Hillbilly, you hold a royal flush of big hosta there. I put my S&S in the ground today. Good thing I guess, because if I HAD repotted it, no way could I have tumped it out of a bigger pot when it outgrew it. Then the Empress Wu, which I put in a gallon pot in June some time late, I tumped it out and had a hard time doing it because its roots were already coming out the bottom, and had circled the pot inside quite well. I teased out the roots when I set her in the soil. Both of these guys, I know they need lots of water, so I set close to each one an "olla" to fill with water when I don't want to water the nearby trees. DH cleared all sorts of roots out of this bed before I decided it was okay for my hosta. I've added I don't know how many bags of bark as a bottom for the bed, to promote drainage, maybe 8 inches of bark. Then about 8 inches of cow manure composted, mixed with crushed crabshells (to combat nematodes) some fire ant poison in the bottom of each hole and around each crown, and as soon as all the soil is in place, about 2 more inches of pine bark mininuggets. My city lot must be worth a great deal more now since I own more DIRT. :) Here are a few pictures I took today, raising the beds, moving things around to get the right balance, checking the sun/shade patterns. My shade is provided by some young palms, and tall shrubs. Fighting root rot is one thing, fighting fire ants in pots is another problem. Especially after it rains forever. Let's hope that my venture growing in the soil has positive results. S&S with its olla root watering jar Maybe some of these seedpods will germinate when they fall on the ground. I hope.....open pollenated of course. With many fragrant hosta nearby while it bloomed. and the elegant Empress Wu, holding tight to her potting mix, with roots extending out the bottom in less than 2 mos. Here she goes, her hair all teased out, fireant poison in the hole....FIRE IN THE HOLE!! 'Alabama Gold' going out of a pot into the soil. It had a nest of fireants seeking shelter among its roots, so I dosed them with poison. I got this hosta about June 2012, the pot was slightly too large for it then. Sure wasn't when I removed it. Alabama Gold with its roots teased out for planting, poison in the hole Tomorrow we go back to Lowes and pick up more cow manure in bags, as well as more pine bark mininuggets. Those things are great. Don't hurt your feet, the dogs don't chew them nor bring them in the house. What more can one ask of a mulch. I think we need a bigger vehicle for gardening.

The biggest age-related change I've noticed in my parents and grandparents is related to sweets. My dad (72) now stocks the house with cookies and such but he never ate any kind of cake or cookie before. My grandmother (90) will eat nothing but candy, cakes and cinnamon buns if left to her own. I think for her it's the taste but also the decadence of it that delights her. On the flip side, my mother (70) had a crazy sweet tooth all my life. If i was late for curfew, I knew to bring home a peanut butter tandykake, chocolate bar or a donut to soften the blow! Now she doesn't eat many sweets at all.. and she's taken a liking to margaritas much like your mother took to root beer! (lol) I have noticed many other changes in my father but he had a series of pretty catastrophic strokes 15 years ago. He's regained his speech to the point that you wouldn't know that he'd had a stroke if you met him on the street. He still odd pockets of memory loss and he confuses pronouns (mostly he/him for she/her). The biggest change is just in how he processes information. Again, while age may have compounded some of that in the recent past, it's primarily related to the strokes.

Ingrid VC, it's funny that you should mention English country house style, because it's the ultimate when it comes to being inclusive, rather than excusive in nature. The style was only christened with the name in the mid-20th century, but it's a look that's been around for few hundred years, and for ease & livability, it can't be beat, because rather than being about things--certain pieces or motifs (wire-fronted wooden cubboards="French Country"; pastel-painted coyote silhouettes="Southwestern")--it's about an approach, one based on comfort & practicality & hanging onto things, rather than tossing them just because their moment happens to be past. If the damask sofa's upholstery gets a little shabby, a chintz slipcover will take care of that. If the elegant curtains form the old family place are too long for the windows, we'll just call them 'puddled' and let it go at that. There are bigger things to think about. If there are rings on the mahogany finish where somebody put down a wet drink, oh well. That's patina. And threadbare rugs are welcome too, because they not only take less upkeep than pale carpeting, they're also cheaper. The ceaseless quest after perfection is a killer, and nobody does take-it-as-it-comes decorating like the English. But English Country Style it's not only inherited antiques & old stuff. The Victorian bamboo what-not over in the corner next to the Sheraton style desk was itself a brand new piece at one time, as were 192Os floor lamps, and if there was room for them in the overall scheme then, then there's also room for the 196Os brass drum table & the scratchy-looking 197Os wall hanging somebody made in the ashram, & those 198Os engravings of temples & that wire-fronted cupboard, too. It doesn't matter that it's supposedly "French Country" in inspiration. So, in the 18th Century, were Thomas Chippendale's ribbon-back carved mahogany chairs, and they fit into the mix just fine. And in the Victorian era, people began with the same room, with the same inherited family pieces both good & bad, then filled up the bare spots with Chinese vases & Japanese fans & Persian rugs & tooled leather stools from Egypt & native American baskets from Arizona & brass lanterns from Morocco & plaster casts of famous sculptures & tooled silver vases from India filled with peacock feathers or pampas grass. The eclectic look that's featured in Pier One ads or in vignettes at Cost Plus World Market is nothing more--or less--than a look that was common in millions of homes in say, 1880. So much for progress. But besides all that imported souvenir stuff in the typical English country house, there was the homey stuff, too. On one side of the elegant carved marble chimneypiece was Great-grandmother's rush-seated baby chair & on the other side was the dog's chewewd-up wicker bed & a pile of slimy doggy toys. Dogs were just as important to the overall style as were the family heirlooms. And of course there, in a prominent place, were the twin entertainment centers of the day, the upright piano & the stereopticon. As for the TV that's replaced those items today, Victorians were the ultimate believers in technology, so the last thing they would have done with an amazing gizmo like a 54" screen is hide it away in an old-timey cabinet, or othewrwise try to make it disappear. No, that's the great thing about the relaxed English Country house style, and more specifically, the ultra-forgiving, unpretentious Victorian version of it: there was room in it for everything, old & new, plain & fancy. That's why the style is still a good, practical model on which to base a room for the 21st century. Magnaverde Rule No. 16: Decorate for the life you really have, not the life you wish you had.

Well, if your house style isn't leading you in a particular way (or, restricting you to a certain style) I'd say you're on the right path by just pursuing the things that please you. Personally I always enjoy visiting homes with eclectic style, because they're usually owned by interesting people. I think there are far worse things than mixing items from different periods and styles, especially if they're meaningful to you (like your mother's antiques.) So what do I do when you come to the actual substantial pieces I'd saved for and purchased that I just plain no longer like!? I'm going to disperse of some of these items via Craig's List, as you have. And I'm working up my courage for a giant garage sale. (How is your queen bed "too big to sell?") My rationale is, I enjoyed the anticipation and the purchase, and owning them for a while. So, I got that value out of them. Now, some don't work. So, shall we beat ourselves up about changing our minds about what we like? No, we shall not, because changing means we're growing, and growing is a good thing. Growing means we're aware, alive, having fun, and becoming something new. And besides that, it's totally unfair to your queen bed to make it live in a house where it's not truly loved for its angular maple goodness. Set it free, and let it find happiness. And besides that, when you sell your queen bed, and give somebody a heck of a deal, you are singlehandedly stimulating the economy and encouraging commerce. And goodness knows we need that. Why, it's almost your civic duty. (Being able to rationalize anything is a very handy skill, have you noticed?)