I can't make out the top very well but it looks great with the big fat crystal! Is that one of your crystals like you use on your rusty faucets?

I've always wanted one of those! When I think of it though, I just have visions as a child of my mother's ancient canister vac with the self retracting cord. You had to play jump rope as that baby came whipping around and bit everyone's ankles as it retracted. (grin) Ya had to get out of range of that thing. Was a biting beast. Vicious! LOL. . . But I wanted one of those - it looks terrific!

The horrible wet start to the season kept me from planting much of what I had planned, and much of what I direct seeded rotted in the ground. Still, there have been successes (and a few more failures). I was able to plant three beans on time in my home gardens, and all have borne seed: - "Serbian Pole" bore seed early & plentifully, and is a wonderful shelly... so it is a keeper. The dry pods & seed also show very good resistance to moisture, there was virtually no spoilage even in our very wet summer. - "Grandma Roberts" was grown in pots last year; this year it was a large row for eating & further seed increase. It did remarkably well - a couple meals of snaps, and over 4 pounds of seed thus far. The only down side is that the seed has a strong tendency to sprout in the pod, even in dry weather... at least every other pod has 1-2 sprouted. The upside: after letting the vines go for seed, nearly all of the pods have dried and been picked... and all of the vines are re-sprouting! I might get another few snaps before frost. Generally, beans drop all their leaves & die as the seed ripens, so this degree of re-sprouting is remarkable. - I lost 4/16 plants of "Flamingo" to disease, but the remaining plants were rampant, and completely covered the trellis. The flat pods are tender & sweet, outstanding eaten raw - DW & I snacked on quite a few. Unfortunately, once pods began to ripen, only two plants showed the bright red coloration... the rest were pale, or red spotted. Dry seed came late, but since it does not appear to be stable, I will not be saving seed, and will not grow it again. - "Garafal Oro" is the only bean that survived the June flooding in my rural plot - and even the lowest 1/3 of that row was lost. Fortunately, the plants that remained are lush & full of pods, which are just now beginning to ripen & dry. The color change is widespread, so I should get a good seed harvest before frost. Runner beans: - "Insuk's Wang Kong" has done exceptionally well; due to several cool snaps & the absence of really hot weather, it set a full pod load early. The majority of that seed has already dried (about 3.5 pounds so far) with maybe another pound or so still on the vines. All of that seed is either purple or pure black. I had been looking forward to seeing if any of the white seed reappeared, since I had not planted any of the white seeds the first time I grew it & wondered if it was hidden as a recessive gene. There are over 20 plants, and no sign of white flowers or white seeds... so it appears that the white was eliminated in one generation. - "Gigandes" is adjacent to "Garafal Oro" in my rural plot, and also lost part of the row to flooding. The plants were set back, and flowered later than usual. There are a lot of pods on the vines now, and a few are beginning to change color... but unless the frost comes late, I doubt I will get much dry seed. Limas: - "1880's Butterbean" (in my home plots) was transplanted late, but still set a heavy pod load fairly early. I've been picking handfulls of dry pods daily for a week now. The color change has become widespread, so I should get a good dry seed yield, and freeze quite a few shellies. - "North Star" is a large lima that I have never grown in quantity, so I was really looking forward to it this year... but it was transplanted very late into the rural garden. It has set quite a few pods, but is probably too far behind to make it. For some reason it was the plant that was nipped the hardest by a weak frost last night, which could be a mixed blessing... it might cause some of the pods to ripen faster. I've already posted about my success with a bush, non daylength sensitive hyacinth bean that I acquired in a trade. There is already a tray full of dry seed, and the bushes are still setting immature pods... so it too appears to be a "keeper". I have a Filipino friend who used to eat the dry seeds, so I will be getting more info on proper preparation. It's late & I have to get up early, I'll cover the rest of the legumes later.

Emagineer, that is probably a crystal star? And when we got married in 2006, I gave each of the granddaughters, nieces, and their mamas the 2005 Swarovski crystal star Christmas ornament as a memory. Every year since then, I give them the current star from Swarovski as one of their Christmas presents. By the time they are grownup, they'll be able to decorate their whole Christmas tree or a window year round. It helps that we only have seven granddaughters/grandnieces and 4 mamas, and then I get one so it is a dozen stars total that we get. I also gave one to my brother, and he has it suspended from his rear view mirror in his Mustang. It is for the light show that I get them, not for any supernatural powers. I've looked online for the rain chains too. I think a copper one would be lovely, aging to that nice verdigris over time. I do not have the rain gutters. I've wondered how to suspend the chains where they will keep the rain from tearing up the flower beds beneath. I have a link somewhere and will look for it. Reasonable prices for an 8' chain, with option to add links to make it longer. In Costa Rica, they used regular old chain at the rooflines of the resort where we honeymooned. Then a splash block at the bottom. They get serious rain there, and these chains were two stories long...about 20 feet? If you have a plastic linked chain, why not try it first before you buy something? A weight at the bottom would keep it in place.