There are so many dreadful things that can happen to a garden (and in life) that one hardly knows where to begin listing them, but drought for me is one of the worst. (I suppose northerners and midwesterners feel this way about cold.) I feel for you Californians, and hope you get rain, in abundance. I recall Texas and Oklahoma had a horrible drought a couple of years back, and have wondered what the long-term effects of that were, thinking in particular of native flora and mature trees and drought-tolerant shrubs. How did they come through it? On the issue of water, here I don't worry so much about the garden as about the possibility of running out of water entirely at some point. Our water supply comes from the nearby Apennines with nothing further away to draw on, and a good-sized population depends on it, not just our township, but the towns and small cities downstream from us in the Po Plain. I've seen the reservoir get mighty low; what happens if a drought goes on longer than usual? Will we run out of water for cooking and drinking? I can understand why a gardener in Ingrid's situation has to water in order to have any kind of satisfactory garden at all, but here we have different conditions, a decent annual rainfall and heavy soil to a good depth. From the beginning one of my ambitions was to have a garden whose plants didn't need to be watered after the first year. I wanted to create an environmentally responsible garden: it was an experiment. The first summer we were here we had one of the worst droughts on record. The rains ended in January, as I recall, and didn't get going well until around September. It was an awful year, and not just in Italy but in a good deal of western Europe. Anyway, I made an interesting discovery. When it finally started raining again, all the wretched looking native flora came right back to life. Nothing died, even in a severe (as opposed to normal) drought. So probably one day we'll have an even worse drought and oaks and cherries WILL die. But this experience gave me a degree of faith in the resilience of plants. And I will say that I've killed a fair number of plants by now, but I believe have lost very few due to lack of water. Of course I'm tranquil at the moment also because we have had a wet, wet year and drought isn't lurking on the horizon. Rather in a year like this we worry about slumps and landslides. Pam, I hope you get rain! I have no words to say how beautiful I find your garden: what a glory. Florida, am I correct in thinking that your garden needs ongoing amendment? If you're gardening in Florida sand you'll need the horse manure. Good luck in finding another source. Enjoy your beautiful weather, Jackie, and I hope water doesn't become a major worry for you as well. Your garden is an inspiration to us all. Thanks for the good wishes, Ingrid, and your steady benevolence. Oh, I do get sour and crabby when I'm under stress. It's a good thing DH and DD are both such sturdy, sunny-natured types. Suzy, let's say you're right, but I do wonder how much wiggle room a gardener in a semi-desert or desert environment has? But...okay...if I were in such a situation, with drastically limited water and possible range of plants I could grow, yes, I would be growing something, and as many kinds of plants as I could. But some situations do require dramatic psychological adjustments. Trish, one of my ongoing desires for my garden is to get a great variety of plants in it. Art is long, life is short, and even sticking with (fairly) readily obtainable garden and local plants, no rarieties, nothing terribly difficult, I figure I can find and plant new plants in the garden for the rest of my life with no danger of running out. Subtle variety is part of my notion of Edenic garden richness. I wonder if it would be worthwhile starting a thread on resource-thrifty gardens? What do you all think? Thanks for the responses. Merry Christmas, or happy holidays as the case may be, to all, and may your gardens bloom! Melissa

Thanks for the nice comments everybody! Goldengirl I did not go with the Laura Ashley Gold but did go with a Behr Custom Color match for Restoration Hardware's Saffron color paint. I love the color with my cherry cabinets, it really warms up the whole room. Here is the paint lid from Home Depot with the color match formula. We used Behr paints throughout, some of their own colors and some color matches. Kathieo - regarding the pendant lights in the kitchen, our original kitchen had a big wood ceiling lightbox with a double flourescent fixture inside. We took that down and decided to install two recessed can lights over the cooktop area of the island but wanted pendants over the seating area. My neighbor who is an electrician did all the lighting changes and additions for me. If you already have recessed cans in the ceiling, I would think an electrician could move those or install pendants to whatever location you wanted if you don't like the current position. Would involve some drywall repairs but it should be possible to put lights anywhere you like. We added additional recessed can lights to some of the darker corners of the room plus linear low voltage undercabinet lighting which is great for adjusting the mood/atmosphere of the room. We also put dimmers on everything which is saving us bulb life and allowing for a range of lighting looks from subtle to dramatic. Here is our original 1989 kitchen. We liked it at the time but were totally ready for this remodel! I'm just glad we were able to keep our old cabinets. That saved us a bundle!

go figure- we actually had big probelms with the grout. We used a TEC grout recommended by the tile store, color was supposed to be charcoal gray. But it turned out very blotchy and really light gray in some areas. After some reseach I ordered "This Old Grout" online and re-colored all the grout. It worked great!

Getting the right progressive setting for all the things you is sooo important. If I were still driving, I would need a different pair for driving and for working... and neither of them worked well for things like cleaning my house or shopping in the store. I used to have a fixed pair for the computer and a pair of "everyday" walking around/driving glasses... but I couldn't see the dishes clearly when washing them. I couldn't see or read what was on the shelves in the grocery store-- or even see the pattern on the floor (I work in a building with stone and marble floors), What has worked best *for me* is the Shamir office space glasses-- and then we tweak them slightly to give me better vision on the long end and less great close up. They allow me to walk to the bathroom or the coffee stand, work at the computer, sit at a conference table and see the face of the person at the other end AND see the projection screen. The tradeoff is that I can't see the laptop screen so well or what's written on my paper notes. That still works best for me, My vision is optimized from 2 ft dead center (for the computer screen) to about 14 ft. (the lenses are supposed to optimize to 10 ft.. but again, we tweak my prescription for my specific needs), No doubt, I am much more sensitive to the "right" prescription than others because of my crazy eye/brain issues. My eyes are always struggling to make a good image-- even with a good prescription. But really, it's all the same issue... I am just more sensitive to it. My current glasses (which are out getting a tweak to the progressive setting) were just a hair off -- and the result was that I got flustered in important meetings and I felt my baseline stress increase and mood decrease. The differences may be subtle but when you get it right, you know! Everything is better!