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!

Wow! I am so glad you're sharing these photos. I too have planted clematis (4) in those exact size plastic square pots. I was worried that they wouldn't do too well in them. I'm glad to see that yours are doing fine. I love their beauty and these 4 are my first clematis ever. I got mine from Wal-mart late spring of last year on clearance so I wasn't sure of what kind of quality I got. They didn't do well throughout the year. Another scare was that we had a weird winter this year in Houston. It's cold 1 week and very warm the next. We even had 1 night down to 27F degree which is quite rare here. The pots looked quite empty and I thought they all died. About a month ago, I started to see life. Now, I have a bud or two on each and they're about 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet tall. This weekend, I built an inexpensive trellis against the fence and put the pots next to each others in a row. I hope they will do well and will put on a show for me to enjoy everytime I sit at my breakfast room for a meal. I may even move my laptop there if they do well :) Again, thanks for giving me confidence and hope with these clematis in pots!

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.

I had to look this up. A R , French for Advance Retard (equivalent of Fast and Slow). See : http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/watchmovement.php " Regulators By far the commonest questions I get asked is "what do the letters on the movement A.R.F.S or F.S.A.R (or sometimes just FS or AR) mean?". These letters are found on the balance cock under the regulator lever. They stand for "Faster Slower" and the equivalent in French "Avance Retard". They show which way to move the regulator lever to make the watch go faster or slower. David Duff has seen a Henry Moser watch with V and N instead of F and S and concludes that these are for the equivalent German terms Vorrücken and Nachlassen. "