I don't understand what you mean by making your dreams "real." You wish to repeat them? See more detail? Clarify what [if anything] they mean? Have more dreams, or better remember those you have? See while awake what you seem to see while asleep? I've found that my dreams fall into distinct categories. There are the precognizant, which come in a repetitious series over several nights, are vivid, detailed and become more detailed with each repetition, and usually occur weeks or months before the "real life" event depicted. They are also comparatively rare. The more usual [remembered] dreams vary in color, clarity, are more or less obvious metaphors, or are entertaining if meaningless. The rest of the dreams are those I really don't recall after awakening and I think are the overwhelming majority. Simply keeping a pad of paper & pen beside the bed and writing down whatever you recall as soon as you awaken seems to be a commonly suggested practice; the act of consciously trying to remember improves your "memory" of what was dreamed. To be honest, I rarely do this -- to write a detailed description of what I found interesting or amusing or puzzling while asleep just isn't among the things I care to do upon awakening, and like most folks I quickly forget what I dreamed and don't feel a loss in the forgetting. Over several years of [mostly] recordkeeping upon awakening, I found there were few metaphoric dreams which didn't clarify themselves within a couple nights -maybe my subcouscious came to realize that if it wants to tell me something, it's better to do so clearly and directly instead of the using the usual symbols. Precog dreams are so memorable that I can write (or tell) about them many hours after waking. However, unless I note them in my diary, I often forget them within a few weeks of the series ending.

If you're interested in not adding invasive plants to your garden, please be careful about the advice in some of the books geared towards wildlife. Of the books mentioned here, I've only read "Noah's Garden", which I also recommend, and "The Naturalist's Garden" by Ruth Shaw Ernst. The Naturalist's Garden" gave me some good ideas, but also included on its lists of recommended plants Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), Rosa rugosa, and Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica). As far as I remember there was no mention of a possible problem of invasiveness. I've seen the same thing in quite a few other books, both those geared toward this topic, and general gardening books with lists of plants good for wildlife. I remember I liked "National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Backyard Wildlife" by David Mizejewski. Right now I've lent it to my SIL, so I can't check back to see how much "how to" information was there--I was more interested in plant ideas.

....the incomplete is clearly more beautiful than the perfect. A deeper beauty in the blemished than in the unblemished So many of us go crazy trying to make everything perfect and it is OK when it is not. The incomplete use to drive me crazy also. I needed to start something and get it done perfect now. I use to struggle with that alot and learned to be a little more patient. Sometimes it does work tho. I like to take time to sit outside and read a magazine or book or even to take time to watch the birds. Before I use to go out and think about all the weeds that I need to tend to, or the grass will need to be mowed in a few days. I now can sit out there and just be in the moment. That took a lot of practice and sometimes I can still feel myself struggling with it.

"Choose an author as you would choose a friend." Wentworth Dillon. "When I want to read a novel, I write one." Benjamin Disrraeli "Books support us in our solitude and and keep us from being a burden to ourselves." Jeremy Collier "You know that you have read a good book when you turn the last page a little as if you have lost a friend." Paul Sweeny "A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter any other way." Caroline Gordon 'Without libraries where are we? We have no past and no future." Ray Bradbury "My test of a good novel is dreading to read the last chapter." Thomas Helm "There is no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books." Irving Stone "Books may be the only true magic." Alice Hoffman