woodyoak wrote: I was washing this year's plant tags this afternoon in preparation for updating my tag binder - I dump all the tags from things I plant into a pot and then clean them up and record them when it's cold and I need a dose of the garden! :-) I didn't think I did much planting this year as there's not much space left, but there are quite a few tags... a lot of them are plants that were recommended here! I did exactly what you did, this past Sunday! Okay to be honest I don't put them in a binder but instead I sloppily throw them all into a large clear ziploc bag or two with the date 2013 very visible on both sides of the bag. I staple the appropriate tag to its receipt, for the more expensive perennials (and this year for the few pricey Japanese Maples I acquired). I decided to count these tags and I am shocked to say that there were almost 100! (I hope my partner does not find this particular post as I will never hear the end of it)

I know it isn't chinese tallow. there was one nearby. beautiful tree, but I hear it will destroy your pipes, your yard, your foundation..... anyhow, its leaves are the same red color right now, but they are 1/2 to 1/3 smaller and much more diamond-shaped. This leaf is almost like a citrus--a grapefruit or orange, except it's not pointy at the end, and it does have little tiny teeth...almost invisible...on the border.

Lpink, the verb "to be" in Russian exists only in the infinitive form and is never conjugated and almost never used. Perhaps that's where it came from. I have a lot of pet peeves about British English - the main one being that they almost always add "and" after "try" instead of "to". They will say, "Try and do better," instead of "Try to do better." When "and" is added, the "try" part is unnecessary since the possibility of failure is not considered. They don't make this mistake in the past tense, however. I do like the way the British pronounce the word "water", as it is spelled, instead of the way Americans do, as if it were spelled with a "d". I've observed a number of ways that the phrase "isn't it" from "innit" from Cockneys to "iddinit" in the American South. I've also heard "I'm going to" pronounced a number of ways from "I'm gonna" to "Imonna" to "Imo" or "Ima". That one amuses me, but I hate it when people who are giving demonstrations (especially chefs) start a sentence with "What I'm going to do next is I'm going to..." instead of starting with "Next I'm going to..." I tend not to like to hear too many sentences starting with "what" unless they are questions. I will change channels in the middle of a show when I hear that sentence structure twice. I'm not too bothered by "My bad," but then I always thought it was "'m I bad", a contraction for "Am I bad." I like it when a stranger says "How are you", which is more common now than "How do you do," but has the same meaning/function of being a polite pleasantry. In Mexico City, everyone I would meet in a social setting would say, "Hola, que tal?" which means "Hi, how's it going?" and an appropriate response was "Que tal?" This was common among the upper class in Mexico City, but if I said it to the more common people from more remote areas, they would say that I sounded like a Mexico City snob. Lars

Don't put the wall oven next to the cook top. My boyfriend has this and it is awful. I hate it. No down space. In an effort to "stop" any spills, etc., from his electric cooktop, the former owners tiled the wood cabinet the oven was in, next to the cooktop. Awful, awful, awful. He has a 27 inch wall oven rather than a 30 inch. You cannot fit a cookie sheet in the thing. Awful, awful, awful. He doesn't cook so it doesn't bother him. I think his kitchen is very poorly designed, but I won't go there. Options--could you move the sink to the corner? It would involve some plumbing moves, but shouldn't (unless there is some unseen thing) be too bad. Move the dishwasher to the left of the sink. Place the cooktop where you have the dishwasher. It won't be centered under the window but it should give you some downloading space on each side of the cooktop and the sink. Leave wall oven and fridge where they are. It still gives you a work triangle. I am not fond of sinks in the corner nor the dishwasher next to them. Had that once and didn't like it. When the door for the dishwasher is open, it really hems you in. However, that was a teeny tiny little apartment kitchen and I am sure yours is bigger than that. The layout I described pretty much cuts up your prep area but it gives you what you want with the cooktop and the wall oven. There are 30 inch ranges that have five burners if you decide to go with the range instead. That might help you get more cookspace.