ah yes, the old family and friends scenario - we can treat them badly because we know they will always love us......
Hey, Sherry, since when did posting become an obligation? If it turns into a dutiful chore then it will ruin your pleasure (and ours).
Obviously, you would be missed but hey, friends are OK letting friends slack off for a while.

Kind of as an aside, you can get USB disk drives now for ridiculously low prices--plug in, store your photos there. They are great.

I know I spend waaaaaaaaaay too much time on the internet. So back out to the garden I will scoot--after I look at your beautiful photos. :)

Beautiful and inspiring!
Thanks!

It's true that you don't have to feel obligated and everyone can go look at your blog. I'm just glad that i can see the things that you post on Facebook.

Off to your blog I go! I do that quite regularly anyway but am too lazy (which is just plain stupid!) to leave a remark. Just want you to know that you write beautifully, in a relaxed and witty way that's uniquely you. You can only do so many things, and sometimes life makes some things too much of an effort, but we'll always be your rose friends, and a little benign neglect won't change that.

Ingrid

Hi Sherry, you've been doing a great job on the FB Page, I follow it. Great pictures.

I've been very hectic too. And I'm having problems posting pictures, hopefully it's been resolved. But the big Atlanta Rose Show is Saturday and I don't know if I will have anything to show. The sun will not come out and it's so COLD. Oh well.

Sherry, your room looks great! That's my favorite style of couch and the pillows and drape lift your room into the designer class. But I think what really makes it work are the harmonious colors, of which there are only a few, making it so restful and inviting. Bravo!

My favorite plant in your garden is without a doubt Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux, which I ordered but didn't get. I want it more than ever after seeing yours. I don't know how you do it, but your garden is always in bloom. Sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less, but it's never just green. You make really great use of companion plants to keep the color going.

Ingrid

I don't feel neglected. Does anybody here feel neglected? You must listen to Companula's wise guidance and direction, Sherry.

Campanula, perhaps I said it wrong. I love posting here! And posts - especially photos - keep it alive. ARF is my first love, and I do owe my support to it. It was fun back when ARF was my whole life. I don't like that that has changed even though I like the new additions. And thanks for the slack.

Hoovb, I'm glad I'm not the only one camped on the internet. I did recently replace my computer, and it has a terabyte plus a second one so I should have enough room, and it's a good idea about the thumb drives which are getting cheaper all the time.

Inspirational? Wow! Thank you, Junco!

Pam, it really is the fun of posting that I'm missing. And thanks for liking our Facebook stuff. We're learning as we go.

Ingrid, thank you, thank you! You always pick up on the details and say it so well. I think you will love RJG. His first vertical cane came quick and thick and was topped with about eight buds. He's got two more shoots coming now. This time I hope I won't miss the big show.

Buford, so sad about your rose show. Our fall festival was sort of sparse because the roses still hadn't recovered from the brutal summer, less than 3 weeks after the heat broke. Hopefully, your weather will warm up quick.

Sherry
.

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry,

Things ebb and flow, and we all experience that in our lives. Your pictures are lovely, all of them! Love the room re-do. Love the flowers.

Beautiful garden--thanks! I like the couch, cushions and throw a lot, as well. I love French blue, too.

Anne

I knew you were destined for fame when you started blogging. I hope the fortune comes too, Sherry. You almost make me want to join facebook. btw, I signed up (twice, I think) for update emails from your blog when you post, but I never get them. Am I the only one who's mentioned this? I miss your posting regularly! Gean

ah yes, I detect the absence of either dogs or teenagers in your sitting room (or great room - never heard that expression - we might (long ago) have referred to it as a parlour). Lovely colours too (and yep, I also have an enormous stash- which will be brought out in the horsebox (if I dare- pale pink velvets, cream slub silks).
Nice to see my fave clematis - in truth, it was the name which got to me - say it a lot and in full - viticella purpurea plena elegans. Course, mine is still months away. just beginning to stretch.
Looking at your serene room, I am mortified by the complete neglect of mine - squeezed far too much between too many different projects - housework has been utterly neglected for weeks and weeks - although we are not at the teenage stage of things growing in cups and secret 'gardens' (of fungi and 'compost') under the bed....we are not far off. I haven't plumped a pillow in months (hence they have assumed organic pumpkin-like shapes instead of neat rectangles). Am impressed with your piping, by the way - have barely managed a french seam myself.
Still, the sun has made one of its rare appearances, so off outside I go again, leaving the housely detritus out of sight (and therefore out of mind) - will try to avoid until dark by loitering in the kitchen (and since there is a heap of rhubarb to deal with, I expect to fall into bed and miss the sitting room entirely). Still, we can eat rhubarb,orange and almond cake, toast with rhubarb and vanilla jam or rhubarb and custard tart - and not worry about crumbs or smeary mess.
Fame. hey? Well, you certainly deserve more recognition...but facebook proved a social network too far, especially after my daughter had a fun 3 weeks impersonating me.

Windeaux, thanks for not feeling neglected. I always enjoy your comments and wish there were more of them. May I ask where you are? It helps when digesting your wise words.

Minflick, thanks, ebb and flow is good way to look at it.

Anne, we keep finding more and more how like-minded some of us here are. Thanks for the sweet things you said.

Gean, I thought you were on Facebook, but then you disappeared. I don't know why the email reminders don't work. Others have mentioned not getting the emails. That's why I put the Facebook icon on the blog so people could find it there. Fame and fortune are happening without my knowledge if they're happening. The ARS runs a link to my blog (and a few others that we know) in the "ARS & You". Amazing! I really don't get many clicks, so fame is far off.

Campanula, a great room is a large room that is a sitting room (living room here) and dining room combo. Open plans (no interior walls in living spaces) are popular here. So glad to hear you also have a stash. It's a sign a great creativity. Or else compulsive hoarding. At any rate a stash is a precious thing, a gold mine. Viticella purpurea plena elegans "stretched" quickly and as high as it could go. I'm liking it very much now in its second year. I got extra excited when I learned 'plena' means double, and it is looking double though blooms are small. The introduction of gardening in my life was the death knell for a clean house. Mine suffered from total neglect for the last few years. Fortunately, it's a young house which helps. but this redo have caused me to turn over a new leaf and be more diligent. Hopefully, it lasts. I usually just forget to be neat and then the slippery slope ensues. I looked for you on Facebook. Thought I found you once. Maybe that was when your daughter was impersonating you, because there was a younger, dark-haired woman in the photos. I wonder why she would do that. My oldest son is anti-Facebook for the supposed privacy issues. Don't see the problem. It's just lots of pics. I learned you can control your feed by who you friend and like, so mine is almost 100% roses.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

yeah, I wondered too, Sherry - especially when I found out she had given me a totally fake profile (nude ski-ing comes to mind, and maybe outdoor ferret-wrestling??)Hope the picture you saw was not a completely insane woman, brandishing an onion hoe, scowling with a ciggie hanging off the bottom lip....cos that was me.
My new e-cigs have rendered that dreadful habit null and void, at least (because it weighs too much to clamp my (false) teeth around it without it dangling on my chest). Cannot quite bring myself to say I am 'vaping' - sticking to 'puffing' instead.
Mmmm, I am nicking the 'sign of creativity' line because in my house, a stash is usually viewed as a sign of slacking and prevarication.

Campanula, your comment is so jam-packed with mindblowing information I don't know where to begin; I'm simply stunned. I don't recall the mention of nude skiing or ferret-wrestling, nor photos of an insane woman, smoking or not. I think I remember pics of Mr. Camp, none of a possible Mrs. Camp. They were in Cambridge though.

The mental image of you with an electronic cigarette (whatever that looks like) dangling on your chest, attached to false teeth is somewhat insanity inducing. Post it if you dare but with a warning label, please, so we can prepare ourselves.

That's a different kind of stash. Couldn't you just have said stealing and saved me the time it took to open another tab to google nicking and wade through the impossible choices of definitions that didn't fit the context? I do feel good about myself that I finally figured it out though. Sort of a "if this is this and that is that then this must be that" scenario. Phwew! That was fun.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Take your pictures now while the plants are having their spring moment. There's the whole year ahead to post them when it's too hot to go out. I love that fabric with the blue roses. I have some like that or very close to it and have been wanting to make a bag to carry an afghan I'm crocheting. I've been working on it for years now. It's a very fussy lacy squares pattern with a complex lace border. The whole thing is being made in white. I get more done when I have the pattern for the squares memorized. Then I put it away and forget the pattern and when I pick it up again, I have to re learn it over again. I have enough together that I could make a smaller throw and be finished sooner but I think I will just keep going and finish the grand size I started out to make. I found a victorian table cloth pattern and decided to use yarn instead of cotton. Everyone always says " when is that blanket going to be finished?" when they see it come out again.

ah yes. the US/UK language disconnect regarding 'nicking',
'swiping', 'filching', 'pinching' or otherwise stealing someone else's rather good excuse for failing to ever use the vast hoard of yarn and fabric I have accumulated over the years.
Talking of language abuse, whilst I was reading, having got down to Kitty's post, there was a spluttering choking noise from Mr Camps (and hot breath on my neck) wondering why Kitty wanted a bag for a large hairy dog (afghan). True, I am not sure what an afghan is either but I was pretty certain it wasn't a hound.

Oh I don't know, dogs in purses were popular a few years ago all over so CA. Now I mostly see them in shopping carts. Stores don't seem to mind anymore as long as the dog stays in the cart. Patterns for knitted or crocheted blankets and throws and other kinds of couch coverings all use the word afghan. I don't know why. When I was little I thought it meant a small decorative blanket or lacy throw that you used while sitting on the couch but many of the patterns are big enough to cover small beds. Most of the people I knew that made them used them as couch decorations. My mom uses the wool one I made for her all the time. She is always wrapped up in it and reading. If she comes over, she wraps herself up in one of mine. I have to store them in the chest or on the blanket stand or else the cats would always be on them, kneading them with their paws and snagging them. So they stay on the stand and I use quilts because whenever I get settled in, the cats are right there waiting to jump up.

I just picked this image because of the garden theme but all the books use the word afghan when you want a blanket pattern in the USA

No non-canine afghans in the UK? In Blighty maybe they're called blankies? Parenthetically speaking here, as far as I could discern, 'Blighty' is not derogatory, just slang. If I'm wrong and I have offended, please forgive. I've only heard it used in the Russell Crowe movie, "A Good Year" which I love. I like the little English guy's accent, too. I think all American women do. So many funny things in that movie: teeth like that have to be American, the French cattily insulting the Brits and vice versa, Lance Armstrong with the finger, McDonalds in Avignon. I did take exception to that American couple though. Do we really do that...demand American junk food in the home of haute cuisine? That would definitely be rude and definitely stretches the stereotype. Even my DH ordered wienerschnitzel and other German dishes when he was there on a work assignment (rewriting the manual after the Pershing 2 mishap).

Kitty, at least you're working on it. Relearning is a pain. I had to get out the manual on my sewing machine to find out which button made a zigzag stitch. It's been a few years.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

the only other thing which came to mind with afghans was a particularly bad fashion prevalent in the 70s amongst students - a sort of ratty leathery coat, trimmed with 'fur' which smelled like a rancid old goat when it rained (I never had one but was horribly keen on even rattier fur coats of some ancient vintage and dubious animal origin).
Have never knitted or crocheted anything as overwhelmingly large as a blanket either (hats, gloves and many grandaughter items....and a rare jumper for one of the boys). My record was a jumper I started for my eldest, in 1986.....which finally got finished in 2000 in time for my youngest to wear....... how I learned patience as a gardener.

hi, Sherry,
It isn't the privacy issues that caused me to put my fb account on ice, but it's because I already spend too much time on the internet engrossed in roses. I know I am missing out but I homeschool our youngest adopted child, and she's needed a lot of attention. Just posting here, email and the few blogs I read keeps me too much in the nether world as it is. But one day ...

You have a wonderful blog, Sherry. Gean

The look these sweet kitties get just before they decide to snag up the afghan you left unattended while you went to the kitchen to check on something. I used to have a set of wicker chairs but now I know better. There is nothing that says scratching post to a bored cat like a wicker chair.

I think my mom used to have a coat like you described Campanula. We called it the "monkey coat".

Sherry I'm going to rent that movie. The movie I just saw and loved was Meeting Venus. It's about a conductor caught up in the conflicts and dramatics of performing an opera with people from many different nations. If you read the words to Wagner's Tannhauser, the film will be even more humerous. For instance, the soprano playing the innocent maiden in the opera, is trying to seduce the conductor and so on.

Well, I am traveling in high company now. I, too, have a stash of fabrics and embroidery yarns from back in the day that I can't part with--probably thousands of dollars worth of fabric I purchased over the years.

I, too, had to get out my instruction book for my serger (took me forever to find it) so I could make my sister a tablecloth for her birthday. I haven't actually bitten the bullet and started it yet. Still dithering because it's been so long.

I never make comments on your blog either, Sherry, but I do follow it regularly and enjoy it.

Camp, as usual, you're a hoot.

Camps - your fabric stash sounds glorious! Mine's just a LOT of calico for quilts, plus some faux fur for quilt backs of a particular kind. One year a friend gave me 9 yards of a silk shantung.... It was a coppery color I couldn't wear with out looking jaundiced, so I used it up on projects and making a niece a lovely Christmas party dress. I had a lot of fun with that fabric!

Campanula, seems like I had a long black fake leather coat with a big "fur" collar around that time, 1970-ish. I really don't think mine smelled though, but then it was entirely fake, not real animal. Wait a minute! It DID have an odd smell to it. Gotta go look up jumper.

Kitty, I love your knitting books. I envy you your pets, and you can envy my decorating freedom. I will look for that movie. I like light, funny movies with some romance.

Gean, I understand totally. I wish I had an upstanding reason to drop mine. Thanks for the compliment. I am very glad you still post here.

Floridarosez, you know the odd thing is that when I put some of my stash (not the really good stuff) in a garage sale, no one wanted it. All those thousands of dollars worth and none of it worth 50 cents. Yeah, I could not believe I had no clue how to run my own sewing machine. I won't say that I'm plagued by non-commenters, but it does get lonely sometimes. LOL

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I knitted an afghan once. It was my first big knitting project after learning by doing swatches. The afghan had a cable and lace pattern, but was worked in squares, which I thought was a cool idea--a little at a time. Cool idea until I got to the end and realized I would then have to sew together 64 blocks!!!

Beautiful "old" style Persian cat! Apologies to those who like them, but I don't care for the new flat-faced ones with their noses smushed up between their eyes.

Sherry, post only when you feel like it. This is supposed to be fun, not a chore.

A heavy pullover sweater? Thought maybe it was short pants with suspenders.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry-----I have also been neglecting GW---but I'm still having painful back problems and sitting too long is really bad----I will go to your blog -----How can I find you on FB?I want to see your pictures there also
I check on FB-----
Florence

Your roses are gorgeous---I love your front garden---
Florence

I have laughed through this entire post. Continued reading wasn't easy as the laptop kept jiggling. I love the English versus American meaning of words. Eventually we will be two different languages but, in the meantime, it's a hoot.

Cath

short pants with suspenders!!!
Sounds like a scary fashion universe in Ocala, Sherry?

But then, I had heard that Floridians were a little......off the wall (must be the proximity to that temple of unreality, Disneyworld)

Well, the only jumper I know of is a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse/shirt of some kind, usually in winter. Since you said it was for your son, I figured it couldn't be a dress so it must have been pants. I pictured lederhosen which I have never seen in Florida, a little too dressy for the way most Floridians dress anymore. We're not off the wall, just very casual.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry,

Your home is beautiful inside and out. I especially like the fabrics. Who knew that all the times I stoically passed by beautiful fabrics, I was doing the wrong thing.

In one of your photos you have tall blue flowers. They were in your "But quite different from a week ago " picture. Are they delphiniums? Can you grow them in Florida heat?

Cath

I think they are Sherry's famous larkspur.

She has, hasn't she (lovely home).

Oh dear, lederhosen (trying to imagine my hoodie wearing offspring EVER consenting to dressing in lederhosen - (although they were wildly popular on the gay scene around the same time -80s) - we are pretty casual here too.

Mind, daughter has worn some startling outfits over the years!

What you call a jumper, we would call a pinafore or even just a shift dress. Pullover seems to be a fairly universal term for something warm and woolly. Or sweater (but getting mixed-up with sweatshirts....which are jersey (knitted cotton)

Language is cool, isn't it?

I think I am having more fun than most at the linguistic confusion here. As a student of English as a foreign language I've had to learn both American and British idioms.

BTW, I owned an afghan once, the British kind, that I got in Kabul, Afghanistan when I was on the hippie trail to India in the 60íes. It was my honeymoon, except that it lasted five months. It did smell of wet sheep because that's what it was. It was almost straight from the sheep, the hide was very rudimentally tanned and curried.

I lost the coat later and have only one black and white photo of me in it, in the Babur Shah gardens in Kabul. It was winter so not much greenery and no roses. (I managed to get a little on topic.)

Thank you, thank you for the "beautiful home" comments. When it was new eight years ago, I was enthused about keeping it clean and orderly. That mindset went by the wayside with the advent of gardening. Now the new decor has revitalized my domestic instincts. I hope it lasts, but I'm really getting less gardening done. I have planting to do now and I've wasted the cooler weather being inside. Oh, well, such is life.

Cath, one could argue that I was doing the wrong thing by seemingly buying every blue & white fabric in sight, but in the end it turned out well. The original pillow covers were a very odd abstract design, very not me, so it worked out well with some work on my part. And DH loves it, too. He asked me to make a cover for the recliner to preclude stains even though it is stain-protected. Do you believe he picked a blue & white toile from the stash!

Campanula is right. They are larkspur. Delphiniums don't work here - too hot, I guess. The larkspurs reseed and start coming back every January. I'm starting to pull them out now. They have lived their life beautifully. I don't know if the heat is doing them in or they are just this short-lived and are running their natural course. They make a spectacular splash in the garden during the time when stuff is frozen back and roses aren't ready yet. Freezes don't bother them. Without them the late winter/early spring would be so barren. I love that they come back on their own. I'm not disciplined enough to be doing seeds in August for planting in Sept/Oct to make a winter season garden. Did it once and don't think I'll ever do it again. That's all hot-time here and doing the tedious work of distributing tiny seeds in tiny pots while sweating on the screened porch is not my idea of fun. I suppose I could do it in the evening. I'll have to think about that. They'll have to be reseeders though. More research.

So, Suzy, I think we have the apparel language straight at least for now. I would dearly love to visit the UK and France but it is highly unlikely since I don't buy lottery tickets. But if I do, I will be up to speed on the language. And thank you for the "Sherry's famous larkspur" comment. It made me smile.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I like toile as well. I saw a fun one in downtown LA in the fabric district where the wholesale clothing manufacturers go. It was rabbits in fancy dress and country landscapes. It fooled me for a minute. I like another by Kaufmann called Central Park that has children at play. I always get a little because one of these days it might be hard to find like the pretty floral wallpapers I used to buy.

Shery, FYI, Delphiniums do well down here if you buy them as small plants early in the season. I think the variety I was getting was dwarf, but they were still 3 feet tall. My little nursery closed, and I couldn't find them anywhere locally this year so did without. What a disappointment. There are some places on line that sell them but I think they are pricey.

Oh, I definitely think delphs are good from seed - I did mine in January although I wouldn't swear that they are going to flower this year, they are good little seedlings - a lot of delph seed, especially Pacific Giants are rubbish.....but there are some really good New Zealand bred types which are as good as a named clonal cuttings ...any of the New Millenium types - you could sow them in autumn, Sherry - they don't need any heat or lights or anything - in fact, I think the winter-sowing forum probably do a fair few delphs. I will post pics of mine, even in the possible snail armageddon of the allotment (in which case, there will be a bit of stalk left)

Because I was thinking it might be my last allotment year- I planned a complete english garden tableaux with roses, delphiniums, foxgloves and sweet peas (cheap and, in my head at least, fabulously over the top) - however, as is so often the case with my 'plans', the likelihood of collapsing into masses of unruly leafage, gigantic weeds (which, I swear, appear overnight) and badly contrived 'structures' (needed to tame the violent thuggery in the shrubbery) - not really 'if'' but 'when' the whole spectacle sort of implodes (and then I avoid that area of the plot for a bit). Sometimes, though, there might be a day or two, and I feel I am definitely on track for next year

Camp, we can't grow biennial Delphs here. They rot in the heat and humidity. There are a few types that bloom the first year, but even the little wholesale nursery I bought from had to grow them out from seedlings they purchased. I think it's because we can't start them early enough here.

I'll bet your sweet peas are gorgeous. I try every year but only manage to get a dozen or so stems of bloom every year. When I was a child, my mother had beautiful sweet peas, but I think due to global warming we are simply too hot here now.

Sweet peas are wonderful. For me they always start blooming when they reach the top of the trellis and then the whole lower section is losing leaves. The flowery growth spills over in a tangle and it's never a pretty sight. What I need is a good tall trellis. One time I had a good planting on a bamboo teepee with shorter annuals covering the naked legs below but I planted that space with roses and so the only space I have left for them is a narrow strip along the walk. I wish they came in a shorter legnth. I have tried the dwarf kinds but the stems are too short for use in a vase. We are leaving sweetpea and pansy weather here and it always makes me a little sad when that happens.

Sherry, I love the clarity and color of your photos!