I want to offer just a simple prayer of safety and well being for anyone of our dear garden friends who live along the coastal area's and are now in imminent threat of Hurricane Ivan. Zhan lives in Pensacola. I hope she and sweet Bill are now long gone from their rental home and are safe in New Mexico where her brother has a place. I hope that David down "on the sandbar" who just lurks now is long fled, and anyone else who is in Louisiana, lower Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

My own two granddaughters who live in Destrahan, Louisiana (not too far from N'Awlins, and too close to Lake Ponchetraine) are hopefully long evacuated. I never hear from them now, but they're still my blood and grand children. Lets hope everyone stays safe and no harm comes to anyone. Plants and gardens can always be rebuilt and replanted. Mother Nature tends to change the gardens around as she sees fit anyway. A little mud and rain and some costal reconfigurations are always in her garden restructuring.

I listened to an interesting piece on NPR the other day of an interview of an older gentleman who had lived his whole life on Grand Isle in Louisiana. He won't be evacuating. He says he's rode out every major hurricane that has come along in the last 30+ years. His name is Ambrose Besson, and he was quite the character. If you're interested in hearing the piece on him, go to www.NPR.org/features and look under Braving Home: a Storm Rider on a Sinking Island.

We, here in Eastern Tennessee are facing effects from Ivan because of possibilties of stalling and flooding. We're looking at getting at least 6 inches of rain, possibly even more than a foot. And now there's another tropical storm behind this latest threat, and hurricane season won't be over until the end of October.....I pray that all of you are safe and well.
madgardener up on the for now dry ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee.

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Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect." Chief Seattle