Purplemoon - I am in AWE of your totems! The pitcher frog is so cute!!! I love the colors and how you put them together. And, the amber totems are so "classy" ... wow, I am amazed at how you glass/mosaic people come up with these wonderful finished pieces!! Haven't ventured into totems yet (nor bb's)...but I keep tucking away pieces of glass now in my garden shed. And I'm ready to do a "rope-wrapped" bowling ball for my nautical part of pool garden...just plain and simple ol' haymow rope. Glad you had a "blonde" day ... or not a "blonde" day, whatever??? Thanks for sharing! Jeanne S.

Neil and I went over to that OTHER house and piddled around today. I cleaned the refrigerator and cooked a whole chicken. Trying to get acquainted with the layout of the kitchen. Tomorrow I'm going to clean up all the plaster dust and sit in the living room and try my best to design some shelves, and a contraption for the BIG screen TV for Neil. I picked up hamburgers and we ate in the sun room. Neil bagged up garbage. He is anxious to get moved in. I want to just get settled, don't much care where. I love Katrina's bathroom. The motion light switch works great. I took some pictures and measured our bathroom. It looks pitiful now and I don't have much of a clue about how I'm going to use the space. I bought some new books on decks and patios, bathrooms, kitchens, gardens. I tried out my new Home Depot card. I got the thing because this sweet little old man was so dear and I thought I would just cut it up when it came. When I signed up I bought 2 battery chargers and several rechargeable batteries and got them all for 5 bucks after the promotional percentage was factored in. I only use my Visa and long ago cut up all other cards. Now, I'll cut up the HD card, pay the bill when it comes and be done with it. Would that I were as handy with tools and building as Michelle. My sister can do anything. She built a beautiful fireplace surround and mantle. I can usually design it but I can't build it. Our furry little weather forecaster, General Lee, saw his shadow, bless his heart. The whole month of February is supposed to be mild, go figure. Talk about screwing up spring, our azaleas and dogwoods won't know when to bloom.

I picked out the SunFlow for having the most gallons per hour of the cheap ones. It doesn't really work that way, though. I was looking at the pump thinking that if the snozzle on it where the water comes out were larger, you'd get more water. My biggest problem is the pumps are not very sturdy. I think I'm going to be buying replacement parts now and then. We were able to get quite a spray going with one of the little fountain heads. If you use that one, you would need a pretty big pond. It came up four feet, and about six feet out. We plan to run a tube up through a stack of big rocks and let the water run over the top. MAYBE. I'm guessing that the Night Pack might have been a better choice since the pumps all look the same. Whatever, I'm thinking these gadgets will improve as people learn about them.

Hi Nick, Yep! At Baker's...mine was a just $20 pipsqueak, but with all this continuing warm weather, he's already grown quite a lot and is continuing to sprout new leaves! And he's a gorgeous deep green, even without the flowers! I think he's very happy in his very sunny, warm spot in my southern exposure backyard. As for my location, I'm in the Coronado Historic District, not far from Good Sam hospital. Having been to Encanto Palmcroft for the annual home tours (i.e. I know where it is!), I feel it's safe to say you'd have as good a chance as I would for success! Perhaps it's the heat-island effect, the lack of elevation, proximity to the airport, but whatever the cause, it's generally warmer here during frosts than elsewhere in the valley. Still, I'm going to baby it each winter for a while...covering it during frosts, or even putting some old-style christmas lights around its base if needed. I think an important thing to consider is where in your yard you should plant it. You can't really take advantage of garnering tons of radiant heat by planting it right next to the house, because it's a very lateral-oriented tree, and will need room to spread. I opted for roughly the middle of my backyard because it gets full sun in the winter (south exposure), and I've got rocks back there that reflect the heat pretty well. Of course there's mulching, too. Hope that helps...keep us posted! Assuming yours is only $20 like mine, I think it's definitely worth a try! PS. Not sure if now is the best time to plant it; or whether it's best to wait till spring at this point(keeping it in a container in the meantime so you can bring indoors if it gets frosty?). My concern with planting it right now is that if we get a sudden cold snap right after transplanting- that may cause some issues? I invite others to chime in if I'm wrong, but it might be better to actually plant it in spring? Hmmmmm...