but there's a way to go before they're declared the winner.

3. Facebook is an internet presence outside Facebook

For a while, some people saw Facebook as the new AOL: a walled garden service that would eventually crash as people began to decentralize and move to sites on the open web. Then Facebook released widgets that allowed for the easy addition of Facebook social features to almost any site on the open web. Almost overnight, it made Facebook a force beyond Facebook.

The 'Like' button is officially a year old as of April 21st, and 10,000 sites are using it. RenRen Connect, which launched in October 2009, has 600 partner sites.

It's not an apples to apples comparison, but probably one of the clearer examples of why our first two points matter.

4. User growth is beginning to plateau

RenRen is still growing, but percentage wise, user and revenue growth is slowing. {BusinessInsider} Facebook's overall percentage growth may not be as rapid as it was in the past few years, but that's because it's pretty hard to keep up 100% year over year growth in every market when you have 500 million active users.

5. There is no RenRen ecosystem

Part of the reason Facebook has been able to raise so much money at eye-popping valuations is the fact that it's an ecosystem that has the power to not only create revenue for itself, but cottage industries as well. Sure, Facebook owes some of its popularity to companies like Zynga, who create games and apps that keep people on the site; but Zynga also owes a good part of its multi-million dollar value to Facebook. Then there are companies like NorthSocial and BuddyMedia, who provide brands and companies with tools that help them manage their presence on the site.

Even Twitter, who still hasn't completely figured out how to capitalize on the value it's creating, has managed to create an ecosystem that other companies can be built on.

While Chinese game developers have had hits, RenRen just isn't in a position yet to create industries specifically around RenRen.

---

While it's highly unlikely that RenRen will ever equal the success of Facebook, it doesn't have to to be successful. As of April 2010, ComScore estimates that 38% of Chinese internet users visit social networking sites, compared to 81% of US internet users. That means there's still plenty of room for growth in users and revenue to satisfy investors. Add to that the fact that it's notoriously difficult for Western consumer tech companies to succeed in China without partnerships, and RenRen certainly has a chance at becoming a significant Chinese internet company. Just don't compare it to Facebook.

5 Reasons Why RenRen Will Never Be a Facebook Equivalent by YM Ousley originally appeared onSignature9

For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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If you’re interested in modern design as well as saving the environment, you will be interested in the news that we have for you here. A piece of what can only be described as garden furniture has been designed by a team at MIT. The design is called the SOFT Rocker, it takes the form...

The Manny Pacquiao Express motors on as Bloody Elbow will cover today's weigh-in for his fight with "Sugar" Shane Mosley. The weigh-ins will stream live on Top Rank Boxing's website at 6 p.m. ET. Check it out on Showtime Extreme as well. [Update] Bad Left Hook's Scott Christ recommends using ESPN or Yahoo!'s stream, or flipping on SportsCenter, which will air the weigh-ins live.

[Update] We are live. James Brown of The NFL Today of CBS is emceeing the event. 

Brown running through the career accomplishments of both fighters. Cut to Ines Sainz interviewing Mosley. No clue why she's doing English-language work. Her cadence reminds me of Tyler Hansbrough reading to kids. She asks Shane how he plans to pretend to stop Manny's speed. So. There you have that.

Back to J.B., who is running through the Pacquiao press packet. Oh god, Bob Arum crawls on stage, looking a couple years away from Al Davis. Brent Brookhouse notes that Arum said compared Pacquiao's ability to punch with both hands to an MLB pitcher throwing left- and right-handed. My stream is godawful right now, and I'm not watching ESPN's coverage on SportsCenter.

Teddy Atlas says Mosley has a shot if he hurts Pacquiao early. Good luck with that. 

We're on Jimmy Lennon Jr. now. He calls up Shane Mosley to the stage. Mosley wearing a powder blue Adidas track suit, looking like an extra from a Run-DMC video or some sort of Russian coke dealer. Pacquiao comes to the stage now. Yellow logo t-shirt with a red sweat suit. They begin to undress.

Mosley to the scale first. Smattering of applause and jeers. Looks good. Lennon announces Shane Mosley weighs in at 147 pounds.

Pacquiao up now. Good reaction. He flexes for the crowd, which gets a pop. Manny Pacquiao weighs in at 145 pounds. Big "Man-ny!" cheer goes up.

Gentle staredown. They shake and embrace. 

Atlas notes that Mosley's "skin looks good" and that he isn't "ashy." Also noted that Mosley didn't grab immediately for liquids, so he thinks the cut went well. 

 

The weigh-ins (and tomorrow night's fight) are taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao and Mosley will fight at the welterweight (147 lb.) limit, with Pacquiao's WBO welterweight title up for grabs.

Pacquiao is 52-3-2 and the current WBC Super Welterweight World Champion and the WBO Welterweight World Champion. He is the first boxer to win the lineal title in four separate weight classes. He hasn't lost since Erik Morales took a unanimous decision over him in March of 2005, and he obliterated Antonio Margarito over twelve rounds in Cowboys Stadium in November.

Mosley is 46-6-1 with 1 no contest. He drew with Sergio Mora in his last fight in September. He dropped an uncompetitive decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May of 2010, with his last victory coming over Antonio Margarito by TKO in January of 2009.

Planning A Memorable Day for Mom Patch.com From spa getaways to elegant dining, East Hampton has a garden of delights sure to give Mom a day to remember. By Lisa Finn | Email the author | 5:05pm There's a reason why Mother's Day is one of the top dining-out days in the year: Mom can't wait to ... ALISYN CAMEROTA: The Top 4 Things Not to Say to Mom and Top 4 Things You ...Fox News all 17 news articles »

Up, and to the office, and thence to White Hall, but come too late to see the Duke of York, with whom my business was, and so to Westminster Hall, where met with several people and talked with them, and among other things understand that my Lord St. John is meant by Mr. Woodcocke, in "The Impertinents."¹ Here met with Mrs. Washington, my old acquaintance of the Hall, whose husband has a place in the Excise at Windsor, and it seems lives well. I have not seen her these 8 or 9 years, and she begins to grow old, I perceive, visibly. So time do alter, and do doubtless the like in myself. This morning the House is upon the City Bill, and they say hath passed it, though I am sorry that I did not think to put somebody in mind of moving for the churches to be allotted according to the convenience of the people, and not to gratify this Bishop, or that College. Thence by water to the New Exchange, where bought a pair of shoe-strings, and so to Mr. Pierces, where invited, and there was Knepp and Mrs. Foster and here dined, but a poor, sluttish dinner, as usual, and so I could not be heartily merry at it: here saw her girl's picture, but it is mighty far short of her boy's, and not like her neither; but it makes Hales's picture of her boy appear a good picture. Thence to White Hall, walked with Brisband, who dined there also, and thence I back to the King's playhouse, and there saw "The Virgin Martyr," and heard the musick that I like so well, and intended to have seen Knepp, but I let her alone; and having there done, went to Mrs. Pierces back again, where she was, and there I found her on a pallet in the dark ..., that is Knepp. And so to talk; and by and by did eat some curds and cream, and thence away home, and it being night, I did walk in the dusk up and down, round through our garden, over Tower Hill, and so through Crutched Friars, three or four times, and once did meet Mercer and another pretty lady, but being surprized I could say little to them, although I had an opportunity of pleasing myself with them, but left them, and then I did see our Nell, Payne's daughter, and her je did desire venir after me, and so elle did see me to, Tower Hill to our back entry there that comes upon the degres entrant into nostra garden ..., and so parted, and je home to put up things against to-morrow's carrier for my wife; and, among others, a very fine salmon-pie, sent me by Mr. Steventon, W. Hewer's uncle, and so to bed.

1. Whilst Positive walks, like Woodcock in the park, Contriving projects with a brewer's clerk.

   Andrew Marvell's "Instructions to a Painter," part iii., to which is subjoined the following note: "Sir Robert Howard, and Sir William Bucknell, the brewer." -- Works, ed. by Capt. E. Thompson, vol. iii., p. 405.--B. ↩

Here are some shots of our humble 20x30 red dirt garden in South Georgia. We had a garden in this area last spring and summer and replanted this spring. We grow cucumbers for pickling and fresh eating. We also planted sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, beans, peas, squash, okra, asparagus as well as hot...
By: clangford

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One of the reasons I love this time of year is the abundance of garden tours, especially in Southern California. In one direction is Los Angeles, in the other is San Diego, and yet other directions are great tours in historic Riverside or Pasadena.

Where else but a garden tour can you go for inspiration, ideas, light exercise and a general sense of well-being? Throw in a neck and foot massage and a bottomless glass of iced tea (served by George Clooney, natch), and I'd be a happy camper, but that's probably a tad too much to expect from the nice folks who host garden tours. Directions to the nearest non-portable bathroom is usually considered a major coup.

As a Mother's Day weekend present (why celebrate a mere day when you can stretch it into a whole weekend?), I'm looking forward to going on the Venice Garden and Home Tour for the first time. This, of course, is in Venice, California -- artsy, eclectic, eco and home to a few famous folks. A fundraiser for Las Doradas Children's' Center, the tour has also rounded up some of those ultra- hip lunch trucks, which have been a popular trend in LA for a few years now.

My recommendation is, if you've left it to the last minute, check out this list or track down a local garden tour near you. Take Mom, your wife, sister, aunt, BFF, companion, SIL, MIL, grandmother, godmother, neighbor, dog shampooer, etc. Buy tickets for this weekend or a future weekend and make plans.

And who knows? George Clooney might be there to serve your lady a tall, cool beverage. In her dreams.

Happy Mother's Day!

Check out our list of Mother's Day gift ideas for outdoor lovin' and livin' gals

Photo of Venice garden: Eric Staudenmaier

As if we needed any further proof that beer gardens are so hot right now, along comes another one. Local West, the cafe and cocktails joint at One Penn Plaza next to MSG, is adding its own 6,000-square-foot beer garden into the fray early next month. [ more › ]

Seasonal Garden Center Merchandisers

IMMEDIATE OPENINGS! Work outdoors this Spring! Merchandiser is responsible for the presentation and maintenance of live floral product in retail stores’ garden centers. Seasonal part time positions to start immediately. $9 per hour. Spanish bilingual a plus. MUST SPECIFY which location you are applying for. Fax resume to 847-683-4932

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
•Creating and maintaining plant displays
•Unloading product from racks onto display areas
•Watering
•Recording inventory
•Customer service
•Must be available to work weekends
•Plant knowledge helpful
•Experience in merchandising preferred
Access to computer and Internet
•Heavy lifting up to 50 lbs
•Physically demanding; must be on your feet all day
•Must work indoors and outdoors in all climates and weather conditions

Chicago:
Elston Leavitt
North Ave
Kimball Addison
Armitage Cicero
South Loop
Lincoln Pk
Lincoln/McCormick
Brickyard
Cicero
DanRyan
47th/Western
Suburbs:
Oswego
Naperville
Yorkville
Waukegan
Gurnee
McHenry
Evanston
Vernon Hills
Volo
Niles
Mt Prospect
Deerfield
Lake Zurich
Niles
Glenview
Schaumburg
Elk Grove Village
Bartlett
Glendale Hts
Joliet
Shorewood
Bedford Pk
Broadview
Northlake
Oakbrook Terrace
Darien
Orland Pk
Bolingbrook
Oaklawn

• Location: Chicago and Suburbs
• Compensation: $9 per hour
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Where can I find matching curtains for the Home Classics? Platinum 20-pc. Scroll Bed Set purchased at Kohls?

Topics: home & garden, decorating & remodeling

Places to go Learn how to make great container gardens at a free class at Redenta's Garden, 10:30 a.m. Saturday.