Seems your yard is THE place to nest this year, and the drake has been telling all of his lady friends. *L* Looks like you've got a duck flock! Also, the other girls are jealous of the babies, watch those lone females so they don't hurt or kill the ducklings. Velvet ~:>

How about this for starters: one bag of potting soil (any size you can carry), 2-3 windowboxes, and a few seeds which are for sale all over the place. Oh..and don't forget gloves and tools. Short, bushy, and trailing plants fit windowboxes and small pots well. And for taller plants, large pots. Instructions are usually right on the seed packs. If you still have cold weather and want to WS them to give them a head start, cover part of the boxes with plastic sheets so that rain and air can still get in. Make sure to put recycled lids of something like that under containers for good drainage. Balconies + trailing and climbing plants = gorgeous. Herbs and vegetables will adapt to balconies too. Even small fountains where you can grow cress or other water loving plants. Raid library and bookstores for books-books-books. You'll learn a little bit from each one, and years from now you'll be "the wise garden" sage. I have a book from a Washingtonian gardener who made her oasis on her balcony in the famous Watergate--she suggested putting a mirror in any dark, deep shade areas of a balcony, not in the sun, and it really adds a lot to the view. I grow mostly edibles on my back balcony. You can see a little of my backyard balcony railing in this: Here's another sunny balcony (not mine) for inspiration! Nice how the yellow flowers add a little depth to the trailing petunias/torenias.

:-) I wasn't really hurt that no one had posted anything yet (in regards to your comment about being sad that there were no replies), as I just posted it at 11 p.m. last night - but I definitely appreciate that you took the time to read and respond! I'm not much of a decorator, to say the least - but I do love warm, earthy tones. The floor pattern we chose was mainly because at that time, we were going to do our kitchen cabinets in the "dreaded" (to some) golden oak, and didn't want the flooring and cabinets to blend into each other (the other pattern we were considering didn't have the black lines - just the "golden" color). Now, with my love of copper and sage for the kitchen counters, I feel like the cabinets need to be something "deeper" than golden oak, with a more red undertone. The kitchen is wide open on two side - one opens to a family room full of windows, the other into a great room full of even more, bigger windows (there isn't a lot of "wall" on our exterior walls...). Everything will be very light and airy, so I thought perhaps I should offset it with some earthier, deeper choices in the kitchen. A blend of walnut and cherry tones might be just right - but now you've got me worried about the overwhelming "red swirls." I do want to keep the copper option on the island. And the flooring has been ordered. Do you have suggestions as to what you would do on the perimeter wall counter (the one 12' run which will have a cooktop in the center)? I didn't think the Metal Earth had that much of red swirls. Or is it the backsplash that should be changed, perhaps? I'm not as tied to that idea. I don't want to tile it, though, so it would probably end up just painted or something else relatively inexpensive, whatever that might be. Would a SS backsplash work, or would that conflict with the copper? I will be putting a SS sink in the copper countertop of the island, with SS faucet - I've been told they'll be fine together. Sorry - I think I just threw out more questions for consideration, didn't I??? Julie

Hey, thanks for the response. The sinks don't necessarily have to be far apart - I've seen some kosher kitchens that just have a double bowl sink with one sink for meat and the other for dairy. But I would strongly prefer to have two separate sinks (again, that third sink could go if I can't fit it) with separate prep space - at least 120 cm of counter space for each side. Having the oven in the middle makes a clear delineation between the meat side and the dairy side, but that's not an absolute requirement.