TR, I love your ice storm photos. Our winters are quite a contrast from yours. I live in an area with a 6 month active gardening season at most. In a good year I have some early bulbs such as reticulated iris and witch hazel blooming late March or early April, but things don't really start growing until late April into May. By the end of October the autumn color has ended, and sometimes we have snow, though more commonly it arrives late November into early January. Once we have snow on the ground we usually have it until sometime in March or even mid-April. So I definitely garden for winter interest. Many of my winter interest areas are where I see them driving up to the house or looking out of windows from the house. I live on an old farm, so the scale of what I do is larger, but mostly can be scaled down with fewer and smaller plants and decorative items. For this time of year I mostly rely on evergreen perennials and evergreen shrubs, both broad-leafed and conifers. Shady bed From Winter interest Full sun, a couple of years apart. 3years after planting: From Winter interest Two years ago From Winter interest There are also some plants whose foliage brightens in winter such as some heathers and rhododenrons. From Winter interest Once we get snow, most of the perennials disappear since it's usual to have several feet of snow accumulated before winter's end. At this point I rely on berried bushes (a two-fer since there are the berries as well as the birds that visit to eat the berries,) taller evergreen shrubs, small trees and shrubs with interesting bark or branching patterns, structures such as fences, trellises, etc, and negative space of blank snow which fills in with shadows and animal tracks. From Winter interest For 6-8 feet in front of this row of evergreens is a long perennial bed which disappears in the winter leaving the hemlocks to shine. during the growing season the roses, clematis, etc are what are noticed and the evergreens are just a neutral backdrop. From Winter interest Winter view from my kitchen window. The dogwood branches, trellises, spruce, fox tracks, and old fence posts all add interest to the view. From Winter interest From Winter interest Bright forsythia bark stands out against the grayscale of a snowy day. From Winter interest Early spring before new growth is often the least interesting time since the previous season's perennial foliage has either been cut back or the voles have done a number on it. This was taken during a rare February thaw. From Winter interest Providing bird feeders and a heated water source can also attract birds to add visual interest.

The year I drove thru there in my move to Mass., was early October. The grass was still green and beautiful. I don't think the highways are too bad, but I've been to Colorado, where they are much worse. I don't think however, that I've seen as many semi-trucks as I did on the highway there! ROTFL - I know what you mean by their opinion of "hot"! If it hits 80 degrees, it is insufferable heat to them! Most houses in the northern states don't even come with air conditioning. People just put in a window a/c if needed. Boston roads were literally built on cattle trails. The roads go each and every way, and you never know if you're going east, west, north, or south, or points in between! People would tell me to go north on Route (yes, it's always a "route") 20 north, when you actually were going east! I was so confused. Lots of roundabouts there, too. I used to spend a lot of time just going around and around and around trying to figure out which road I was supposed to take. Colorado is the same with bears, though. We went camping there one time, and a bear raided a trash can located by our camp site. Scared us to death. My husband got up in the tent and grabbed a wooden stake from one of our cots and was prepared to fight off the bear with it! Oh, yeah, like a bear is going to be intimidated by a piece of wood! Yes, the sky is not really open there. But, driving on highways, whenever the sun would shine thru, everybody virtually stopped their cars because they could not see the road with the sun shining thru the trees! LOL! They just weren't used to seeing the sun there. In summer, it didn't get dark until 10 p.m. I winter it got dark at 4 p.m. They are, however, much better at cleaning the snow covered roads there than we are here. Never had to worry about anything preventing me from getting to work. They also used the breakdown lanes to travel on! Scared me to death when I thought I was in the far right lane, to see someone speeding 70 mph on MY right! The laws allowed it during certain times of day because of the congestion. No ice tea in winter, and no ice tea without sugar added. You had to specifically order your tea WITHOUT sugar. In winter, you had to order hot tea and a glass of ice cubes if you wanted ice tea. Coffee was also served with sugar (when you ask for "regular" coffee, it comes with sugar) so you also had to request no sugar. No Mexican food or Bar-b-Que. But, lots of seafood and ethnic food. Which I loved! I remember one restaurant we used to frequent. We went there when it was close to Christmas, and people would just break out a Christmas song that all the patrons would sing along. It was fun! Yes, they have very different culture up there. I felt like I was in a foreign country! But, it is beautiful, the history is wonderful (we visited lots of historical sights), and the people were much nicer than we had been given to believe. Public transportation is WONDERFUL. I hope they do build that rail system in OKC that they are talking about due to gas prices. I believe there used to be a trolley system on Classen Blvd (I live just off of Classen), and the tracks were covered eventually with the median that now exists. Very different customs up there, but I loved my stay there (a year and a half). I got to see things I never would have otherwise and I don't regret it one bit. But, boy was I glad to get back to the south! Susan

I also debated between the Bosch benchmark flex induction and the Wolf. Went with the Wolf 36" CI365C/B for the following: The Wolf does not default to bridging when you turn it on like the Bosch. I found this very annoying and not intuitive to guests that might want to cook in my kitchen. Plus I have to remember to turn it off to use the second element independently which I do quite frequently. The Wolf has better pot recognition in my "testing" than the Bosch. I purchased a small 4 3/4" diameter melting pot as a test. The Bosch did not recognize it on the large Hob, but it did recognize it on the other hobs but not in bridge mode in the middle. The Wolf recognized it on ALL hobs including the large one. It does not recognize it in the bridge modes. Bridge mode was not an expector. I preferred the individual slide controls on the Wolf versus selecting the hob and the level separatly like the Bosch. I could live without the individual timers on the hobs like the Bosch. I have never had this feature so not sure how often I would use it. The Wolf was a much better value - several hundred $$ less. I see the induction technology changing rapidly over the next several years and would consider upgrading to a zoneless cooktop once the price point is in the $2K-$3K range. Hence I did not go with a flush install to keep my opening as small as possible. So far I love the cooktop. I normally cook on levels 1-6 and only use the upper levels when needing to come to a boil slowly - else I use the boost to get a quick boil (and it is fast). Have not used the bridge as I do not yet have pans that require it. Still looking for that great smooth griddle. Cleanup is a breeze over gas or electric. I left pasta unattended and came back to salt water all over my cooktop - nothing "burned" on. Easy clean. Use parchment under cast iron as I am afraid of scratches (only 2 months old so still babying it). Parchment does a great job of catching splatters as well. No regrets here on my selection.

It has been suggested by many people that we should do a title search on the property so today I called my friend that is the County Clerk and explained the situation. The Recorder of Deeds happened to be sitting in his office so they told me what to do. I went to the court house and started with the old books that show everything starting in the late 1800's from the time the land was subdivided and it only had transfers of the deed. I then checked the computer which has everything since the late 1980's and the only two things that have been and still are on the property are two liens by the city for rubbish removal for $110.00 & $135.00. Both had been put on the property within the last two years after the husband passed away and the wife left the property uncared for. They then sent me to City Hall where I spoke to the legal department. Both ladies there were really nice and thanked me for what we are doing with the cemetery. The total owed to have the liens removed is just under $350.00 so that is no big deal. It could have been worse. A title search would have cost $500.00 to find out that $350.00 is owed. It only took me about an hour total to find everything out on my own. Everyone I have spoken to has been very helpful. The property has never been issued an address so I called zoning and they transfered me to public works. They are going to go check out the property and then will email me an address for the place. Our insurance guy needs to have it for the liability insurance. I will be glad when all of the legal stuff is finished and I can get busy giving the place a much overdue grooming. A local man contacted us yesterday after reading the story in the paper and offered to donate a bunch of hostas and daylillies. He is not an animal lover but he likes what we are doing for others.