I also live in Virginia, and was thinking about the British hedge for privacy reasons. I took a roadtrip in the UK several years ago, and my first notice of hedgerows was while driving a one-lane country road in my car rental. The roads were extremely narrow, with little room for mistakes. Initially, I feared accidentally scratching the paint while maintaining the center of the lane. Then, my fear turned into terror when the hedgerows intermittently vanished in favor of a stone walls. It scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, the hedgerows return was a welcome sight. I know I am writing this well after the first post, but for anyone wanting a look at hedgerow building, you should check out Season 2, Episode 6 of Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime. As for the "Americans are lazy" comment.. Americans rank relatively high as one of hardest working people in the world, especially against most developed countries. I do think Americans wouldn't take the time to maintain a hedge, but I believe it is more about 'how' they prioritize their time. Even I have berated my brother on the amount of time he spends on his yard. I have commented to him that he spends more time on maintaining it, rather than enjoying it.

"So do any of you keep a Book Journal to remember what books you have read? I'm trying to think of some format to write down all the ones I've read and maybe a list of ones that sound good (To Be Read). I get such great ideas from this thread." I don't have a system as elaborate as Maryann's, but since 1999, I've get a list by year in a Word document of every book I've read and the author. It's fun to go back and look at how many or how few books I read each year. Last year was a record high since I started keeping my list - I read 50 books. I'm sure to some that's not many but it was for me. I looooove to read. I have a friend who is a voracious reader - she's in her 50's and has arthritis pretty bad and doesn't work so reading is her favorite thing to do. We had dinner together a few months ago and she said she remembers as a kid taking her wagon to the library and carting books home. She said her parents were always fussing at her to get her nose out the book and go outside and play. Neither one of my kids read for pleasure - I wish they did - you're able to visit so many places that you might not ever get to see in person if you enjoy reading.

I hadn’t heard about the Vermeer film- sounds fascinating and I will watch that for sure! “Summer of Soul” is on my short list already; David Copperfield, too. A few more series come to mind that I recommend: two medical documentary series that I thought were excellent, “Lenox Hill” and “The Surgeon’s Cut” are on Netflix. For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like, and I definitely DO! Another Netflix documentary series I recently enjoyed “This is a Robbery”, about the 1990 art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. I also enjoyed the Linda Ronstadt documentary mentioned above. And, not new, but certainly not-to-be-missed, “Hamilton“ on Disney.

@lily316 since you’re looking for something to watch on Netflix and if you haven’t already, I recommend The Queen’s Gambit. I loved it. It’s an original Netflix 7 episode series about an orphan who grows up to be a world champion chess player. It garnered 18 Emmy nominations and won Golden Globes for best limited series and best actress.