Every year our town has 2 big plant sales. First it is the Friendly Garden Club. Their sale is so big, they have to rent space at the fairgrounds for the sale. Last year I bought so much stuff I couldn't get it all in my car, I had to make a 2nd trip. It is all local stuff that grows well in our area. A week later the Historical group has a plant sale and I always buy a lot from them. The most I ever paid for a plant was $5 for a curly willow tree and another $5 for a Japanese maple. Most plants are just a dollar or two. I love those sales. I have 5 acres and I have lots of room. I will just have to start another bed or 2.

Here's a lovely crossvine that wants to eat the house! Don Juan rose...my camera didn't pick up the clear red of these blooms! A lovely Mock Orange...she has these everywhere Lilac Big pond Dark pink Azalea Pink Azalea..again, my camera did't capture the color Variegated lovely...Carrie, I can't remember what this was Purple Clematis Lavender Clematis Firecracker fern from Jim Bougainvilla that wants to take over the plant room! Giant split leaf philo Giant Ginger The donkeys...I believe this one is Winter I can't remember this one's name..for shame! I couldn't get them all in one picture but here are 3 big donkeys rescued from New Mexico Munchie time! This is *something* on a stick! Carrie, help me out with this one :-) All in all there was much more to see but the camera was forgotten in my pocket. I'll do better next time!

Hi Teresa - join us at the Diet Pals thread! I know only too well your dilema and after 3 attempts during the last 3 years and falling off my goal - I got extremely POd at myself. Rather than feel sorry for myself I turned all that anger into DETERMINATION. No excuses. I love the phrase 'nothing tastes as good as thin'. I am not striving for thin. I am striving for 'healthy' - something I can LIVE WITH. I count EVERYTHING I eat - good, bad or ugly. I pulled out my WW books, stared, did two weeks quietly to see if I had truely made a commitment to myself...came back to this forum and joined in and then subscribed to WW online to keep myself motivated and enjoy reading their articles. I 'treat' myself to slimming magazines and enjoy their motivation, I have and continue to reward myself not with food but with.... new shirts for work new earrings (lots of funky ones) new undies new 'interim' pants so I look great while losing (I bought the next size down as soon as I could squeeze into them and will take them in on the sewing machine until I can squeeze down further once these can't be taken down anymore without looking dorky. The new tops have really boosted my moral. New shoes to pamper my feet. Refreshed attitude. I feel better about myself. I know exactly where you are right now and I am reaching out to you hoping to catch your hand. We are in the same boat. Quite a few of us have the same goals right now, looking to shed about 30 - 40 pounds, some more/less. Please feel free to join us. If ya have a bad day - tell us all about it. We are here for you. If you fall off the wagon, don't beat yourself up. Talk to us. We are helping each other. Cheers, McPeg

I enjoyed reading this very much even though my experience of planned communities in Ontario is light years away from those in Alabama, and yet strangely familiar, if you understand my meaning. I've spent most of my adult life in these spec communities, getting progressively larger and more customizable versions. Currently, though part of a community, the home we are in has shed most of the internal telltale signs such as those one piece fibreglass tub/shower enclosures and prefab one size kitchens. (no disdain here just making an observation). I agree that the claustrophobic feeling of tight halls is awful and so spending money on opening them up or adding nearly invisible partitions (half walls, spindles, wide openings) is a really good idea. In my own house I incorporated the halls into the rooms in many cases, making the pathway a suggestion created my furniture, which I prefer. I have seen and lived alongside these front facing garage free homes and do enjoy the street scape more that way. But like you, question whether form is really following function here. Mass produced suburban homes, to me, can often look like an expressionless face, because they design them (at least in my part of Canada) with the family spaces all in the back and the front reserved for lesser used formal and work spaces. Maybe that is an age old design, but the with more uniform facades it can leave communities feeling cold. Walking down the street and being presented with 2 sealed garage doors, and a dark office can make you wonder if the armageddon has come and you missed the signs. I think a viable solution is something I've seen more called 'the widelot'. Which encourages the houses to be wide rather then deep. And backyards shallow but long, across the back of the home. That might help change the landscape.