I was amazed at what Europeans did with small amounts of land--sometimes with NO Land but lots of containers and windowboxes. Even the smallest, humble house had beautiful flowers. I contrast this with the current American suburban trend of completely utilitarian, non-flowering, plastic-looking greenery for landscaping. If it doesn't flower, it isn't in my garden (yard)! I don't till with a machine either--it's my exercise. Beats paying a gym! I believe that if gas cost what it costs Brits we would ALL till by hand (except large farms, of course). As for composting and amending--as you would guess, every possible soil type is found in this country so it would be unwise to answer one way. In my area, it's red clay. I amend by composting, manure and compost tea as that is the best way to achieve the perfect balance of PH. My question for you. I read that the Queen likes gardens very much. Does she actually dig in the dirt? Has anyone photographed her doing this? I realize you don't know her personally (something Brits say Americans seem as though they believe), but perhaps you have seen this discussed in your media.

I'm thinking that the wedgies won't work right because I have an ext. table that fits around my machine. And my machine is as close to the edge as possible with the ext. table. MaryLiz, I think I get those Trapezius headaches too. Most of my headaches are tension related & there was certainly some quilt tension going on last night! wish I had a built in tension regulator like my machine. :) Where do you get the exercise disks? Is it like a donut? I'll have to try some type of chair adjustment. Right now I'm using a folding chair because...that's what I have. Might need to get a cushy rolly chair eventually. My eyesight has been changing...not good with reading...so probably need to FINALLY get some reading glasses. 8) Taking a break is also a good idea. I tend to push thru until I'm done. I did take a few breaks & visited this forum to post my questions as I was going on...LOL! But most of ya'll go to bed before me since I'm on Pacific time. My other problem is lighting. The extra light I have is a halogen desk lamp. It's great, but I don't want to turn it on while I'm working on this big bulky project for fear of setting it a flame! Have no where safe to put it at the moment. I could probably get DH to build a little lamp shelf when I finally get settled.

Instead of posting on a forum, I call the 24 hour nurse line when something happens and concerns me when it's not something I know requires an ER or UC visit. During the past years I've been warned by the doctors and nurses to beware of certain symptoms and conditions and sometimes they come up. More often than not the nurse line will cover their butt by saying you could go to ER but sometimes they can calm you down and have you think rationally. They also have access to your medical history so they can see if you have a condition that might be an additional alert. Apparently nobody here has heard of this or used it and if not, you should look into it. It's an incredibly valuable resource. I have arthritis in my shoulders. When I do certain work I can pretty much count on limited movement for a day or so afterward. I take pain meds and live with it until it's such a point where I need to consider surgery again. I've had enough cutting and replacing on me to last a while. My surgeon wants me to try injections if it gets worse but I won't do that unless things are a lot worse than now.

@beth h: Yes, 17kg in each piece of hand luggage. My arms and shoulders ached for a week! But I saw similar tiles in New York for $6 each, so the cost saving was worth the pain! Plus going through security was funny when they made me open the luggage to see what they were!