Tony C: It is very late in the evening and I am too tired to read all of the responses in your post, but I wanted to at least post something in the wee hours of the morning. The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is well noted for having the largest Japanese Garden in the continental United States and is also noted for its Japanese Festival held over the labor day weekend. If you link to the site below, you find that there are various links to take you to the international gardens located within this wonderful gem - one of which is the Japanese Garden. While these links will provide some "inspiration", there is nothing like a 2 day visit to this outstanding garden. While I currently live in northwestern Michigan, I was born, bred, and lived for more than 5 decades on the Illinois prairie, where I was able to visit this garden more frequently. If you plan to head in that direction and are the type of person who enjoys staying at a bed & breakfast, I recommend that you contact Maggies Bed & Breakfast in Collinsville, Illinois. She is a retired Librarian who has traveled in the far east via freighters and other means of transportion. Her rates are reasonable, the conversation is excellent and the breakfast are very delicious. If you're a person who enjoys staying at a motel/hotel, there are several excellent choices in the Collinsville, IL area. Collinsville is located very close to one of the Interstate Highways leading into St. Louis and the MBO - not too far west on I-44 - is about a short 15 to 20 minute drive. Hope this information is somewhat helpful and/or inspiring. Bill Here is a link that might be useful: Missouri Botanical Garden - Virtual Tour - International Gardens

Im not giving much of oppotunity to Inky ;););)....... Temple's garden never mean to be park or nor for peoples. Since many big temple ,zen temple lost suport from roler and noble, Open the garden to public for income/profit. Since then ,none of monk have spend even one day of hunger. Meiiji Empror who tried to destroy Buddhim and bring shinto as relegion of nation, made new law. monk can marry, eat meat etc. It is another way to destory Buddhism. Japanese monks and Buddhism took and grab oppotuity of centurys. even after Meiiji empror is gone , power of Emporor are striped off, many monks and sect of Buddsim keeps law of man, even after the man is dead and forget precept of Buddha. They are living in greenhouse. out side of green house is too cold or too hot, waiting people to come into greenhouse. I know that not all of manks are same. but too little number of Good Japnese monks exsist. plantfleak: Have you been to Yakushima yet ? If you have chance to visit to Yakushima, Please tell us about it.... Yama

The butt, from this angle, doesn't appear to have much wear, looking at it from different angles would give more detail!! Most times, I use a regular jewelers eye loop but sometimes have to go to more power to get definition on some of the stampings. You want to trade for my nice clean shiny musket? Moonshadow...I love history and the Civil War is one I spend most time on. The artifacts are plentiful, new information of the era become known constantly as older collectors pass away and the stuff becomes available. Even as a kid, disregarding some of the various reasons for discontent at the time, I always thought it was the most senseless war, right here against our own people that could have been otherwise resolved. So bloody, so senseless yet so many innovations in militarism that are still used in some form even today. I have joined a few excursions from time to time searching farms and ravines in this area, looking for artifacts. There are caves in the area here that were used at various times during that war. Folks are always looking for caches but the problem being, many were booby trapped and are quite dangerous from explosions or other damaging action even today. I'd love to find something like that cannon I mentioned earlier. I do have quite a collection of bullets, swords, bayonets, belt buckles and other medallions found on a friends farm nearby. A lot of soldiers personal items have been found also. Just like this musket fori has here, one can sit for a time and just wonder who had it, what their daily life might have been like and if they ever made it home. It sure gets the imagination going. And to think, towns people would find a vantage point and gather and watch a battle, with picnic lunches and all. Just as TEXASREDHEAD, I love occasionally shooting the ones that I have that work. Just wondering how someone could carry that thing all day along with all their other gear and then the noise, the kick and the reloading in a stressful situation and still hit something (with the earlier guns). It's a thrill.

I lived in a ballroom for five years. It was part of an 1820 addition to a 1770's coaching inn in New England. The ballroom was 40' long by 20' wide, with a 16' high barrel vaulted ceiling. Lots of windows. Gorgeous honey-brown hemlock floor. Narrow kitchen and bath tucked in on one long side. Massive crown molding where the walls started to curve into the ceiling--made a ledge that my cats would perch on. Fireplace at each end. I loved living there. Watching the sunlight come in the windows at the east end in the morning and stretch all the way to the far wall 40' away, lighting up the floorboards. The mellow old brick wall at one end--originally the exterior of the inn, until the addition was put on. The space. The light. The openness. I'll admit, the first night in such a large space with the ceiling so high overhead was a bit odd. I felt sort of unprotected. But that feeling vanished very quickly. The building was brick, so not drafty. The landlord had put in modern, energy efficient windows and added a ton of insulation to the ceiling, as well as putting in a special energy efficient heating system, so it was not as bad to heat as I was afraid it would be. The big problem was the floor, which was, back in it's early days, some kind of special "sprung" flooring, with a bit of give for dancing. By the time I lived there, it creaked. Everywhere. Even when my cats walked on it. I put down area rugs everywhere, mostly to define living spaces, but also for the benefit of the tenants below me. Not that the rugs helped much. The other apartments were much more chopped up into little rooms, that would have been bedrooms and dining rooms and parlors in the original inn. One had the original kitchen fireplace, big enough for people to stand in, with bread ovens on the side. One had a cute little corner chimney, with shelves built-in over the fireplace. The building was L-shaped, with a kind of a courtyard in the back, where you could barely hear the traffic noise. Coming home after a hectic day's work, it was like entering a quieter time and place. I had always thought that I didn't like open-plan houses. What that apartment taught me was that I did like open-plan living spaces. What I don't like are open-plan kitchens. I loved the fact that the kitchen was in its own room, not visible from the rest of the space. I could leave dishes in the sink without feeling like I had to jump up and clean them. Cooking smells didn't permeate the entire space. I left there when I finished grad school and moved back closer to family. But I still miss it.