back The old wooden table at the left served as my "laboratory" at one point, which consisted of bottles and jars full of water dyed various colors. The area running from in front of the basement window diagonally off toward the right eventually became my garden. I planted it mainly with succulents and geraniums because you could just stick a branch from one in the dirt and it would take root. It also had a permanent mudpuddle I called a fishpond. Some years earlier, this was the locale of the Will and Paul pretend city of Le Petit Orleans.