You and everyone else on the forum knows all about my structures and statues so I won't bore you with them too much. I do love arches and they don't have to be elaborate. Changing the elevation in a garden really makes it more satisfying and interesting. I love to create a vignette. Flora sits beneath her pergola/temple the vision of the goddess of flowers and the beds surround her in circles. It's just the way I look at things. I guess most of the statuary has a classical look that fits with what I consider a romantic garden. I would very much like to recreate that circle of arches that is in Mottisfont. We saw it this past June. There is no more room within the garden proper. We have a very ambitious plan of planting ramblers to tumble down a bank above the road to our water tank. There is a spot in that area where we could perhaps do it.

Brad - if you thought what I said was, adding Mg is = to snake oil and will ruin soils in the long run, you don't really understand what I was trying to convey. Simply put, thinking that increasing the amount of Mg your plant is getting based on the assumption that more Mg is necessarily better, is far more likely to end in loss of potential rather than gain. Increasing the level of Mg to eliminate a known Mg deficiency is about the only scenario I can think of other than increasing the Mg supply beyond what would normally be reasonable to fix one of those unusual situations where an excess of Ca is blocking uptake of Mg. In addition, the color of hydrangea blooms is an entirely different topic and much more complicated than the discussion about adding Mg to soils in willy nilly fashion. From something I wrote a few years back on another thread: "Three different pigments - chlorophyll, flavonoids, and carotenoids - mixed in different proportions, give color to plants. By mixing and matching the three pigments, an endless variety of colors can be created. E.g. most reds are the result of mixing orange carotenoids with magenta flavonoids. Cellular pH (not to be confused with soil pH) has a profound effect on plant color. Even most experienced gardeners think that lowering soil pH produces blue blooms in hydrangea. Technically, it is only a part of the equation. Lowering soil pH makes aluminum ions more available for plant uptake. The aluminum is then available to bond with pigment compounds (anthocyanin, the colored component of flavonoids) changing the way color is reflected. Our perception is blooms changing from pink to blue. The anthocyanidin group is what makes apples, autumn leaves, roses, strawberries, and cranberries red. They make blueberries, cornflowers, and violets blue. They also make some grapes, blackberries, and red cabbage purple. One of the things that changes the color of anthocyanins is the level of acid or alkali (the pH) in the cell surrounding the pigment. As cellular pH increases, the pigment changes structure and reflects different wavelengths of light. The anthocyanin reflects bright pink in acid cell environments, reddish-purple in neutral and green in more alkaline cells. When I write things it's never from the perspective of one size fits all; and when I disagree, it's usually because I see someone offering a 'one size fits none' perspective that has the potential to diminish someone else's growing experience, either because it's simply wrong or not qualified to the degree it can simply be overlooked. Al

Timeless is such a hard word for me. I think that white cabinets, marble, real butcher block, natural stone, some openness and natural light are timeless to me. Granted the MOST timeless thing to me is functionality. When I started looking for my first house my dad said something that stuck with me, "Look past ugly, you can change ugly --you can't change location, size and layout (easily)- - it is a lot easier take down some wallpaper, lighting fixtures and sea foam green carpet then it is to add an extension or re-arranging walls and be in a different neighborhood." Now when I first started my kitchen reno FUCTION was the most important thing to me, I opened a wall, closed another, moved all my appliances around, added appliances, added an eating bar into my living room and huge amounts of counter space. That to me is timeless, my finishes however are not. If I were to sell my house 6 months from now, I am POSITIVE people would balk at my two tone cabinets, one white with a glaze, my big farm sink, my ORB handles and fixtures and busy granite, the fact I choice new white appliances over stainless steel,, my beveled arabesque, my choice to use multiple big mouldings and other things that I can't think of right now. But to be honest I don't care. I started this project looking for validation from friends/family on what to do and was so unhappy with the results. My mom had a 1940's farm house that she recently re-did the sprawling kitchen with ivory shaker cabinets and black movement filed granite and super top end stainless appliances, restoration hardware lights, simple and beautiful, Many times, by many people called timeless and classic--but I would never want it in my house. I finally decided to treat my kitchen like a reflection of myself, I am 28, I am a housewife with no kids who loves to entertain and does so at least weekly. I am Italian as is my husband with HUGE families that are very close. I love makeup and wear a lot of it, I do not usually leave the house ( or my dressing room for that matter) with out the longest fake eyelashes I can find. I have hip length long blonde hair. It is not uncommon to find me in the kitchen with a pair of 6 inch stilettos on and if I think I put on enough jewelry for the day-- I will go put on just one more piece ;-) So why can't my kitchen reflect me?... It may be over the top, it may be easily dated, it may even be deemed tacky, busy or gaudy... but I can tell you I look just right standing in the middle of it, cause honestly I am a little bit of all of those things. BUT my layout is perfect and functional, it is opened enough to entertain, but closed enough to give me peace when I want it. My cabinets are solid, my moldings are classic (albeit there are a lot of them) my appliances are quality as are finishes-- to me THAT is timeless.... I feel finishes are personal preference in all aspects of life... My ultra crystal filled ostrich feathered giant...

I doubt that many architects have had anything to do with the majority of tract builder's subdivisions, Maybe, but I know for a fact that one major designer of the huge custom Mansion antecedent of the McMansion in the general region I grew up in is a licensed architect. And his website is full of examples. I know someone who got into trouble with him because he guaranteed them he could design a historically pure classical house with authentic details. He couldn't: he had no idea what they were, and when the historian client and I showed him the actual details he insisted they were wrong and that's not how he did it. A license does not guarantee taste. The individual who had among the worst esthetic tendencies in my design program was accepted to a good architecture program. Perhaps they got rid of those tendencies in her program, but perhaps not: no one seemed to be able to educate her out of them in design school. I agree that most of this stuff is probably not designed by licensed architects, but a license alone is not enough to guarantee that an architect won't.