BTW - the Story of Black Eyed Susan from, American Meadows Ever wonder about one of AmericaÂs favorite wildflowers? Who was Black-Eyed Susan? Her story is one of the grand romantic tales of the wildflowers. And beyond legend, her name graces several of our most important and popular wildflower species. Legend says it all comes from an Old English poem of the post-Elizabethan era entitled simply, "Black-Eyed Susan," written by a very famous poet of the day named John Gay, 1685-1732. All in the downs, the fleet was moored, Banners waving in the wind. When Black-Eyed Susan came aboard, and eyed the burly men. "Tell me ye sailors, tell me true Does my Sweet William sail with you?" There are several stanzas, explaining that her William was on board, "high upon the yardarm", and quickly scrambled down for a fond farewell with his lady love. It seems he was off to the high seas, but promised ardently to be safe and true: Though battle call me from thy arms Let not my pretty Susan mourn; Though cannons roar, yet safe from harms William shall to his Dear return. Love turns aside the balls that round me fly Lest precious tears should drop from SusanÂs eye. This charming poem tells one of the great "Legends of Love" in our wildflowers, and every summer even today, it plays out just as the poem describes. HereÂs how it works: If you seed wild Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) with common Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), theyÂll bloom beautifully for you at exactly the same time.

Pammyfay, thank you so much for your opinion and making me feel better about my choices since I have never chosen matting and frames before. I love the Sovia frame and I am glad I went with my instinct. It is so pretty in person with the black grooves on the sides adding some style to the frame without it being too busy for the print. When I opened the package, I was so in love with the picture the way it was. But tonight seeing it lean on the wall and I guess the linen off-white mat picked up the creamier wall color (BM Bone white I have on the walls which is a few shades darker than the picture's linen off-white frame and the lighting is fluorescent modern lamps with no natural light at night. But standing in front of the picture has me in awe of the beauty of the print and the texture of the linen mat and the texture of the suede inner mat. I love the design I chose but I guess I pictured the mat looking less creamy. So glad you also love the black grooved frame and you could tell by the picture I posted. :) Thanks for letting me know you have a similar frame that sounds beautiful.

We were also wanting windows with black interiors and exteriors. For us the local availability brought it down to a choice between Pella or Milgard fiberglass windows. The Pella offerings were somewhat pricier, and we could never quite understand the why of it. We wound up selecting Milgard Ultra, and we're happy with the end results. And Milgard's warranty was fantastic, as our landscaper accidentally hit one window with a stone and chipped it, but Milgard replaced the insert without so much as a blink. One factor is whether a particular manufacturer's black is acceptable to you. Milgard's is called Black Bean, which is a bit lighter than true black, and I fussed over this for quite a while. Pella's may have been very slightly blacker, but also not true black. Now that we can see the final product in place, it looks fine. Good luck on your project. Brian

I have both 1% and 5% white solar shades in my house. 1% in bedrooms for privacy and light control. 5% in living room to preserve some of the view and to reduce heat gain. It's a neat concept to be able to see the view through the 5% shade, but as soon as the sun is no longer an issue, which is much of the time (overcast days, trees leafed out and anytime after mid-day), I roll the shades up, because that's the view I really want to see. The sun shines through the 5% shade so much so that it hurts my eyes, so I have to position myself somewhere in the room where it is not an issue. I'm not sure how different black would be, but I've noticed that a lot of restaurants have black. I considered black, but I sort of prefer light and bright. I'm not sorry I ordered white, the view may be blurry, but the mind fills in the blanks, if that makes sense. I ordered mine from blind.com.