Pam, you are now deemed as the official owner of a piece of .... I mean: a vintage item! LOL I'm planning to make a hanging air arrangment something like what is in the photo on the link directly below using a couple of bird cages, egg baskets, and wire chickens I bought from Rozanne. http://mykotori.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/tumblr_kx26r9ihfj1qzcp6io1_500.jpg I bought the skythe from Rozanne also. Some of the old tools have such a graceful shape. My grandmother used to sit on the ground and use grass clippers like the ones in the picture to edge the lawn. I love the shapes of the old spoons, and love to imagine who and how these old things were used ... Also want to do this with an old rake head ... http://www.diyideas.com/images/img_garden-display3_ss_lg.jpg Patty discovered a site that has lots of ideas, Pinterest, from which the two links came. This is not Pinterest's home page, but a page of garden idea clippings or pins, as they call them, from one person. Here is a link that might be useful: How Does Your Garden Grow on Pinterest ...

Sounds like it will be a great evening. I'm sure the chef will be thrilled! This is very nice and can be made ahead of time as well. The Tannery’s Crab Crème Brûlée with Pickled Cucumber and Melba Toast adapted from Paul Flynn via The Afternoon Show and Paul Flynn: Irish Food Serves 4 as a starter “Any time you have something creamy, you need something sharp to offset it. This is why we serve pickled cucumber with this dish. You need something to cut through the cream, and the pickled ginger is the starting point of that,” says Paul Flynn. One of the keys to this dish is its lovely creamy consistency, so keep an eye on your oven temperature: “You put it into a low oven because you don’t want the eggs to soufflé, you want them to gently set, like a custard.” 400 ml (1 3/4 cups) cream 1 egg 2 egg yolks 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped (or grate it directly into the custard mixture with a Microplane grater) 2 tablespoons pickled ginger, drained and finely chopped salt and freshly ground black pepper 150 g (1 cup) picked white crab meat, finely chopped 50 g (1/2 cup) freshly grated Parmesan pickled cucumber, to serve (see recipe below) Melba toast, to serve (see recipe below) lemon wedges, to serve Place the cream in a bowl with the eggs, garlic, pickled ginger and some salt and pepper and mix well. Add in the crab meat, ensuring there is no shell, and mix well again. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge to allow the flavours to infuse for at least 30 minutes, but ideally up to overnight. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Ladle or pour the mixture into the ramekins, making sure you get an even amount of crab in every ramekin, as the crab tends to fall to the bottom. Place the ramekins in a roasting tray. Fill the tray with warm water until the water comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Place this bain marie in the oven and cook for 45 to 60 minutes (check after 40 minutes). When cooked through, the mixture should be set but still have a slightly wobbly consistency. Remove the ramekins from the bain marie and allow to cool ��" the crab crème brûlée should be served at room temperature. When ready to serve, sprinkle a very thin layer of Parmesan on top of each ramekin and brown under the grill. Serve with pickled cucumber, really thin Melba toast (“sort of a retro addition that you don’t see very often”) and a lemon wedge. “So there you have it,” says Paul. “The Tannery crab crème brûlée ��" my classic.” Pickled Cucumber 1 cucumber pinch of salt 50 g (1/4 cup) caster sugar 50 ml (1/4 cup) white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon sweet chilli sauce Slice the cucumber as thinly as you can (a mandolin or food processor’s slicing attachment is perfect for this job). Place the sliced cucumber in a bowl and sprinkle with a little salt. Set aside. Bring the sugar, vinegar and chilli sauce to the boil and reduce for 30 seconds. Take off the heat and allow to cool completely. Once it’s cool, pour the liquid over the cucumbers and stir gently to coat them all. This will keep in the fridge for 2 or 3 days ��" any more and the cucumber loses its colour. Melba Toast Toast slices of white bread and remove the crusts. Slice the bread laterally to make two slices that are half the original thickness of the bread. Rub off excess bread from the untoasted side, then cut diagonally into triangles. Place the untoasted side under the grill until the edges curl. The Tannery Restaurant

"1. Ridge Lytton Estate 2002 California Grenache/ Syrah 2. Château Souverain 2003 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 3. Merryvale Starmont 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley " Ridge is one of the great wineries in CA. Respected all around the world. That wine is, or was, only available to people who bought directly from the winery since not much was available. I never loved it as much as I wanted to, but it was nonetheless a decent wine and if your friend really loves wine, she'd be happy to get a bottle, esp as it shows a thoughtfulness, i.e. you can't just walk into any store and buy it. Souverain - not a bad wine for what it is. 2003 wasn't a great year in the area and it's a fairly widely available wine. Not special enough. Merryvale Starmont - a better year overall than the 2003, but still not special enough as a winery. A little too pedestrian for a gift.

Thanks everyone for your nice feedback! Irisgal - thank you for your kind words. Charles Rennie Macintosh's blooms last only a couple of days but he's only six months old and about two and a half feet tall, so it might be a bit too early to judge his bloom longevity. I'd rather he had fewer but larger blooms that lasted a bit longer than lots of medium-sized blooms that blow a bit sooner than I'd like. We'll see how it does next year when his roots are more established. So far, my Strawberry Hill's pink color is similar to what I remember strawberry milk looked like when I drank it as a kid. It's a very sweet, light pink with no variations like Abe. What I was hoping for is the color and shape I saw at Regan Nursery in the photo below. The center was darker, and the petals more ruffled. I should have bought this SH at Regan's when I saw it. Just didn't have the space for it at the time. I hope mine looks like this eventually. Ann