Lilyfinch- Your roses are going to be beautiful! I have a Lavender Lassie, an Excellenz von Shubert (need a good nickname for her, because she looks like a girl LOL) a small Clothide Soupert (Chloe) and a Gartendirektor Otto Linne (Otto). Not all my roses have nicknames, but these are still so small, their names are bigger than they are! Also have a Celsiana, Bleu Magenta, Trier, Madame Plantier, two Belle de Crecy, two President de Seize, two Therese Bugnet, four Snow Pavement (these are so cute, but kind of wild looking) a Darlow's Enigma, two Veilchenblau, four John Cabot (on sale at Lowe's) a Lyda rose, two Golden Wings, two Indigo, a Baby Tausendschon (baby) and I bought six bare root roses last month! 2 Fairy, 2 Nearly Wild and 2 Robusta. At the time, I thought some of the roses were going into the kitchen garden. So, lots of roses (mostly purchased last year) and that's not even counting the ones I've given to my mom...which are 2 Fantin Latours (which I love, but they're not doing well with our cold wind) 2 Ispahan, 2 Zephrine Drouhin (which did not like my location, but love it up at my mom's) and a William Lobb. I would have kept that one, but my mom fell in love with it (as it was blooming when it arrived) so it's now one of her favorites. She has David Austin roses, which are beautiful, but I'm starting to realize that anything that isn't zone 2, 3 or a very hardy 4 is going to need winter protection, in my garden. Normally, I probably wouldn't be able to list my roses, but since I've been trying to draw a plan as to how to fit them all into my front bed, fairy garden and little bed under the plum trees...I have them all written down, in front of me :) Calamity J- 1/2 an acre? I'm sure you're just getting started! I'm always amazed as to how many roses people have on the rose forums, and in much less space. Kay- Your roses are lovely and I can see why you want more! How wonderful to be in a warm climate and be able to grow so many...and they bloom so early! On greenthumb- It's fun to try new plants and so nice that you have the room. As you get more plants, you may find that you're donating some back, to make room for your new favorites :)

These are clickable thumbnails I thought I would add some more pics. These were taken several years ago but I still grow them. The first one is a Dracunculus vulgaris and the second one is a Sauromatum venosum. They are usually refered to as voodoo lilys. The blooms smell like rotting flesh. Not for everyone I suppose. jim_6b

It would be great just like it is or painted any color with little s hooks all over to hang a collection of lightweight items, or anything you have a lot of, jewelry, scissors, small toys, small signs, ornaments, spoons, etc. The s hooks can be made from paper clips. Contrasting or same color fabric or paper could be attached to the back side. Ordinary things become interesting when you put them together and frame them in something like this. Little wooden signs can be made easily with words or pictures. With all the scrapbook supplies available, you could easily make lots of signs in a short time with names, sayings or just words you like. You could hang all sorts of things on it, instead of having a theme. Linda

Walls. Oh, dear deity, walls. I can remember buying my first home--as a single person, I was looking at condos. My guess is that 99.999% of condos just plunk the kitchen in a corner of the living room, adding a counter/eating bar to create "separation." My agent had a hard time understanding that I wanted a kitchen that was a separate room. Open concept may be great for entertaining or if you have kids. But I am home alone a lot more than I entertain and I don't have kids. What I want is walls to contain the noise of the dishwasher and doors to keep cooking odors contained. The idea of having the kitchen in the living room and the smells and grease getting into my nice furniture is not appealing. And there's the dirty dishes issues, as expressed by lavender lass. There are mornings I don't have time to wash my cereal bowl before dashing out to work. There are days when I eat dinner and just want to collapse. So while the dishes get done promptly most days, some days they don't. And I don't want to curl up in the living room to relax and have those dirty dishes staring at me from across the room, reminding me that I'm being lazy.