Annette, I picked up Great Gardens of England from the library Tuesday and have watched all four DVDs. Although I enjoyed walking through all those gardens and listening to their owners comments, this video set wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I thought I'd be going to gardens like Sissinghurst or the ones at very large estates or public gardens in England, with huge castles and a maze or two. But glad I watched them before I purchased the set. Sure do give a person a wealth of ideas though, plus I was amazed that the gardeners did all that tending and work themselves! Simply gorgeous borders, and the woodland gardens were wonderful. Those were my favorites I think. All that planning and designing, whew. Thanks for the heads up on this DVD set. My cousin saw it on the "hold" shelf at the library before I picked it up and wrote me a note saying "I wished that I had reserved this!"

Some I'd consider in the "friend" category: (The late) Rodger Kent (Radio/TV personality, businessman and was a very close friend for a lot of years), Barry Zevan (who I almost hired one time, a very interesting and cordial fellow) and Jesse Ventura (like him or not, a very intelligent man). Others I've met: Baron von Raschke, Al De Rusha, Jim Brunzell (all of AWA and other wrestling fame), various other television and radio personalities. Met a number of broadcasters and production people at a monthly breakfast where both past and present TV folks would meet and shoot the breeze. Great time and tremendously interesting to people who were involved in and interested in broadcasting and production. (And they are/were not adverse to telling a few gossipy stories about other "personalities"!) A number of them were pioneers in broadcasting. There's really not a lot of "new" broadcasting, where, in the 40s, 50s, 60s etc, they were finding their way into the medium. Creating new shows, ideas and didn't have the special effects available today. Broadcasting was a passion for these people. They weren't just in it for a multi-million dollar contract like people are today.

mjconti I confess that I also like W2W carpet, I have fond memories growing up with it in the 70s (shag!!). Not necessarily in every room (growing up we had carpet in the bathroom and that was gross). In our place we have hardwood everywhere but carpet in the bedrooms. Not shag. Low pile, high quality wool. The master even has a fun pattern. The master is huge and I don't think we'd have been able to find an area rug to fit. We are a shoe-free house and we run the Roomba every other day. That said I'm going to defend gray: our place is decorated in sophisticated shades of warm and cool grays and beiges, with navy and chocolate brown and accent colors including soft yellow, green, orange, and white walls. We stained the yellow oak floors a medium grey that has blue/green undertones and is very pretty. For us the decision was easy: we'd lived with beiges/warm colors/golds for so many years in the 80s/90s. Then switched to a "riot of colors" -- bold rich jewel tones, red sofa, etc. That was fun for awhile, but we were tired of it!!! Maybe we were ahead of the trends? We were ready to go back to quiet neutrals, but not the beige/orange/gold/yellow oak again. What's more, the sunlight our new place gets just doesn't work with too many warm colors --- which is how it was decorated when we bought it--- the place ends up looking like it's literally on fire! Toning it down with a grey palette works, and does not look cold at all.

I've been watching this show again on DABL, but it is now called "Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb." I also sometimes watch it on YouTube. They are still doing feature walls with bad wallpaper, and often the clients/sellers will refuse to use the paper that Amanda picks out (she has particularly bad taste) and pick a better wallpaper themselves or just paint. I do not like Amanda at all because she can be overbearing and arrogant, but I do like the sellers and buyers. The buyers still often pick none of the three options they are given - much like "Escape to the Country" (which has much better realtors), but there is a prize (I think) for the seller that the buyer likes best, even if they do not buy. Amanda Lamb is 5'-11½" (1.81 meters) tall and often towers over others in the show, especially if she wears heels, but she often wears flats. A show I like better is The Unsellables, with Sofie Allsopp, who is much better put together than Amanda Lamb. I believe it started in Toronto and then moved to England. Sofie is 5'-8", and so she is rather tall also, and she almost always wears extremely high heel - which I like. I always notice her shoes in the shoes, and they are always very nice. Sofie gets a lot of criticism on YouTube, but I mostly disagree with it.