Well, probably like you suspected, that is mostly wishful thinking. There are just way, way too many plants in the hobby these days. However, in my experience, if you got the following three books, it'd be a good start... Succulents: The Illustrated Dictionary Succulents II: The New Illustrated Dictionary Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary They are all available at Amazon, and might also be at a well stocked local bookstore, particularly in SoCal or Florida.

hhireno - Thanks for your sympathetic response. I worked at several branches in my library system and it was eye opening to see how things varied. I worked at one the largest, regional branches for many years and seldom encountered anything more than gum or candy wrappers. But when you're dealing with the general public anything can happen. We've had drug dealers making transactions in the stacks, young lovers making out, kids dropping paper airplanes over the balcony, at least it wasn't a heavy reference volume. Sometimes we'd see a child wandering around and ask where his or her mother was and the child would tell us that Mom had gone shopping and told them to just sit in the library and wait. The worst thing that happened at my branch luckily occurred shortly after I went on maternity leave. Some kids broke into the library and dumped the card catalog drawers into the fountain that was in the atrium. Yes I'm old enough to have worked in the early days of papyrus, parchment and card catalogs! The library is often seen as a refuge and it wasn't unusual for homeless people to come in and sleep. Unfortunately for our regular patrons some of these individuals had significant body odor and it was rather unpleasant to even walk near them. And since we were a public building we were not allowed to ask them to leave. I loved my job and found enormous satisfaction in helping - whether it was finding answers to reference questions or helping to locate just the right book for a young reader. Every day was different and I loved it. After leaving to raise my kids I volunteered for many years in the school library. It really was a gratifying profession.

I'm glad the previous post was helpful to you ipinkmountain. : ) I can't tell you how many posts I've looked up and read through that I've never commented on, yet they had important info in them that I needed. right. now. Besides the ones that are simply pretty or fun! I hope you'll share pictures of your progress, too. ; ) Again, thank you all for your kind and encouraging words. I could spend all day glancing in this room (and I do!) I can't get over how it turned out, and that it was so simple to accomplish. I'd love to have you all to tea in here, one by one of course. ; ) Maybe bpathome could make us some cheese toast so we could figure out what it is. ; ) The plants on the bench (dh and I made it about 10 years ago) are our little experiment this year. They are all outdoor specimens that we brought in to see if they could survive in this south window or not. From left to right: 1. chocolate mint (struggling, but really should be re-potted) 2. Lavender-seems very happy. She's even decided to put out a couple of flowers! 3. Pineapple mint, faring ok 4. Lobelia-Also seems to like it here. Re-flowered after we brought it in from outdoors. 5. "Fakin' Bacon" is in the little pot next to the clock. (The clock was a wedding gift nearly 20 years ago.) I thought you might enjoy seeing close-ups of the dishes, and I know some of you are animal lovers, so here's a better shot of our doggie.

Yes normally we would do the hour drive to the closest B&N big town and do some Christmas shopping but just weren't up for it this year. But want to support brick and mortar bookstores so shopped the same store online. Really trying to avoid Amazon . . . I did the "make your own comic" book last year, my grands love activity books but that's what hubs got them. As for kid's books, I bought my 10 yr. old female gd this book: "Vampire Island" by Adele Griffin. It is apparently part of a series. We'll see if she likes it. I got her a repro necklace which was apparently featured in "The Vampire Dairies" (I was just looking for a cool locket necklace). So that got me thinking along the vampire lines as gd likes goth a bit, just like her mom. But I didn't want to rush a ten year old into the "boyfriend girlfriend" vampire genre, she's only in 5th grade, so I picked "Vampire Island" because it is about a whole family of vampires. No reviews yet as to whether she is going to like it. One of the books that didn't come that hubs got for her is "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill, which is a Newbery Award winner. That sounds great too. For 8 yr. old female gd I got the dvd of Disney's "Thomasina the Cat" which was a favorite of mine at her age. I got the dvd quite a while ago, as the idea came to me early on in the Christmas shopping season. I kind of regret that I didn't get her the book, because it is just about at her reading level, she's advanced, and it got stellar reviews, all his books really. The author is Paul Gallico, and the original source book is "Thomasina the Cat Who Thought She Was a God." He also wrote several other children's books such as "The Snow Goose" which I remember also liking as a kid, a little older. I think I may get same gd some of his other works later . . .