My garden and house caters first and mostly for my dog - he's the most pampered pet you can imagine :-) This includes his own doghouse in the garage (that he hardly ever uses, but is used by the roaming cats in the neighborhood, much to Timmy's distress), an enclosed front porch with doggie door, basket, rug and private sofa, free roaming of the garden, two more beds inside the house, etc. You get the picture - he's the king of it all :-) As for wildlife, since we live on the foothills of a small mountain range and part of a natural park, we do get quite a lot of critters. We have a birdbath that is used not only by the birds but also by the bees and wasps, of which there are gazillions (we are in a honey producing area). Birds in the garden include sparrows, robins in Fall and Winter, loads of blackbirds, gold finches and a multitude of others I can't name. Last Saturday I saw my first swallow of the year. Above us on the hill we can frequently spot hawks, of which there are some colonies in the park. At night owls are a frequent visitor and we can hear their calls many times. Cuckoos are also a familiar sound as soon as Spring is here. I have a lot of evergreens in the garden and this provides excellent nesting sites for the birds. Preferred are the bay trees, laurustinus and the conifers. I'm constantly finding nests whenever I prune anything. I had a resident bat for about a year, sleeping in a closed garden umbrella we had on the patio. Unfortunately I had to remove the umbrella because the wasps decided it was a good place to nest, so it had to go. I was already stung twice, didn't want to be stung whenever I opened the umbrella! Still, bats visit frequently and it's common to see one or two flying around the garden at dusk. Some years we have glow worms in the Spring, which I absolutely love. It's magical to see them hovering around the garden at night. Other assorted critters include geckos, small lizzards, snakes, mice (yuk!), crickets, locusts and the occasional hedgehog. In terms of specifically catering for critters, I keep the birdbath going all year (we don't have hard freezes) and try to plant things I know will be used by the wildlife. This includes berry shrubs like pyracantha which are a major hit with birds in the cold Winter months. I also have a weeping mulberry tree and let its production go to the birds, who have a feast with the fruits. The compost pile is also a good feeding ground and there's a little bird that spends hours there hunting for the small fruit flies that proliferate inside the pile. Butterflies are catered for with things like lantana, mock orange and buddleia. I need to add more larval food to cater for butterflies, but haven't come quite up to it yet. I don't use any sort of chemicals in the garden, don't even spray the roses, and this of course translates into a welcome sign for critters, even if it means that slugs and snails are huge, sigh... I don't use a slingshot to get rid of them, like Edna does ;-), but I do throw them onto a neighbooring field that is kept wild. All in all, I consider a privilege to have wildlife in the garden and have been slowly educating myself to encourage it as much as possible. Eduarda

I see you picked the Dijon - good choice! I had not seen it before and think its beautiful. (I did not like the Citron) Just for comments - l I think Cobalt blue is a classic sort of kitchen accessory color because over the years country kitchens, white cabs etc. come back into style and blue looks really wonderful with that. Also "yellow" sunny walls are popular in kitchens and blue looks good with that. I have the Flame and occasionally think I'd like to switch, but then change my mind. Its classic in its own right as one of the original colors of a pretty old name in French cookware - now too trendy for being copied by Rachael Ray, Mario Batali etc. but I like the sense of tradition it gives me and I believe orange is supposed to induce hunger? (not that I need any more of that:)

Hmmmm, bmorepanic, I found this interesting from your link: "Regrettably, the aforesaid (and much-respected) Cook's Illustrated Guide to Essential Cookware (which we cited earlier on this page), has now been hidden behind a fee-pay requirement of the Cook's site (well, one can hardly blame them--though you could sign up for the "14-day free trial"). In it, they chose cookware makers item by item, rather than by "set" or "line". Excepting a few items that All-Clad does not make (such as cast iron and enamelware), their picks were uniformly from All-Clad. (We should also note that for a stockpot, they recommend the cheapest thing not actually trash that you can find, inasmuch as all they recommend using it for is boiling large amounts of water, as for pasta; for true stock-making, they much prefer a Dutch oven.)" Ok, I went from thinking I liked the Dutch oven shape the best for soups and spaghetti sauces because I didn't really know what I SHOULD be using or wasn't doing it right, to thinking I am not a complete idiot after all. My own personal experience and just what works for me counts, too, and I need to keep that in mind. I am going to do some more reading over there, I find it interesting. It seems like All-Clad or similar brand like Cuisinox will be best in a dutch oven type shape, with or without a copper bottom. I still haven't clarified that one. I think the copper will win out but may get eliminated due to price and less available bargains in that line. Then I am going to have to examine some of these more interesting shapes and maybe add one or more onto my wish list. :) I also have a yearning to try at least one piece of Le Creuset just to see if I like it.

The advantages of having kids and grandkids! Well, well trained ones, if you can get them! Even a SO will do in a pinch! If I had lived there, I probably would have been able to finish everything the morning after the party. Also, I spent quite a bit of time the next day dealing with an issue that came up with my elderly father, whom I am quasi caring for at yet another place. How I long for the stability of one home and one town that I live in rather than endless packing and being on the road. I can say from my perspective, one of the reasons china and other dishes that need to be carefully washed and stored are not popular now days is because folks are so busy, many working two jobs and trying to care for children and/or elderly parents and also many folks single and not living near friends or family, also moving around a lot to follow work or on the road commuting long distances, so just not having the extra time or energy. I know folks worked a lot in the past, but the constant moving I think has always been an impediment to having lots of nice, fragile things, as well as having the time to entertain. Back when mom entertained a lot, she was not working, she stayed home and enjoyed doing those kinds of things. But still, yes it was fun while it lasted, lots of fun and I so wish that kind of experience was more available to me. It used to be when I just worked full time one job and lived and worked in one place, I used to have dinner parties quite often, as some old timers on here will remember.