lazygardens asked for: A washing machine and dryer that can send you an IM over the house network when it has finished. That's all - nothing fancier needed. I want a dryer that starts even when you forget to push the button. Oh, and even better, a washer that moves the clothes to the dryer for you. We're facing the tech question now because we'll be building soon. I'm pretty sure I want a programmable front door lock. Our Nest never learned a pattern from us, because 1) we both work at home so don't have predictable schedules and 2) the thermostat is too high on the hall to notice when I walk by. I thought it was broken, but, no, I'm just short. We've never had a "is the garage door closed?" capability but wouldn't object to it. I won't spend extra for our smoke detectors to talk to our thermostat. We have no interaction besides batteries with our CO2 detector or smoke detectors. I don't need them to be smart--just to work. I'm interested in being able to turn off all the lights at once but don't know that I care about mood settings. I insist on being able to turn on the outside light from my car--DH programmed that for me so my 3rd HomeLink button in the car turns on the outside lights--I love that. It's even better than the motion sensitive light, because that didn't click in until I was already in the driveway. (I've already got the tall dark and handsome part down)

The link worked, and so did Google Translate! It amazes me how good that has gotten over time. I found the little translate thingy in the upper right hand corner, and with one click the entire thing was in good English. Very interesting, and very sad & scary. The "loss of stables", and chemical fertilizers being used instead of manure being called out as a major cause was striking. Gave me a kick to continue putting a layer of home made compost all over all of the beds. I think gardeners here were trying to add back organic matter back into the soil in the past decades, but the advice to dig it in deeply, and keep tilling & turning over the soil turned out to be wrong, as it destroys the soil organisms. Turns out from what I have read that just putting compost or manure or other organic stuff on the top of the soil is what works - I am always amazed at how fast it disappears, not from running off with rain, but from becoming a part of the soil. Also it is so much easier! Jackie

If you can find the book, "The Quest for the Rose", you'll see similar type photos. They're used to illustrate botanical characteristics. Comparing those for the two roses also assists in identifying which is which. Often, patents contain comparison descriptions so the reader can visualize the differences and to point out why the plant differs from the compared variety. I agree about the appeal of the drawings, however even the best pales compared to the physical photos. Here is the description comparing other varieties with AUSwhirl, The Poet's Wife, from its patent application and the botanical photos of the plant parts. You can see how much more accurate and useful the photos are.

I got this one last year too, Dianela. Was pleasantly surprised by how healthy and floriferous it was and mine was fragrant but i don’t remember the scent