. Do you dim LED's with frequency or duty cycle ? Well, in a word; yes. Can you do them at 100Hz, or 10 kHz; well . . yes. I don't have any numbers on eyeballs . . in terms of their response times . . . but there obviously is a certain minimum time for the eye to respond to light; and there is minimum persistence time as well. LED's are virtually instantaneous in both "starting" and "stopping" giving off light. There is a little perstistence in the phosphorous used to create "white" LED's; but it's very small and can be ignored. I'm also not sure if all the rods ( or is it the cones ? ) in your eyes respond at the same rate . . . or not . . . . different rate for different colors I think . . . I remember one project I did where I had 4, seven segment LED digits to run . . . had to multiplex them to reduce required # of wires . . . With 4 digits, each was on for 25% of the time . . and I believe I ran them ON for 4 msec. While they weren't as bright as they would have been if they ran 100% of the time; they were VERY readable in all but the brightest of light conditions => bright outdoor sunlight. I tried them at 5 msec each; and there was some perceptable "flicker" to them. So, running them at 4 msec each, the LED's were at 25% duty cycle; and a frequency of ~ 62.5 Hz. If that frequency were a little different; say 60 Hz; then . . . under old fluorescent lights they'd have flickered TERRIBLY . . under newer / electronic fluorescents they'd have done fine. So, you can even do it at less than 100 Hz; though one needs to avoid known "trouble" frequencies like 50 and 60 Hz. By the way; these were run at their NORMAL LED current; they were not run higher due to shorter ON time. This was done mostly to keep consumption down . . and they still look pretty darn good. No complaints at all from customer. You don't HAVE to run LED's higher than their constant rated current in order to mux or PWM them . . . . but if absolute maximum brightness is a concern then you should. Just as another example that all this is inter-related => take and LED and run it at rated current. Run it at 20% duty cycle say . . . do that at 0.1 Hz and you've got a blinker ! . . full ON for 1 second, and full OFF for 9 seconds. A blinker or flasher as far as your eye is concerned. Now keep that same duty cycle; but increase the frequency . . . and at some point; the LED will appear to be "steady" ON. I'll guess that'l be somewhere in the 10's of Hz . . . but it will appear constantly due to persistence of the human eye. Now lets say you've decided to run higher than rated current to get more light . . usually there is a spec on the current level; AND the ON time and duty cycle. Yes, this all relates back to heat in the LED => there is a certain max current; and a max amount of time that it can be present. Exceed that and you've potentially damaged the LED and/or reduced it's lifetime. It's a combination of frequency, duty cyle, current level, and persistence of the human eye, and the light level you need to have for a particular application that determines how and what you do. They ARE inter-related with each other . . . . Hope this makes sense . . . Bob

Upon closer inspection I just didn't get the top piece covered well enough. Another coat & it matches up fine. I think a metallic blackish paint would help define the fluting in the pole & rope detail around the bottom. Maybe I'm just not finished yet? A little dab of antique gold to highlight the bottom starburst piece maybe? I just need to work on the color....keep it from being too uniform. ALL in ALL it isn't rusty anymore! lol :0) The glass globe is still VERY attractive sitting there!

Thanks, R. Simpatico. The rug suggested by celerygirl has more texture than it appears: It is wool and nylon, and it appears "backless." All of those are features which make it easier to clean. The fringe (oddly, I think) is only on one end...and I like that as I can put that under the chairs where it won't look messy. Re: the coffee table, this is my inspiration photo for an arrangement of a "coffee table" and two square ottomans in lieu of one large ottoman: Can you visualize this in my room? (See photo below.) Here's what I like about it: 1) the flexibility of two ottomans for use with the chairs when my family is home 2) the airiness of this arrangement (instead of the two cube ottomans I'd planned) 3) the way this "square" would complete the middle of the room But I want the "coffee table" to be something to rest feet on, as well. Would it look "right" in my room to combine ottomans such as those in the photo with a rectangular ottoman (size and shape of the coffee table, pictured) that is upholstered? Or would it be better to choose more of a bench? To me, it seems like a lot of legs, but the style of legs on the coffee table in the above photo is a nice contrast to all the straight legs. Might celerygirl be so generous as to use her digital rendering [or [or another Houzzer create a new one] to "pop in" potential arrangements of the square ottomans with the coffee table, a bench, or a more solid upholstered ottoman the size and shape of the coffee table? Is anyone out there so into this that you would help me to visualize my style? (so aptly described by kat as "calm, serene and well-appointed" which has really helped contributors to hone in on my taste. Thank you all for hanging in here with me. I am terribly analytical, along with being a perfectionist--which goes right along with being a procrastinator. All curses I must consciously fight in order to make decisions. But I’m getting there, thanks to the patience, vision, and willingness of so many of you who bounce around ideas and make suggestions. With gratitude, I present you with my three granddogs...and my only "girl."

Jacob, Every year I always hope that the first frost of autumn will be later than average. It rarely is. There was one glorious year in the early to mid-2000s when the first frost/freeze (and it was both at once) didn't arrive until around December 17th or 18th. We had the best fall garden production that year anyway, and then it got to go on and on and on forever. We went from not having had a single frost or freeze to dropping down into the mid-teens. It was a very dramatic ending to the growing season. Filling the garage/shop (1200 square feet of space) with 'stuff' wasn't as big of an issue 10-15 years ago as it is now because Tim always knew exactly where everything was. It might have looked like a mess to other people, but he could walk in there and instantly find what he needed/wanted (though no one else could) no matter how small or obscure it was. The problem is that as you get older, your memory gets worse and now that he is in his 60s, he has a harder time finding stuff. When you cannot find what you need after much searching, you go buy a replacement. I think when we do clean up and reorganize the garage, we'll find duplicates of a lot of tools and things. To me, that's a sign we need to clean it up and organize it. And, so we shall, hopefully on a few winter weekends. Our trees have done about the same as yours. One day last week I saw a few glimmers of red and yellow foliage in our woodland areas but everything mostly was green still, and this week the there has been an explosion of color. I am so excited. We often go from green foliage to falling brown foliage literally overnight, so to have a year where we are having glorious reds, yellows and golds is awesome. I want to enjoy every minute of it because it likely will be several years before we have such good autumn color again down here. Nancy, It is SO true that the older one gets, the older that 'old' gets pushed out there into a higher age range. When we moved here, we were barely 40 and had moved into an old farm and ranch neighborhood where everyone here had lived here pretty much their whole lives. Most of them were in their 60s, 70s, or 80s and seemed impossibly old to us, although our next-door neighbors were about our age. Some of our new neighbors had kids our age or older, all of them were grandparents or great grandparents. Not some of them are great-, great-grandparents. Of the original neighbors still alive, most are in their 80s or 90s, and to us, 60 no longer seems old at all. (grin) Even the 80 year olds don't seem as old to us now as they once did because we're getting closer in age to them. When a younger family moves into our neighborhood now, I am all too aware that they undoubtedly see us as the old folks..... The bad thing about moving into a neighborhood where almost everyone is so much older than you is that you find yourself going to tons of funerals over the years. But, then, on the other hand it is an awesome blessing to have neighbors you love and adore so much that you truly grieve for them after they pass away. I'm glad you can see in the formerly dark room. I have been amazed to discover how much good lighting can improve any space. Larry, That tree is gorgeous! Nancy, I totally understand about wanting someone to be at home taking care of the animals. That is what we usually do, and it usually is Tim who travels to PA for family stuff, and I stay here and mind the zoo. It isn't that I don't want to go to PA with him, but rather that it just would be so hard to find someone to take care of all our dogs, cats and chickens. When you go, I wish you safe travels. Cats are such a hoot! They are incredibly entertaining and, yet, they steal inside your soul and capture your heart as well. When going through a box of stuff in the closet the other day, I came across a calendar I had saved from 2014 because the cat poems in it are too precious and at the same time hysterically funny. The cat calendar is entitled "I Could Pee On This" and it has a cat poem (theoretically written by the cat in that month's photo) and I believe it is the January cat who wrote "I Could Pee On This". That poem completely cracks me up because it is so true---if you seriously upset some cats, they will retaliate by peeing on something precious to you. Earlier this week, two of our cats were playing with each other---but one (Lucky) was inside sitting on the desk in the girls' room and the other one (Pumpkin) was outside. They were play fighting with one another, separated by the window. I had a hard time focusing on the cleaning task at hand because I was watching them and laughing at them. We finally had sunshine on Friday. It was pretty chilly for much of the day, but got a little warm in the afternoon. The important thing was that we had the sunshine! The foliage here still is largely green, but there's big bursts of reds, golds and yellows now scattered around all over---still mostly elms, persimmon groves and, for the red foliage, a handful of red oaks (most red oaks are just beginning to change color), sumac, ornamental pears, Chinese pistache, and poison ivy. For anyone who doesn't think they have poison ivy running wild in their native woodland areas here, all you have to do is stand and look into the woods and you'll see the poison ivy now a scarlet red wherever it has climbed upward through the trees. Later on the Virginia creeper vines will change color as well. There's still a lot of red in the garden, mostly in the form of the flowers of zinnias, pineapple sage and Texas hummingbird sage. Oh, and autumn sage of course. I'm going to miss all these colors when frost and freezing temperatures arrive and take them away from us. We're supposed to hit the lower 80s today and tomorrow, so I hope everyone will remember to watch for increased snake activity. Why are we hitting the 80s? Well, I'm not complaining, but it is making me rethink my costume for tonight's Halloween party. I based the costume (I'm going to be a black cat) on wearing a black sweatsuit. Hmmm. That might be too warm, so I guess I'll switch to lighterweight black clothing and attach my cat tail and cat accessories to those clothing items. Here in OK, you never know if Halloween will be hot/warm or freezing cold. I think the actual Halloween will have cold, rainy weather, but most of the community Halloween stuff here is happening this weekend during the heat wave. Of course it is. At least the kids who go to the Trunk or Treat event in town tonight won't have to wear coats over their costumes. I saw some persimmons on one of our trees yesterday and am going to try to get them today (they're too high to reach but maybe I can knock them down with a pruning pole). I want to cut them open and see if the southern OK persimmons also are showing spoons like those in other parts of the state and the country. Dawn