Chelone, the cat's name is Lily, sister (in spirit) to Tiger, an orange male and the coolest cat who ever walked the face of the earth. Lily is more normal cat, Tiger thinks he is a person. He knows more people in the neighborhood than I do, and frequents most of their homes. There is also a third orange long-hair named Molly. Orange cats have the best temperaments IME. Thanks for the compliments - - it's nice to hear after all that sweat I invested! All of the materials used were found on my property except for the stone dust, which I got at a discount through a friend. I have to say right now I actually love the look of the walkway, while I think the patio is just "ok". I do prefer the irregular stones, impractical as they may be. The patio stones are a bit out of line since I was just eyeballing them and then I had friends come in to help finish who weren't as picky as me! As for Poor Martha (as she has come to be known in the neighborhood), my next step if the town historian doesn't call back and take over is to go to the Bureau of Vital Statistics (I think that's what it's called) in Hartford and search for that date of death. If there is a Martha, well, Bingo. If not, and there are one or two other people with that DOD, I can check which cemetery they were buried in and see if they have stones (and whether they are replacement stones). If there is no match that way, I might be out of luck because that means the stone was not local. In that case I would just beg the historical society or a cemetery to take it. The woman from the Connecticut Gravestone Network also said she can search ancestors.com because she has a membership. So we'll see if she comes up with anything. For now Poor Martha has been moved to the patio, where I'm sure she's doing a great job of freaking out the mailman when he walks up to my house everyday. Hopefully he has figured out that she was unearthed during the walkway reno!

Gorgeous sconce Kate -- Thanks for posting the maker. I also did some quick Googling and found that Restoration Hardware now has some Crystal and Nickel sconces. Not that lovely, but also probably not that pricey... Here is a link that might be useful: Direct link to subject sconce

purrus, fascinating...you have found one of the few areas in the country, I suspect, where older upper-middle-class artifacts don't get snatched up immediately. I thought to myself when I asked that I wouldn't then plan a trip to your area, but now that you say you found the Heywood-Wakefield for $70...I didn't think that was possible anymore. Would pay for the flight in itself :) (JUST KIDDING--don't worry, your sources are safe from me!) Seriously, if I were you, though, I'd be looking on this as a time to jump at these deals, large and small (not nec. all furniture -- look in the glass, ceramics, art sections too). You've found a special area at a special time and you are doing the background work to deserve it. Go for it and amass a bit of an inventory! There's one website composed solely of what two guys bought in one storage unit (or something like that) -- turned out to be thousands upon thousands of dollars of Murano lamps. A rather comfy financial-cushion-maker. Imagine if they'd turned the purchase down. So go for it and and then share pics of it with us, of course :)

Hi There are several varieties plus many hybrids . I hope the one for your terrarium is a dwarf form.Many get 8/10 feet tall and of equal width lol. Some are almost everblooming often having more flowers than leaves while others develop large heads but less of them. There is also a type with a wonderful aroma .. Would think the dwarf form would be good for a terrarium if it gets enough light ?? Good luck gary