Thank you, Everyone. Golden, yes that's a very old asparagus fern. LOL. I sat the pot on a tree stump. St Francis is supposed to be a little birdfeeder, so you were right about the Flamingo should be eating there. However, the fairy by him is admiring his bead necklace, so he's happy with her. LOL. Kudzu, I don't recall anyone with a fear of gnomes but maybe they remind her of the creepy Trolls that live under rocks and bridges! I like the gnomes that have the sweet little "old man" faces like these. Some gnomes don't have the mustache and their beards are under their chins instead of on it, and I don't like their faces as well for some reason. Kirk, you're too sweet calling that area "magical". That's what I wanted it to be but my family doesn't quite get it of course. It really is garden JUNK to them. My 4 littlest grandkids think it's cool tho, while the others all do the eye-rolling thing. I don't care, I'm having fun with my silly little garden areas. hugs, Karen

I read a newspaper article (please don't ask when or where...memory eludes me CRS) some time ago about a man who put a door in a tree along a public walk. Children were encouraged to put messages in it for the fairy. The man retrieved any messages every night and answered and returned them to the tree. His wife said that some messages were sad and that was hard to read but even then an answer from a fairy helped. Doesn't that sound really sweet to do? And time in the evenings to answer?

Luvs, as you know, my Too Long to Do List has taken on gigantic proportions and become the blob like in those horror movies, who swallow people and towns. LOL. I want to make so many things, tho heaven knows where I'd put here any of it. LOL. But I just can't stop myself from finding and saving neat photos and ideas. I'd probably actually get more made if I stayed the heck off here! Kathleen, I also am so NOT ready for Christmas. I LOVE Fall and want it to last. Just seems when I can't sleep and go looking for decor pix, not that much comes up for Fall, or I already have them in our album. Darn. That's sad some of your friends stopped decorating, tho I did that a couple times years ago. Right after Jason was burned and my Mom died. 2001 and 2002 were emotionally draining, and I just had no heart for it at the time. Seemed like no one came over, my DH doesn't care one way or the other, and it was a lot to work just to entertain the cats. LOL. But now my mind set is much better, and I'd do it no matter what I think, simply because it makes ME feel good and happy to see. Again, I owe a lot of that decorating mind-set to THIS Forum. Its fun to decorate now for ALL the holidays, instead of just Christmas. I keep remembering this came about ALL because of stumbling across Judith's stacked plates!!! Funny how 3 little cake plates could change one's life so much! Everyone here really has added a lot to my life, and opened up my little world. Being housebound quite often with the Fibromyalgia, it means more than you know to have all of you. I never dreamed I could have so much fun with my Invisible Friends (at least not since I was about about 5). LOL hugs, Karen

Eileen, I am hoping I will get avocados from a lone tree - I've done it before in Venice, and so it should not be a problem, although I was told that you need two trees or at least another tree nearby in the neighborhood, which I think I have a couple of doors down. I know there were other avocado trees in Venice. Pam, bromeliads are great for growing indoors because many of them do not like too much sun. A lot of them will bloom twice in one season, once they start to bloom. I have all of mine outside for space reasons, and many of them I have to protect from too much sunlight, or else the leaves will get burned. I have a similar problem with many of the orchids as well, especially the Phalaenopsis, which cannot handle much direct sun, if at all, but the flower spikes bloom for about six months! Since I don't have room to grow them indoors, I built some shelves in a fairly protected area outside the kitchen. I've had a bit of trouble with dendrobiums and oncidiums getting burned also, and so I have them in a semi-protected area, and they only get limited direct sun. All of my orchids that are blooming right now (except the epidendrums) are in the house, and so they will go into a separate photo folder that I will create later. Nancy, I might get some more proteas because they do well here, once protected from snails/slugs. I might try growing some from seeds. I saw a lot of proteas in Hawaii also, but none that I had not already seen here. Have you tried drying the flowers? Lars