Hi Lindie, I'm Tiffany. I visit gardenweb most days, but not always this particular forum. Just depends on my mood and time available. I'm in AL, just north of FL, moved here in 07 from OH and absolutely love it. Nobody is in a hurry, and there's something blooming all year. We often spend Saturdays or Sundays at the beach, or swimming in a nearby cold spring or spring-fed lake. We like camping, inviting tons of people over for a BBQ, exploring dirt roads to see what we can see, fishing, drive-in movies, canoeing, sitting around the fire - ours or somebody else's, kites... I've been to most states east of the Mississippi, Canada, Europe, but am also a homebody most of the time. I also like gardening (obviously,) cooking, cross-stitch and the gridded/geometric art associated with it, occasionally rearranging my seashell collection, reading about any type of fiction and non-fiction from areas of interest, driving my car on a beautiful day when time doesn't matter, watching the sun set, scrabble, and dancing if nobody is looking. I used to like skiing but there is no snow here, and hiking but am too afraid of encountering a poisonous snake to do that here. My daughter went to college this year, about an hour away, and I miss her but am glad she's doing well and having fun. I've met a very nice man here and am totally in love with him and his dog, and they moved in with my son and I earlier this year. He's smart, funny, fixes things, and does cool stuff like making a fire pit, bat house, tilling up a veggie patch, and mowing with the bag so the grass and leaves can go in the compost and on the beds. The fenced-in yard, central air, much bigger kitchen, and much more light from windows are why we decided on my house instead of his. There are a ton of lizards, skinks, squirrels, birds, and geckos that live here, an occasional armadillo, and various neighborhood cats and dogs that come to the yard to visit our dog. We've had a few hummingbirds and a ton of butterflies this year, they are always visiting the zinnias, lantana, basil, and plumbago. About a year before I met him, my oven quit working right - it would come on but not turn off when it reached the desired temp, it just kept getting hotter and hotter. Since I hardly ever used it, and 3 of the stove burners still worked, I didn't try to have it fixed or replaced. I was already much more of a toaster oven user, especially in the summer, when the thought of turning on anything that would create so much more heat is just unbearable! When he moved in here, his oven was one of the benefits (major or minor, depending on time of day and what I cooked for dinner - LOL!) It's just a basic one with coiled electric burners and it has a self-cleaning feature but hopefully that would never be needed. There's no dishwasher here, besides me, so it's rare that I would cook any meal without foil. And I've always lined my ovens with foil, and always put a sheet of it or a baking...

Thanks, I am excited about how it looks since I was so nervous it would be too much that I almost had them install it as an accent behind the bar area which meant it would have to be made into a long pattern. I really wanted my island slab in Before I decided about putting it behind my cooktop. 'twas not to be with the crazy timing of my workers; so I took a deep breath and said ,"go for it"! I'm now basically wiped out with all the decisions. I am really on my own with all of these decisions since my DH has abdicated any responsibility ( except for the all important money aspect). He gave me a good budget if it only covered the kitchen but somehow it needs to cover a face lift of most of the house, including ALL of the flooring. I hired a KD for 5 hours as a sounding board for my vision of my kitchen. she gave me a few sketches with no dimensions. Beyond that, she's been available by text.... Hoping we'll be finished with the kitchen next week. My DH has been awesome and uncomplaining throughout. I guess I am one lucky girl. It's been sort of a dream to finally try out all of these ideas floating around in my head for the past 12 years in a kitchen I never liked. Hope it turns out . A fun adventure that I am so enjoying sharing and learning from all the GWers here. Thanks! . Heres Another shot. The mullions above will have antiqued mirrors.... No wonder I have been afraid to post photos. There's a lot of "clowns in my kitchen" And i hate clowns! But I love beautiful things that appeal to my eye.

Give up? Okay.... This is the seed cluster that appears at the end of a tall stalk of grass. When you're not looking through a macro lens it appears stiff and brush-like--like a back scrubber, Jasdip. :-) I'm not sure I described it all that well, so perhaps when the lawn dries off I'll go out and see if I can photograph one from a normal distance.

GM - your questions and musings are contributions to the community. When you ask a question the replies offer an opportunity for all of us to learn something, and we all enjoy what you and others share about your/their growing experience. Al