Marcia if you could get them established in FL while you are there they might be able to withstand neglect over the summer. Bring some rooted cuttings down with you and get them right in the ground. When do you head down and when do you come back? I'm surprised you aren't already there. Unfortunately FL has experienced some unusually cold temps over the past few years, even in So. FL. I spend time in West Palm and Boca every winter and recall several nights with temps at or near freezing. I remember a couple years ago weeks and weeks with way below normal temps. Everything looked like %$#@ down there and a lot was lost. Normally you get a day or two of cold temps in So FL but that was something like a month straight of cold. I couldn't believe I had to shop for winter cloths down there. Could you try a layer of mulch during the cold? Something thick but with a lot of air pockets, like crushed leaves? You could circle the brug with some chicken wire and fill in the space between the stem and wire with the leaves. It would also prevent the soil from drying out too quickly and break down and enrich the soil. Are there any year round residents near your house that you could pay to water the brugs once a week over the summer? Good luck.

Are you growing your figs in the ground? My figs are dying off. Think it is nematodes. Schomburgkias are very popular in Florida. Snowbirds can attach them to trees and forget about them. Are you growing yours in full sun? Our OS has a nursery who specializes in them. I'm tempted to give them a try on a large Date Palm growing in the front of my house. Full sun all day. Jane

Nice! Congratulations. Well, you want a more cottagey look, you both paint, and those walls are soooo in need of something...hmmm, what am I trying to think of...? Staining or painting the cabinets, as Daisychain suggests, would be high on my list, but it almost always is. Induction should be all over the place eventually, but my first thought was actually even more basic--you'll probably need a place for a lobster pot. It was especially fun to find your post because we also just became future snowbirds, but in VERY different style! We visited friends on Tampa Bay in March, thought we were back in California, looked around for a habitable fishing shack (for DH), and ended up buying a 1962 10'-wide "mobile home" (actually Ricky and Lucy's Long, Long Trailer) that backs to a bit of estuary on a miniscule scrap of land set among 100 other snowbirders'. The living room's actually double-wide with windows all around thanks to an extension, but MY new kitchen is about 5x5, and my lobster pot probably gets shoved under the trailer. Our covered patio's nice though, and we have a little dock that's growing a nice crop of mussels. We've also yet to try it out. Walls are dark real wood veneer, and these are the only cabinets I'll never paint because they're finished to match the walls, but the rest of the decor is 1970s indestructible plastic fabrics we're going to live with indefinitely because they're in good, immaculate condition. Anyone remember furniture salesmen demonstrating how you could jab a pen right through the back of a couch and it wouldn't show? Yup, the same orange flowers that went so well with olive green. :) In the meantime, though, I'm also musing and fantasizing--about washable white slipcovers and a few little pieces picked up at the monthly art fair across a nearby bridge.

I went with the 2 inch, and they are holding up pretty well, but not perfectly. The string on the right side of the largest blind has slipped or stretched, so it sits a little lopsided, and I have to carefully adjust the blinds on either side, so it looks reasonably level. It probably isn't hard to fix, but I haven't yet. They've stayed clean, and I like the look. My husband and I are both tall, so I didn't realize until after the fact that, in my house, these manual ones wouldn't be practical for anyone shorter than 5'-6" or so. While I LOVE the functionality, when it's time to replace them, I will probably go with plantation shutters, which just seem less complicated.