Tipper, It hurts so bad! Knowing you all are just seven miles away; might as well be one thousand. Each time you're in Blairsville, I sit on the front porch, hoping for a stray breeze tp bring a note or two my way. I'll watch for y'all on Ridgeline TV.

The County Agent here has advised that the leaves from the BW will poison a compost pile; they are as toxic as the roots. I have several in my front yard. So far, my lawn has tolerated them, and in the spring the violets aren't bothered by them. I scatter the nuts in my drive-way and run over them to remove the hulls. This causes a dark stain, but it goes away by next spring.

I'm reminded of a song that Bill Anderson of Country Music fame wrote a few years ago, titled, "Too Country?" You can google it to hear the song. It tells, in song, what happened to Country music as it evolved into something we purists don't recognize, and which does not recognize the purity of Country. I pray the "Old Time Music" does not evolve in this same way.