Carla thank you. What a nice thing to say. I am so happy with the roses this year. Especially after all the trouble with the big freeze last year. MayBee thank you! This is the back yard. Most of it is the section between my house and garage and the view I see out of my office window. Thanks Fang. I wish you were coming to New York too. We'll miss you. Alisande thanks. The spitting neighbor is the old man next door who spits over his fence into this garden. Eric thank you. You're going to love Benjamin Britten. Mine really took off right away and blooms all the time. It's got a really nice scent too. I do keep Franny in her pot in the unattached, unheated garage. This is her third year and so far so good. Hamp thank you and I don't know how you handle the heat on a steady basis. I guess I need to stay North! I hope those Ohio plants don't cause a ruckus in your beautiful garden. I hope you like Margo as much as I do. Barbara thanks and yeah I've got so much pruning and cleaning up to do! I've got to tackle all those scroungy peonies today. They need a nice big trim. Thanks Michelle! That is so kind of you. Paula thank you. I guess everyone here has a real passion for their gardens. I'm a sucker for metal and stone. Of course, I can't afford stone so I have to settle for some nice concrete lol. Anita thank you. My Franny is in the garage along with Clementina Carbonieri, Baronne Henrietta de Snoy, and two Georgetown Teas. They all seem to be fine with it. Joe, Joe, Joe. I would never believe your garden is anything less than magnificent. Thanks and see you next week!

Well, she did call the police for a ride, but was most likely in panic mode. Police did not give her a ride, though (maybe they would've, I dunno): Her driver was ready to take her to the hospital. But if I were a TV personality, I would also be in panic mode about a cut so noticeably front-and-center. She wasn't in New York City at the time. She was at her home in Northern Westchester County -- a little less than an hour north of NYC, and I am familiar with the roads in that area, having lived in the Bedford/Mount Kisco area. They are winding and narrow (until you get to the main street in Mount Kisco, near the hospital), and if that snowstorm was getting heavy, I might've also called the police to ensure I could get to the hospital. (Not as bad as calling an ambulance, IMHO, and that's not a crime-filled area that it would've been a horrible thing to pull an officer off his/her patrol to take her there.) It also happened at night -- not during the day as someone else posted -- which makes driving on some of those roads a bit more treacherous. I'm sure that her house is off a winding one-lane road, for privacy's sake, much like other celebrities' homes there. I remember a shortcut I used to take that ran past a house (mansion, more like it) owned by Mariah Carey at the time; it's not one I took unless the weather and road was clear. Facial cuts? Yeah, I would want a plastic surgeon, too. They're not there just to do nose jobs and eyelifts. (The 40-something photos taken by Martha's stables manager, tho? That one of the wallpaper border cracked me up! I'll bet that person will soon be on Martha's PR team--altho I wonder if Martha herself hollered at her to grab the camera on the way out and "Photograph everything you see! I'll use it for my blog!") Bottom line? If there was a time to act like a diva, in her public-life circumstances, that was it.

Mabnola, My husband is a very experienced DIY'er but he had never worked with stone either. That's why we only did the template and the install. Maine Soapstone fabricated the whole counter and shipped it to us. We put the stones in place and epoxied the seams. I actually think the hardest part was the template. We knew if we didn't get that right the counters would not fit - so it was a little anxiety producing I totally agree with Francy. We also put in the time and care to achieve the best results we can in our home. Not many professionals are going to feel the same way we do about our projects. And as Francy said it is much easier to live with our own mistakes rather than mistakes we paid big money for!! I think researching the process and finding out exactly what's involved before you jump in is one of the most important steps. We have certainly done this and on occasion we decide it is not in our realm of skill so we try to find the best person/price for the job. We elected to pay our cabinet maker to install also even though many on this forum have found it to be simple. We knew with the complexity of our 100+ year old home, the moldings, the unlevel surfaces it would be a very difficult job and we wanted it to be . . well . . as perfect as it could be. And believe me it was money well spent. They did a wonderful job. It's a decision only you can make based on many factors, your experience, the difficulty of the job, the importance of the end product etc etc. Good luck.

They don't like heaps of water, feel the stem, if soft to the touch it's history. Try a weak solution of seasol, if that fails i would start again. Frangipani are easy too grow from a cutting. Select a good straight piece from the mother tree, cut with a clean sharp knife and let sit for a few days on a sheet of newspaper on your patio. This allows the cut to cauterize, or 'heal over'. Select a good sized pot, fill with premium potting mix, stick it in with a weak feed of seasol, water lightly until leaves start to form (not wet) Place pot where it will get full sun for most of day. Works for me in West Oz.