Awesome Neighbors

Last week my neighbors came home from a vacation in Hawaii. They have a time share there and they go every year. Lucky!! While they were away, we looked after their house. Took out their garbage, looked after their mail, the neighborly thing to do. I was outside filling up the water bottles with rain barrel water for the garden when she came over.  (I hate it when my neighbors see me doing this, I get so embarrassed!  Click on the link above to see what I mean.)  It turns out that she was impressed with the rain barrel and said she wanted to buy one for her house.  ;)  Nice.  If I could spread the word about conserving water, that's awesome.    Then she handed me some presents she got us from Hawaii.  I was so surprised, and she really didn't have to!  First of all, the chocolate covered Macadamia nuts were so good.  I love Macadamia nuts.  She also gave us seeds from the Bird of Paradise plant.  How cool are these?

I didn't think we could grow these in our climate, but on the instructions, apparently, we can grow them in containers indoors.  I so cannot wait to try these!  I love Birds of Paradise, this is going to be such an exciting experiment.  Our neighbors R O C K!!

Also, I'm still seeking recommendations of where I can buy good fragrant bareroot rose bushes. If anyone has a good nursery recommendation, I would love to hear it.