I like old compote serving pieces. Glass or silverplate. The bowl is small and shallow and the piece itself has a tall or short stem with a pretty base. Sometimes you can find old potpourri holders from the 80s and 90s in flea markets or thrift shops that are decorative and have a little bowl shape that displays a camellia bloom well. The florist item that is the plastic pointed tube with a rubber cap with a hole ( what is the proper name? ) that you push cut flowers into works very well and then you can insert the tube into greens or a potted fern or ivy and that is very pretty to bring inside and lasts a long time. That's what they like to use on the rose parade floats for all the roses and lilies and other fragile flowers.

I went to Leu today and was really impressed with the camellia show. Amazing blossoms - some WAY larger than I have ever seen. The camellias throughout Leu are in full bloom too and it was a treat to walk through the gardens in this beautiful sunny, but cool, weather. As a bonus, Robert Bowden's rose garden is also in full bloom and could not have been prettier. If you can get to Leu tomorrow, go! Kate

It is Bob that needs the thanking! All I did was post some pictures. Thanks, also for the directions on thumbnail images. I skimmed them, and I think it's probably doable, but it's late, and I just don't have time to fool around with it right now. Now that I hear there's a better way, I feel a little guilty about posting so many pictures. On the other hand, I have dial up, and they did seem to come up pretty quickly. Also, I wanted to show the pot from as many angles as possible. I just hope no one was too inconvenienced. Before I head off to bed, let me make sure I have this straight. If I had known how to do clickable thumbnails, the images would have opened almost instantaneously with dial up? If someone wanted to see them larger they would just click on them, right? I've seen this on websites, and it's very handy, especially for those of us with slow dial up. I'll definitely try to figure out your tutorial and do it when applicable. It will be especially useful for series of images.

Thank you all for the advice. She started this morning at 5:45. The room was dark, and it was foggy outside with no sunshine, so I don't know what she is seeing. She is not hitting the window across from where she is perching on the branch, so it seems she's not going for her own reflection, but up higher. I taped a piece of paper there, but now she's hitting the glass that's still visible beside it. I guess I'll have to haul out the ladder and put a towel over the window. I cranked open the window when she started this morning, which stopped her for awhile, but I had to close it when the sun rose and the heat started rolling in. When I went out to tape up the paper, a male cardinal flew out of the ornamental crabapple tree, which is a few yards from that corner of the house, so maybe she's defending her food source from interlopers. Do cardinals eat crabapples? Or they could have nest anywhere on that side, where I have many shrubs and small trees. Now that I think about it, there was a cardinal's nest in the lilac bush last year, or maybe the year before--we could look out the window above and catch glimpses of the babies, so I'll check the lilac for a nest when I go out there again. It's almost time for the young mockingbirds to start singing all night, so the birds will be tag-teaming me. ;)