Forced Hyacinths

I'm on an 'on one year', 'off the next' routine too. '06 was my year of great restraint, so this year....well...lets just say I exhausted my restraint reserves last year, LOL.

Thanks everyone for the nice words. I have seen some of your yards and was so jealous of all the trees - especially your wooded lot, Neal, it is really nice. And Wallaby's flower borders - I remember the beautiful pictures from last year. You're right I know how expensive land is in the crowded areas of western/northern Europe...and you're right 1/3 of an acre is huge where you are! I lived in Belgium when I was younger for a couple of years and in our town you only saw large lots in the most exclusive areas. Actually what you have is almost 3 times the size of what I just sold, so I would have been happy with that. Some of the lots we looked at here while we were house hunting that I liked were only about a half acre, and in really nice neighborhoods.

Donna, that is a great panorama of your area...very beautiful. I have not seen a lot of pictures of your area and the only part of Washington I've been to is the Seattle area, which climactically is similar to wallaby's neck of the woods. I am sorry to hear about your fire....that must have really sucked. And yes I share the same passion for trees you do.

Maxine, I did not dig up your peony yet but I was introduced to the lady who bought my house at closing and I offered to prune her rose bushes for her in another month - I'll ask if she minds if I dig it up when I go over. We already helped her light the gas fireplace. I want to see how it does 2nd year in the ground before I pull it. I am sure she'll let me take it.

Looking forward to hearing how your plants do this spring, Nery - take pictures!

You couldn't see the rest of my southern piece of land even if the fence weren't there as that is the top of hill. There is just sage brush and grass down to the next persons house. The alfalfa to the right used to be orchard.

The south alfalfa has been that way since I have been here 12 years. Some of the acreage around here is pretty expensive for this area. A friend of mine just priced 2 1/2 acres of flat land, not on a lake, used to be orchard, it is priced at $28,000ff. which probably doesn't sound high to most of you. My 5 acres was $21,000 which included water. Plus at that time about 2000 to get the electricity to the house area.

Here is a different view of my garden.

Donna

That is the west end of my garden area looking toward the Cascade foothills. There is a gully there seperating my property from neighbors.

rutholive, how close do you live to Walla Walla? My Mother when alive lived at Waitsburg and your topagrafy looks very semilar to what hers was. Excuse the spelling on of those words.

wow Donna your property is very open and what a view - didn't know you were so close to the mountains. I bet it looks fantastic in the springtime.

An acre of land here goes for $25,000 or more in outlying areas.....and more on lakes, etc...but that's near a city with a rapid population growth rate and people are grabbing up land everywhere. Your area looks pretty sparsely populated so I wonder why land is getting so expensive! Back up in Illinois it seemed a lot cheaper. Oh well!.

I love the open space, love mountains, not so sure about the cold though!

When we were looking around to buy the present house, been here nearly 9 years so it was 9.5 years ago, there was a piece of land going for building which seemed cheap for the £20,000 asking price in an uphill village near Lincoln where there are stone cottages in the village centre (always more valuable). It was a narrow strip at the side of someone's bungalow, their lawn! there was only enough space to build a house lengthways with little surrounding. I haven't looked lately, but just about every piece of land around the outskirts of Lincoln is being built on, mostly large 4 bedroom two story houses with postage stamp gardens. House prices have trebled or more since we bought, land being one of the reasons but also the movement of people from more expensive areas.

Steve if you missed some of my pics, here's one I really like I took in September when the sun was shining through the shadows and some misty morning air clearing. The new bed is behind that one.

Oh, Janet! That is absolutely enchanting! Where have you been hiding that pic? LOL

I have it with my thousands of others! It takes me ages to find a pic when I want it, the thumbnails get smaller as I add more. I may have posted that on the Dahlias forum with some others, poochella had a thread showing dahlia beds. I keep saying I'll have to organise better, already did that then the flood gates opened!

Yes Wallaby that's what I am talking about! Your gardens are always so luch and full - and have so much character. I love the look...and I miss the climate you have, or at least the summers. But, there are offsets to every climate. Our summers are extremely hot here, about 96 or 97F average for highs in July and August.....the restof the year is tolerable. But there are lots of things that won't do well here (especially in the sun) that you can grow witn ease. But, the rest of the year is nice here...and our winters are about as cold (if not colder than) yours.

I don't know how people in Europe and in places in the US like California and certain parts of the northeast afford to live there. Incomes are not proportinately much if at all higher than here, but housing costs are two, three, even four times as much. I think I'll stay put :-) I like having money to spend on something besides a mortgage. I imagine only the well-established or well off can afford to actually purchase their own property these days in some places. I got this place for $182,000 including the riding lawn mower - I imagine I'd be living in an apartment in California!

Janet, If you feel like it sometime, I think everyone in the Cottage Gardening forum would love to see some of your garden pics. Your combination of earthy/natural and structured/organized at the same time is wonderful.

This message was edited Jan 27, 2007 10:53 AM

Congratulations Steve!!! This sure is one of the friendlier forums. I'm always amazed at the differences
in culture between forums.

On housing prices - I could never afford my place today. I got it 9 years ago but with the prices going up so
much it would be too much today. The east coast has gotten very pricey too.

Is anyone else starting to get just a tad ansy for spring?

Tam

Steve it's only the professionals now that can afford even the cheapest of houses if they are a first time buyer. Even anyone wanting to upgrade can't do it now as the properties rise by percentage, you double, treble or quadruple £50,000 and it's out of bounds. You can upgrade if you come from the south or London where prices have gone crazy, people ther sell a semi-detacjed and buy a detached 4 bedroom house here with cash to spare. Many semis in London are now £1 million. A new 'executive' properties here anything from £200,000-£400,000. The wages here are lower than in the south and £50,000 was too high for many before the rises. It all has to come to a crash sometime, as it did in the early nineties but it never went like this, they ahve been saying it should crash for a long time now. Get this, the govt. keeps putting up fuel prices, then food and goods has gone up enormously because of it, the inflation rates go up so the govt. puts interest rates up, well should we all stop keeping warm and eating? Our petrol got to £1 a litre, at the moment it's less than £0.90 a litre. That should stop people wanting to travel, but they don't they have to go to work and many jobs are widespread now.

Neal, if I ever get to the point where I am 'caught up' or bored with other things, I will try to post in the cottage forum. A change is always good!

Thanks for the compiments!

Thanks Tammy - you're another lucky one with a beatiful country setting, rolling hills, and green countryside. I have seen pictures of your beautiful place too. For the same reasons you cited, we wanted to get a large lot now while prices were reasonable....to have someplace to retire to and not have to worry at a later date. With the population boom here I am sure prices will go up at some point.

I just ordered some Callas, Cannas and Asilbes...I mean about 5 minutes ago....and yes very much looking forward towards spring! I am not a big canna fan but the other half loves them and they do provide good color here, and love the heat in the summer. I have lots of leaves up from my fall bulbs, so I am encouraged. Even have a peony that sprouted early and has two flowerbuds on it. No other flower buds yet though on anything else.

Well, I know I am sure looking forward to seeing those new lovelies you've ordered
planted in the new digs!

Tam

Wow Wallaby - even worse than I thought. Americans complain about gasoline prices but as you state they are much higher in your area....when we hit $3/gallon, our prices (according to my currency converter & metric converter!) were still less than half of what yours are now. We're around $2.20 per gallon now for midgrade fuel, which comes out to 0.29 BPS per litre. Guess it's all a matter of what you're accustomed to, but we've been spoiled over here.

Just for fun I went to a Dutch real estate site which also had properties listed in northern Belgium. In my old neighborhood, which was nice but nothing really special in my opinion (my dad's company put us in a house and I don't think we saw the bills), I just saw a house (which is bigger than the one we had in the late 70's and has a pool) that is on the market now for $695,000 Euros - which is about $897,000 or 458,000 BPS. I about DIED.....

Reality check!!!

My camera is charged and ready, Tammy! Thanks! :-)

Maxine, I am not sure how far Walla Walla is, I know I live about 25 miles south of the Canadian border and WW is near the Oregon border, so I expect it is about 400 miles. When I was a child we lived just 9 miles from here and my Dad got a job, which were hard to find in those days, in W W as a cook in the prison there. But it must have been a pretty good paying job as I remember we bought our first NEW car either while he was working there or just after he came home.

I do love the openess of this area, and where I live is sparsely populated, but twice as many houses as when I moved here 12 years ago. People from Calif. and Western WA, coast move here to get away from traffic and people and soon this will be what they are moving from.

My neighbors above me who I bought this 5 acres from, still have 21 acres left of the more than 100 they bought. They have a triple wide same kind as mine. They have planted 300 trees, probably 20 or so varieties. Looks like a lawn and tree park. I think they have about 2 or mor e acres of lawn. Not my thing, but it looks nice. Their place is listed at $350,000.00, but hasn't sold in more than 2 years of listing. They have an even better view than I do from anywhere in their house.l

Here is a little series of photos that I took this morning of what I see from my house.

#1 is looking to the west the Cascade foothills. The pointy peak in the middle is Aeneas Mtn. Wait until there is no snow visible on Aeneas mtn. to plant corn seed.

Donna

Tammy you must have bought about the same time as we did, managed to get in at the right time when nothing was shifting apart from very desirable properties and prices were at a low. This is one of the desirable properties although not full detached it's a historical property, with land, and in one of the best locations for commuting to the south. A dual carriage way was built close by to the main motorway south and close to the London railway connection, I was lucky becasue I actively hunted for it and got in before others had a chance. It was £52,000 late 1997, got it down from £55,000, now it should be worth about what Steve has paid for his in £'s instead of $'s!

Donna, I guess if I sold this I could buy the one for $350,000, crazy isn't it! Trouble is I wouldn't have any money to live on. I would say Walla Walla is Walla-by Lincoln UK. There was news report of a Wallaby being seen about 30 miles from here, it sounded so strange, I kept saying no, it was not ME!

Steve, pray tell me which Callas you have bought! I think I have helped to stir up a frenzy over these, everyone's buying them! Such beautiful things they are. I have ordered some from Vanmeuwen, they have some good deals with multiple purchases, Red Desire x 3 (two are spoken for!) Auckland, Black Eyed Beauty and Vermeer 3 of each at half the price than if bought separately.

http://www.vanmeuwen.com/plant/26624

http://www.vanmeuwen.com/plant/60318

Tammy, we have had some quite mild weather, just had a colder week but it's going back up to 8-10C, I have never stopped sowing seeds this winter. I have so many to catch up on, so in a way spring isn't tugging like it was last year with 6 months of really cold weather.

#2 This is what I see looking to Southwest. It is called N. Pinecreek area. I have a very readable 500 page book, Pinecreek Pilgrimage, written by three local women.

#3 This view is to the south, there is a small lake there in the middle somewhat, but not visible from where I took the photo. the lake to be consistent is Aeneas Lake. Water is pumped up the hill from Okanogan River to provide water for irrigating in the area, is very expensive. Luckily I am not under that system.

Those mountain views are magnificent! None of ours have any snow cover. Its been warm
here too all through the fall and into Jan until about 1-2wks ago. But still, its brown and grey.

wallaby - I was going to open houses on dreary weekend days in the mid 90's. I found an ad
for a country property which had a large barn, a greenhouse and a 200yr old house. So I called
the agent & my DH & I went to see it. The greenhouse was very rundown and the barn was
in very bad shape. We didn't like the house at all. The house was not very nice & had views to
a corn field. The agent drove us by the house we have now and said she was going to list it
the next week. So we were the first to see it. My offer came in the same day as another did.
A third was supposedly coming in the next day. So I paid full price. But I feel in love with the
old stone walls and the stone spring house & stone barn. I probably over paid back then but
property values went crazy here in the last few years so its worth far more than I paid. Whew!

Anyway ... I've got some calla's growing out by the pond where the spring keeps things a bit warmer
than everywhere else. But otherwise, I can't grow them outdoors. Do you guys grow them indoors?

Tam

I have not had very good luck posting the pictures I took this morning. Tried to put them in a new folder, guess I've forgotten how, anyway lost one, don't know where it went.

Here is one op the hill to my neighbors who have planted the 300 tree park. You can only see the tops of the trees.

Donna you have such beautiful sweeping views and blue skies, I would love to be looking out at such an expanse of country, my view here is limited unless I go up the road a few yards, but I have the garden to look over. Better than a city too!

Tammy, pretty much the same story here, I saw the leaflet one Monday with no picture, saw it the next Monday with a picture, viewed on Tuesday evening, put in an offer Wednesday, they accepted on Thursday, I arranged a mortgage directly with the lenders on Friday and had a pre-acceptance by Friday night, I rang the Estate agents on Saturday morning at 9am as they opened and told them of the mortgage commitment. Fortunately the Estate agent is a respectable one that did not allow 'gazumping' once you had a mortgage in place and it cost you and arrangement fee, but others did and people were losing out on good properties (costing them up to £1,000 in costs) as others jumped in with an above asking price. The house should have been a higher price, but the previous owners hadn't done anything to improve it and I really think it was under-priced. If you sell a stone barn here they bring a fortune even if they are tumble down, years ago you would pay £200,000 for one.

I grow Callas in pots and keep them in the greenhouse over winter, they take a lot of frost like that. When I have the spot ready, and when I can divide mine sufficiently for insurance, I will be trying some outside. Some people grow them in zone 5 near a wall with good drainage.

Donna, just read your pic problems, when you make a new folder and if you are moving a pic, if you have a folder already opened it will put the folder into that folder. If you select the 'My Pictures' in the box and leave that highlighted it should make a complete new folder space which you can name.

Well - the ones you have posted are just magnificent!

You definitely don't have brown grey surroundings where you are.
We've got a very light & sparse dusting of snow from a couple
days ago. Its a very odd winter this year.

Tam

Sadly here in PA, barns of any type have no value. When the property was
appraised, they assesed the barn (which is in beautiful shape for one 175 yrs old)
at $5000. We had one area repointed a bit and we need to have the metal
roof painted but the huge wood post & beams are in perfect shape. No sign of
insect damage or rot. So many barns are being taken down around here its just
a shame.

Here's a picture of the barn - I haven't posted many pictures of it.

Tam

Barns can be made into very useful buildings, those pulling them down may be sorry in years to come. Up until the early 1970's here they were pulling down old houses in need of renovation rather than put in the required regulations of a bathroom. Before long country shells of houses were becoming popular with city people as second country weekend homes, and anyone wanting to live in the country as they had always done couldn't even afford to buy a tumble down place.

Here barns are the ultimate in snobbery for a country dwelling conversion. Tammy if you could move that one over here you would be rich!

Well - I'm hoping that folks realize that barns are actually worth something here and that our
protection of this jewel proves worthwhile when we have to sell the place. (Or at least that
the next owner will keep it.) Actually, it does have value for someone who has horses - it has
three stalls and a wonderful tackroom. The previous owner renovated the house and put the
old kitchen stuff in there. So theres a sink with a small hotwater heater, an electric heater
and some cabinets. Its very luxurious. Before I had my greenhouse, I used that room for my
seed starting. I still use it to overwinter stuff.

Tam

With those mod cons all you need is to add a bed and you have a holiday let! For something that age it should have a preservation order on it, it probably would here. A lot of older buildings are listed to a certian grade, and rennovations have to be in keeping with the building.

People here are always on the look out for a place where they can keep horses too. I personally can see it with a huge south facing window with lots of tropical plants in it!

Look what a pot of Hyacinths has turned in to!

Love that barn, Tammy. There aren't that many made of stone here. I especially love that greening side wall. Such character!

Janet, I named a new folder , but I think there is a problem in my computer, or maybe it just me. I am not very computer literate. When I go to My Pictures, it brings up the files in different ways , sometimes I click and the pictures are 4 across and I just move them down a line at a time, the next time I click and the pictures are in a row across the bottom.

I can see the new folder but can't get the pictures into it.

Also can't get my HP 3210 printer to print either a letter or photos. The woman who will occasionally come here to the house to help me is supposed to have time to come some day next week.

Donna I'm not sure how your system of pictures works. If you click on one folder and jump/jerk it at the same time they will move, as you can drag a whole folder by clicking on it and moving it. I just tried that and ended up with the whole folder moved into another folder, where if I do it accidentally by it jumping when I click to open a folder they just change places.

If you have a whole folder or just a picture which you want to move if you click once on it and outline it, mine is in blue, a menu at the side opens which gives several options, 'move this file' 'copy this file' 'delete this file'.

If you click on 'move this file' a box will come up over the pictures. There you need to find 'My pictures'which if isn't in view you should find in 'My Documents'.

If you highlight 'My Pictures' then click the 'move' button at the bottom it will move a folder or single file as a separate entry in 'My Pictures'.

If you highlight in blue one of the folders under My Pictures, and click 'move' that picture file or folder will move into that named folder.

Making a new folder works the same. You will make a new folder under whichever heading is highlighted by clicking the 'New Folder' tab at the bottom, so if you have one named 'Garden plants' highlighted, a new Folder will be made there. To make a New Floder on it's own you need to highlight 'My Pictures' or in my case, Janet's Pictures'

If you want to copy the file to another Folder you can use that option without losing it from the original Folder.

If you delete the file it will go into the 'Recycle bin' from where you can either restore it to it's original place or delete it permanently.

If none of that makes sense I can try to take some pics of the screen to show you, it took me a while to find out many things.

I took some pics which may help.

#1 My Pictures screen, or part of it!

#2

I double clicked on a folder to open it, and single left click on a picture to mark it in a blue surround, my arrow pointing to the opened menu at the left where it says 'Move this file'

#3

A single left click on 'Move this file' will bring up a box with all the places on the computer. On mine the menu under JANET'S Documents is already opened and My Pictures are there.

#4

A single left click on the My Pictures Folder at the side of My Pictures will open up a list of all the Folders under it.

Notice My Pictures is now highlighted in blue, and if you want to make a complete New Folder this is where you should do it. If you do it after you have highlighted a Folder under that, your New Folder will go into that Folder even if it's not in blue, it will have a beige bar over it while you are still in that Folder and everything you transfer into the first one will go into that Folder unless you highlight another Foler in blue.

#5

I am moving the picture chosen, which is now not outlined in blue but the picture number is mentioned at the top of the box, into the first Folder named ALPINES -Rock Garden, which I highlighted in blue with a single left click.

A single left click on the 'Move' tab at the bottom will move it to the highlighted folder.

If you had chosen the 'Copy this File' option in the Menu at the left, this would have left the picture there and just copied it to the chosen Folder.

#6

If I choose to move anoher picture FROM the same Folder, do the same again, but when the box opens the blue highlighting won't be there, a beige bar will be and you don't need to highlight it again to move to the SAME Folder.

If you wish to move it to a DIFFERENT Folder, or make a New Folder, you should highlight the appropriate Folder or My Pictures for the New Folder.

HI Wallaby,

I bought "Yellow Parrot" and "Gold Rush", both of which are yellow/gold, and "Fire Glow", which looks to be an orangish/pink/red with a yellow interior. I got them from Easy to Grow Bulbs, from whom I purchased Callas last year and they were terrific. Callas come back here and I had some cheap ones that I planted about three years earlier which came back every year, though they weren't as large and prolific as the ones I got last year. I set my budget at around $200 for spring planted bulbs (which I am sure I'll break at some point!), and I wanted some other things besides Callas, otherwise I would have chosen more varieties. I have some fruit trees, arborvitaes, thujas, and Bradford Pears coming this spring that I have to plant as well!

Also, Wallaby, I see what you mean about real estate prices in the UK. Yesterday after I read through this thread, I went to some real estate sites and picked a couple of cities in Scotland - Glasgow and then Aberdeen. I was thinking te latter would be fairly inexpensive, but noooooo....the prices were really outrageous and you didn't get a lot for your money. Like you said I think the least expensive nice detached house I found was about the same in pounds that mine was in dollars, so about twice as costly. Even the semi-detached ones, that we would refer to as duplexes here, were quite high. With the way that things are as they are now here, we're lucky here - and we looked at several houses, some almost brand new, that were in our price range. Sure it won't be like that forever though as Donna and Tammy have alluded to. My hometown in the state of Illinois is still EXTREMELY cheap - though of course there are few jobs there and one that pays what I earn here would be impossible to find.

Again, great views, Donna...very impressive. Can't wait to see it in the springtime. Hope with Janet's great instructions you get your pictures sorted out!!

Steve