Hi Elk, The bracts turning color is natural. No need to worry. This was recently discussed in this thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bromeliad/msg0114505819901.html?2 Was your plant completely dry when you returned? Lack of or excessive watering as far as i know shouldn't cause the flower bracts to turn green, unless maybe it is stressed from absolutely no water. Or maybe you have the plant in very high light. That may make it green and hot temps would brown the edges. Just move it into a shadier but still bright spot and that may preserve the pinkish color somewhat. But it will eventually turn green anyway. With watering, I would wait until the leaves are clear of water and then fill them again with water. On mine that's about once/week. During periods of fast growth and hot temperatures that may be 2-3 times per week. This probably sounds tricky, but don't have it wading in water, as well as try to keep it from drying out either. They are pretty durable so you shouldn't have to worry. Yes, when Tillandsias (and all bromeliads) finish flowering the mother is finished growing and will bloom no more. But soon it sends out small pups which will eventually mature. You can split them off with a sharp knife, but I would wait until the pups are large enough before you separate them from mommy. On mine I like the clumped look so I just leave them be. A colony of T.cyanea in bloom is breathtaking. Hope this helps.

The place to start would be with your overall objectives and goals. What do you expect to accomplish by making changes to what's there now? What do you hope to gain? Laws about cutting down trees are a little more sophisticated than your statement about them would suggest. Usually, not every tree is protected and also, it has something to do with size. And likely, it would not preclude you from performing maintenance on trees, which could possibly involve a lot of cutting. In a given thread on the forum, it's best to focus on one area -- like the front yard -- and forego discussion of other projects. If you try to lump everything in your yard into a single thread, it can be overwhelming and the discussion can be confusing. Wherever you want to focus on, it's good to show a set of photographs that spans the entire scene. In order to do that, you would stand in line with the center of that scene, about 25' away from it, and start photographic it at the far left end, pivoting to the right, taking slightly overlapping shots as you go until the farthest right picture has been captured ... and then post those pictures. For the front of a house, this is usually 4 or 5 pictures. (When taking them, you cannot change locations between any of the pictures. And don't post a computer generated panorama made of them.)

After looking more closely at your photos, the problem you are going to run into are things like window and door trim. I can't tell if there is trim on the window in the yellow nook. Assuming there is, anything you put on top of the tile could end up too deep for the trim. Assuming there isn't and it is tiled to the window, you would have to figure out a way to trim out the window to hide the tile, then do your beadboard. I understand this is your first home and that you don't want to rip things out but, you don't want to make it worse than it is by kinda sorta fixing it. I would test removing the tile. If it comes off pretty cleanly, then I would remove all and skim coat to fix the walls. If not, I would remove both tile and plaster and drywall. It will be labor intensive, but better to do it right the first time and improve the home, than to do something that will only make it worse and possibly decrease the value.

I would wait until the tree leafs out to determine how much or how little to prune. Then, you will notice which wood is dead vs. living. Or do you just want to keep it a shrub and not a tree? I wouldn't assume that the tree was diseased or infested at some point..., might just be winter die back after a very bad season, or perhaps the previous owners wrapped it to prevent winter die back. In any event, they should recuperate from both the roots and above ground branches. They leaf out LATE in the season, so don't assume anything is dead at this point.