Thank you so much everyone! I love sharing my garden with you! -dawiff, I believe you are looking at the Rhubarb plant. Isn't it neat? I love the fact that it is edible and decorative. It gets some shade, which I think makes it grow even larger. The blooms are neat too; they are like giant Astilbes. And it looks so alien-like comming out of the ground in spring. -Annie, oh you are wonderful! Thank you for your kind comments, they are very much appreciated. ;-) -Nell, tulips in July! If only I could! I am having trouble finding things to fill the space. I am trying to find an evergreen shrub and a few larger plants to fill the space. I am always at a loss as to what to put in full sun. If this were a shade garden it would already be full, lol! I was thinking of: a late blooming tree Peony in yellow, white, or orange-ish, a gold evergreen shrub, Ironweed, a large perennial geranium, and a large type of Euphorbia. Maybe a rose too, though I am a little wary of roses, since I don't have the best of luck with them sometimes. I also want to put some focal point there, like an obelisk or statue. What do you guys think of those plants? Have any other suggestions? Oh! I forgot to post this pic. I like this one. I had a row of Iris here, but took them out and replaced them with large rocks to finish the pathway. It looks so much better. CMK

Lars, accessibility is pretty much catered to the individual disabled cook. You will find this is true when you talk to different people with disability. I had lived in this home & kitchen for 4 years. By the time I had the money to modify it, I knew exactly what I needed more and what I needed less. ie: A kitchen designer advised me to take some floor cabinets out to yield feet area. It would have been nice but my kitchen was so small that I needed cabinets more than I needed room for my feet. If I modified this kitchen right when I moved in, I would have done it all wrong. I wouldn't have had enough time to learn its unique spaces and surroundings (location of appliances, cooktop, sink, etc.). A full wheelchair accessible kitchen can be very expensive! I had looked into moveable wall cabinets or hardware and they were very pricey. I had so much kitchenwares that I needed to keep all the cabinets. Since I could kneel on my power wheelchair to give me height, I could reach the lower and middle shelves of the wall cabinets. As for the upper shelf, I put items that I use a few times a year. To reach that top shelf, I use a drafting chair. For everyday items, they're all stored in the floor cabinets and in the dishwasher. Yes, the DW makes a good cabinet too. I do use the DW daily but instead of taking all the clean dishes out and put them away every day, I just leave them in there. Take them out when use them and put them in the sink after usage. At the end of the day, they go back in the DW for a good shower. If there are still clean dishes in the DW, then, they get to be cleaned again. The plexiglass did not go over the DW. The lines you saw were scratches from the old wheelchair. I have since replaced the front panel of the DW and replaced the wheelchair. Since it's inexpensive to replace the panel, I figured it didn't need plexiglass. With the pullout shelves, kitchenwares became more accessible. However, the pullout were only done to the center shelves. We couldn't do much with the bottom/floor shelves. So, I store my items in rectangular shape baskets with handles. I can pull the baskets out and push them in like pullout shelves. That's something you may want to try. When talking to kitchen designers, one tip I give that I know can be very useful to all wheelchair cooks is to have 180-degree (or more) hinges on all floor cabinet doors. When the door is opened all the way, the door does not take any hallway spacing for wheelchair to move back and forth. My house was built in the mid 70's. At the time, these were the type of hinges installed on kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately, these useful hinges are no longer used in today new built homes. Or at least, in the new homes that I've seen around here. That wallpaper was not bad but it was too busy looking. It made the small kitchen and the small breakfast area looking even smaller. Decorating was even hard. The wallpaper was very intact after 30+ years. So, my handiman texturized it with plaster (to match with the rest of the house) and painted over with a neutral color. It was inexpensive to do and made a whole lot of difference. In the end, money dictated which modifications I could live with and which I couldn't live without.

Lazygardens - DH is now rolling his eyes because, in true gemini fashion, I've gone back and forth on this whole issue a million times. We had pretty much decided to do a white railing, then I read bronwynsmom's color lesson about white breaking up the view. I guess that I just need to decide which is more important, the view from the deck or the feeling of the deck being a little private room off the house/patio. I am OK with the look of a white railing when I am entering the garden from the path (off the driveway.) That said, the natural colors of a wood-tone railing would tie in the natural elements, not to mention the trim on the barn (which is what we see when sitting at the deck cafe table.) I guess the question is what do I think is more important - looking out or looking in. Thanks again for your input.

chisue, I agree that it would be a real double whammy to first find out you may have fathered a child over 30 years ago and then be asked if you'd be willing to donate a kidney if she is your daughter! My sister obviously wasn't thinking of how this could affect the other man when she named John as the father, if she was aware that he is not or might not be my niece's father. She'll have to prepare herself for any fallout if she ever has to contact the other guy. If I knew for certain that my mother was right, I would have confronted my sister years ago to explain the dangers of lying or not being certain about the paternity of your child, when you name someone as the biological father. But because my mother had no convincing evidence, whenever she brought up the subject to me, I told her she should only be expressing her concerns with my sister and no one else. I still don't know if my mother ever confronted my sister with her suspicions. Regardless, I've never considered myself to be 'keeping a secret' which implies to me that a known truth is kept from someone. I see it more as 'not spreading gossip' because there was no basis, other than suspicions based on 'looks.'