Tess is such a good rose. It was on the bush 6 days and just kept getting poofier and poofier but held together. Its been a dry heat and in the 90's this past week plus uber smoky from the wildfires and literally 'raining' ash some days. Gotta love Tess! Some others doing well in the wicked heat TIMF Litchfield Angel Jude the Obscure...I swear I couldnt get enough pics of him the other day!! He is sooo ~Dreamy~ I'm obsessed with the way the buds look half open. I could get lost in those buds for hours!

ut you last post is the stressed part. You or anyone can not make that assumption of who is more stressed. You do not know their life. When I had breast cancer, my garden was my outlet for stress more than any other time in my life. I wintersowed very slowly because I could hardly do it, but it gave me a sense of purpose and things to come in the spring. I dreamed through the catalogs of what to buy believing I would be there to live to see them bloom. I tended my plants best I could in spring. I'm sorry I'm getting teary eyed now. I'm sorry. I know what cancer is like. My dad had chemical based leukemia, 14% chance of survival.. he didn't. Treatment was horrible, he did a clinical trial, I have to say that what he went through in the month plus that he was doing the clinical trial, I don't know why anyone would fight that particular cancer. Back to the garden & plants. When he came out of the hospital he was greeted by plants. My hubby, son & I worked really hard to plant his vegetable garden at his new house (it closed a week after being diagnosed) plus I duplicated my gardens at his house. We'd dug up a few of his roses, plus I bought more. I even bought a daylily that was not common, which I now call Matty for him. He was speechless when he came home. We used to like to sit on his porch & watch the butterflies & hummingbirds. While he wasn't allowed near the plants due to his particular type of cancer, he could sit there and enjoy it. He wasn't allowed to eat his veggies either until he went into remission a few months later. His guardian angel gave us really warm weather until November, we were able to have his Hungarian peppers in my stuffing for Thanksgiving. Through his whole nightmare, gardening & plants brightened the time he was out of the hospital. I'm not able to buy a lot of plants any more due to my back problems. There's a reason why I haven't added many photos to helpmefind, I'm not able to walk around the garden like I used to. I do want to buy a few roses next year & will probably be buying from David Austin. Since I'll use a regular credit card, I doubt I'll have issues and so far have not had a bad experience the last time we ordered. I'd ordered a Benjamin Britten rose, it was horrible, a phone call or email with no questions asked and they replaced it.

So Brick does a few things but they are minor in the grand scheme of things. Mostly the thermal mass helps as they heat up during the day and stay warm after the sun goes down so help to minimize wall heat loss (same with gain in summer). The R-value is about 1 but the thermal mass effect is a bit larger. I actually notice my loss more on the back wall which is not brick. I think there is probably an infiltration benefit with a brick wall but I can't say that for sure. Just looking at it , even with the weep holes, it looks to be a pretty effective air barrier compared to siding. You should easily be able to beat your spec house if you try. The only thing that $1800 doesn't include is the gas connection fee. I only used about $120 in gas last year but there is another $120 a year in connection costs. I try to justify that this fee is not really energy cost... In the country - orient your windows right. 1 inch foam (my biggest regret) on the walls and basic infiltration work (foaming windows and doors etc). I'm guessing no NG, so at least Seer 15 heat pumps. Get a geo quote but they are hard to justify generally. Use shade trees on those E/W walls (and south walls too as long as they are deciduous and not oaks or something that keeps leaves too long). Water? What is the motivation here? You should have a well? That is nature's best water reclaiming system. I priced a rain catchment and it was absurd. A well would have been cheaper and I am on city water. Code makes graywater difficult (although I don't know exactly which jurisdiction you are in). But generally NC is not Arizona so the benefits are minimal and jurisdictions have no need to be flexible. Shade/orient windows well/foam sheath/seer 15 - and you should have no problem getting below $1000 a year in HVAC costs. Lezarc - you must not drive much! Average car, average driving = $2000 a year - all carbon, mostly foreign (my house, mostly US uranium). Sure apples and oranges but perspective. You may not design cars but you decide what to buy....just tweaking you.

Here's the list David Austin roses' year of introduction. The patent expires 20 years after the year listed below: 1963 : Constance Spry 1967 : Chianti 1968 : Shropshire Lass, Scintillation 1969 : Wife of Bath, Canterbury, Dame Prudence, The Friar, The Knight, The Prioress, The Yeoman 1970 : Chaucer, The Miller 1973 : Charles Austin, Lilian Austin, Red Coat 1974 : Glastonbury 1977 : The Squire 1979 : The Countryman, The Reeve 1982 : Admired Miranda, Charmian, Fair Bianca, Hero, Leander, Prospero, Proud Titania, Wise Portia 1983 : Graham Thomas, Mary Rose, Cressida, Cymbaline, Jaquenetta, Lordly Oberon, Lucetta, Moonbeam, Perdita, Pretty Jessica, Sir Clough, Tamora, Troilus 1984 : Belle Story, Bredon, Dove, Ellen, Heritage, Hilda Murrell, Mary Webb, Wenlock, Windrush 1985 : Abraham Darby, Emanuel, Mountain Snow, Sir Walter Raleigh 1986 : Symphony, Claire Rose, English Garden, Gertrude Jekyll, Othello, Robbie Burns, Warwick Castle, Wild Flower 1987 : Doctor Jackson, Fisherman's Friend, St. Cecelia, Swan, The Nun, William Shakespeare 1988 : Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Financial Times Centenary, Francine Austin, Leonard Dudley Braithwaite, Potter and Moore, Queen Nefertiti, Snowdon, Winchester Cathedral. 1989 : Sharifa Asma, Sweet Juliet, Bibi Maizoon 1990 : Jayne Austin, Ambridge Rose, Brother Cadfael, Kathryn Morley, Lilac Rose, Peach Blossom, The Prince 1991 : Bow Bells, Evelyn, Cottage Rose, Country Living, The Dark Lady, The Pilgrim 1992 : Sir Edward Elgar, Emily, Glamis Castle, Golden Celebration, Immortal Juno, Redouté , The Alexandra Rose, Tradescant 1993 : Happy Child, Mrs. Doreen Pike, Radio Times, St. Swithun, Proud Bride 1994 : Charlotte, Eglantyne, John Clare, Molineux, The Herbalist 1995 : Pat Austin, Noble Anthony, Jude the Obscure, Pegasus, English Elegance, Heavenly Rosalind 1996 : Morning mist 1997 : Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Sophy's Rose, Scepter'd Isle, Ann, Trevor Griffith, Barbara Austin, Charity, Geoff Hamilton, Mayor Of Casterbridge, Heather Austin, Mistress Quickly, A Shropshire Lad, Snow Goose, Marinette, Rushing Stream, Windflower 1998 : Buttercup, Dr. Herbert Gray, Mary Magdalene, William Morris, Teasing Georgia 1999 : Falstaff, Anne Boleyn, Blythe Spirit, Portmeiron 2000 : Crocus Rose (Syn Emanuel) , William Shakespeare 2000, Crown Princess Margareta, Cordelia, Miss Alice, James Galway, Malvern Hills, Ludlow Castle (syn. England's Rose) 2001 : Benjamin Britten, Alnwick Castle, Charles Darwin, Comtes des Champagne, Corvedale, Grace, The Mayflower 2002 : Christopher Marlowe, Jubilee Celebration, Lochinvar, Mortimer Sackler, Spirit of Freedom, The Generous Gardener 2003 : Janet, Rose-Marie, Scarborough Fair, Wildeve 2004 : Queen of Sweden, Harlow Carr, Rose of Picardy, Rosemoor, Hyde Hall, St. Alban, Wisley, The Ingenious Mr.Fairchild, Carding Mill 2005 : Wild Edric, Summer Song, Gentle Hermione, Darcey Bussell, Lady Emma Hamilton, The Endeavour 2006 : Sister Elizabeth, Strawberry Hill, Tea Clipper, Lichfield Angel, Windermere 2007 : Skylark, Port Sunlight, Munstead Wood, Claire Austin, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Bishop's Castle, The Shepardess, Alan Titchmarch, Lady of Megginch 2008 : Sir John Betjeman, Wisley 2008, Young Lycidas 2009 : The Wedgewood Rose, Kew Gardens, Lady of Shalott, Tam O'Shanter 2010 : Maid Marion, Cariad, Englands Rose, Princess Anne, Susan Williams-Ellis, The Lady's Blush 2011 : Fighting Temeraire, Lady Salisbury, William and Katherine, Queen Anne, Wollerton Old Hall 2012 : Heathcliff, Tranquillity, Boscobel, Royal Jubilee, The Lark Ascending 2013 : Carolyn Knight, The Albrighton Rambler, The Lady Gardener, Thomas`a Becket 2014 : Olivia Rose Austin, The Lady of the Lake, The Poet's Wife 2015 : Desdemona, Sir Walter Scott, The Ancient Mariner 2016 : Bathsheba, Imogen, Roald Dahl 2017 : James L. Austin, Dame Judi Dench, Vanessa Bell 2018 : Emily Bronte, The Mill on the Floss, Tottering-on-Gently 2019 : Eustacia Vue, Gabriel Oak 2020: Silas Marner, The Country Parson 2021: Nye Bevan