Here are a few pictures taken this evening. The sun came out and it is quite pleasant following a mainly murky, rainy day. IâÂÂve got hostas in pots left, right and center clustered in groups around the house where they receive some light to stir them up, whilst the overhangs and decks shelter them from the rain (I live in a temperate rainforest region). Most are showing to some degree. The usual suspects (Liberty, Sagae, Montana A. Marginata etc.) I expected, but Raspberry Sundae and Marrakech surprised me in rising so early out of the blocks! Tiddisolo, that is quite the parade of hosta troops you have lined up there. IâÂÂm trying to contain my container community, so I am beginning to pass on âÂÂpensioned plantsâ to pastures new (friendâÂÂs gardens) - whilst the battle-scarred and the weary â¦get weeded out! Several of your pots are brimming with pips. TheyâÂÂll make for full flavoured drinks! Do you try to âÂÂmanageâ them any way so that they stay vigorous without needing to be repotted too frequently? Whatever youâÂÂre doing, or not doing for that matter, it seems to be working! BC

I realy enjoyed clerking. I learned alot. It of course rained for several days upto and including the day of the show with high winds so roses in my garden were experiencing much bruising of petals and botrytis was on the rampage... so many of the roses I had planned to take didn't make it to the show. I still tend to cut my roses too tight or too late. Most were still too tight the day of the show and nothing I did would help them to open up. I think most of the exhibitors in my area cut when the first out row of petals are perpendicular to the center of the bloom... but when I try that the centers are blown by the time I arrive at the show. I just need to practice with the timing more. But still I did end the day with the following: HTs and Grandifloras - Antique Brass - Red Ribbon Black Magic - Yellow Ribbon Gypsy Curiosa - Yellow Ribbon Hot Princess - Blue Ribbon Love - Blue Ribbon Superstition - Red Ribbon (oh and Hocus Pocus was D'Qed because the judge thought it was the "other" Hocus Pocus and wrote wrong class should have been Grandiflora on the tag.... I wasn't with that judge so I didn't know about it or I would have showed them in my CRL that there are TWO Hocus Pocus Roses and YES one IS a Florabunda!) Minis - Bee's Knees - Blue Ribbon Glowing Amber - Red Ribbon Hot Tamale - Honorable Mention Special Exibition Fragrant Rose Competition Mr. Lincoln - Blue Ribbon (mine lost the trophy to another Mr. Lincoln that was more open...almost full blown and therefore more fragrant) Novice Rose Competition HT - Raspberry Swirls - Trophy mini - Glowing Amber - Red Ribbon Challenge Class Three HT Blooms of one Variety in one vase - Gypsy Curiosa Red Ribbon English Box - HT (2 of each type HT) Superstition, Tickled Pink, Hot Princess - Yellow Ribbon Rose in a Bowl - HT Black Magic - Red Ribbon Rose Display in a Calico Can 11- 15 blooms - Blue Ribbon Minatures 3 of a kind in one vase - Glowing Amber- Honorable Mention Minature in a Bowl - Bee's Knees - Red Ribbon Miniature English Box - Glowing Amber, Bee's Knees, Erin Alonso - Blue Ribbon Overall I was very happy with my day and left with a very nice Crystal Vase

This is so interesting. I have had a Maytag double oven stove (3) in my last houses. Love them and worth the money since I'm single and really don't cook large meals. So the small top oven is used constantly, plus it has a toaster option and was able to eliminate one more "something" on my counter. Large dinners work great having the two ovens for different temp requirements at the same time. I won't ever be without one wherever I go, unless they show up with more issues like this glass thing. Thought I was the only one with oven window dust. This never happened to me 5 years ago with the same stove model...and new. I have to look at that dust every day and is the only thing in the kitchen that I see. Wonder what they did to pose this problem in the new design? The fact that Maytag was bought by GE? It is odd that many of the designs by them are having the same issue. Just looked at my ovens and the openings are quite large. With the heat that occurs when self cleaning I'd wonder if any of that dust would catch fire. Thanks for the link, was posted 4 years ago which does say something about the manufacturing changing. The response from GE was worthless though. There are a couple of things learned with a smooth top stove. One is use a razor blade to clean off tough stuff. It doesn't scratch the surface and doesn't need a holder, just gently run it across the hard cooked leftovers. The other is to gauge your cooking needs, use the time a burner takes to cool down for part of the cooking. Opted for a convection micro wave combination once and never could get the darn thing to cook right. It baked too, which did well, but apparently I'm just not a convection user. Plus using it meant there was no microwave available during cooking. A couple of years ago I saw a hint to use simple dishwashing soap for everything. Even windows. You wouldn't believe how easy things clean up and my windows sparkle. Very inexpensive. Moc, thanks for the stainless steel tips. I do use BKF. The mixture sounds interesting and will try it. I do get rid of scratches with wet sand paper used for auto paint detail. Doesn't take the stains away though. Be careful using drain cleaners on stainless steel. It has taken me 2 years to get rid of the spots from this stuff. And once the green bottle (can't remember the name) of crud remover totally ruined a new faucet from splashes. Clean up with a tooth brush works just as well on a normal basis of cleaning. Happy gardening to all. Nice to know we have common inside/outside passions.

I like the bm cappucino, is there something close to it at sherwin williams? My husband knows the one guy at our local store so we've been pretty faithful to their product. Thanks for the kind woods justretired, I appreciate it! Funcolors, thank you for the insight on the primer. It's definitely not builder's white. We primed in preparation for paint but then life happened and we never got around to it. I'll need to check with our painter and SW and figure out if we need to re-prime. I appreciate the color suggestion. I would like to keep away from the orange tones. I know it goes well with the floor, we painted our family room tatami tan and it goes sooo orange in the daylight, it just doesn't work for me. My friend came over who is really good with paint colors. She mentioned since the top of our table and the front of the hutch and buffet has gray trim, we should go potentially go that route. I've never considered gray, what do you think? I've taken an additional photo to show the trim line. I kind of like SW sandy ridge. Or am I seriously color blind? I feel like I could tie the gray in with the rug/window treatments but I need another accent color in here as well. I am so lost. thank you all for taking the time. You are too kind.