sorry for the delay in reply, (thought I set email notifications on) I'll upload better image to orrow it sits in a north facing window (they dint have south facing) it is watered from the bottom the soil mix is the one it came with (most likely peat based) it is in a plastic pot 5.5cm three holes on base. it also sits in decorative pot, but it is sat onto of a chunk of polystyrene to raise it to pot tip, (there is around a bout 1.5inches from the bass of decorative pot. it also also worth noting the cactus is changing colour and going "gooie" where the blooms are and they have all dropped. the idea of it being stressed is a good idea, how do I make it happy if it is stressed? thank you leo

I'd look at it as the "personality" of the stone. Unless you really search, it's rare that any piece of stone is perfect, especially with bottocino, where it's such a light neutral color, and any imperfection's going to stand right out. If it really bothers you that much, I'd bring it up to the fabricator, but there may not be that much he can do about it without going to still ANOTHER slab. He may have a problem with that, and although I can see your side of it, I would understand his, too.

i'm not sure if this will help but could it be that the water you're using to mix your grout has a lot of minerals in it? same thing for the water you're filling your finished bowls with? i'm wondering if what you're seeing isn't grout at all, but minerals that have settled (which would show up a lot against black grout.) i'd try mixing the grout powder with filtered or bottled water, in case that's the problem. maybe try filling a finished bowl with that, too, just to see. the water in our last city was extremely hard and my black grout would turn light gray upon drying. once i switched to filtered water, my grout stayed dark.

We covered this long ago. He said that she was looking for someone to side with her so it HAD to be a man to ensure some measure of impartiality. There were no male marriage counselors within a convenient driving distance. She said that male or female, it made no sense to go by herself because "fixing herself" wouldn't fix him. You see, she does want to complain but too lazy or powerless or combo to do anything about it. My decision was made long ago to not intervene. I was curious as to what others did. Postings have been interesting. One time she was crying, no, sobbing that her house was a mess and nobody wanted to help her. I was struck by her pain so volunteered 3 Saturday afternoons (in a row) to help her clean. We vacumed, laundered linens, moved heavy furniture from 2nd floor to bottom floor and grown children/a@@hole just looked on. A month later we went upstairs to discuss paint and the rooms were the same mess I had encountered the very first time. Nobody did anything. Lesson learned and I was so proud of myself that I said nothing when I really wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, lol. In her defense, had it been me crying about dirty home, she would have come, not 3 afternoon, but 3 entire days to help me. But she would do it as an escape from her house. It seems so ungrateful to question her motives but I've never asked her so neither here nor there. And she is really a lovely woman--warm, funny, smart, not a malicious hair in her body, but oh, what a hot mess, lol!