Ah, for a good real spring after real winter!! Here, the rains have all but gone, one or two more light ones, and nothing till October. I am in a new garden this year, and inherited copious amounts of crocosmia and wild cyclamen. Will thin the bulbs in fall as it's prolly been 20 years since last done.......My calendula seedlings and sweet pea have all come up and been potted out. The annuals allysum, lobelia, pansies, impatiens are all still alive too, and some are actually looking happy. I'll have to move some to shadier places once the real summer bake sets in. The first year salvia indigo is looking pretty pleased, and the gaura shows promise. I am only growing native herbs this year, ones suited to this mountain. Rosemary, lavender, wormwood, lemon verbena, mint, wild thyme: the sage died and the basil is endangered by the snails. I emptied a HUGE bag of dirt that has been happily cooking all year down to some of the best stuff I've seen in years in Haifa. Good soil here on the mountain is a treasure. No place to put a veggie garden, if we stay in this house I may get to it, and am still searching for a decent place for a compost pile. Next project - the vacant lot attached to my house. Covered in weeds and vines, littered with years of glass and construction flotsam, when it dries in the summer sun, it becomes a haven for snakes,etc, and impossible to uproot in the rocky, hard soil. Now, in the Spring, is the time to pull them out roots and all, 5 feet at a time. Call me crazy, but I like weeding, even the big monsters, and I get great satisfaction from clearing a space. See where the mountain insists on being, see where there are pockets of soil, see where there are nests. I've even been known to sweep the mountainside, but that's another story........ Batya

I third Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens as well as Acadia National Park! We took a vacation in 2012 and visited both of those. Loved every second! We spent four days in Bar Harbor. The downtown area is A+ They had golden chain trees blooming when we visited in June 2012. They were beautiful. I hear they can be hard to grow, even in the east. In Bar Harbor, they have escaped cultivation and are growing along the roadways. There is also a market you just HAVE TO visit. I'm trying to find a pic I took with the name of the establishment on it. They make pastries, deserts, and sandwiches fresh daily and the quality is top notch. It is about halfway between Freeport and Bar Harbor. I'll return with a pic if I can find it.

Why not just call and get prices and see if the prices are different at the differen stores. While there are a few manufacturers that require you to vivist the store, most can be quoted over the phone. Even fabric samples can be mailed to you, why go unless you need to see something and then you need to call to make sure they have it

Someone might correct me if this has changed in the last couple of years, but I believe Thomasville has a minimum retail price (MRP) policy - in other words, anyone selling their furniture can't go below a certain price (might not apply to clearance/showroom floor items, though). When I was looking at their furniture a few years back, I managed to find a few places more local that would also offer MRP (and low/free shipping). In fact, I even saw some advertisements guaranteeing that they'd have the lowest prices anywhere on Thomasville (and of course, they would, just like all the others at MRP). The dealers in North Carolina (more than one, including Rose) would not go below MRP, but would offer free shipping. Combined with possibly no sales tax, the NC stores could still come out cheaper, but you might want to check with local places to see if they'll match the MRP - if so, you're not likely to save much by going to North Carolina, and you also get to support local businesses. I also visited the Thomasville factory store (in Thomasville, not in High Point), and they had several pieces at _really_ good prices. But, it was hit and miss - just what they had in the store at the time. When I went, they didn't have any complete sets, and most (not all) of the pieces had defects of one sort or another, ranging from unnoticable to major damage. This store was interesting in an "if you're around there already" sense, but certainly not worth making a trip from California for.