Certainly does look very nice. I particularly like the second last photo, the Alocasia with the tall Banana in the background. I'm working on a rainforest at my place. Bit hard to put a date on it. There were already a number of large established trees providing a canopy. October last year brought in a lot of soil. Started planting out into the new soil last December. And still continue adding plants to it all the time. On the edges there's colourful sun loving plants, with tropicals in under the shade of the tree. canopy.

Thanks everyone! It was a great way to "break in" at least part of my kitchen! The Strawberry Festival was a great success! It was held on land that we've purchased to build our church as a "Light on the Hill". The Festival was held in celebration of making the half-way point of Phase I of our building. Another 18 months and we hope to be in our new church! Now, to your questions: What makes it my baking center? Well, a lot of thought went in to that. It's a combination of the configuration and location. First off, when everything is finished, my KA mixer will be in the far left corner (along w/functioning outlets), my baking paraphernalia will be stored in the cabinets/drawers of that same corner, and the DOs are diagonally across from it. The "center" is made up of a mini-peninsula + the area b/w the peninsula & cooktop. My vision has been that I will have my cookie pans on the mini-peninsula, I will roll out my dough on the counter to the left of the cooktop, and I will have my mixer, cookie cutters, etc. in the corner...everything right at hand w/plenty of room to do it all! Here're the best pictures I have right now... Baking Center in upper right corner... In lower left corner here... Ovens across from peninsula....but not right in it's path...next to the pantry... You can see the end of the mini-peninsula that's part of my baking center on the right. Gluten-Free Shortcake 2 1/3 cups Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix 3/4 cup shortening mix together then add 1/2 cup milk 3 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 1. Heat oven to 425F. 2. Stir ingredients mix, milk, sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. 3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9"x13" pan ... check it frequently, I don't remember how long it took to bake...maybe 18 or 20 minutes? From: http://leaisglutenfree.blogspot.com/2007/05/shortcake.html While just about anything can be baked/roasted using convection, there are some exceptions...cakes being one. My understanding is that it has more to do with aesthetics than actual baking performance. In most cases you want a cake with a smooth top. Convection baking does not generally lead to a smooth top. Usually, when I'm making just one or two batches of brownies, I use regular (thermal) bake. However, I had 12 pans to make so I decided to use convection mode so I could bake 3 pans at one time in each oven. The temperature was reduced by 25o but they took the same amount of time to bake. So while bake time per oven load was the same, I was able to bake more at one time...instead of doing 6 "oven loads" I was able to do it all in 4.

old_dirt......Until this year I used only Miracle Grow. This year I am experimenting with something different with about 2/3 of my new acquisitions. It is an organic product made and sold here in Texas called Lady Bug Raised Bed Blend. I talked to a rep from the company and while she had no knowledge of people using it for hostas (not like you see many hostas in Texas), she thought that the pH of the product matched what hostas require. I mixed in some expanded shale with it. It drains well and seems to retain moisture a little better than MG, which is good for our 90-100 days in the summer, but we'll see if it comes back to haunt me in the winter. http://www.ladybugbrand.com/our-products/soils/raised-bed-blend/

Thanks, Merlena!! From your lips to God's ears...come on blooms! :) Your Quietness has a quiet beauty...very restful. :) Kristine - I laughed when I read your comment about the danged dogs and the seeds. Dogs...we love them, but whoo boy! And too funny...your roses are "mice nuts" in the shadow of his new truck!! Love it! Oooooh!!! Your lavender roses are sooo pretty!!! I think that Charles is my favorite! Merlena - oh wowza!!! Your Poseiden bush is glorious!!! What a fabulous bush shot! And the flowers...love, love!!! Dilly - Oh!! Lucy is a sweet rose!!! She has a beautiful face and lovely little fingers!! Yes, it must be wonderful to have your husband home for this precious time. Lovely flowers!! Especially the irises! Hubby and I went to a UFA feed store and got 3 big bags of alfalfa pellets! The weird thing is that my Barbra Streisand is the only rose I had that had a good foot and a half of cane that was left alive and green after the GGDO. It has done nothing for 2 months!!! Nothing! So I flung a bunch of alfalfa pellets on (as well as on my other roses)...come on Babs...get going! I have a question about alfalfa pellets...it's okay, isn't it to put them on bareroot roses? The pellets aren't in contact with the roots. Thoughts? We had a glorious, warm day of 15C/59F!!!!! The sun was shining...the roses went outside after a few days of being left in the garage. Life is good!