Fantastic! Thank you guys....close to a Monstera then, but their labelling could have been somewhat better! I shall try very hard to keep up the good work (although I suspect the plant's success is more down to the plant itself than to anything I'm doing!! - maybe it just likes my windowsill.....) Thanks again - I'm off to read up on it now :-)

The only colorful bulbs are crocuses and a few Siberian squill, no open flowers yet, but you can see the colors in the closed blossoms. The daffodils don't seem to have even emerged yet. There's a pansy or two in bloom. Lots of other stuff going on  corn salad has come back; sorrel, thyme, and sage have leafed out. Brambles have leaf buds, some (blackberries) starting to break. Celeriac and just a couple of kale and chard plants seem to have made it through the winter.

HI socks: thanks for the tip on retailmenot.com and ebates.com. We printed out coupon for $36 off from Vision Works, but didn't bring it along, since thought our kid's glasses would be covered by insurance (can't use coupon). When we were ready to pay, our insurance didn't go through, and we had to DRIVE ALL THE WAY home, just to fetch the coupon. I don't like shopping at Bed & Bath Beyond since it's a hassle to take the 20% coupon along. I forgot one time, and the store clerk won't give me one. What I love about the Internet is it ENABLES the average person to take care of themselves better, without paying $$$ to "experts" who don't give a damn. My husband is "one" with his car, so when it broke down, he knew immediately that's the generator. He took his old generator to the auto-shop to be tested. They tested it WRONG, and told him it's OK. So he took his car to the dealer. The dealer charged $$$ for diagnostic tests, but could not find anything wrong with his car. HIs car broke down again !! He got mad and took it to his friend, a mechanic. His friend agreed that it's the generator, put a new one in, and it WORKED !! Same with my sister, a retired Internal Medicine doctor with decades of experience. My period stopped at menopause (51) for months, then it came back ungodly heavy. My M.D. sister told me it's cancer. I disagree, and told her it's from the pumpkin seeds I eat for months. She didn't believe me until I dug up researches from government website that prove the potent estrogenic effect of pumpkin seeds. My 12 year old daughter was also eating tons of pumpkin seeds, and had 1-month-long period. Both of our bleeding stopped when we stopped the pumpkin seeds, with the Internet confirmed our suspicion.

I like your house color as it is; very craftsman-like. I do think the garage doors should be painted so that they do not stand out and call attention to themselves. I think your front porch is lovely and should be where our eyes want to go. I definitely agree with Patricia...white is not a good choice for this home.