Thank you all for viewing the albums and your kind comments. Glad you enjoyed them. gldno ~ I always have rose envy when I see roses in other people's gardens. You can't have just one either, so it is an addiction of sorts. Edna ~ I say wow also, when I look at them in the albums. I'm amazed at what I have, and then feel thankful. Kathy ~ Oooohh is right when they are filling the air with their scents. GGG ~ They all bloom regularly it seems to me. Bon Silene, Louis Phillipe are real bloomers. The rest are in and out of bloom. I'll have to try to keep track of when they are in bloom. goldenpond ~ Do you grow any in your gardens? You are north of us here and I know they would do great there. Annette ~ I had to send away for my Dainty Bess also. Patti ~ I'm not so amazing, but the roses sure are. ;-) I am enjoying taking pictures with my new camera, well, it's a year old now. Happy Gardening to all of you. FlowerLady

It has been 61 out here and is just now dropping to the upper 50's. The sun has been so wonderful today after the amazing storms yesterday. Our sunroom has been so toasty on that side of the house that I had the doors open for several hours while I cleaned and dusted . Here is Caroline sending warm sunshine to Annette !!! And here are the cool dry breezes to Rainey !! From Caroline who is in the "middle".

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments. They inspire me to keep on plugging away with our tropical cottage gardens. Schoolhouse ~ This is the only view where I have a seat to view the view. :-) I have a view into the 'secret garden' out back from the 'scullery' while I wash dishes or any time we're back there at the sink. There's also a view to the bath/shower area in the secret garden looking west, out a sidelite window in the scullery and out a little window to the east I can see my shed's garden. We can see into the secret garden from the bathroom. From the bedroom window we can see into the main garden looking west, and looking south we can look into the rock garden, the front hedgerow, and see part of the patio gardens. I look out the windows every chance I get. Our little cottage is surrounded by different little garden vignettes. Cousin Edna ~ Did you find the picture you were looking for? When we get to heaven, we are going to each have wonderful unique, beautiful gardens and abodes. We will not be disappointed. Your comments did start my day off with smiles. ~ I am enjoying my new camera, and there's still more I need to learn about using it. CMK ~ Hang in there and pretty soon your lovelies will be blooming for you. We bought our statue years ago for about $10. She is old and heavy to say the least. She's about 4 ft. tall. DH and I both love to read. We have all kinds of books covering a multitude of subjects. It does not mean that we have read every one of these all the way through, no way. We enjoy having a library, and this is not all of our books by any means either. :-) The library is only about 6'x8' in size. Nell ~ the forum poleese. LOL! Cousin Kathy ~ Yes, those sr. moments are so much fun, NOT. If I had a room with big windows out onto a garden I would be sitting there 'contemplatively staring' a lot. Cameron ~ I love the library more that we now have this view. pfmastin ~ Shovel bird adds whimsy to our gardens. He makes me smile every time I see him. Annette ~ No, we did not make shovel bird, but DH is thinking about making some iron critters. We bought this one in Georgia from a roadside place on our way home from NC in 2006. ~ Oh yes, looks can certainly be decieving. Your room and our view look peaceful, what the viewers don't hear is the traffic racing by. We have a sidewalk besides the busy road so there is quite a bit of foot traffic. They do not know what exists on the other side of the front hedgerow. :-) Blueberryhills ~ I sure wish you all could smell Grand Duke. The scent permeates the air all around. It's wonderful. Here is some info I googled ~ Grand Duke of Tuscany Jasmine Jasminum sambac 'Flore Pleno' Strongly fragrant, very double, 1.5", white blooms are borne continuously. Deep green glossy foliage on twining vine or scrambling shrub to 8'. Light: Morning sun to light shade or high light indoors. Average Mature Plant Size: 8'H x 5'W USDA Cold Hardiness Zones: 9B-11 http://www.almostedenplants.com/ I want to grow a gardenia so bad, but haven't had good luck with them. That scent is one of my first memories from living here as a little girl. Annie ~ Glad you like our little library. It is a joy. It was a small screened porch. We weren't sitting out there anymore because of the traffic after they widened our road, so we decided to enclose the space. It has made a huge difference in our living space as we moved all those book cases and my computer desk and chair out of our living room. Memo ~ Perfect, I don't know about that, but they do make me happy and I'm glad you all enjoy them too. Gldno ~ The topping over the window in the library was a piece of a headboard that was painted glossy black. UGLY. It was across the street in our neighbor's trash and we couldn't leave it there to go to the dump. DH stripped it and oiled it. The curtains we got many years ago when we were shopping a local flea market, cheap. ~ No bird feeding station as we have an outdoor kitty and our neighbor's cat visits our property also. We do hear them singing away in the trees though. GGG ~ Glad our idea inspired you. That's what is so great about forums and pictures, we get inspired to be creative wherever we are with whatever we have. I do not spray roses, but do have some feed that DH got when someone moved and got rid of stuff. I'll have to check what the name is. Mostly I feed them Miracle gro, sometimes alfalfa tea, Peee UUUUU, epsom salts, and water of course. I checked to see about your lightening storm pics, but you weren't able to post pictures yet, so I'll check again later. Happy Gardening everyone and again thanks for your comments. They mean a lot. FlowerLady

Oh my gosh Felix. What can I say? DH and I just got up from a nap, I sat down here at my computer to see what is going on and saw this thread. I couldn't remember a thread I had started with that name. I started reading to myself, then started reading it out loud to DH hardly able to do so with tears streaming down my face and emotion choking my voice. DH said that is so nice. Then I read the other posts and he said "But, they didn't see the junk!" That made me laugh right out loud. DH is my best friend. He encourages me, he inspires me to be a better person. I wouldn't be where I am today without him. Together we have created our haven that we call Plum Cottage. Felix and Sylvia ~ Thank you from my heart for this wonderful post. Thank you for visiting Plum Cottage via the web. You have inspired me to make more web pages. I just made one the other day and will post a separate link to it. Ms. Marion ~ thank you for posting the link. I had to go there myself to take a quick stroll once again. GP ~ Thank you for your kind words. Florah ~ Thank you for liking my shed. I'm afraid it is full though, lol. I hope you will be inspired anyway through pictures. We named our place Plum Cottage because of the house color that we had specifically mixed up by a paint co. We wanted something in a purple/grey color. I took a book with a picture, took a piece of pine bark and maybe something else to the paint place and the guy started mixing pigments, until he came up with a color that we liked. A cottage color for our little 50's cottage. We all have created our own unique havens in this world that we live in. Large or small, formal, informal and everything in between they are all beautiful, created in love. DH are thankful to God the great Creator, for all that we have. Thank you again I am still emotional over this loving piece. Sincerely ~ FlowerLady