I was surprised to see this post reappear, since I'd forgotten about it, so I thought I'd give a short update on my Ebb Tide compared to my TZ in the intervening years. I have three ETs and one TZ, and I like all of them, though they're not perfect. Two ETs have gotten fairly large for that rose and one is a lot smaller, due to a more shaded growing spot. Beyond that they are quite alike. All still have awkward growth habits and all fade terribly in the heat and sun. My TZ has changed some by getting quite a bit larger, which pleases me. It's a good size. And it is blooming more. It still doesn't fade much, and still doesn't smell as good as ET. These roses all still have a place in my garden--not perfect, but have stood the test of time. Here are a few pics taken through the years.Ebb Tide, June 2013, showing fading, along with a few dark blooms. This plant is much larger now.Twilight Zone, 2013, very small plant, very dark purple. A giant Julia child towers to the left of TZ.TZ 2013 close up. Very dark.Ebb Tide 2014 featuring different shades of darkness.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope all your colds are done quickly. Does anyone have an interest in herbs and other alternative medicine or should I just bite my health nut tongue? I hate to see anyone suffer and am always looking for a way to help shorten their agony. I see the same weird number and symbols as you GB, on only you and Michelle. I read about this before, and people had to go in and correct their information. The was some glitch in the GW programming. Correction from my last post: Oops Make that Reveillon. My plan for the garden this year is to add more evergreen shrubs out front and more vegetable gardens out back. I can't expand out back as much as I wanted, as I need room for the dogs I board, for exercise. So I might have to join you Michelle and plant among the flowers. I do like the look enough so the idea appeals. It's cold and clear here. -1c. Not as bad as GB but it feels cold. Whenever it clears up in winter the temp drops and my skin goes nuts. It dries right up, and I get a huge painful coldsore or 10. Yuk. I'm allergic to the stuff in moisturizers, but have recently discovered that if I apply a mixture vitamin e and vitamin a oils, my skin stays uncracked and coldsore free, hurrah. Hope those struggling with weather are okay, too. I too miss the absent Idyllers. And their pet stories and gardens. I hope Cynthia's dog is okay, and will recover quickly. I too miss Deanne's bird pics, as well. Saucy sounds like you're having a good time in California. That's where the owners of Sophie, the dog I boarded till the 28th, went. Sophie was a sweet girl. She had the energy of a border collie on our walks, and is making Leah pick up her pace. Thanks for the photos. My oldest sister has a sailboat. She and her DH live in Texas, so don't sail as much as they'd like. They finally bought property on Orcas Island so they'll be able to sail lots when they retire. My daughter can plan circles around me. I always get lost and confused by maps. I really need to get out more and learn some basic navigation skills. Mary glad you're having fun with your Mum. It's great that she can visit from such a long way away. Scrabble is my favourite game, but nobody wants to play with me here anymore. :( Chelone, thank you for the info on how fire for heat works nowadays. I love when your explain stuff. It is so great that you have answered my many questions about fire as a working alternative to other heat sources. I love that the smoke from the fire is actually burned, as well. So cool. Or so hot. Well both to me. I have two questions now. Can the wood be dried out by the fire to be more quickly cured? Do you and is it adviseable to cook on the fire stove? I sympathise with you, being 'on deck', now. It really is the 'middle class' burden to bear of life. We are without 'elders' as well, and are helping the youngens achieve their schooling goals. I too have great fears about being without the many things money buys. Including money for medical emergencies. I have struggled with this for years. Now that I have found a way to manage my migraines I at least can entertain the thought that I might be able to write and bead necklaces to sell and walk dogs and ? to keep a roof overhead and food in the belly, on top of the other expenses. Medical expenses seems to be the biggest challenge. I hope to work on renting rooms here for people traveling with pets, perhaps, and to continue earning money outside of the traditional ways, even if I do have to get a real job, as I won't ever retire me. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't. Too bad I can't invent the next suduko or other great invention. Of course you never know. I'll keep trying to find one. I wonder if everyone has one great invention in them, like everyone might have at least one book in them. Women Inventors http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/women.shtml V hope you won the fight with the cold finally. Cool photo. Love the misty sun. Love the story about your cousin. It goes to show that it pays to write to people still, and it pays to say thank you. Cyn, sometimes I feel 29 and sometimes I feel 79. I'm actually 53. I read a report where they studied Harvard men, High IQ women and Low income men to see who lived longest and felt the best. I'm always looking outside myself to feel better and sometimes that works. But according to the study, a good attitude and being adaptable are more important. Those are internally driven traits. I don't know if I can ever call myself adaptable. That takes practice. Cute reindeer. Glad your DH is getting back to himself. At least he's on the right track. Harvard Medical School Study: Aging Well http://www.drrubin.com/general-health/aging-well-harvard-study/ Vaillant found six predictors of who at age 80 would be among the "happy-well" as opposed to the "sad-sick": a stable marriage, a mature adaptive style, no smoking, little use of alcohol, regular exercise, and maintenance of normal weight. To age well physically, the single most important choice was to avoid heavy smoking before age 50, or to quit at a young age... A simple lesson from the Grant Study is to worry less about cholesterol and more about gratitude and forgiveness."' Let's see I have a fairly 'stable marriage', sort of 'a mature' but not I think a very 'adaptive style,. I'll have to work on not being thrown into a tailspin when things go wrong. I don't smoke, can't drink alcohol, even though I have a sip every so often. I have fairly regular exercise, and am overweight. What's my score? Michelle thanks for the pretty poppy pic. I love it with the green purple and lavender backdrop. I'm sorry you didn't have all your family there for Christmas, especially Kenzie, who is so grown since I was last here regularly. My DS and DD and DSIL were here this year, but all three nephews who have lived with us for 6 years on and off were not. We had more leftovers than I knew what to do with, and too many empty spots at the table. Six kids, that's almost a baseball team. I hope they stayed somewhat in control, and everyone had fun. I've had a houseful of screaming girls and it can be quite ear piercing. Ei I have to think before spelling many things. I like to think it is a sign of the amount of info we store. The less used things get shoved off the shelf to make room for the new and 'shiny' info. I love the evergreen gardens. I found this pic and would love the look. I love my perennials but hate having nothing in the winter. http://gardensofricecreek.com/images/a004-corrected-large.jpg I'm hoping there's a solution to your work dilemma. I feel badly that you have to go to an 'awfice', at all. I'm hoping some day you can graduate to an office. Drema, au contraire, mon amie, I'm the lucky one. I disappear and when I reappear am welcomed back, with open arms. You at least know what side your Idylls are buttered on. I am trying to stay warm, but without the heat on it's a bit of a challenge. It's by choice, though. I'm trying to cut way down on expenses. I'm bundling up well. I need a houseful of boarding dogs. I have recently semi reunited with my sisters. I am emailing with the sister whom I have not spoken to for years. I don't know where it will go, but I'm hoping there will be some connection, especially for my son's sake, who lives at home still and has had debilitating, life crippling migraines since he was 12. There was no help for him before, but just as with me, we've finally found the right combo. What I'm trying to say is that my estrangement from my side of the family and the lack of closeness from Richea's side of the family has left my son without close family, or, due to illness and crippling shyness, no friends. I think he could handle therapy now. Hopefully we will be able to afford it soon. Kathy I love 'antiquing'. Did you find anything? I really want to see the new Harry Potter movie, but I guess it will have to be on the little screen. It was wonderful to read all about the different food and the different traditions. We eat turkey for the Canadian side of the family, pickled herring and pickled red cabbage for the Danish side of the family, and cabbage rolls, for the Ukrainian side of the family. Too bad I can't drink or I'd add Irish coffee for the Irish side of the family. My mixed heritage side of the family doesn't look even Danish. We're small and dark haired, for the most part. The Danish comes out every so often, but the dark hair and small stature is more common. We do not look like vikings. Except for my son, who is 6' tall and blonde. Go figure. Genetics are wonderful things. Manual Egg Beater http://www.kitchenniche.ca/egg-beater-p-1316.html GB I hope your DH feeling better today. I've linked a manual egg beater. Of course Chelone's offer is the best kind. Jak sorry to say I tried everything with my own non athletic son, and nothing took. I hope you have better luck. I often wished that there was an interactive video game, where he had to stand and move to play, so that at least he would be moving around. Not ideal but it would have been some activity. Now they do have that, but he's not interested at all. :( I'm looking to make a new dog bed for Leah. Sophie my boarding border collie came with her own bed and Leah kept trying to sneak onto it. Leah has the round kind, and Sophie has the rectangular kind. I can see that Sophie's bed has a better fill and it is slightly bigger, and Leah needs a slightly bigger bed. I've linked a page of the ones that I might copy. I have cotton and foam, so I just need to decide which style to use. I love the one that envelopes the dog. I want that for myself. Like sleeping in a cloud, lol. Dog Bed Design Selection Guide http://www.drsfostersmith.com/dog-supplies/dog-beds/ps/c/3307/1?count=78&s=ts Dog beds http://dogtime.com/dog-beds.html Ten Kinds of Dog Beds http://dogs.about.com/od/toyssupplies/tp/dogbeds.htm More stuff about being as hydro and gas free as possible. Totally Solar-Heated House - Version 1 http://mb-soft.com/solar/ The linked one is my fantasy. Now all I have to do is buy some land and dig down 18'and build a house on top, if I want this. Hope everyone has a wonderful doy tomorrow. I'm headed out for dim sum, at 10:30. A little early after a late night. Yeona Here is a link that might be useful: Heat and Cool a House without a Furnace or Air Conditioner!

Had a nice long post going and the computer locked up! LOL Oh well, I'll try to remember the highlights. First a mythbuster: Tide (together with Gain, ERA, Cheer, Dreft, etc) are made by Procter & Gamble and P&G make *no* store brands or generics of anything for anybody. Huish makes a lot of the store & generic type brands, including Kirkland, Great Value, Sun and they now own the Wisk name too, IIRC. Is it better? That's subjective and depends on what you're doing. In most all objective cleaning tests, any detergent with enzymes will clean better on dirty and stained clothes. If your clothes don't get very dirty, you may not see the benefit. I see a big difference in using enzymes. I used to add them when I used Arm & Hammer, had to use them when I used Sun or other Huish products and when I figured out what it cost to add all the additives like Borax, oxy, dishwasher detergent (for enzymes), Calgon, etc, it cost more than Tide at full retail in the most expensive store. I got some coupons and coupled it with sales and wound up getting several bottles for the price of sales tax so this gave me a chance to compare. No comparison. I don't need all the additives anymore. I use the Free & Sensitive Skin (now replaced by Free & Gentle - name only I presume?) since I don't like clothes to stink. When they stink it's time to wash them. Gain worked well but I couldn't handle the smell and they don't have a dye/stench-free version. I used to use ERA a lot and liked it but the price went way up so I quit using it. I just tried a bottle that was on sale cheap and it works very well. If you don't get your clothes dirty, then any cheap detergent should serve your needs. However for me, since the surgery I have blood that gets on the clothes and there's times I haven't even treated them and with the Tide they come clean. I've also tried the Stain Release pouches. Was very skepical of them, but I have to say I think they make a difference. Some of the Sears detergents (made by Desoto BTW, not P&G) get good reviews, especially the one that has enzymes (getting the message? LOL) All objective testing rates Tide & Gain very highly. Yes they cost more, but often you don't have to use as much. With the cheaper ones, I did have to use more, plus the additives. I'm frugal, but I'm pragmatic. Spending on the additives has to be included in the cost of the detergent. And now, I don't do so much laundry that I'm overly concerned on the cost, even if it is a bit more, and I can say for me, it hasn't been cheaper. Same thing goes for dish detergent. I'll only buy Dawn & Joy. Tried the cheaper ones and they don't work, need more and are more effort. My time and energy are worth something and there too, I buy it cheaper most of the time so double benefit. Two brands I won't use - they just don't work well. Could use just water and be better off and that's Purex and Sun. I threw them out. Couldn't even give them away. Everyone I know tried them and didn't like them. Again, if your clothes don't get dirty, it may be ok for you. Even if I economized and didn't have the cleaning needs I have, I'd then go with ERA free. About $6-$8 for a 150 oz bottle. The inferior store brands aren't that cheap and ERA has enzymes. FWIW I sold Amway for a while and remember the schpiel! LOL They criticized all the top sellers. Not surprising they go after the #1 detergent! LOL I will say, I tried Tide 30 years ago and itched like crazy. Others I know had same issues. But no more. Even friends/relatives with skin conditions have no trouble with the "Free" version and some are even fine with the stench types. What I don't understand is not so much the powder issue but why do people need dyes and stench in everything? Can't you add some Kool Aid and skunk oil if you want it colored and stinky? Would be a lot less room required in the stores if they just had basic, unpolluted detergents and then a rack with dye & stench to add if you must have it.

I have a couple plants of this variety; great colour, but in my garden's tough conditions it's a slow grower; I had to dig it up and put it in a pot. My plan now is to grow it on in the pot until it gets big and mature enough to handle the lack of regular irrigation,intense summer heat, and generally poor soil. However I must add that, up until recently, I've concentrated most of my garden efforts on climbers and OGRs, so I'm not used to the cultivation of floribundas. I think they, as a group, might just need more indulgence than the other varieties I mentioned.