Luckily my land is not THAT far; it's about a 30-to-40 minute drive from home (I don't drive fast, btw, and in any case, on snaky hilly roads,one sort of has to go slow...)I can keep tools there, in this big ,ugly metal construction built by the previous owner,but I wind up keeping the most-used ones in my car a lot of the time.Sadly, I have no place to stay over there, and in any case my DH and son have different enthusiasms! By mounding I mean the concept of protecting a newly -plante bare-root rose with a mound of material around it's base, placed so that only the tips of the canes stick out. Usually people say to use soil for this, so picture a mound of soil covering the graft union and the lower parts of the baby canes.So, it's like a mulch, protecting the roots a bit, but it's also protecting the canes.Now, for some reason, in my garden, I have had trouble with canes rotting under the mounds: well, to be honest, this only really happened that one year that I mentioned in my first post. Someone suggested using manure/organic matter as the mounding material (I believe it was a lady in New England, USA) Well, for me, this was a disaster. I lost so many baby roses that year; they got canker or just plain rot that spread down to the graft... This really spooked me. Last fall, I tried using peat moss, thinking it would be less prone to bacteria, but again got spooked, seeing how uber-soggy it became under the mounds.So, I un-mounded all of the babies, and re-mounded them , using a mixture of wine corks, pieces of styrofoam,held in place by gravel and sand.This worked. Clearly, it's important in my garden to keep the canes fairly dry and the roots moist.I say, IN MY GARDEN, because from various rose forums, I see that for many-most?-people, this cane-rot stuff has never been a problem! I suspect it may have something to do with the climate here. I think that it's not just low temperatures that come into play.Here in Italy, we can get some wild temperature fluxes, even from day to night, just because, when the sun comes out, it can be so hot. Now, in November, it's so low to the horizon, and besides, it's been raining so much,so it's a very stable environment for newly plante roses.But our winters can offer some dramatic temperature swings. To give an idea, last winter, we had some very heavy snow; at least a foot deep. During the days after it had fallen, the sun came out, and I remember shoveling deep snow,sweating heavily, wearing boots, snow pants (because of the wet, cold snow), and only a shirt on top! But then, the sun goes down,the temperature plunges,all the stuff that melted under the hot (relatively speaking) sun freezes into ice,and then can't really start melting again until the afternoon of the following day.Do you see where I'm going with this? My land, exposed to the south-west, is going to get quite warmed up during a sunny but cold winter day, and then freeze during the night. The road that I have to travel-facing north-could remain un-passable by me for a couple of days-or more, considering the extremes we've been having in weather in recent years.Instead, I think England tends to have a more consistent climate,; I don't think you'd have the same toasty-sun issues there that we have here in Italy. As you yourself say, Campanula, "everything shuts down into a hibernating limbo". Here, it often doesn't! I still have flowers;many roses still have leaves,most of them have the little leaf buds on them...my Okame cherry tree actually RE-BLOOMED. So, it's very confusing as to what the best course might be...which is why I started this thread in the first place.Discussing things can help clarify ones ideas,and I'm grateful to you and all forum members who participate. regards, bart

gscience, I just remembered your kitchen -- you have the blue Big Chill, right? I really like your kitchen and I see why you want a table like this one. It would fit your kitchen style really well; it's probably the closest thing to chrome dinette that you can get in wood. :) I am not getting into the chrome vs wood debate (I think they'd both work in your space) but I don't know how easy it is to find a chrome one that will seat 8 like this one; maybe that will help the decision. Or I know -- you can buy my old oak one (cheap!) and that'll force me to make a decision on a table for us. [big grin] [very very off topic] How are you liking the Big Chill? Were you able to see one in person before buying? We won't need a new fridge for a while longer (I hope), but I like the idea of a standalone fridge that doesn't need a fridge cabinet, and the Big Chills are pretty cool (sorry for pun...).

I took some photos but don't know if I will ever get them posted. Plus the lighting was bad because I just shot them without any adjustments with off indoor lighting. It was an upscale old folks home where my uncle lives. The whole place appeared to have been designed by a very smart and capable decorator. Everything was color coordinated on all the floors, although each had a unique personality. But the whole thing was designed to give off a warm. cozy and upscale vibe. Problem for me using it would be that none of my things would match those colors. I have that "northwoods" color scheme going with maroon, blueberry, taupe, brown, forest green, tan, plum and sage. It'll be interesting to see how I pull off blending my mom's "spring/fall" color palette with my "winter/summer" one. I can use her colors if the intensity and tone is right. For example, I am fine with dark rust, watermelon or terra cotta but peach is death for me.

We did this in our previous apartment. But the room was a good-sized square, so we ran a row of bookcases across one wall. Floor-to-ceiling books, with a 7' long table that we could extend to 8' to seat 10 guests at a time. Our DR chairs were second-hand office chairs. Upholstered, good lumbar support, arms and wheels. People could sit for hours talking and not ache when they got up to leave! In our current home, the LR and MBR are the biggest, so we moved the bookcases around a bit in the latest remodeling. There were 14 full-height bookcases in the MBR alone, and five full-height/double width in the LR. We had to use movers for all the boxes and furniture; too old to do it all ourselves now! In the first photo, seems to me a host(ess) could squeeze behind guest chairs on the LH side. Our current DR is fairly small, so our side aisle space is similarly constrained. I usually have DH and I sit at the chairs nearest the kitchen, rather than the formal head/foot arrangement, so we can get up and sit back down again without disturbing guests. I'm so thankful that we were able to finally fit all our other books elsewhere. The DR has a wall of full-height/narrow depth cabs, but they're mostly for storage, like our hard liquor/liqueurs. I do still keep my cookbooks in the DR cabs, though. When I want to leaf thru a cookbook, it's so much handier to grab it, sit down at the DR table, and then pass right into the kitchen with book in hand!