Thank you all for the warm and kind responses. I value all the comments. Peg_in_Oregon, I wanted this thread to be more about thoughts and writings about gardening, not about post- ing my garden pics. I have a feeling that no matter what I post, for you it will be a lie. I will post pics of roses when I wish to, not when the great Peg in Oregon says I should, to "prove myself". I have posted rose pics before in Rose Gallery, if you want to look those up. They are'nt a big deal though. But you and some others will still have your doubts. That is your choice, but your only fooling yourself. Maybe I should choose to believe that you don't exist either.

Sneaking in under the wire for 2008 is my holiday gift activity: Sugared Cranberries - three cups Carol's Sweet 'n Hot Confetti Jelly - two one-cup jars and eight half-cup jars Madras Pickled Eggplant Indian Cucumber Relish Thai Chili Sauce - four one-cup jars of each of the above, for putting into gift baskets for four couples I usually exchange gifts with at New Year's Indonesian Satay Sauce - eight one-cup jars (also for the gift baskets-- I was bummed not to have leftovers of the last three recipes for myself, so I made this one a triple batch, and it came out even more than expected) Carol, the Hab jelly went over particularly well. I canned one of the cups in one of those low, sturdy wide-mouth jars called a "salmon jar," and gave it with a matching jar of Roasted Red Pepper Spread to my 22-year-old nephew and his girlfriend, who is in pastry chef school. I packaged them with a box of nice crackers, some cream cheese, and a couple of little dip bowls and spreading knives. This went over VERY well; these guys are in their first-ever apartment together, and I think liked getting the same kind of homemade food package I gave my middle-aged siblings, as they are feeling very grown up in their own household these days. My nephew is in one of those stages young men seem to go through of exploring Hot Sauces (loves to boast about how many scoville units he withstood yesterday, etc.), so he was thrilled with the hab jelly, especially since I told him it was made a little extra hot with him in mind, and he should be careful what guests he served it to. (Nothing like a hint of danger to perk up a Christmas gift when you are 22!) ;-) Zabby, wondering if she can squeeze in one more little batch of cranberry sauce before the new year.....

Thank you so much Krista! Yes, I just love Anna de Diesbach! It's so strange that here I am dreading white in my Garden and here is Penny Lane teaching me to sit down and Shut Up, lol! It is fast becoming one of my favorite roses. Tammy, once you've been involved in Agility, you will be probably like the rest of the Agility folks, ADDICTED, haha! And the dogs have sooo much fun. Life will never be the same, and no, agility dogs will not be jumping over the fence. They will always love their "Puppy School" and can immediately distinguish Puppy School from the plain and boring fence which they'll just ignore, lol! I Promise You This, lol! I'm a bit jealous that you are in Tennessee. Much more opportunities to go to several trials. Kansans have to travel very, very far to get enough trials to compete, but we've got some totally Awesome World Class competitors here. One Kansan even won 1st place in one of the International European Competitions this year. And there are others who regularly make it to World International Team competitions. Must be in the water that Kansans drink, hahaha! Eluane and I can only win through Lord-Blessed Miracles. We only compete 4-5x a year; it's all we can afford. Almost all dog agility folks in Kansas compete in other venues, not just AKC, and they will travel several hundreds of miles as well so they average about 24 trials at the very minimum per year. They also attend classes, seminars from famous handlers. I've been a freelancer/unemployed for over 2 years so we've only taken one class total, lol! So we do the best that we can and count on the Good Lord to carry us the rest of the way, haha! We do have a club membership so we can still practice on our own once a week, so that is good! But not having an instructor is a huge!!!!! problem. You really need classes to do well in agility. I have to depend on my friends in England for advice and we've already made many critical mistakes in trying to do training on our own.... Our training has been experiment after experiment... The rosette is from our Hardest Level, Excellent AKC Jumpers and the course was challenging. We're still stuck in Open though for Standard. We need 2 more wins to get to Excellent :) We also got a very late start in agility. Eluane began at 4.5 years and now she just turned 6 which is "ancient" compared to the fast younger dogs. That's like running a 42 year old compared to a dog in its prime 20 year old range so not much time left for us. But it's still so fun and rewarding and we take the Moments of Grace in our time and stride!

Thank you so much Boxo, Beth and Mantis! Boxo, if my Oklahoma looked as wonderful as yours and so glamorous and beauteous as your gorgeous Oklahoma bouquets, I wouldn't be such an annoying whine-fest party poop, lol! Cornelia also gets the tail end of my whine-fest too in terms of very raaaaaaarely blooming. I also call my Cornelia a green monster of a Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons because of its arching moppy canes. Takes tons of real estate without producing any show of blooms save in one massive early spring flush and only 3 branches'-full in late summer, then a big fat zero any other part of the season. Hehe, Boxo, Eluane has never gotten any 2nd place. All of her rosettes thanks to the Good Lord are 1st place rosettes- only two total are 3rd. But those are true miracle wins. We can compete only 4-5x a year and last year we only competed in 3 trials because I missed out on a very critical one. I was so upset. One more win, Boxo, and we move into the professional level in our Jumpers division, where all the MACH handlers are at (Master agility champion handlers) so once that happens no more 1st place wins, lol, no more 3rd place- more like 20th place????! These are folks who've been doing it for years and allllll border collies, all at Eluane's height at the 20" so instead of our usual one-in-a-million miracle win from the Good Lord, we got our one-in-a-billion chance, haha! Actually at Eluane's current level, I get to watch Kansas-Missouri's best Ann Zarr with her young dog up close. I usually end up running 1-2 dogs behind her. She is a multi-MACH title holder and gets to compete in Europe with her older dog. It's so amazing to watch her, Boxo! And no, it's me who has to be very proud of the E and TOTALLY GRATEFUL for the Good Lord's help! I have a learning disability, so trying to memorize the courses are very difficult for me, and when one has a very fast Border Collie you have to be in control all the time to lead out your BC. At her winning trial, I was late! I had no time to get a course map to study, no critical walkthrough - where all the competitors walk the field to position and strategize their run. And by the time I arrived the 16" dogs were already running (20" follows right after!!!) so all I could do was watch the other competitors ahead of me and start memorizing the course- and it was a very difficult course full of twists and traps. Also bless Jim1961-- he is my cheering section, and I always text him prior to our runs too, lol! Whenever E and I run, boy do we try to run with all our heart-on-the-line, lol! Mantis, in my garden every rose has a different unique fragrance with their own nuances. VQ is definitely a very fragrant rose. The fragrance is like one of those fancy bath soaps that you'd find in an English bed-and-breakfast hotel. You get that soft perfumed talcum powder nuance to it.