Good frigid Wednesday morning to you all.  The temperature on our patio is only 15F--or was when I checked it about two hours ago.  I have a very unhappy cat.  Kuma simply doesn't understand why I won't open the door.  And he doesn't understand why I allowed all that cold, wet, white stuff fall all over HIS hunting ground.

I agree, Nicola.  I also love the name given to some of plants.  All of the ones I ordered yesterday are heirloom varieties.  You might find a source for such seeds over there.  I don't know if my sources could ship to the UK.  But Baker Creek is noted for collecting seeds from all over the world.  Last year I planted a Vietnamese Multi-color pepper, two French lettuces, and a variety of cucumber they found in Croatia.  The pepper was spectacular but it is more decorative, in my opinion, than useful.  I have always had a difficult time with lettuce but I will try again with a different planting plan.  The cucumber was very successful.  Mom usually doesn't like cucumbers but she loved these--sweet and thin skinned.  I sliced, spiced and froze several some of which went really well in potato salad and in lettuce salads.  The 'vine peach' is actually a little melon (sometimes listed as 'mango melon) and was originally cultivated by native Americans.  The nice thing about heirloom, open pollinated varieties--if we really like them I can save the seeds at the end of the season for next year.  I am not as dedicated to heirlooms as some others.  The Burpee varieties I plan to get are all hybrids.  I do draw a line--I don't want anything to do with GMO plants but. so far, those are largely cash crop plants.  I grew a yellow cherry from transplant last year and we loved it.  I planned to grow the Burpee Supersweet 100 but ordered the chocolate cherry on an impulse.  I still plan to buy the seeds for the Supersweet and decide later which I will grow.  I keep my extra seeds in baggies in the refrigerator so they last 5+ years.  My Big Rainbow and Brandywine seeds are going on their fourth year.

Yesterday was laundry day and, Lois, as I promised here is a report on the effect of the vinegar.  Mom soaked  our dish cloths in vinegar and wrung them out before putting one in the dryer with each load.  Compared with clothes and linens dried with dryer sheets yesterday's laundry actually actually came out either as soft or a bit softer.  Enough to decide us to drop the sheets and go with vinegar.  Added benefit--we are no longer exposed to the volatile chemicals in the dryer sheets (which are also present in the liquid softeners.)  Mom thought we could use the sheets we had left as sachets in our drawers but when she opened one labeled as lavender scented there wasn't any scent at all.  She threw the sheets away and I promised her sprigs from my lavender plants this summer.

We just had a good laugh.  Mom is on her computer looking up some new recipes because she has some chicken soup to make up.  She found one that sounded good: Chicken Soup with herb dumplings.  Problem:  it is vegetarian and contains no chicken.  She is continuing her search.