Foreground are brothers Ryan and Russ Paton, Ryan of Surrey B.C., and Russ is from Victoria on Vancouver Island. Background are our neighbours, Laura and Denis Grosjean, while to their right are collectors Gerry and Lynette Nikkel of Abbottsford, B.C. sitting on a couple of the 244 tonnes of rocks used in our xeri-scaping project. I'm hoping to get the crushed stone paths completed next year, while we both concentrated on the gardens this year.

As usual, Bev's chili proved to be a winner with many sampling both the "mellow" and the "killer" varieties. Gil Hedges, stop laughing. You would only be happy if there were flames coming out of the chili pot.