Goodness! Was so busy with the move, I missed part of the Pogrom! Anyhoo...we were in Mississippi for a board meeting, and got a look at our old garden, which is looking GREAT. Thought I'd do an update. As I'd stated, we were worried that we'd lose a ton, selling in this market, and with the ongoing noise problem just outside our neighborhood. But the garden gave the house immense 'curb appeal', our Decorator had the interiors whipped into a seductive frenzy, and our Mayor...well...has worked for two decades, to give the town enough cachet to keep property values high, even in this Depression. Too, Kismet smiled upon us, in the form of two young surgeons, who had lived in problem neighborhoods, before. Living in slums until they'd completed residency, they had been assaulted with noise from neighbors' sound systems, too. In order to get much-needed sleep, they had developed an acoustic isolation chamber disguised as a curtained bed. Amazingly similar to what our Decorator had done for our windows, but isolated on all sides, the structure sits on several inches of special foam. So there's no chance of infrasonic vibrations making their way up from the ground. GENIUS! Those whose accounting is more optimistic than mine would say we made a couple hundred grand. I'd say we just broke even, once the move was factored-in. Anyway, we got the (rather high) asking price. Our friends who had moved out here ahead of us found a distressed estate home for us, up the mountain from them. Too artsy-craftsy-early-nineties-lodge-look for me. But our decorator is bringing the house into the new Millennium with only a few tweaks, here and there. Anyway, we got a genuine estate, in one of the most desired neighborhoods in the Northwest, for only a bit more than we'd gotten for our spec-grade McMansion in Madison. Our friends out here also bought an "architecturally-important estate home" at a distressed price, and (once the decorator we share had worked his magic) have been getting offers that would advance their position by over a million. Hope that happens here. Nice as this is, I have my heart set on something smaller and more formal...French cut Limestone, with brick herringbone floors, to be specific. Back in Madison, the Clumping Bamboo we added is thriving, and the young surgeons have found an improved cultivar of variegated Arundo (Peppermint Stick) at Madison Lawn & Garden, to plug up the accoustic 'holes'. This is their first real home, and they are turning into gardening fiends! Wonderful! The CVS urns lynch-mob travesty got us thinking about giant urns for the ends of the pool. So our decorator had Hayles & Howe cast a couple of eight-footers from the parapet of a house in England. They arrived a month back, and we got to see them, newly-installed. Brought tears to my eyes....tears of joy, to see my garden looking so lovely. If the new owners allow the house to be photographed, maybe you'll see it in a magazine. I doubt it, though. Aside from the plantings and the decorating, it's still just a spec house. Based on what I planted that's looking great, here's a list of triumphs: Muskogee Crape Myrtle Peach Drift Rose (quite shade tolerant) Cherokee Rose Lady Banks Rose (all four forms...single white, double white, single yellow, double yellow...as well as the hybrid 'Fortunaiana') Dr. W. VanFleet Rose (the more vigorous parent of New Dawn) Southern Wood Fern Crocosmia Hymenocallis 'Sparkling Burgundy' Camellia Sasanqua Oops!...just opened the gates for my Trainer. Gotta go... Thanks, everybody, for those notes of encouragement!

Thanks for giving me a lot of new ideas for my Netflix que! While I was adding "The Long, Long Trailer" I saw two other comedies that I forgot to mention: "Harvey" which is like a Depression era time capsule but still an unforgettable performance by Jimmy Stewart. I saw it as a stage play, it is such fun. Also the "Father of the Bride" series of movies, which I think the remakes of are also good. Those would be a fun set of "then and now" movies to compare. The plot description of "The Long, Long Trailer" reminded me of another one of my favorite movies, although it is an 80's film so technically doesn't count as an old enough "oldie" but it is still a fun film if you have a sarcastic sense of humor--"Lost In America." I like a lot of the films Albert Brooks is in, he has good taste picking roles and has actually written some good films, but I digress, he's still living and not that much of an "oldie." Speaking of Ida Lupino and Bogie, one of my all time favorite movies for Bogie is "High Sierra" featuring a kick butt performance by Ms. Lupino! I saw a TV documentary years ago on Bogie and Ida Lupino was still alive and they interviewed her about working with Bogie and she gave the most complimentary description of working with him, how he helped her in scenes, particularly that last one which is a doozy. He said something like "You've got to cry, and you've got to make it believable or else I'll steal that scene" and then he gave her some ideas on what to do, etc. and it must of worked because she rocks. Anyway, ya gotta love a movie where one of the characters is a gal with a club foot named Velma. Speaking of Velmas, a sort of fun movie is "Mildred Pierce" with bratty daughter Veda or something like that. I think it is a horribly sexist film, with strong entrepreneur Mildred Pierce getting her comeuppance, but it's still fun just for the camp value. I guess "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is in a similar vein, but not being a fan of either Crawford or Davis I've never seen it.

Bunglogirl - I too liked "Skeleton Key" but imagine this. It was the 2nd day of my kitchen remodel in late winter. I come home from work, the house is dark, and there's this woman in my gutted kitchen. Her boyfriend the electrician who I've never met is in my attic. He comes down and has all this long loose black hair hanging around his face and streaming down his back. He's running around in my attic for hours. The kitchen has no lights, there's wires hanging everywhere, and the house is cold as the vents have been removed from kitchen and living room. I go into my bedroom which is packed to the gills with clutter and mess. I watch The Skeleton Key. For those who don't know, there's lots of attic action in this movie. I come out of my room at midnight, the house is empty, the electrician has left without saying goodbye, the front door is unlocked, the house is cold and dark, I'm surrounded by chaos.....I'm freaking out!!! Not a good night to watch this movie alone.

Emagineer, it was my DH's mother who was born in this old stone cottage. My family came years before, settled in the Carolinas, intermarried with the Indians, and came into north Alabama. There was no memory of the immigrant experience for anyone alive when I was a child. But for my DH, he is a "first generation" Irish, and the troubles which led his parents to migrate were very real in his upbringing. I know the cottage and the farm on which it sits looks substantial, but it was a struggle surviving under British rule. One of DH's uncles came to America to escape the law because he was involved in the Easter Uprising. Some of the relatives were deported to New Zealand to the criminal colony there, the ones also involved in the Irish movement for independence and justice. He did not know about them, but when he was getting government security clearances, the government already knew and asked him about any connection to them. It makes me wonder what records our FBI and CIA keep about us ordinary citizens. But you are so right. When we were in Ireland, it was a very friendly reception and so lovely. I had a blast driving on those narrow roads on the wrong side of the car and of the road too.