Very nice pics as usual! I really like the look of Claimed Blessing, and with your comment I would really like to see Mojave Sunset in person. It's so frustrating when you have a gorgeous bloom and can't capture it on film! Border Crossing is fabulous as well! Julie

If the color on Plant it Back (really?) is wine, it has a lot of potential. It doesn't look like a muddy color. Polys are definitely "in." I like the white pineapple lily. The container really shows the little variegated plant better on larger size, and that plant (polka dot?) is great with the dark colors.

Wow! Dark Knight looks soooo velvety!! Love the green on St. Patrick. I had that at another place - never got the green. Stayed yellow - lack of heat here. Of course it died since I had it in the ground. I was a beginner. :) But for that year - it was phenomenal. Just went out to check my Night Owl (in a pot 3rd year). The flowers are definitely a dark purple. No pink, red or fushcia. So while St. Pat can't get the nice color for me here - Night Owl likes our cooler weather. I like your Pink Poodle - looks like a pink Grace. Love that pink!! thanks for sharing!! Carol

ML- my MIL had actually given me her jewelry and silver shortly before she died. She hadn't been sick or anything, she just wanted them to be passed on and I was the only close female and mother of her only gd. Also, she knew I treasured family things - and old things. When my kids were little a neighbor girl (close friend) died. They passed on her skates to my dd. A yr later when our oldest ds died we also gave special items of his to his close friends. dd (about 10) decided she wanted to give her other friend her watch now while she was alive. Wow. what we can learn from kids. I told her that was a great idea, so off she went with her treasured watch. I encouraged the other kids to do the same. My bgf at the time admired a diamond chip ring I wore - so, I just took it off and gave it to her. It meant so much to her she wore it with her wedding rings. It wasn't an expensive ring by any means. In more recent yrs my sister has often admired a 'jade tree' (oriental) that I inherited from my MIL (it's very small - maybe 8" tall w/little pieces of 'jade' (don't know if real) for leaves). She thought I planned to leave it to her in my will. A yr or 2 ago I gave it to her for Christmas. It has a front position in her china cabinet. Decades ago another sister collected Hummels and I had lots of them from MIL so I gave her a bunch of them. and maybe 10 yrs ago now I sent my #3 son my wedding ring and his ggf's pocket watch for Christmas (I had no idea what to buy him, refused to buy something he might not want or need. I knew that of all the kids he also treasured old family things (he's the future 'keeper' of the family history). Also, my wedding ring would mean something to one of the kids (not me). He later told me that those were the best presents he had ever received! Another yr I reprinted a bunch of pics from his childhood (some with siblings and/or pets) and put in a small album. Again he loved it. He told me 'keep things like that coming'. He'll get all the family pics when I die but why make him wait til then to have some to go thru and show to show to his kids? In the 90's I gave my Apple dishes (tons of them!) and some silver serving pieces to another bgf. She did 'Sunday' dinners and other entertaining. I didn't, my kids were grown and in other states. She'd get great use of them, I wouldn't. I ran across a beautiful crystal bowl the other day in a box and decided that I'd be keeping that out - to USE now, just for me. Time to have it out regularly and enjoy seeing it. I also plan to use the good china just for me. now that I think about those Hummels - I ran across more of them while unpacking. My BIL bought one each Christmas and sent to my MIL. Those will be good things to tuck into a Christmas pkg to the kids. I like it much better knowing these people are enjoying the things now rather then them being in a box in my closet. Monk - that is the one show I've watched on regular tv in recent yrs. well, until it went off. darn. I didn't watch the first few yrs of it, so caught them on reruns.