I can't believe all of the responses, thank you so much! I'm saving all of them and am going to go through the suggested plants to choose some for the space. The area in question is rather dry, although this spring/summer has been on the dry side so far, so many of our garden beds are dryer than usual. I think this spot tends to get less watering from us because the one spigot in the front of our house hasn't worked since we moved here and it's a pain to drag the backyard hose all the way around to the front. DH has promised to get down in the crawl space and fix the darned thing before next spring, so hopefully with a well-placed soaker hose under a layer of mulch it will be more moist next year. In the event that the area does remain rather dry, are there any shade-loving perennials that will flourish in dry shade? The idea of having a tree there is intriguing, but I do think that the area is a bit small---one of my husband's pet peeves is trees that are planted too close to houses. The window there is pretty much our one and only 'view' from anywhere inside the house, so we'd like to keep it unobstructed. We also have so many trees in our yard (especially in that half of the yard), I think the idea of adding more makes us start to panic a little ; ) This is a horrid photo (I think it's from the realtor) but you can see the three huge trees on the right (one is a double-trunk); there is also an enormous maple directly behind the garage. http://pattycakedesigns.com/house6.jpg I'm not positive, but I don't think that the garden stays warm in the winter. We planted three hydrangea there last fall, and none of them made it through the winter. Maybe the freezing wind blowing in from the west hits full-on whatever's planted there? We live a block from the shore of Lake Erie, so it does tend to get pretty cold/windy here in the winter. I do like the idea of a birdbath or some other small structure there (I think our four cats would enjoy drooling from the windowsill), and I think we have one in the shed that we aren't using now. I saw one the other day that had been planted with annuals that were positively dripping over the edges of the bowl; I seem to remember DH moaning about having to scrub out the birdbath more than he liked, maybe if we don't use it for a birdbath per se we can use it as a focal point for some fancy annuals? Other than impatiens, what annuals grow well in the shade? Begonias? I've been trying to come up with some more ideas for plants that might look interesting through the winter (since it's winter here for about six months, or at least seems that way, especially when it snows in April). Any thoughts for anything other than holly? We're not big evergreen/dwarf conifer fans. We love climbing hydrangea (left one behind at the old house, I still mourn losing it); if I wanted to start one up the siding there to the left, what would be the best way to support it? I'm guessing the siding is too slick for it to hold itself up. A trellis? If so, how do you attach a trellis to the siding, or would you just anchor the bottom in the ground? My goal now is to try and get the unwanted flowers moved to the backyard somewhere so that I can hopefully plant some shade perennials here in the fall. I moved the Clara Curtis this morning (from the way it spread in just one year, I have a feeling it's going to take over whereever I put it) and am going to move those sickly-looking geraniums when we hack them back in a few days. I need to get that poor hydrangea out of the corner; would it be better to wait until fall to move it, or could I do it now? Thanks again for everyone's responses, this is all fascinating and so helpful! Amy Here is a link that might be useful:

Last year was the first year that my PUDC had a few tips that dried up. It was very hot, with pitiful rainfall. We are on white sand, so watering doesn't hold very long. I water a LOT, but both of my PUDC get a decent amount of sun. I had one Gold Standard out in almost full sun. It had burned tips too. The other 5 GS don't get as much sun, so no burning. I'd guess that if you don't have PUDC in lots of sun then it would look great all year. Mine usually do. But the few crispy tips were only apparent up close. Mine got almost white by August. I like it better when it is yellow. Love the crazy frizzy appearance. I know that lots of people hate Medusa, find it difficult to grow. Mine was a decent sized potful when I bought it at a local nursery, not a TC plug. That may be the trick to growing troublesome hostas. Let someone else grow them the first few years. I have 3 nice little clumps of Lemon Lime and 3 of Feather Boa. I think LL multiples a bit more quickly. I want to divide them so I can have more for "free", but also like the way they look now. I divided my Chartreuse Wiggles last fall, and am sorry it is only half the size it was last year. However, I have lots of little CW's all over the place now, so I can't complain too much.

Pal, did you spend your summer vacation honing your Photoshop skills? IIRC you never used to Photoshop and now you are a demon : ) ! Yes, the wall is weak, but only in the dark with the doors closed. As for $300/yd fabric choices, I'm feeling pretty jaded. Just had this discussion with DH about a 300ish area rug from PB in the LR, vs a 3k custom bound one. The latter won't make me 10x happier. It won't even make me 5x happier. So it's just bad math to buy it! Same with fabric. Didn't someone on here have a 200/yd limit. It's a good idea to have a limit; there are sooooo many fabrics out there. What if I amp up that elevation with WT to match the sink skirts AND artwork?

I wonder if the link to the restaurant you posted above might be to a different one with the same name? The map link from your link points to a spot somewhere in the middle of Rio, pretty far from anything. A good guess would be that that location would be about an hour of driving from Sugarloaf, and looking more closely at that spot on the map shows that seems to be inside a large shopping mall, in a slightly questionable neighborhood. Another restaurant with the same name and logo is located on the edge of Barra da Tijuca where much of the new building for the Olympics took place. Do you remember if the front of the restaurant looked like this? and the view from outside included this dramatic bridge and the distinctive mountain in the background. If you will be only posting food-related photos here can you at least post a link here to you postings in other forums so interested Cooking forum can find them and follow along? I never went to either of the museums you mentioned, so I'd love to see pictures of what I missed. I have been in that area and saw the Municipal Theater, the National Library, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro, the Carioca Aqueduct and rode the trolley across it to Santa Teresa, and on my last trip found Selaron's Stairs, which were created over many years by a local artist I didn't go up the stairs because a couple people warned me that my large camera would make me an inviting target. After reviewing the photos later I discovered that it I had gone up the stairs, I could have met the artist who was sitting there surrounded be a group of people.