The forums were down for some twenty four hours here. I was sad!

THIS is the way your mother made her garden grow. She traded thriving plants with friends and neighbors. Which is exactly what we'll be doing at the New England Plant Swap this Spring. Sharing is the best part of gardening. When a plant does well enough here in New England, others want to know about it. They'd like even more to HAVE some of it. If you haven't been to a good, old-fashioned plant swap, you're in for a treat. Pot up your excess prized plants to share. Load up your bounty and head to beautiful Adams Farm at 999 North St. in Walpole MA on June 2, 2012 at 9 am. There, you will meet other, friendly, local gardeners with their booty for sharing. It's simple, free and fun for all. For each plant you bring, you can take a plant from someone else. All the details are at our web site: http://www.newenglandplantswap.org or we may be reached at info@newenglandplantswap.org. We look forward to seeing you there. Your mother would be proud. In fact, BRING your mother and other friends who like to share. Here is a link that might be useful: 2012 New England Plant Swap

Steph, I hope you are recovering well from your surgeries and that they went well for you. Eld, did I know you by another name? That was another thing that happened when Houzz took over - we did not know who we were talking to anymore! Steph, is MObound somebody I know by a different name, too? Here is the big bathroom done. I think you saw it already, Steph.Wheelchair accessible vanity I designed with pull-out storage in the left leg, a drawer, and shelf storage for the toilet area in the right leg. Wheelchair accessible shower. We took 8 to 12 inches from the bedroom nest door to get it this wide. Wood shelves where the old med cab was, and two new med cabs that hold all the stuff for grooming. The other end of the shower and the new cupboard. Because we moved the shower wall, the bedroom closet that sits behind the new cupboard became extra deep. So I stole some back to make a cupboard. The closet now has 12" deep shelves above the cupboard and behind the clothes hanging rods. I do upper and lower rods in my closets. We widened the bathroom door and three bedroom doors to 36", so two walls in the hall had to be moved to allow this. Those pictures come later, first I have ones of our bedroom. It still had wallpaper from the previous owners (blue striped at bottom, floral band at chair rail height, with textured white paper at top) and ratty blue carpet. Jim took that up, screwed the floor to stop squeaks, leveled the floor, and laid down this nice off-white cork for me. They stripped the wallpaper, fixed the walls, and painted. I had them install these lights over our closets so we could see our clothes better. The sconces are ceramic and painted with the trim paint. The lights are LED. The room door here got moved when widened. See the little jog-outs from the other two walls at the ends of the diagonal walls? The old walls came straight out from there, so that it formed a short wall going from the wall on the right, It met another short wall that started at the other end of the diagonal wall and came straight at us. The room door was on the side that faced the wall on the left of the picture. I had a small bookcase on the wall that would have faced us. So a big triangle about 3 ft x 3 ft was added to the interior of our bedroom This rug was one I bought for my "bachelorette" living room when I finished college at age 34, after being divorced. I had a pretty floral chintz sofa, rose swivel rocker and blue and cream plaid chair and this rug tied it all together. The sofa got old and worn and the rug got cleaned and put away for 15 years. I have always planned to bring it up from the basement and use it here, if we ever got our bedroom done. It fits well sideways and our bed sits on it under these windows. The bedroom that got made smaller is next to ours and it is now a violet color called "Plum's the Word" I am in the midst of setting that room up as my exercise and craft room. Here is part of that room when it was serving as our bedroom during renovations. This room also got the cork flooring.Here is a photo showing the new cork flooring up against the older linoleum that is in the rest of the house. Here are the doors! from left to right, bathroom pocket door, Plum Room door, our bedroom door, and linen closet door. We can't see the smallest bedroom's door that is to the left of the bathroom. That is a new light fixture. And finally, we have the bathroom door on the right, the smallest bedroom door in front of us, and the hall to the foyer. This bedroom lost a 3 ft x 3 ft triangle of space when the door got widened, This wall used to be perpendicular to the bathroom next to it. See the corner? Yes, when you enter my house, you leave the foyer and you either turn right to go toward the kitchen and family room, or you end up in the bedrooms. I can stand next to my bed and see the front door, now! There is a living room off the foyer that serves us as Bill's office/music room/library. So, these are the last of the renovations. Other than having a shed built, there is nothing left to do to my house!

Havn't heard of Snapshot, will have to look that up, although I can usually keep up with the weeds in the beds by hand. Took stock during a little stroll around on this beautiful afternoon. The irises are early, and looks like the herbaceous peonies will be, too. Cut a few lilac blossoms to bring inside, and a few hellebore blossoms for an Ikebana arrangement. Planted onion and leek sets and some wintersown lettuce seedlings. Wintersown milkweed is ready for transplant. The October-planted garlic is looking great; probably will have an early harvest this year. Pulled more c. incisa, and deadheaded tulip and daffodils. Water in the pond is just over 55*, so the koi are due for a feeding. The canna rhizomes look like they fared well over the winter, will have to get those planted ASAP. My spirea has grown amazingly, too ... a little too much, actually; I've been thinking about replacing it.