How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. My teeny tiny front porch- I did the painter cloth curtains thanks to peeps here and I very much enjoyed sitting there and reading this summer. Two sets of french doors with wavy glass leading into the side porch or family room from the LR.The french doors flank the FP in the living room. The 6 foot archway from living room into dining room. The original windows and doors and glass door knobs through out. Original oak floor with walnut strips outlining the LR and DR. The light that fills the house. The deep sound of the buoy bell in the wind, that my Dad brought me from Cape Cod the year before he died. The firepit and birdfeeders in the back yard. The racetracks in the grass from Cooper and Bailey. Awaiting reseeding in the spring. My weeping cherry tree and climbing roses in the front, making my house look more like a cottage than colonial revival. The Australian sage that attracts the hummingbirds and the purple coneflower that the golfinches gorge themselves on. My beautiful kitchen that my DH put in for me,he did it all DIY but the granite. I can't believe its mine. My lovely family sound asleep upstairs, a fire in the fireplace, Cooper and Bailey snoozing at my feet and the wind gusting outside my door. so warm and cozy inside.

Below is the info. that Floweraremusic (zone 5) in Washington gave on her 2020 winter-survival. She has alkaline clay with rocks at bottom like mine & less snow in winter: "My hardiest roses are the Canadians. John Davis, John Cabot, Wm. Baffin, Morden Sunrise, Morden Blush and Morden Centennial, Victorian Memory aka Isabelle Skinner, also a Canadian rose. All these only have tiny bit of tip damage and bloom a lot with no special care. Also, my Hybrid Perpetuals only have tip damage after winter. Magna Charta, Mrs. John Laing, Black Prince and Marchesa Buccella. The only negative is they don’t have long enough cutting stems. All my Austins are very hardy. The one I just can not grow is Jude. Leonardo da Vinci is super hardy and always healthy. Quietness comes through winter very well. Even Rouge Royale survives beautifully. Cinderella Fairy Tale is very hardy. Gruss an Aachen also. Ballerina and Marjorie Fair are both hardy. Poseidon, Princess Charlene de Monaco and Crazy Love didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. The surprise losses this year are Quicksilver, and Dames de Chenonceau who is left with only 1 cane. Versigny is also reduced down to almost nothing. This was a mild winter with very little snow. " Floweraremusic (zone 5). From StrawChicago (zone 5a with hard black-gumbo alkaline clay & less snow but with freezing rain in winter). Versigny didn't survive winter either. So I lost Versigny TWICE. Besides Versigny, other wimpy own-root roses that don't survive winter well: Paul Neyron, Anna's Promise, Pink Peace (own-root died 1st winter, but grafted-Pink Peace survives many winter), Elantyne, Jude the Obscure, Young Lycidas (bought as grafted-on-Dr.Huey, now with only one cane), Mary Daly, and many floribundas don't survive my zone 5a: Pink Chiffon, Sheila's perfume, King Arthur, Deep Purple, Shocking blue, Honey Bouquet (survived 1 winter). Polka Climber (survived 1 winter), Cloutilde Soupert (died twice on me). Sutter's Gold didn't survive winter, same with many fragrant mini-roses from Burlington nursery. Below are my hardy OWN-ROOT roses in my zone 5a alkaline clay, only Double Delight, Young Lycidas and Lavender Crush are grafted-on-Dr.Huey. Bold-faced are the very vigorous ones: Own-roots with 3 feet of green canes: Carding Mill (since 2012), Princess Charlene of Monaco, Duchess de Rohan, Crown Princess Magareta (since 2012), Zepherine Drouhin, Lady of Shalott, James Galway, Lavender Crush, Queen of Sweden (gave away but very hardy), Poseidon (right below the rain-spout, dug down to 2.5 feet), Scepter'd Isle (very big & hardy own-root but gave that away with its lousy scent). Own-roots with 2 feet of green canes: La Reine (many winters), Blue Mist (since 2012), Prairie Harvest (since 2014), Mary Magdalene (since 2011), Evelyn (since 2012), Radio Times (since 2011), Pat Austin (since 2011), Christopher Marlowe (since 2011), Golden Celebration (since 2011), Lilian Austin (gave away but very hardy), the Squire, the Dark Lady, Wise Portia survived 4 winters but died in poor drainage clay, Dee-lish (since 2015), Twilight Zone (since 2016), William Shakespeare. 2000 (since 2011), Comte de Chambord (since 2012), Princess Anne, Sweet Mademoiselles, Aloha climber, Orchid Romance, Bohemian Rhapsody, Marie Pavie, Lagerfeld (since 2017), Frederic Mistral survived 2 winters but died when I didn't winter-protect with leaves, Sonia Rykiel (survived 3 winters) but died in freezing rain winter, same with 1/4 of the street-trees in my neighborhood, Excellenz von Shubert (since 2013), Own-roots with less than 1 foot of green canes: Gina's rose, Tchaikosky (since 2015), Cornelia (since 2018), Bolero (few winters), Peter Mayle, Sharifa Asma, Neil Diamond, Amber Queen, A Shopshire Lad, Strike it Rich, Old Port (since 2012), Veteran's Honor (many winters), Double Delight (grafted on Dr.Huey), Savannah, Tess of d'Uberville, Gene Boerner (since 2014), thornless Yves Seedling (since 2013), Stephen big Purple (since 2012), Louise Este, Mirandy, Crimson Glory, Liv Tyler survived 1 winter but needs winter-protection, Rouge Royal (bought last year with no winter-protection). Annie L. McDowell (survived 2 winters but needs a wet-spot since it's almost thornless), Nahema (survived 1 winter then died during freezing-rain winter), same with Eyes-for-you (drought-tolerant and doesn't like freezing wet winter), Souvenir du President Lincoln, Madame Issac Pererie and Madame Earnest Calvat, Firefighter (survived 2 winters) but died since it's next to tree. Bayes Blueberry (survived many winters but I gave away), Charles Darwin (gave away since it fades badly), Arthur Bell (since 2012 & killed it since I don't like the flowers). StrawChicago.

Yesterday afternoon was windless and sunny, in the mid20’s, so I went for a walk in the field along the river. A pair of mature bald eagles flew out of one of the large pines along the bank and right over my head a couple of times as they gained altitude to clear the trees farther upriver. I only had my cellphone, but at least low flying eagles are large enough to be visible in the photos. All fall and into early winter I have been seeing mergansers on the river, but I haven’t remembered to grab the camera, and they are too far to photograph with the phone because it is a long riverbank. The males have had a good amount of white well into December, so I wonder if that is from last year’s breeding plumage or for this coming year. There was ice starting to form on the river yesterday and I didn’t see the mergansers, so they may have decided to move somewhere that the water will remain open during the winter.

Nice thought about the nursery, but the garage pet door has been closed since losing Ivy in May, 2017. Years ago there was an opossum nursery in a corner of the garage in back of a stack of old storm windows. Several times the mom fell into our recycle bin in the garage which is how we saw 'playing possum' in action, or, the lack thereof. After Ivy, the cat hole remained open until the smell of rotting squirrels in back of the lawn tractor was noticed. I assumed it was a fox that was coming in the generously-sized pet panel door and using the garage as a pantry. Disposal of the squirrel carcasses (3 - all pointing the same way one on top of the other stacked by a methodical being), and having to clean everything, made closing the cat hole an easy choice. Now, when opening the door to the garage, I no longer face shining eyes or hear anything larger than a mouse. It's a fairly busy wildlife backyard, a 1/2 acre of native plants and trees for them to use, so I've chosen to make life a bit easier for me by not meeting strangers in the garage. Raccoon was startled by something that did not enter the camera's range. I'll never know what made him/her stand at attention. But 44 minutes later, she, or a family member, returned. I'd like a 360° camera. Need an overhead cam or aerial surveillance, lol. Now there's an idea... Jane