I once bought a house previously owned by very seriously addicted smokers. I had all the carpet ripped out (there were gorgeous oak floors underneath, why they covered them with carpet I'll never know) and also had the walls and ceilings painted with high quality paint. I also had all the draperies washed. We washed down all the doors and windows and sashes and woodwork, etc. (You should have seen our rags...YUCK!) This all managed to eliminate the cigarette smell entirely. Prior to this, I lived in a duplex for five years that had very nice Berber carpet. I know the landlord had the carpets and draperies professionally cleaned before I moved in, but I could STILL smell cigarettes every once in a while in a particular area of the living room. I assume it was "stuck" in the carpet. I wasn't sorry to move out of there.

Darn you, LindaC! I read your post at work today just before going into the lunch room and discovering someone had brought in a garbage bag full of tomatoes for public consumption. After consulting with my co-workers, I ended up taking the lions share home to slow roast and turn into cream of roasted tomato soup. I also decided to make some pesto while the tomatoes were roasting. My plan was to make some grilled cheese sandwiches with a good schmear of pesto in each to accompany the soup. I have some serious cuts on both my index fingers, so I asked for and received my husband's help in de-stemming / de-bugging the fresh-picked basil. I also had him re-fill the pepper mill. This is the part where I now blame you for starting this thread and getting me craving the soup: while stirring the soup and grinding pepper into it, I noticed my husband hadn't killed or escorted outdoors all the bugs, because there was a very large Daddy-Long-Legs on the spoon with which I was stirring the soup. Now, I'm not afraid of creepy-crawlies, but I didn't want to eat Cream of Spider soup, so I spastically flipped the spoon around in an attempt to keep Daddy from jumping into the pot. Because both hands were full, and because I have a limited attention span, I accidentally set the pepper mill into the simmering soup pan while juggling the spoon. I fed the critter, complete with roasted tomato sauce, to my (very appreciative) dog, realized my pepper mill mistake, removed it from the pot, and attempted to rinse it out in the sink, soaking all the internal peppercorns in the process. I shook the mill hard, but only managed to evenly disperse the water within the mill in the process. I attempted to continue grinding, but only got paste... so much for the pepper. Anyway, dinner was wonderful in spite of everything... Definitely one of those meals I dream about all year long... sans Phalangoidea, anyway. I really want a drink right now, but frankly I'm a little afraid to make myself one... who knows what other culinary ineptitudes doing so may uncover! My point is: I really wish you'd think of the possible ramifications before starting a thread like this... (P.S. If you let peppercorns dry out in a bowl overnight, is it OK to put them back in the grinder? Just wonderin'...)

Absolutely. Lots of pleasant memories. I remember being with my best friend and her cousins and having a sprite and strawberry ice cream soda...I didn't think about it for years or have sprite with strawberry ice cream...but one day I did....immediately transported back to that night and sitting on her front porch. At an antique auction, I bid on a couple of wooden chairs that I liked. The auctioneer threw in a couple more. One of the big old wooden chairs....I call it my "grandpa" chair....smelled old and musty. The memory associated with that was the upstairs in my grandmother's house. I don't think she had climbed up those stairs in many years, but after she died, I went up there and I remembered the musty smell. She also dipped snuff. Seems like there was a little essence of snuff in there also. And the chair smelled just like it. I didn't find the smell offensive....kind of intrigued that it smelled like grandma's house.

I am loving that clematis - so often, clems are planted in conjunction with other things, especially roses...and all well and good but the essential grace and delicacy of the singular clematis growth habits are so often missed...while yours is a lovely compliment to the arch. I have a plena purpurea elegans growing with Zepherine Drouhin - now a secateur casualty, and a completely unforeseen advantage is the black timber structure supporting the clematis on its own - such a lovely sight and never before appreciated as it was huddled amongst the (mildewed) rose canes looking a bit lost and forlorn. The negative spaces between blooms and leaves have a lightness which has absolutely enhanced this previously rather dull clematis (although I love to roll the entire name off my tongue - viticella purpurea plena elegans. The colour and shape of your clematis is a wonderful complement to that baroque ironwork.