What's great thread and thanks toTheFoxesPad for the delightful my written story that started it. I am a decision delayer and my recently acquired husband, with whom I do not yet live, is a pre-hoarder. That is, he has pretty good taste but becomes extremely attached to anything he takes in, and he doesn't see why he should stop acquiring things just because he doesn't need more. So if he likes it, he'll get it, but nothing ever goes out. We live about 10 blocks apart and thought we could wait until we retire in about 5 years to live together, because he is extremely allergic to my cats - meds don't help. But now we don't want to wait and are going to fix up his large garage for me and the cats to move into. Only he doesn't want to think about these decisions, and I can't make them. Getting a decorating buddy (design buddy in this case) is an idea I came up with too so glad to see someone else has it! I write a blog with a couple other librarians and just this week I started a series on books about organizing. One of my favorites is The Organizing Sourcebook by KatbyWaddill, partly because she says there's no perfectly organized, just good enough for how you live right now. I think that should be true of decorating, for many of us, too. I have read posts where people are obsessing about exactly the right shade of granite for the counter - but we are such a rest less culture,she's going to be freaking out over the right species of wood for butcher block in5 years. Can it really matter that much? Bronwynsmom, I am completely with you.

Such beautiful black cats....I love them, although I no longer have any. I content myself with petting my friends' cats, LOL. Our last black cat, now long-gone for almost a decade, was a Burmese mix. One of the largest, longest short-haired cats I've ever seen. When he went up on his hind legs, he could easily touch the top of a 36-inch high kitchen cart with his front paws. One day he was lying on our Chinese rug, stretched out fully, and I caught him in full-length mode. It looks fake, but he really was big - a full 16.5 lbs.

It was held at the Denver Botanical Gardens and I think all the buildings there are pretty spectacular. Surprisingly the parking decks were almost full when we got there. I think it was because today was so gorgeous. I didn't get any roses but there were a number of people leaving with garden carts to help them with their haul. I think High Country Roses must have grabbed various plants that were Colorado appropriate from their flowering stock and brought them. Everything had a bloom. :-) Matt mentioned how Weeks Roses had cancelled their order but sold them a propogating license instead and so all his staff has been madly propagating the Weeks patented plants. They are even going out to member's gardens to get cuttings. I think he said they had 600 "parent" plants in house. In previous conversations he had mentioned that Weeks Roses sells them plugs that they then grow. It sounded like no plugs this year hence all the propagating. Matt has a great presentation style and incorporated alot of humor in his talk. There were alot of helpful 'science fair' style presentations for people like myself to come up to speed easily and quickly on all things pertaining to rose growing. I think they thought there was less attendance than usual due to Coronavirus but I think there were more people there than I thought would be. However, this is the first time I have attended. The other outfit selling roses was Bailey Bare Root Plants. They had bare root roses and peonies for sale. The bare root plants were pretty big, hence the garden carts. Bailey Nurseries I was pretty pumped to get a door prize but I was hoping for one of Matt's High Country Roses Gift Certificates. Some other lucky people got those. In my door prize basket I am most excited to try the rose food. We tried Mile High Rose feed last year and it drove the dogs insane! They kept trying to eat it. This new one is liquid so hopefully won't have that affect.

I've always admired Camaieux with its subtle coloration more than the more often vaunted Rosa Mundi with its brighter color contrasts. I'm glad it's being offered so that those with the right climate might have a chance to try it. I loved seeing old roses like gallicas and Albas that one doesn't see very often in other rose nurseries, or at least the ones that I frequent.