Fabulous, thanks! The info is greatly appreciated. Now I can rest easy. This is exactly why Gardenweb is just the best place on earth for these kinds of questions. :-)

I think what they may be getting at is that you don't need to cut group 3 down as hard as is routinely done. They do bloom on new wood, but new wood grows from anywhere along the vine. If you don't cut it low to the ground, the new wood will be higher up. That may be where you want it. Many people say 'ah, but then you get bare stems at the base...' Sometimes that doesn't matter, or you can cut a few stems lower to provide cover at the base, while leaving most of the new growth higher up. I regularly do not cut back group 3 hard. I just selectively trim some lower stems and leave a lot of the rest fairly long. If there are more/longer stems, there are more places for new growth to rise, making more places for flowers to emerge. More expert clematis growers pooh-pooh my approach but it works for me and I'll keep doing it. I planted a Betty Corning last year so I don't have any relevant experience with that one yet. I know it's supposed to be very vigorous and long-blooming. A few pictures of group 3s not hard pruned: Jackmani Superba that had never been cut back hard for seven years: It'll be interesting to see what that one does this year because it got cut back very hard last summer when we took out the New Dawn roses that shared the arbour with it. The clematis on the chainlink fence on the side is also a Jackmani Superba that gets cut back to the top of the fence (4') each year. I'm not sure what the clematises on the copper fence are - they were supposed to be Huldine, but clearly aren't! They are only two years old in that picture (2010) so are still a bit skimpy. I prefer not to have to do a lot of pruning so most of my clematises are group 2. Last summer we replaced the New Dawn rose swag with clematises. They are a mix of group 2 and 3 but I intend to treat all of them as light/no prune. It'll be a couple of years before I can see if that will work well or not. My experience to date has certainly led me to believe that one does not have to rigidly adhere to the pruning 'rules' to get a showy display and happy vines.

It looks like it may be an older style gas shut-off valve. I'd recommend having a local gas tech check out it and the fireplace before lighting it. JM$.02W

Too many lights pointing up at the walls of the house, and not enough lighting the path, marking the end of the drive, and showing off the branching in that big tree. Put the garage lights (marked in pink) on a motion detector so they turn on when you arrive. Four "locator" lights: the end of the drive, the start of the walk, and on either side of the steps. Change the uplight on the big tree into a downlight as high in the tree as you can get it. And add another uplight on the smaller tree. https://www.amplighting.com/led-downlights-moonlights/c/5