I forgot to mention I love the idea of the planters with greenery next to the door with the christmas balls. that is so cute. I swear everytime I come to this thread I smell pine. LOL I like the greenery on the handrails. I brought fake greenery like that in Michaels a couple of years ago with the white lights in it and it looked so elegant I hated to take it down!!! Caroline your husband looks sooooo cold LOL. That is something I do not miss although they say we might get hit with lots of snow this year (NC) and I am not looking forward to it AT ALL amck I would love to see your porch and front yard. chicoryflower thanks for the compliment. The front is only a small part of the property the back is REALLY beautiful. The Orig owner was a gardner but it happens that after she passed the next owners did not do much so the whole place is overgrown and out of control. it was just waiting for my TLC!! I have copied pictures that I saw in here for real life pine decorating and next year I am going to DO IT UP!! LOL. I see right now you guys are going to keep me sooo busy.

Tecomanthe speciosa is the NZ version. It rampantly grows to 9m and has green-tinged flowers in autumn. (It seems to have an affinity for TV aerials...) One I personally know is at the southern end of the North Island. It is planted in silty clay under the eaves of the house, facing east and sheltered by tall Podocarpus totara so it receives dappled light and frost shelter. It has survived your cool-end temperatures for about ten years now. It has also survived droughting over many weeks. IMHO if you were to plant this species on either the east or south of a sheltering building/large evergreen tree then it would have a fair chance. Summer temperatures are usually mid-20s here because we get sea winds coming inland which keep the temperatures milder. This would also be true of its native habitat, despite its northern latitude. 30+ for five months solid would not be common, I believe. It also grows in the Wellington Botanic Garden in a shaded area, growing up into a very large tree which allows a lovely view of its flowers. I've seen it recommended that seed be sown in a mix of gritty river sand and sieved, damp peat moss. It is then kept in a moderate temperature with slight humidity. If you have access to cuttings, then the same mix will give a good strike. As far as I know, the other Tecomanthe species are all frost-tender tropicals or semi-tropical.

There are two kinds of butterfly attracting plants - those whose flowers attract them to sip, and those whose leaves attract them to lay their eggs. The caterpillars eat the latter, so they are called "larval food plants". Bower vine (Pandorea jasminoides) would attract all butterflies to its flowers. The Morindas, Sweet Morinda, (Morinda jasminoides) and Veiny morinda (Morinda acutifolia)have wonderfully butterfly attracting flowers, and follow them with bird-attracting fruits - very good value! The famous butterfly larval food vine is the Birdwing Butterfly vine, (Pararistolochia praevenosa), which attracts the enormous and glamorous Richmond birdwing butterfly. I believe that Blood Vine, Austrosteenisia blackii is a valuable butterfly larval food plant - check the internet to find out what sorts like it. It does get very big, though, and might be too much for your garden. All the Parsonsias (the Monkey Rope Vines) are larval food plants for blue tiger and black crow butterflies. You won't get blue tigers every year as they don't get this far south every summer, but they are lovely things when you can get them. Parsonsias are plain green plants whose flowers and fruits don't stand out particularly, but are very hardy, fast-growing no-nonsense green screens. Zig-zag vine(Rauwenhoffia leichhardtii) is one for blue triangles, and has the bonus of edible fruits. Native clematis, particularly the very sun-resistant Clematis pickeringii is one of my favourites, because of the ornamental flowers and seed-heads, but I don't know if it has butterfly-attracting qualities. I hope this gives you a few to go on with. You can find out details about them all be googling their names. Cheers, Trish

My favourite Books of 2011 - no particular order - 1) ""Get Me Out of Here" - Henry Sutton A dark -- very dark -- satire set in modern-day London.... Tells of a once-successful financial professional who's on the skids -- yet, still hankers for the luxuries and amenities so many of his ilk had during the '80s - early-2000s - until the global financial crash. 2) "Bleak House" - Charles Dickens My first reading of this classic. Like the above -- another tale of riches-to-rags -- for some characters, rags-to-riches. Teeming w/ delightful or creepy characters, high drama, ugly-beyond-belief slum scenes and human cruelty, enough neuroses to keep a psychiatric clinic busy for a decade (or more!), generosity of spirit, healthy lust for life, etc., etc. ... a rich cornucopia of humanity -- both wonderful and lousy. 3) "Left Early, Took My Dog" - Kate Atkinson Very "juicy" mystery involving a kidnapped spunky little girl and one of the most delightful female police detectives I've ever encountered. ... She reminded me of the actress Dawn French. 4) "King Solomon's Carpet" - Barbara Vine / Ruth Rendell One of the best books she's ever written ... even though I was annoyed w/ how meagre the explanation was at the end -- of a couple of the characters' outcomes. But, still, a fascinating ride -- in both senses! -- the story as well as the hair-raising subway ("Underground" in Brit speak) scenes. Some of the weirdest, most intriguing characters I've come across in a book in a long time! 5) "Bad Behavior" - Isabel Wolff A woman's storybook -- I call this genre -- some call it "Chick Lit", which turns me off. Anyway -- a lovely story about a young, single woman setting up a new veterinary practice in London. She has a very awful secret in her past. A war photojournalist comes into her life, and the secret if blown open. 6) "My Cousin Rachel" - Daphne du Maurier Several of us "chatted" about this in the August thread. I still think the dame did it! 7) "The Private Patient" - P.D. James A professional investigative TV journalist goes to a posh country clinic to have an old scar removed from her face. But much more than that happens to her. Really intriguing who-done-it... although I felt that bringing Dalgleish's personal life into the story interrupted the flow. That's it. This year think I'll read more non-fiction. After going over the lists of all the books I read - 2011 - I noticed I've been reading way too many mystery books! Some books keep popping up in the lists above and in discussion that I want to try -- "IQ84", "Discovery of Witches", "The Assassin's Cloak". Kathy9norcal - You named 2 of my all-time favourite books: 1) "Brazzaville Beach" - Wm. Boyd -- Every time I mention this novel I have the feeling I'm the only person who's read it, as no one seems to've heard of it! Although I've read some awfully good books set in Africa (fict. &...