Lorna, have you ever heard of using those wooden skewers (like for grilling) in pots? I don't have the right type of roses to use canes. The squirrels bring the nuts up onto the deck to use the hard surface for cracking open the shells! A lot of what has been mentioned will work here... My petunias seed out and I've got a lot of seedlings coming up. I have a lot of rosemary, thyme and lavender. The bees do flock to the lavender, though. (DS1 carries an epi-pen) I have 3 fargesia clumping bamboo in the ground, so those work here, too. They are difficult to find for a cheap price. One of my providers had these and I snatched them up to try. There aren't any on his availability list so far this year. Notice the unsightly heat vent on the back of the chimney? I'm thinking of hanging a "decorative" bucket over that during the summer since we won't be using the fireplace inside. I just got a bronze thermometer and bronze clock for outdoors -- large, round, "iron" looking. I'm trying to decide if I want to hang those on the screened porch or out on the side of the house by the pool. I must confess that I was against DH's pool idea (since it had to be above ground). However, I found that I enjoyed it immensely for the short time we could use it last year (it was completed in August). It's a salt water filter and maintenance is so simple. The water chemistry was balanced every week without any adjustment after the first testing and correction...pretty amazing to me.

I was so excited I posted in All Caps!!

Sorry, I should have explained. I posted this article earlier about my DD and DSIL but at the time there were no pictures. That's my DSIL in the Uncle Sam hat. Linda

Trish, that is a great thing to do!! I'm sure Duffy will enjoy meeting everyone as much as they will in meeting him. I thought of you recently. One of my neighbors recently got a St. Bernard. A nine month old boy from our humane society! They were there looking around and saw Cooper and couldn't leave him there. He is a big goofy boy too! It's wonderful that they saved him. He is giant!! Good luck in your therapy work with Duffy!