Thanks everyone for all the compliments. My floating baskets aren't doing too good this year. Don't know if it's the weather or my koi (now that they are bigger they are able to tip the basket with their body just enough to nibble. They remind me of deer they don't eat the whole plant just enough to stress it out). I heard a rumor it could be my water is too clean. Pond is in it's third year so it may be fully cycled now. Don't know if any of you read Nosambos (Lisa's) post earler this month so I am linking it to mine. She is so creative she can turn anything that floats into a planter as you can see from her post. I just love visiting her pond because I never know what she has created that is going to surprise me. I got 4 large sheets of styrofoam pads from work. They are about 3 ft long by 1 1/2 ft wide. I am planning on connecting them together with computer cable ties. I am going to try to make a large floating impatiens, watercress island out of them by cutting holes in the pads and placing punctured styrofoam cups in the holes (hopefully this will make them koi proof), then placing impatiens and watercress bare root in the styrofoam cups. It may work unless my koi decide to tip it over. (They completely destroyed one floating basket of watercress in a day). I will post pics if it does work. I am just wondering if I should surround it by pond noodles to make it more stable. Only problem will be getting it in and out of the pond. My pond is in full sun and my fish have no shade other than the floating planters you see in the post here. As they are getting bigger their shade is getting smaller. Jenny Here is a link that might be useful: Nosambos floating watercress idea

Tangerine Horses and Big Sur are my favorites of this bunch. I really like russian sage with daylilies but have not had enough room for it. In the fall I'm taking down an ugly tree and then there will be room. Yay. I love the airy look with daylilies and it was super with your Tangerine Horses. Christine

I saw the photos of this masterpiece the first time around but was thrilled to sit through a more extensive tour - even if I had to remove my boots. Ha! newdawn, when we bought our house, the heating/lights/water bill here was more than our old house's mortgage! igloochick, you will have to put in intercoms for DS and any future ice cubes... My kids were young when we moved into our house and they would loose me. My house isn't nearly as big as your will be. We painted our house for $17,000. You have one lifetime project ahead of you.

Thank you all very much. She started painting just 4 years ago and at the time that she started she had never had an art class, she bought some acrylic paint and canvases at Walmart and just started painting, 8 months later they had an art show at her school and when some local artist and the art teacher saw her work they encouraged her to apply for the Governors School for the Arts, she applied and was interviewed and out of 1400 applicants, she and 211 other students where selected to attend a work shop. The rest is (some) history, She has since been spot lighted in out local newspaper and her art work has been put on display at the high school she attended. We think she is pretty great.