Hoovb: "It's all about the journey, not the destination..." and Lottirose: "My garden is not and never will be a showplace, but it is my bliss.". Both wonderful articulations of my feelings. My garden movement I think is pretty minor, but a constant slow flow. I cannot shovel prune anything - just not in my nature, but I do move plants that are not doing as well as I'd like, or I don't think belong in their current place for one reason or another, to a less obvious place. I find myself moving more and more companion plants, and making more room for roses in the prime garden spots. The one rose I moved to replace with another (moved a Crimson Glory to put in a Sunsprite instead, as I thought she'd look better there) - I find myself apologizing daily to Crimson Glory as she doesn't like her new spot. I think in future, any roses happy in their spot will remain in their spot, despite my opinion. Daily dead-heading and weeding mostly gives me the sense of activity I need for constant input into my garden. I do keep visualizing more places for more and different roses as I plan to further expand. One think I have learned about the perception of my garden, is to keep my less pleasant relatives out! I had my cousin and his wife visit the other day, and somehow looking at my superbly beautiful garden (in my eyes that is) through her eyes, dimished it greatly. She had a critical eye, and lots of suggestions on how it could be better. Opinions I likely would have welcomed from any of the true rosarians on this forum, but were not appreciated from one with less than constructive intent.

Pruning above an outward facing leaf causes the new cane growing from that point to grow outward leaving the center of the bush open to better air circulation and less disease pressure. I sometimes will just deadhead a cane and in a week or so new canes will emerge from the bud eyes at the bases of the leaves just below the deadheaded bloom. I then pick the one I want and prune just above it. A bud eye lies near every point where a leaf is attached to a cane. Other than basal breaks emerging directly from the bud union, bud eyes are the only points from which a new cane will grow. It's claimed pruning canes at a 45°angle just above a bud eye will encourage new growth to start more swiftly. The bud eye should also be facing out or away from the center of the bush. In spring if there is little cane left after pruning I'll cut to an inward facing bud eye if that's the best one available, then after blooming I'll cut to an outward facing bud eye to open the center of the bush. Some new thinking regarding the angle of the cut has appeared in recent years. Some are saying that you can cut straight across with results similar to an angled cut but with the added benefit of less cut surface to heal. Unless the cane is growing straight up, your cut will be angled in proximity to the ground anyway. A cut angled away from the bud eye is suppose to prevent water from setting on the cut cane and prevent it from running off over the emrging cane. I've begun cutting straight across, with the same results I had with an angled cut and have noticed no difference, one way or the other.

When I bought my house some of my sills had been replaced with modern machine cut oak sills. My carpenter was doing some work and ended up milling new sills out of some beautiful maple for me. My house has oak floors, poplar trim, but original maple sills. I love the way he did it; I had to stain them to match the old carefully, but now you can't tell the difference between old and new. The modern sills were so out of place. But, if I could patch that corner with wood putty reasonably well, I'd keep it. There are a lot of lousy putties out there; I've had reasonable luck on small jobs with JB weld Kwikwood, and on larger projects, ConServ products (but that's a lotta $$$ for such a small patch, and I don't think you need to pay the big bucks for the performance characteristics of the conserv for an indoor application.) I like the look of a well-executed repair. I remember touring castles and mansions in Europe where things were carefully maintained or repaired instead of replaced; to me, it just contributed to the antique feel of the building, but in a cozy, not decrepit, way.

I didn't make that comment lightly as I could tell how much work a demo would be. However, I have been through two different bathroom re-tilings in the last year, and my tile contractor was insistent on the walls being dead flat. And I don't just mean a whole new surface. He spent two days on each job after the initial demo with a straight edge and shims on the studs to get the cement board screwed down plumb, flat, and at 90 degrees at each corner. When I saw what was involved in getting the tile to fit, I could understand why he was so particular. Good luck...maybe some of it will be fun!