I think your description of the rumors is very good - they ran rampant last spring - and I suspect the truth is much more mundane. Certainly there were personal and professional issues involved in his move. A more reasonable question might be why Hans would have stayed with one local specialized wholesaler for such a long time. Shady Oaks still concentrates on hostas and, though they have expanded into some other plants, their selection is still quite limited. Walters, on the other hand, may offer the widest range of perennials of any wholesaler in the US. I know Hans has developed interests beyond the world of hostas, and his opportunity to explore other plants would have been much more limited had he stayed at SO. I stopped at Walters last summer on the way to the convention and fell into spending a couple of hours touring around the farms with the president of the company. They were excited to have Hans, primarily for his interest in some other plants beyond the hostas... So... without participating in the rumor mill... I'm excited for Hans to have the resources of Walters to explore his interests... and yet as a Minnesotan, I was sorry to see him go. And to remain OT, I like HOSTAS, but ligularias in my sandy soil tend to droop so dramatically at the slightest bit of brighter light or heat, I only grow the species plant ligularia przewalskii. It tolerates dry conditions much better than the bigger leaved, more dramatic ones. It has smallish leaves with neat cut edges, so it has its own charm. Nice companion for HOSTAS.

this is from the GardenWeb terms of service. Basically if you upload to their servers your content is fair game. "By submitting content, which shall include your member name, to any "public area" of the GardenWeb Network, including, but not limited to, the forums and your personal website, exchange page and journal, you grant iVillage a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, sublicense, assign, derive revenue or other remuneration from, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any Rights that may exist in such content. If you are not the creator of such content, you also warrant that the holder of any Rights, including moral rights in such content, has completely and effectively waived all such rights and validly and irrevocably granted to you the right to grant the license stated above. You also permit any visitor or member to access, display, view, store and reproduce such content solely for personal, noncommercial use" from photobuckets TOS "When you make your Content public, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to copy, distribute, stream, post publicly display (e.g. post it elsewhere), reproduce and create derivative works from it (meaning things based on it), anywhere, whether in print or any kind of electronic version that exists now or is later developed, for any purpose, including a commercial purpose." Most other website that allow uploading of content have the same TOS. Now if you own the Server and the website then you have a bit more "rights" When i share a photo I realize that now it is public and could be taken and used elsewhere. That is why I would suggest everyone watermark you photos. mike

I'm an infrequent visitor to this board after my project was mostly completed over a year ago, but I do love lurking and looking at pics of gorgeous homes, etc. Anyway, this was a very interesting read with my morning tea. I had no idea! My sheets are washed weekly (though the exact day may vary). They are washed and immediately go back on the bed (king-size--HATE to fold). I wash the mattress pad when I think of it (it's so thick, it has to go to a laundromat, so it's not often) and the duvet cover gets washed 2x year. Luckily our ancient kitty no longer chooses to sleep with us (the bed it too high up for her--she's 20). My mom (very "old-school"--born 1919) would never have washed any more often and was sometimes known to switch the sheets around from top to bottom. She rarely washed blankets and never (that I know of) washed quilts--she aired them out. All of us kids survived quite healthfully. My MIL was worse about cleanliness (and even I cringe) and none of her children were ever sick or had allergies, etc. I think that keeping things overly clean is a detriment to our immune system. Humans spent many more years barely bathing, etc., and only in the last half-century has regular washing of any kind been less of a chore. Maybe ignorance IS bliss? When I was a kid, I'd never heard of dust mites, so I didn't fear them. Oh, and I laughed about the towel on the bed thing, Sherrmann.....I've been known to grab one too, especially when the sheets are fresh clean! Now if I had a live-in maid? Oh, how lovely to have fresh bedding each night......but it ain't ever gonna happen with me having to do it :-) I bet those of you that change your bedding so often also use clean towels each time you bathe?

Dear all--thank you so much for these responses. I knew I could count on GWers for wisdom. This situation is ripe for overthinking, something I am much prone to anyway...it is really fascinating to me how these issues of home, personified in the kitchen, are really so deep and wide. I want to respond to each individually but everything seems to be intersecting--so this is for all of you--an I'd love to keep the conversation going-- first things first--jaeedwards, you are absolutely right, and one thing that slows me down is this guilt I feel that I sometimes lose sight of what really matters. It is hard to tease apart materialism from practicality from real need sometimes. But something you said really made a practical point to me--one of the main things I want IS a table!!! Right now we usually sit crammed around the island with our knees squished, and everyone leaves too soon because we're uncomfortable--so that is in my top three--because that IS where memories are made. The more practical I can be, the better. I am trying to say to myself, we are so blessed, this is a wonderful house, life is good, a few changes would make things a little easier, and sooner or later we will move because it's practical and life will continue to be good. As a friend of mine said to me recently, we have privileged problems. Pbris--yay--okay, I think I'm going to use that copper hood, darn it! Seriously, after reading what you said I am fairly certain that most of the changes we want to make are really just for us. That's why the giant bids stopped us short. I think this house is just about maxed out in terms of value, and spending $220K (yes, that's what the bids were!) makes no sense. So--Bmore and cooksnsews--we need to figure out what we would spend on ourselves. (This is where DH and I might have some problems--he is an ascetic Yankee and I am a hedonistic southerner, LOL) Actually, when I think about it, if I just painted the cabinets white I would be so much happier! Farmhouse--what you say makes a lot of sense--unfortunately the two bids were quite close. That's why I got so discouraged--I assumed the first one was just insane and the second would be more realistic. What I am thinking is we should do minor things, and make sure that nothing we do precludes something bigger later, if we decided to really stay. It is weird though when you suddenly start thinking about moving...your heart isn't in the work as much. Mamadada, you understand these crazy MA prices!! We are lucky in that our home has basically held its value (down a little from the crazy inflated values of a year or two ago, but still a lot more than we paid for it). About yards, I am actually a fan of small gardens...they are much less overwhelming and I can be sort of OCD and pluck every stray blade of grass :). But my ever-larger sons really want room for the pitchback and a basketball hoop... I did go to some open houses on Sunday. It was educational. One of them was this lovely Victorian but walking into it just made me tired...I could just feel things breaking as I stood there! I think our next house (if there is one) might be of a more recent vintage. That or already COMPLETELY overhauled (dreaming...). Thank you all again. This forum is wonderful.