By KEVIN KIRKLAND, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When a white winter finally arrived, the wolf was at my door. The Snow Wolf, that is.

Structured Solutions II, the manufacturer of this odd contraption combining a shovel and a large wheel, offered to let me try one in November. There wasn't much need for a snow shovel around here until later.

Although he has the name of a saint, Tsambiko Capperis has the hand, eye and soul of an artist.

He needed all of those, plus the patience of Job, to restore an abandoned Pittsburgh row house and create its beautifully functional U-shaped kitchen.

Although he has the name of a saint, Tsambiko Capperis has the hand, eye and soul of an artist.

He needed all of those, plus the patience of Job, to restore an abandoned Pittsburgh row house and create its beautifully functional U-shaped kitchen.

In a children's book that Silvia Speyer wrote and illustrated, tiny toads crouch on toad lilies, tigers roar from tiger lilies and little bears wear bear breeches. But she's the real magic in this "Tale of the Magic Garden."

Think you're a pretty "green" gardener, with your rain barrel, compost pile and heirloom vegetables? Well, Giuseppe Villella and Giovanni Macchione have you beat -- by several generations.

The two men grew up in the Calabrian villages of Gizzeria and Falerna, respectively, learning from their fathers and grandfathers how an Italian man grows his own food and makes his own wine.

Every two or three years, Greg and Janell Billy and their daughter, Adelaide, 14, moved to another city, another house. Capt. Billy's 28-year Navy career has taken them to La Maddalena, Italy, Portsmouth, N.H., and Bremerton, Wash., to name just a few.

People who wander into Habitat for Humanity ReStores or other similar used-goods outlets are usually looking for used and surplus building materials. But then they get turned on by appliances ranging from almost-new to truly vintage, with price tags ranging from $135 to $375 for ovens from the 1930s to the 1990s.

I like English ivy -- in the right place.

To a non-gardener, that doesn't sound like much of a confession. But to gardeners and people who enjoy walking in the woods, those are fighting words.

Why take your dog on vacation?
It's a reasonable question. For some people, the dog is one of the reasons they need a vacation.
But with more hotels and tourist sites welcoming the fuzziest member of the family, the better question just might be: Why not take the dog?

Will Americans embrace German beer halls with accordion players and beer barrel polka?
Yes, America, we're ready to share tables with strangers and lift a stein of Bavarian beer.
They opened German-style beer halls in Las Vegas and in Newport, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Now Pittsburgh is welcoming Hofbrauhaus.