Wonderful place to visit. We don't have anything like that here either - not in all New England I think. Thanks for showing - I may have to visit there if I'm ever near by even tho I couldn't take anything home. Oh well I will console myself with the idea that I would go nuts and buy a bunch and they wouldn't relate to eachother in any way except that I like them and I'd have a wild unconnected look -actually that would fit in with how my home and garden are now. (I have a friend/neighbor who is planting only pink flowers in her small yard. I can't imagine having that kind of restraint.) Kathy

Warning to game camera buyers..BUY INFRA-RED FLASH ONLY! It's clear that animals are avoiding the annoying flash-which always scares me when I hike up there at night-and doubtless explains why there are few repeat animal photos. I can see by their tracks that they are skirting the camera, including the Big Foot. When I took photos yesterday afternoon, the ice was just melting slightly in sunny spots, and there was no new jaguar sign. I thought he'd moved on, but this morning there were several new, now frozen, scrape marks right where I'd been photographing yesterday, meaning that the jaguar had visited and scrape-marked his territory right after I left, before the temperatures dropped again. I could see that he was giving me a warning, so I circled the pond to where he'd previously left his scat, sniffing the air to see if he'd scent-marked anywhere close, like the jaguar websites said they did. Sure enough, I became aware of a very strong, pungent odor, almost a skunk-like muskiness, so I followed the smell to a scrape-marked tree a few yards away from the scat. 3-4-09, farm pond, scent-marked tree with jaguar (?) scrape From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat paw-sized claw marks From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat First scrape photographed, 3-2-09 From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Old frozen scrape, possibly the same one? From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat 3-4-09, new frozen jaguar (?) scrape made yesterday afternoon in the same spot I'd been photographing, before night freeze From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Several websites said jaguars are unafraid of people, which makes them easy targets for hunters. Another website claimed that Amazon Indians are frequently followed by male jaguars to escort them off their territories. Still other websites said that jaguars seldom bother to mark territories unless there is a boundary dispute or overlapping territories. Perhaps our constant poking around "his" territory is prompting the alleged jaguar to warn us off. The meerkats in Meerkat Manor are always "furiously scent-marking" bushes and rocks to "see-off" trespassers, so he could be warning us to back off. If he is imprinted on humans from being in captivity as a cub, he might see us as rivals, but maybe all jaguars view humans that way. Of course, I was here first. Websites also say that about their second year, male jaguars move on to establish their own territories, which can be up to 500 square miles, depending on food availability, so he might be moving on soon.

This thread has been a great comfort to me since I'm another poster who has been through some less than happy Christmases. The upside is the creating new traditions (still working on that - I consider it a work in progress) as well as simplifying my decor style. However, I'm lucky in the sense that I'm not terribly influenced by the latest trends being put forward by the design industry. It has to be priced right as well as fit my style, so even with my everyday home decor it's a pretty slow slog. 90% of the time I walk out of the stores empty handed. Every generation seems to have the same complaint about the over-commercialization of Christmas. Yet I remember my paternal grandmother owning several items (linens, figurings) for holiday entertaining. I have vivid recollections of my mom (and I want to say this was 1965 or 1966) covering one of the walls in our DR with fuschia foil wrapping paper and arranging large branches spray painted white in front. I have a book published in 1962 that discusses outdoor lighting. In it are several chapters regarding Christmas lighting, including a discussion about garish, over the top displays. So in a sense many of these concerns have always been with us. IMO, what has changed over the years is more a response to the changing marketplace. How many of us here have gone to faux trees for purely practical reasons? I would never have switched if it wasn't for the fact that the quality sharply declined (when do they cut these things, september?) and the prices for a genuine fresh cut tree rose to ridiculous rates (over $100? Um, sorry, no). Then we have the whole spectrum of products that are about convenience - net lights, pre-lit trees and garland, and those airblown lawn decorations. Even if you're not a fan of the airblowns in general, you have to admit they have some distinct advantages for the average homeowner: run an extension cord, stake the thing in place, plug it in and you have insta-festive. And after Christmas they require minimal storage space. Sorry for the long essay, but I think some of the items we've seen come on the market in the past 10 years or so are a positive in terms of safety and saving time and money. Yes, there's a lot of stuff out there that leaves me scratching my head, but that always seems to be the stuff that they can't give away at the post-Christmas sales. ;-)

These name tags are really fun so I checked the animated sig.web site. Do they have a charge for these? Lois