Seems nearly two years since I learned about myxer.com and I'm glad to say it's still functioning and still free. You identify your cellphone (their files apparently will work with any model and service), upload your own music clips, edit the clip to a 60-second file (used to be longer) and send it to your phone as a ringtone. The cost is whatever you pay your service for receiving a media file (could be part of your package, or likely 10¢ or 25¢). I used it to customize my first cellphone (yes, came to them rather late) so completely that I had a different ring for every family member and good friend. Since that phone died, I've never gotten around to remaking and reloading so many tones, but it's very nice to hear Albinoni when my phone rings, instead of those horrible synthesizer tones. OK, so I'm fussy about sounds (too). Elgar's Salut d'amour played when my parents phoned, isn't that sweet? Now they have separate phones and when Mom calls I hear, "Oui, c'est elle, c'est la diesse" in the caressing tones of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles). I used to have a clip of Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba identifying B&B arrivals: hey, it's joyous music, nothing more intended.

You can download the files to your computer as well as send them to your phone, and of course I wish I had, so that I wouldn't have to remake them all after the first phone failed. The trick is, once you get the file ready, go ahead and send it to your phone, but then hit your browser's back button so you still have the ready file and can send it to your computer (which costs nothing). I like to play a music clip with Windows Media Player or any other that lets me watch the timeline, so that before sending the clip to Myxer, I can write down a couple of good starting points for the ringtone, keeping in mind that 60 seconds is all that can follow. Then, at Myxer, I can put in a starting time, listen to see that it's OK, and run through it a few times to set a good stopping point. The interface is the usual pair of sliders and a count window, typical for sound or video editing. Couldn't be easier.

So, help eliminate cellphone noise pollution. Put some good music on your phone!

It's been very hot again today and with Dad feeling very badly, I skipped mowing and stayed in. But now that the day is winding down, went out for a stroll to check on things. Filled some birdbaths and ran the hose out to fill the fountain. Gathered the last of the red currants and went on to collect some ripe black-raspberry type brambles; could only get to small, near berries as I'm running around barefoot. Can wait till the weekend to really collect, but will make a very small bit of jam later tonight. Found the dog trying to decide whether or not to snack on the squirrel he'd killed. Checked the fruit trees and was pleased to see there's hope for the apples and peaches: so what to treat them with to protect them? Perhaps Surround, again (kaolin spray, non-toxic, a physical barrier to pests); and soon, but the next two mornings, it's off to doctors with the folks, and just now there's a bit too much breeze to get started. Figs look like they'll have a good crop. Found mourning doves on the east side of the barn as usual, robins pecking around the north side, plovers in the grasses up the road. Came into the yard to check the linden blossoms: yes, they're opening, and full of all sorts of pollinators, from butterflies to bees, so many bees and so many types of them, it's hard to get close. The scent fills the air, but I wanted a small bunch to bring in to Mom, and finally found a handful of 'unoccupied' blossoms. Heard the frogs 'honking' near the fountain and the boxwoods. Saw the dog had brought his kill up to the yard, so called him in, to leave it. Found FedEx had come and gone leaving 2 boxes on the front benches. Turned the fountain hose off and came in to check on the folks: napping peacefully.

A sight that stays with me is the tall thick lavender by the parking area at Mougins, my favorite stop for dinner in the south of France, whether for Roger Verget's Le Moulin de Mougins or one of the many others neighboring it. On my first visit, when we experienced the thrill of dining at Le Moulin, and when I came away with herb jellies and other goodies from the shop, I was struck by that fantastic lavender, all in bloom, so beautiful and so fragrant, and for goodness' sake, it was just a public parking area. Now Le Moulin has been sold, I can't get away to the south of France in any case, but I thrill to being able to just step out my front door and harvest lavender right off the walk.

When in bloom, it's always full of bees and butterflies, but I can still manage to cut quite a bit without disturbing them. And I've just harvested some, and come inside to make little wreaths - for centerpieces or to ring candles - and bunches to put in vases or lay in drawers. Nice work if you can get it!

I learned from an Italian friend who visited that the scent is greatest before the flower buds open. Check it out when you get a chance, it's true. I'd always waited to collect the flowers. Now, I will gather unopened buds to dry and use for sachets. But when time gets away from me, I gather the flowers as I've just done, and still enjoy their look and scent, even though I now know it's not the most intense it can be.

Location, location, location: A pair of cardinals here made a clever choice. There's been a nest just outside the front windows - opposite the pair of rocking chairs that look out on the front - up in a holly tree. Just inches from the window, giving us a front-row view of the nesting female, and finally, the hatched little ones, and the parents feeding them. Local friends told me sadly that a black snake had gotten their cardinals' nest. What a great choice this holly tree is: a hard spot to fly into, discouraging predatory birds, not sturdy enough for the cat to navigate the branches, and too thick with small branches for a snake to slither up, I'd guess. I kept the cat in for many days to give them peace, put a bowl of water on the porch railing near the tree, a small feeder with sunflower seeds nearby in the yard. It's now an empty nest: another generation successfully launched.

Ever since acquiring this property, it's been my intention to turn the small patches of lawn on the entry side of the house into never-need-mowing herb lawns. After all, there's not much grass really there, certainly not much of any desirable kind; what goes on there is a march through the progression of perennial weeds. And it takes too much last-minute trimming for the area to look good for guests. A main concern for a B&B is to keep things looking good while reducing the labor involved. Quite a few people have tried to tell me that there's nothing easier and faster to deal with than a simple patch of grass, but anyone who's been here knows that I haven't been convinced. So, since I got to stay here year-round this year, I thought this would be the spring to do it. I did clear out the southern patch, the one bounded by the entry walk/ramp on the north, house on the west, wall of English ivy on the south. Hoed out the grass roots and the weeds and got a pretty clear area to work with. I started moving lemon balm, monarda (bee balm), thyme and spearmint to the four edges, to work gradually inwards. Moved bluebells to encircle the weeping cherry but they didn't like it a bit: those glossy, taut lily-like leaves lost all signs of life, but I'm hoping that the bulbs survive and we'll get a nice display next spring. But then the temperature started nudging 90 degrees every day - just too hot to start small transplants, unless I put a sprinkler on every day, and that's a wasteful method. I'm holding off, and that means large patches of dirt, and grasses creeping back in. Will work on it as I can, and in the meantime: apologies ...

We thought we'd have it made with this new system. We've been told that the heating and A/C will respond to whichever zone has the greatest need (heaviest call on the system). So, it should be possible to let my parents' suite heat up in the morning and then air conditioning start cooling the rest of the house as the sun starts heating rooms up. The good news is that the house seems nicely cool in these recent 90- and near-90-degree days, and, hurrah! guests are finding the upstairs truly comfortable. But the dampers to my parents' zone are certainly not closing tightly as I believed they would and should. The air conditioning leaks - gently, but constantly - out their registers, so that they are not protected from the cooling. I'd like to hear from others who have zoned their houses (with a single furnace, heat pump and A/C unit, rather than completely separate systems). Do your zones close off tightly? Do we just accept the leaking air flows, or was it a bad installation?

Last spring, just after buying a large plasma tv for the living room, and setting it up in front of the unused fireplace, for want of other quick options, strange noises were heard from that spot. A funny sort of chattering or extended staccato whistling ... what on earth? Then a small bird plopped onto the floor one day and I discovered that the noises were from chimney swifts nesting here. I couldn't move the tv and heavy stand to put the bird back up the chimney as I should have, so I tried to put it in a safe spot outside. Probably never made it, although I never saw proof of its demise. If it fell after an unsuccessful attempt at flight, perhaps the next try was a success. It seemed mature enough. Interestingly, they need to be offered something vertical to cling to, as they don't perch on other surfaces. Brick and mortar chimneys are ideal.

So, this surprise was reason to learn something new. I found that chimney swifts are endangered, and protected by federal and state laws. ChimneySwifts.org tells us that, "Chimney Swifts are extremely beneficial. Two parents and their noisy offspring will consume over 12,000 flying insect pests every day. These include only small things like mosquitoes, gnats, termites and biting flies. Unfortunately Chimney Swift numbers are in decline due to loss of habitat -- first large hollow trees, and now open masonry chimneys."

Now, after rearranging the furniture, I've got access to the fireplace again and am all ready to retrieve and replace any fallen little ones this year. But so far, so good. The chattering goes on and no arrivals on the floor. I hope there's a large family enjoying any and all mosquitos!

You'll have realized that massive applications of herbicide are not my approach to gardening. What organic gardening means to me, in 25 words or less: Weeding with a shovel. (Are you old enough to remember cereal-box contests?) Pokeweed and pigweed, bane of my existence. After johnson grass, that is. And ragweed! Less numerous are jimson weed and lamb's quarters.

But other common "weeds" I can easily live with. I don't mow the field north of the barn when the buttercups are in bloom: I think they're a lovely sight. I like the spreading violets and the white clover is actually good butterfly habitat. I tried to remove oxalis when I first came here, but that turned into my first "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" response, as it's so persistent, and actually pretty. I moved oxalis plants to ring the fountain, and let them grow alongside the back sidewalk. But last year, the funniest one came along: great mullein (Verbascum) in the front yard; and it so amused me, I left it. After all, it's grown in England for herbal remedies, or so I read, so I consider appropriate to herb gardens. This year Rudbeckia is popping up in that same yard, and as my mother loves daisy-type flowers, and these black-eyed susans are also good butterfly habitat plants, they're being left alone as well. I had tried moving them a couple of years ago, to make a patch out by the locust trees, but they didn't survive transplanting, so now I'll try letting them spread where they are.

The March display of forsythia is so bright and cheerful: greedy me, I've always wanted to double it. Forsythia is at the north (roadside) edge of our yard, in a nice long line - challenged by locust trees and upstart sumac and pokeweed that needs digging out every year. I make the roadside of that line a service drive into the property for when trucks need to get back to the well or the propane tank. Finally, fall 2009, I did plant (with much help from a friend!) a parallel line of another couple dozen forsythia, so that the drive will be between the rows of shrubs. I buy plants such as these in quantity from Greenwood Nursery and have had good luck with them. They were the source of all my lilacs, for example. (Seems McMinnville, TN and area have a number of growers that sell in quantity online, very reasonably.) Now I can see little yellow blossoms all along the slender stalks planted 4 months ago. Can you see the tiny dots of yellow? Nice reward for the labor, and gives hope that in another two or three years, there'll be a very golden display out here.

If we could all see weeds as "wildflowers" - whether they are or not - how much easier it would be! There are some perennial weeds that I just hate the sight of, like henbit. Why this one in particular bugs me, I'm not sure, as you wouldn't necessarily consider it ugly, but I do take its appearance as nearly a personal affront. On the other hand, there are some perennail groundcover weeds I can easily live with. One is Duchesnea indica, known as Indian mock strawberry.

My first year here, I noticed this rather attractive plant, looking like a wild strawberry. Just a few inches high, bright green leaves, in threes, spreading by runners; small yellow flowers and eventually little red fruits. Looked like a strawberry plant, acted like a strawberry plant, must be - ? Called the local extension office but our officer there had no idea. So I looked online and found it. NO relation to strawberries (Fragaria) at all. And I had noted that the little fruits were actually not so interesting: no scent, small, a little grainy. Reportedly, no scent, no taste, but innocuous, nothing toxic here. So I decided this is one I can live with. I find it quite an attractive groundcover, really, and it's easy to pull up when it starts crowding something I've planted. There are some bare areas under the crepe myrtles that have been hard to deal with, especially since I found that voles will devour any hosta I plant. So this is my solution: love the one you're with, so to speak.