Deanie - I'm with the keep it inside and love it as is crowd....that little window has survived nearly 100 years of who-knows-what. Think of what a delightful treasure it is and will continue to be for future generations! That being said, I did see a lovely treatment in a magazine several years ago and it may be the solution for you. This homeowner had a rather large oval window fron her grandmother's childhood home. She took mirror squares and attached them to her wall, used molding to create a picture frame and hung her beloved window in front of it. Pat

Hey Joe! Thank you for that list. NASA is one I haven't been to since childhood. We should go out that way sometime. Blue Bell is in Brenham and we toured it a couple years ago. Problem (for me) with that tour is it never changes. Once you've done it, you've done it. Of course there is ice cream at the end, but really, you pay for it since they charge admission (and I can--and do--buy Blue Bell any day of the week at home). Anyway, I do like it but I think we want to go someplace we haven't been before, or at least someplace that might have something new to offer us. I'm thinking maybe we will head up to Brenham, but instead go see the mini horses again and also Antique Rose Emporium. Last time we were there the hubby and kids stayed in the car and I felt rushed the whole time I browsed. I think they might find it somewhat interesting. We also found a little swingset and a cemetary over by the Old Baylor ruins (right up the road in Independence) so maybe we'll just repeat that and eat our lunches there. Anyone know of anything else interesting near Independence?

Maybe Olive Branch, or Dry Sage. I am currently working finding a shade of green for my basement. I just learned of Dry Sage so I need to try a sample of that. From online pics I am on the fence so we will see! Forewarning, anything green or yellow is SUPER hard to figure out, dont be discouraged with how long it takes, and dont settle for one you dont like otherwise you will just have to repaint it in the future anyhow! Also, stay away from bold/bright colors with green or yellow. Green is a mix of yellow and blue. If you have warm lights (yellow) then the green will be more green. The fluorescence lighting they use in a lot of stores are too bright and the wrong color. It adversely affects how the swatch looks both in color and in brightness. Brown = warm Yellow = warm Blue = cool Your brown/gold countertop would complement a green that is warmer. Hope this helps! Edit: Pic below is BM olive branch. Other colors that are good: BM Dry Sage https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e3/2c/5e/e32c5eeba20036db34bfe6c92e5c418a.jpg (couldnt figure out how to upload more than one pic) BM baby turtle (lighter than olive branch) BM flowering herbs (lighter than baby turtle) BM nantucket gray (darker than olive branch) BM hampshire gray (darker than nantucket) This post was edited by Vith on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 16:33

I appreciate the comments and concerns about maintenance, and the following is NOT a rant, but rather my attempt at clarifying the specifics of this site. These are things I've thought and talked about with the caretaker. I first approached him about this back in early Summer. Being recognized as a historic site by the state of NJ, they do get quite a few hands working on keeping things up. Volunteers from Rutgers University have been coming by this Autumn to clean, prime, and repaint the fence. The small water feature was donated by a church member, and installed by the caretaker. All the plants you see in there already were donated -- and in many cases planted -- by church members. They get together for leaf raking and shredding in Autumn. Brian, the caretaker, has shared with me his desire to create something really beautiful, but he's limited by cost. He's been expanding beds, but doesn't have much more than divisions of church members' plants to fill them. Since he lives on-site, this is effectively his back yard, and I saw him out there almost daily during the growing season -- he also maintains a small veggie garden for the church which I didn't photograph. [The church is across the street from my job, and down the street from the Starbucks from where I collect used coffee grounds daily.] I told him that a few old roses could make good "anchor shrubs" around which he can continue to spread the companion plants he already has in abundance. This is not an empty stretch of land that some people "say" they'd like improved but don't do anything about it -- and this is why I took interest in it. When I was in Buffalo, I was approached by my "block club" about helping to put together a proposal for a city grant to buy plants for the empty space at the end of the street. We did get a few volunteers for helping to put it together, but I did much of the work by myself. As my free time started to shrink from classes and a busier work schedule, "maintenance" became me going down there once a week to pull weeds and pick up garbage. Once things were planted, the attitudes I kept hearing from non-participating neighbors about how "the college kids will ruin it" morphed into "no one will take care of it" -- and it was the latter which became true. So in essence, I lived on a block full of people complaining about how the neighborhood looked crappy and no one was doing anything about it, yet they themselves were reticent to make the first step -- or even keep things going after others got things started for them. I lived there for three years, and became well aware -- as they knew I am a "downstater" myself -- of that "blame everyone else" attitude for their deep-seated Rust Belt woes. What I at first thought would be an example of the "Stone Soup" story coming to life and igniting a desire for further improvement became an example of how throwing some money at something isn't enough to make a change -- you need people willing to keep it going. But this isn't what I find at this location. Instead, I find someone with the desire, energy, and know-how to make something beautiful here, but is limited by funds. Yes, there are plenty of roses I can't grow in my yard which I'd like to see in this garden, but this isn't going to be "my garden". I'd like to see them there because they'd be appropriate there, and the caretaker agrees. As for tree maintenance, as far as I can tell none is performed, other than raking leaves. I will speak to Brian in more detail about having roses up in them, but he has already expressed interest when I asked if he'd want that. In the meantime, I don't have any roses on-hand right now that will be planted there. I do have an order for Spring, but that's it. I also have my own "inventory" from which I can propagate, as well as whatever I can propagate from the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, and whatever I can get donated. If it turns out I have too much, any "leftovers" will go back to the HRF. So, in the end, this will be about me saying to Brian "Hey, I have this, and I think it'd work over there....want it? Oh, and what about putting this one over here...it'll get this big eventually, so you'll need that much space." He's really the designer. I'm just sharing my rose info with -- and trying to "make plants happen" for -- him. :-) ~Christopher