It's nice to see this formally demonstrated and published. The described benefit of planting nectary plants has been widely accepted among the organic and permaculture groups for a long time. I see the benefit every spring in my garden: the first flush of growth on many plants get aphids, soon there are a bunch of hoverflies and ladybugs hanging around the nectary plants, and within a couple weeks, the aphids are all but gone. A great thing about alyssum is that once it gets started, it keeps on flowering the whole season Alex

I love your pictures, Kathy. Our former Idyll member, Jain, from the hills east of San Francisco, used to post a lot from her area. I sure miss her. I never did get to your area, or hers. But, unlike Chelone, I do believe they exist...LOL. I sure agree about the lack of traffic on days like today. I went to town right after noon to get some last minute groceries. I loved how empty the roads and the town was, even WalMart!

Okay okay, you're forcing me to tell the other kitchen story. Love that one about the Mercedes---best not to touch the leather or something?? Sometimes I feel like Indiana Jones in this house, making archeological discoveries and not so much un-remuddling. Thought I had a very very ugly wall and base cabinet combo with a cheapy formica countertop, so I decided to tear out the wall cab and have this new window installed there instead. South exposure is very important in Mpls. Was tearing out the cabinet prior to window guy arriving and realized, to my horror, that this was a built in that had been bastardized by someone's application of wood-grain plastic laminate. They'd removed the doors (sob), stuck dark wood laminate on all the surfaces, and installed MDF doors. No wonder it was so difficult to remove? Had I known, I probably would have kept it, but as it was chewed up by my removal efforts, I kept the base and am painfully taking down the glue goo and tossed the ugly doors, etc etc. These people apparently liked the *look* of wood, but preferred it in its plastic form. *sigh* Thanks again lads, appreciate it. Will be trying SoyGel first. We'll get her back to her full glory, poor thing.

After you posted the first thread I tried to buy the larger size vase pic and it was sold out then. I just assumed you had a store locally that carried it. I could had saved you some time by telling you that. Some of the alternstives you are posting are also some that I've seen myself while looking for art. They are nice but I'm still stuck on your first choice. So far the trees above this would be my 2nd choice...but I would keep checking back to see if Kirkland has the vases again. :)