I'll cast my vote for them also! I have several in my garden, but because of its small size and the amount of enclosure they don't get very much wind so I only hear them occasionally. I have one that is quite tiny and makes the most beautiful sounds.....I have that one on my porch so I CAN hear it when it catches the breeze. My sister has a very Asian style garden and although she doesn't follow Feng Shui in the strictest sense, she has a bamboo wind chime that makes the most amazing, deep mellow sound! When I was growing up my mom had one of those little glass wind chimes you could find at the Oriental import stores hanging in the patio outside my bedroom window. I used to fall asleep listening to it. One night, she, my older brother and I went to see a movie....'Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte' with Bette Davis. If you remember, this was a pretty scary movie and I was at a very impressionable age. Anyway, there was one of those same wind chimes in the movie and it would always be tinkling when something terrifying was about to happen. Of course when we got home and I was getting settled for the night, my brother had to go mess with our wind chime to give me a huge scare!! Hearing one of those to this day....decades later.....still makes me shiver. Like scents, I think certain sounds can be very evocative and they can most definitely trigger memories!!

Thanks guy's...glad you enjoyed the project....so far. Dot....I'm OLD....not dead....yet...LOL Jane....Thanks...Yes 2 second tours all always available...LOL....Sits can take hours...:) Nicco got his hug..thanks....Tell Hubby..I too am retired...hehe But Jan....it's too hot to go outside....LOL Tom....Can't use a power auger...the ironstone eats them up...have tried them before. The ironstone ate 4 bits for a 90 lb jack hammer too. Not fun stuff to grow in or work on projects in. Such is Life...LOL Tom, I have a new grill for ya and 2 new shovels....:) Debra....Thanks...glad you enjoyed it....Tell hunny to make you one...:) Nanny ....Thanks! Fairysoapgirl......Yup, we can sit in the shade and check out the fresh dug Daylilies...I do plan on putting in an outdoor utility sink to make cleaning up clumps and fans an easier task. Daylilydazed...thanks!...I feel his pain...bad knees here too. It can still be done...just a lot slower. That is why it takes me so long..:) Jean...Thanks! I wish I could give Nicco a grass area..but that is one of the reasons why I'm doing it with playgroun mulch not grass.....Nicco is allergic to grass. So he goes to his area of the yard to take care of business...but then I get him off the grass...fast. This area will allow him to lay around and just enjoy life....not itch, right away from grass....and the other things he is allergic too. Laurel...Thank you..:) I plan to spend many afternoons and evening's relaxing in the space..:) Come on down anytime...I'm sure there are a few Fans out there that will grow in NY..:) Chris..thanks..I'm glad you like it! You made me laugh hard...20 ..yeah right...about triple that...LOL 55 and aching....is more like it...:) Kitcatclub.....hey it's not what the materials are...it's as long as you can enjoy it...:) I just chose to make it as long lasting as possible...getting too OLD to do it again...LOL I'm glad you like it..:) Kathy Va...Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the project...:) Kathy Fla....Thanks...I hope it makes Nicco happy and helps keep his nails worn down too...:) Jill...Thanks..it's been a fun project....overall.:) Still digging post holes and dealing with the slope angels for the fence...but i'm making a little head way...:) Will post more as things change...Thanks to all for your kind comments...:) Rick

Great packages arriving here. I just finished three swaps and all received the hand crafted spoon markers and I have received many inquiries as to how they are made. The following is a site where I found some for you guys to see what I am talking about. I love how they added the little plant stamps so will have to find out how they did that. http://paperandplanes.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/dsc07503.jpg I used new spoons I got on sale but have made some for myself from spoons I found at the Goodwill. My husband used a rubber mallet to flatten the spoon. I then purchased a steel stamping letter/number set. I just line these up on the spoon one letter at a time and bang them with a regular hammer about 25 times to assure they indent the spoon. We used a work table my husband has and placed a large garden border brick on that to bang on. When flattening the spoon, places an old towel over it so as not to scratch it up. http://stampingjewelrysupplies.com/images/letter_numbers/il_430xN.157647088.jpg These are very easy to stamp and I enjoy doing it. I plan to make many more for my gardens as these will last forever. Corinne, it is amazing to think what happened to that your beautiful gardens since the first pictures you posted. How powerful nature can be. Margo

jwttrans, I think our two readings may be compatible--the ambiguously misread situation having to do with misread racial stereotypes, the captain's fixation on skin color blinding him to unrevealed dark designs. And with time the hidden darkness or "evil" is revealed--the desperate escaped slaves are truly murderous and do practically wipe out TWO ships--the one they are in at the beginning of the story and that captain's ship they attack near the end of the story. My only hesitation about our combined reading is that Benito Cereno, read by itself, would tend to solicit an allegorical reading associating innocence with whites and evil with blacks. However, that would be to overlook the blame Melville heaps on the "innocent" white captain whose self-willed "innocence" is not true "innocence," but rather a wilful refusal to see and acknowledge the evil lurking in the depths. He nearly makes himself an accessory to murder, as a result--equally culpable, in other words. That would not be white "innocence," but white culpability. And if anyone has read Melville's other sea fictions, they would know he often depicts the blackness/evil in all men's hearts. (I'm not sure if he includes women or not. Anyone remember any portraits of women in his works? Certainly, a half century later, Conrad writing on racial themes in Heart of Darkness exempted the lovely fiancee--the "intended" -- from the darkness in human hearts, for instance.) But you have a good point on ambiguity--probably works on anything Melville and Hawthorne wrote. That was the way they often set up their allegories as the reader moves from the literal to the figurative/spiritual. Just as Melville explores the ambiguity of whiteness in Moby Dick, so he does by depicting an "innocent" white captain whose innocence is just as ambiguous since he becomes the reason why they are all nearly murdered. That good and evil are NOT black and white, but quite ambiguous in nature, would seem to be Melville's point? Kate