The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it. "What is REAL ?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have been carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." "I suppose you are Real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. "The Boy's Uncle made me real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always." The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams I know, I know. It's about relationships, not landscapes. But I think the Skin Horse understands a thing or two. Perhaps the obvious answer is that you can't mechanically engineer age. We tend to buy a home, live in it for 3 or 4 or 7 years, and move on. For most of us there's no sense of legacy or history. We manufacture a stage set, not having the patience or the time, or dare I say it the love, to tell our own story in the places we live. Engineered "age" would always be engineered. It wouldn't be real, and I would know it. Exquisite form, craft, material, design can be appreciated in themselves and more so, if they function beautifully in their setting. They gain "age" as they have their own stories to tell. I guess I'd want to change the question. I'd ask what the Rabbit asks, "What is real?" Very, very "fuzzy" thinking this morning No practical use whatsoever. Wellspring

Also, you might consider Chamblee's Roses. They are shipped in gallon pots and are more mature than roses of many own-root vendors. Chamblee's selection is not as extensive as some, but they do have nice roses. Another vendor with larger own-root plants is High Country Roses, though their selection is aimed at colder climates. Still, you might find some you like there; I have. Amity Heritage Roses used to sell the largest own-root bands around, just gorgeous plants, but I don't think they are currently active. It didn't look like it to me when I last visited their website. Probably there are others, but I'm only mentioning ones I have purchased from myself. My personal favorite vendor is Vintage, and I buy the majority of my roses there, but you do have to mature them in a gallon pot yourself. Rosefolly

Here is a picture with Salvia Victoria Blue in one of my potted planters that I made. It's in the middle. Around it is a pink verbena so just ignore the outside leaves and look at the leaves of the plant in the middle. I made some real progress today. Planted my two flats of zinnias out front and that really helps make that entire area look much better. That slope in front was just too empty and needed plants. I would have loved to have done it sooner but was waiting to get the last of the daylilies planted. They weren't shipped until this week and I got them Thursday. I would have wanted them weeks and weeks sooner. At least it's done now. Then I also planted my Mexican Sunflowers, which I had started as seeds in some pots. And also planted Four O'Clocks I had potted that I also started myself. So the array of pots and flats sitting here needing planting is slowely going down. Still more to do though as I have to plant my poppies that I started from seed in pots and that big High Country Gardens order that came the other day and I haven't even thought about getting to do anything with as yet. Then there was lots of watering to do as everything I have been planting now for weeks has to be kept watered until it settles in. i have those little Lupines I planted yesterday, which I gave a big soak to. Plus I have been watering those little (and I mean LITTLE TINY) Geum plants twice a day but I don't know if I will be able to keep them alive. They had almot no roots and are so small, so they dry out fast.

I have never had a subscription to a cooking magazine - the only subscription I did have was to Illuminatrice, an Italian lighting magazine, and that was at work. The only magazines that I buy at the newsstand are Italian design magazines, some of which are quite expensive (I used to buy men's Italian fashion magazines, when I was more fashionable), and I have saved every one of them. I also buy Architectural Digest, Interiors, Veranda, etc. when they publish photos of my furniture designs, and I keep these also. My old magazine collection takes up one shelf in my garage, and I do refer to the Italian magazines from time to time for inspiration. I do collect clutter, but books and magazines are not part of that. I have one shelf of cookbooks in the hall next to the kitchen. I once bought a magazine on Feng Shui, but I decided that the magazine was clutter and got rid of it. I spent last week-end trying to declutter my bedroom because I also bought a new mattress that will be delivered tomorrow, and I want my room to look nice. Yesterday I made a runner with the fabric left over from making new drapes for my bedroom (to be able to block out light) and put it on the wide dresser beside my bed. The dresser on the other side of my bed has a runner I made from fabric left over from when I made my bedspread. I find that decorating or trying to coordinate rooms helps me get rid of clutter. However, I did put a bunch of books on the wide dresser using bookends. I don't have room for another bookcase. If I need to get more books, I will get rid of old ones that I have. Lately I have been buying and reading books on Anthropology and early human evolution. I read them at night to help me get to sleep, and so it takes a while to get through them. I cannot stand to watch Hoarders, but I will watch Clean House if I need inspiration to declutter. Making my house and yards look as beautiful as possible is one of my top priorities, and this helps me let go of clutter. I haven't gotten rid of it altogether, however, and so I think it is an on-going process. I have a hard time getting rid of old clothes that no longer fit, and I am convinced that sometime in the near future, they will fit again. Anyway, that is my goal. They may be terribly out of style or inappropriate by that time, however. Getting rid of old clothes is my biggest problem. One of the things I came across yesterday while decluttering was a printout from a Cooking Forum thread from 2005 that I started asking what was in everyone's freezer. It included a post by Ann_T on pitahaya (I happened to have some in my freezer at the time) that she had copied and pasted, bad Google translation and all. The translation was hysterically funny. Lars