I do believe that we can very strongly enhance moods and mitigate moods we want to get rid of. I thought I said that pretty clearly, but a lot of people seem to think I said that we can't affect moods at all. What I did try to say and what I do believe, is that we can not create a mood from scratch. Maro, if you relax through gardening, I would suggest that the physical motion, sense of accomplishement, or the distraction relaxes you from your description. That is much different than having someone enter a garden and having their mood changed by what they experience by being in it. It is, however, creating a place through design that gives you an activity which you do with the purpose of gaining a certain experience. Anyone remember the three things that I mentioned were taught to me - activity, experience, requirement by a very brilliant professor (James Kuska). It took him a half year of beating us over the head with it until only some of us got it. Activity = gardening Desired Experience = relaxation Requirement = x SF of garden space, full sun for most of the day,... Relaxation is the mitigation of the stress. In order to relax in a garden you need to have brought stress to the garden in the first place, I think. (dark vs. light, Eric) If the cops chase the violent criminal through a well designed peace garden, does he give up? If you are sad and blue and sit in a beautiful colorful quiet garden that feels private and to yourself, do you feel better? Of course. Are you completely elated and turned around completely by it? I don't think so. The design enhanced a littlebit of your good feelings and reduced some of the bad. It did not create a mood from scratch. Planning activities that you already know evoke certain feelings are a great place to start. Don't dismiss the actions of looking, smelling, hearing, ... as not being activities. Some activities are very passive, but they are important activities. The physical landscape that you build will effect the experiences that people get out of whatever activity they do. Predefining what that experience should be certainly frames what the physical landscape should be like to attain that experience. Does that make sense to anyone, but me?

It's true - we are desperate for the sun.......we immediately flock to a public park, get down to our vests and stretch out like basking sharks (in March, if we get a chance). I am old enough to recall liberty bodices - sort of felted undergarments which we wore from November through to Easter. Melissa, the soil, when I get to it, is truly remarkable....the only thing is the acres of ivy crossing and recrossing every inch of ground.....along with the vicious brambles (although mulching head of the brushcutter is sorting that). Oh yeah, those nettles which cover every inch between the ivy vines.........it's going to be a long job.....but as soon as the spade cuts through the top layer of vine and root, it sinks into the earth like a huge downy pillow - tantalisingly out of reach but there still, waiting for many hands to start the ivy pulling and rakeover (off again later today and taking my boys (men) to help. Nik, we are all turning our eyes east to Europe these days and shivering in the chill winds of emerging fascism. We have 2 strands of this in the UK - the crazy but delusional UKIP (no immigrants...and a whole slew of other, less publicised goals) and the horrific coalition of thugs and hate-mongers which comprises the EDL and assorted racist bullies.Truly hope all is well for you and yours. Daisy, I surely will take pics....but 2500, while it sounds a lot, is actually hardly anything when spread around 5 acres. With an eye to establishing colonies, the bulbs have been planted in groups of 100 or so, spread around the woodland - it will be a start but I expect to be waiting at least 5 years before we really have something worth looking at.

Thanks everybody! I meant to start answering you guys on Saturday, but got way-layed; then Sunday spent the day trying to finish up some more of the photo-tweaking and that took ALL day. Then, it had let up raining a bit, so I went out and took more pics of what still looked decent. That added over 100 more to be tweaked. Geez. I'm kinda glad it rained all day today so I couldn't get out to take pics today!! LOL Carol, you are so right about us needing summer. We need that sunlight to get out of the winter funk! I do take Vitamin D plus lots of other supplements. As far as a bush shot of NIGHT OWL goes... unfortunately there's not a whole lot to see! It's a whimpy twiggy thing that only puts out a bloom every so often, and certainly isn't much of a climber. I think mine is barely 3ft tall after 3yrs. Jackie, I can understand rain into June, but freezing cold temps is just too weird. Hmm... my VEILCHENBLAU doesn't look like it's going to do much. It had a handful of blooms awhile ago, but I think it's done. I never did get around to deadheading it or fertilizing it. Lyn, I know what you mean about those spring grasses and other weeds. I've been putting off doing several beds that are overgrown. But then with this weather, it's been really hard to even try to get to them! And you're right, the forecast looks good for the rest of this week... FINALLY!! Bustopher, my CHARLES AUSTIN doesn't repeat all that great. I may get two really good flushes. But the blooms are usually really pretty and a lot of them. Connie, sorry your roses were all crispy for your daughter's wedding. That must've been really disappointing. But at least you had the florist roses. I hope the wedding was wonderful! Kay, KUROSHINJU is a great rose. I got mine from Hortico many yrs ago, and I believe they may still offer it. It's always got gorgeous velvety dark black-red blooms on it. The plant averages about 3-4ft wide and 4-5ft tall. Ya know, I don't remember ever checking the scent on it. I'll have to try to remember to do so after the rain is done. Ingrid, this dog we got is turning out to be a royal pain in the butt. I had no hand in picking her this time. My husband and younger son picked her. I wanted to wait a bit, but they felt she was such a great dog, they didn't want to pass her up. She can be a very funny dog, but being a border collie mix, she's rather high maintenance. I just wanted a dog to keep the deer out of the yard. She's become more of a pain than the deer. I just came home to find a rug all shredded in the front walkway. I could care less about the rug, but she makes such a mess and digs up the gravel in the walkways. The people at the pound said she was about 1 1/2yr old, but my son thinks she was younger. I know it takes time for them to grow out of stuff like this. Maybe once the weather is better my husband will take her for walks and do some things with her. Right now it's just hard to do anything. She probably has cabin fever just like we do!! Seil, you're absolutely right. Everything just takes time. But sometimes I just get impatient. I'm getting too old for this crap!! LOL Kathy, no kidding about the dang fungus. Looking at the garden yesterday, I see more powdery mildew than I've seen since we moved here 11yrs ago. And I'll be danged if I didn't see some frickin' RUST on a few roses. I used to never get rust, except on the grassy weeds. Yuck... The new camera may have come with some Photoshop program, but I can't download it onto my computer due to having the Lenix program UBUNTU loaded instead. It uses other programs not made by Microsoft. The GIMP program is very much like Photoshop, but it's just slow. But, my son says it just could be my old computer. I have a Sony system that was waaaay superior to anything that came out at the time. It's now almost 9yrs old. I want to get a new computer, but just can't right now. Gotta finish paying off some home repairs and car tires, and the friggin' roses I bought this winter. Then, my husband wants to either fix his POC (piece of crap) old motorcycle, or get a new one. That's not cheap. And the younger son needs dental work and we don't have insurance for him.... it just goes on.... Thanks guys for the compliments and encouragement. Sorry that I didn't answer everyone individually. I'll try to post some more pics in the Gallery later on....

Grey is a very reflective color so it changes with the light in the room, It can go warm or cool depending upon the amount of natural light and can also create a shadowed feeling. I use a lot of grey personally, but some people do find it affects their mood on cloudy days. Very sophisticated in the right space and in the hands of an expert who can watch and correct the shades throughout the day and even through warmer sunnier months and cooler rainier months when the color will change dramatically.If I were in the process of doing a beach property, I'd avoid all beachey themed decorating options and turn to the colors and look of the Restoration Hardware palette for sophisticated casual elegance. Check out the colors online and do look at the towels for their graduated colors too. The sunny sandy ivories, subtle greyed seaglass blues and greens, driftwood and beachgrass cocoas all blend and compliment each other and will create a seamless look when moving from one room to another and when seeing one room from another too. Choose a silver sage with a creamy ivory trim in one room and then move on to an ivory room where there is less light and more brightness needed and accent with silver sage and cocoa. Choose three colors you love and use them in all the rooms in different applications and you'll love the clean sophisticated pulled together look. Punch up the serene colors with bright sunny accessory pillows on neutral linen upholstery and add some sparkle and shine with mercury glass, that has that subtle gold and silver distressed finish. Large inexpensive clear vases from pier 1 or world market filled with fresh flowers that are anchored in tumbled stones (buy them by the bag) add another pop of color, fragrance and a natural element for not much money. Add large mirrors to reflect light and your beautiful view. Colorful oversized artwork and photography will also add personalization, punctuation and color to the spaces. Simple squared wood gallery framing is the way to go with artwork, no gold, silver or ornate carving, and groupings would be very dramatic especially if spotlighted from a directional ceiling spot. Keep things clean and uncluttered and the lighting adjustable from bright to dim with white or ivory linen shades. Window treatments should be simple, solid, natural fabrics like a linen scrim and not obstructive to your views in any way. If budget permits, stain the oak floors a deeper brown, or go with a newly popular bleached, pickled finish. Watch the colors outside your windows too for inspiration. Most people forget that windows are the "other" walls in the room and the colors you see outside are the colors you're also incorporating into your color scheme. Hope this helps in some way.