The first pic is Dotty, where she likes to sit on the armrest pullout of my retro desk as I’m at the keyboard.  Notice her new pink bow, which is part of a t-shirt I cut the neck and arms out of.  The rest of the pics show how things are growing.  The prickly pear is doing *so* much better from where I had it planted in the sand on the north side of the house.  You’ll see Prickly Mouse on it.  Also I was so surprised to see the wooly thyme in bloom with its tiny little blossoms.  I put bricks in with the tomatoes because me, idiot, put the planter where the edge of the roof of the carport drips.  Since it hasn’t rained for about a month now, I haven’t seen how well it works.  I have 3 dwarf lilacs, 2 bought and one a feeder that grew from one of them.  Only one is that full of blossoms so that’s the one being highlighted.  The big lilac is about done.  The redbud now have their leaves.  I looked out this morning and saw my ginkgo looked orange.  Orange!?!?  Upon closer inspection, frost got most of the leaves.  I’ve never seen that before on the ginkgo.  I didn’t have the heart to take pics of it.  Those DAMNED caterpillars that have been attacking my oaks and killed a birch are now trying to munch my new witch hazel bushes!!!!!!  Enough is enough.  I pulled out the BT and the sprayer bottle.  They’re also attacking the oaks again and laying waste to my apple tree leaves.  It’s on, vermin!!!!!  I doused them all with the BT in the sprayer.  It targets particular bugs and keeps the caterpillars from completing their reproductive cycle.  From my research very few birds will eat them, and it is not harmful to birds or other non-target critters (including myself.)  Will see how it goes with them.  Finally, tonight I ordered another planter, another bag of the Pro-Mix, which is SO GOOD and highly recommended, especially as part of a mix of it and outside dirt.  OK one more thing:  I planted a bunch of different seeds this weekend, including sunflower and zucchini and flower seeds from the seed bank.  I did not plant all of the sunflower and zucchini seeds as there is no room, so I plan on donating them to the library on Tuesday. Sorry for the stream of consciousness but there was a lot to tell.