I have to name several! Each, in its moment of perfection, is a rose to make one gasp and let the eye linger upon in pleasure. 'Better Times' is probably my favorite; the coloration and form of the flower, and the way the color of the foliage complements the flower's color, makes the opening of each blossom an event. Its sport-sibling 'Briarcliff' is splendid as well. The HMF photos don't really capture the purplish-blue tone of the magenta red of 'Better Times'; the wonderful moire effect of 'Briarcliff' can be detected in some of the HMF photos, though. 'Snowbird' is wonderful in every way. 'Peach Beauty' is impressively beautiful when opening and for a day or two after (it then gets forgivably blowsy). 'Marceline' has a perfection of form and elegance of coloration which is striking. The HMF pix don't quite capture it. 'Maman Lyly' is breathtaking in form, changing coloration, and fragrance. 'Chrysler Imperial' will always be my favorite red rose. The various Radiances, eh (shrugs), I used to be enthusiastic about them; now, not so much. I like them because they're tough, and because the various colors of the varieties complement each other beautifully (I have them all next to each other). The much-praised fragrance is rather too citrusy for me (same, to my nose, with 'La France'). For me, the best of them is the original, 'Radiance', with its attractive contrast of colors; and the color of 'Mrs. Charles J. Bell' is particularly beautiful when beside magenta and purplish-red roses (mine is near a 'Pergolese'). But, I ramble...

We are lucky enough to be able to visit the Antique Rose Emporium. We have found their staff to be knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic about roses! We highly recommend either visiting one of the ARE sites ( Independence or San Antonio, Texas) or ordering from them. They are one of the top 30 in the Garden Watchdog, and have certainly earned their high rating.

The butt, from this angle, doesn't appear to have much wear, looking at it from different angles would give more detail!! Most times, I use a regular jewelers eye loop but sometimes have to go to more power to get definition on some of the stampings. You want to trade for my nice clean shiny musket? Moonshadow...I love history and the Civil War is one I spend most time on. The artifacts are plentiful, new information of the era become known constantly as older collectors pass away and the stuff becomes available. Even as a kid, disregarding some of the various reasons for discontent at the time, I always thought it was the most senseless war, right here against our own people that could have been otherwise resolved. So bloody, so senseless yet so many innovations in militarism that are still used in some form even today. I have joined a few excursions from time to time searching farms and ravines in this area, looking for artifacts. There are caves in the area here that were used at various times during that war. Folks are always looking for caches but the problem being, many were booby trapped and are quite dangerous from explosions or other damaging action even today. I'd love to find something like that cannon I mentioned earlier. I do have quite a collection of bullets, swords, bayonets, belt buckles and other medallions found on a friends farm nearby. A lot of soldiers personal items have been found also. Just like this musket fori has here, one can sit for a time and just wonder who had it, what their daily life might have been like and if they ever made it home. It sure gets the imagination going. And to think, towns people would find a vantage point and gather and watch a battle, with picnic lunches and all. Just as TEXASREDHEAD, I love occasionally shooting the ones that I have that work. Just wondering how someone could carry that thing all day along with all their other gear and then the noise, the kick and the reloading in a stressful situation and still hit something (with the earlier guns). It's a thrill.

Okay...I've finally made some progress! Here are the after and before shots: I am pretty happy with the color. I have a bit more detail work to do but I've gotten a lot of the surfaces down to bare wood because most of the reddish brown color came up with the blue. I left patches of the other colors near the bottom on the sides for interest & because that's where there is water damage & the wood is darker anyway. Two questions: That water damage gives off a mildewy smell. What can I do to get rid of that? Finishing: What do I do now? The wood is dry and very soft. I know I need to protect it. I did not strip the inside paint yet. It was too hard to do inside the house. I'll need to lay it down outside if I want to pursue it, but I was thinking I'd just repaint. Should I use oil based paint? What should I for the bare wood? I rather like the natural color and wouldn't want much sheen. Do I just hand wax it? Shellac? Polyurethane? Should I seal the rough wood on the back and bottom to help the smell? Thanks for your help! Judy