Today was absolutely gorgeous, perfect weather. It makes watching the news from New Orleans even more horrifying. I am finding it hard to process the destruction. I�ve experienced first-hand a number of hurricanes and have seen the havoc they can wreak. I was in Charleston, South Carolina a few weeks after hurricane Hugo hit and that was really, really bad. But compared to Katrina, it was a proverbial walk in the park.

Both my husband and I have been obsessively watching CNN the last couple of days. We�re not really sure why. Perhaps deep down we keep hoping something will get better, there will be some bit of good news. But the bad news just keeps coming.

Then again, so does the bad newscasting. Really. Abominably Bad. My favorite was the woman who was afraid to say �Pontchartrain� and kept saying instead �The LAKE� with a Very Special� emphasis. And then there was the guy who focused the cameraman�s attention on a trash can in the middle of a parking lot as if a trash can in the middle of the parking lot in some way represents the state of the Gulf Coast. After babbling on relatively coherently he added, �And I don�t even think I could lift it.� Okay, then.

Today, though, I finally wrenched myself away and took AJ to the nursery to indulge in some end-of-season plant bargains. I bought a cranberry cotoneaster for the front island bed to replace a sickly, rangy pine that finally gave up the ghost a couple of months ago. The rest of my haul consisted of various types of wildflowers to add some interest to the natural parts of the yard � tall prairie plants for the back and low-growing, fragrant woodland phlox for the edge of the path into the woods. These are added to the redbud seedlings that one of my neighbors kindly dug up from her yard and dropped by for me yesterday. I also discovered, lurking beneath the sharp, waxy leaves of my prized hellebore, at least 20 little seedlings, which I hope to transplant to the woods before frost. A carpet of hellebores would be spectacular. So I�ll be digging holes for the next few days � never a bad prospect, and a good way to celebrate fall, with thoughts of the spring to come.

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