Looking good Conny! I also have 5 white mini from Ko seeds. They really are slow. Mine germinated 2 weeks ago, but they look like they just lost the seed-capsule. xD But I don't mind that they take some time. Really like the way yours look like! :-)

I think you are going to enjoy practicing. Even if you had the recipe, I'll bet you'd only be able to get close. Never quite the same as what mom made. Good luck on your quest. KC, sounds like a good idea; wouldn't a tasting party be wonderful?

Hi bbtrix - it is very similar to your other design! I agree the thought of stair debris/fur falling is a problem and I was thinking of putting a lip or barrier or something there to contain it. I'm really torn about closing it off ahhhhh. The window on the range wall is getting closed off - it looks out under an addition so that's an easy decision. Crazy it was left when they put the addition on. If you look at the pictures, there is a soffit above the range that has to stay but it's not the full length of the range wall. I put it in the plan full length so that can change if it helps. I didn't put 30" cabs here because they would hang down lower than the cabs on the adjacent walls since there is no soffit there. I wasn't sure the standard size of uppers when I did the plan so stuck in 30" on the walls other than the range wall. I don't have uppers in my home kitchen but I did just look in another room and they are 36" with a 2" top filler. In the plan I could switch them all out to 30" over the range and 40" elsewhere. That would look better, thanks.

Wow - after dealing with one rambler, I can hardly imagine dealing with several at once. "Stabby" is a good word - the thorns on ours were not huge, but curved and very very sharp, and of course the canes are flexible and love to whip around. They kept grabbing my hat off of my head, and even though I was wearing extra heavy gardening denim, they ripped holes in it. After some consideration, I am not surprised that your roses rebounded quickly - that is not something I am worried about. Rootstock is another matter - every single rose in my garden is on its own roots, except perhaps for some ancient ones planted by my DH's ancestors. I really think all of those have gone own root by now, as I have not seen a root sucker coming up anywhere for decades. I won't plant a rose unless I can get it own root, and anyway most of the roses I plant are cuttings I rooted myself. Life is way too short to keep having to deal with (here anyway) zillions of Dr. Huey plants, which in our climate tend to be way more energetic than the scions. I do remember some places where the scion was gone, it took us 2-3 tries to dig up Dr. Huey until it stopped coming up again. Of course, when an emerging rootstock turned out NOT to be Dr. Huey, I aways waited for it to bloom to see if I liked it - Here is my favorite, 'de la Grifferaie (1845) - the rose tree it killed was yellow, and boring, so I was fascinated when dlG came up, a mystery to me, but I could tell by the leaves it was something special. So much that I waited through 4 Springs with no blooms, until it did this on the Fifth one, and continues to do that every Spring ever since. Fabulous strong fragrance, too, and no disease whatever. Jackie