My illusive Bluebirds are back!! That makes me happy!! When there was excessive activity in my back yard, and the neighbor’s back yard, the Bluebirds disappeared. I’ve continued to put mealworms in the feeder every day. Yesterday, and this morning, lots of visits from “Papa Blue” and “Mama Blue” (my affectionate names for them).
Suddenly I have more birds and more squirrels than previously. Perhaps a lot of their food natural sources have been depleted so they are delighted to feed at my many feeders?!
Yesterday, I bought a flat of Pansies and a large bag of planter soil. They are in the planter just outside my patio doors. The Begonias provided an attractive image for many months but, being annuals, they had lost their beauty. I bid them farewell a couple of days ago and could not tolerate the starkness of that planter without flowers. 
What a joy to sit down to my new laptop computer and prepare a message–without frustration!! Pictures later (see postscript below); I haven’t retrieved my pictures yet from the backup. Too many projects!?!?!? (I’m getting two more “memory boxes” ready to send to two sons. ~~ Yesterday, I delivered the fifteen shoeboxes to a nearby Operation Christmas Child collection center. I’m preparing several more shoeboxes, and plan to work at the nearby collection center this next Saturday. ~~ Furthermore: I’m working at downsizing!!!! [How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.] I’m downsizing “one bite at a time.” )
Postscript: I still haven’t gotten the Picasa pictures collection on this computer. The attached pictures were still in my camera.
Three Quarters & Counting 
I think you’d better start looking now for a little tree or two to put in those pots for Christmas. Maybe you can even find some in the woods that you can transplant. Mama and Papa need a Christmas tree, too, don’t they?
Deb (at the Winter Florida Good Sam rally down by the orange groves)
Nope, Debbie, I won’t plant any little Christmas trees–for me or for the Bluebirds. I think I have 20 “starts” in peat pots for eventual beautiful blooming, vining plants. (Not all will “take” but I think some starts are taking root.) I am “pampering” several other plants—indoors—so they survive the winter. The “volunteer” tomato plant is growing very fast!! I move it outside on nice days; always indoors at night. Hey, one of the “pampered” plants was trimmed back to almost nothing. It has re-grown (if there is such a word as re-grown) quickly and now has a flower ready to bloom!! ~~ I was reading yesterday (on the Internet) that Petunias will survive the winter if “pampered.” I thought they were annuals so I tossed some. But I have a couple that are still blooming—but looking pathetic. I’ll trim them back and “pamper” them indoors. Next Spring, I will be off to a good start with plants for hanging baskets. (I plan to have four hanging baskets on my front porch and numerous baskets in the backyard.) ~~ This is all so much fun for me!!! I regret that the weather will probably keep me out of the backyard from Thanksgiving until New Years (and beyond). That is the worst time for me all year!! I get so depressed during the holidays!!!!!
I think all your plants are lucky enough to be called pampered. Mine sure aren’t, which is why I pretty much stick to perennials, that have a chance of coming back on their own, lol.