Berkeley Horticulture, near San Francisco, had an odd rose assortment this year. Hundreds of H.T.s and Floribundas and Shrubs, the usual suspects that they sell, in addition to a few roses that I went to at once, and ignored most of the moderns: R. banksia lutea, Mutabilis, R. glauca. "Mlle Cecille Brunner" which were marked down to $15 each, and I bought two for the price of one. They had dozens of cultivars of Austins, (Austin roses have lots of advertising) but I wasn't looking for Austin roses. c. 50 miles from me, Regans in Fremont California used to sell a few Old Garden Roses but these were hidden in the back of the nursery, 50 yards away from the rows of rosebushes for sale, and I asked why they had them put so far away I was told "No one buys them" - gee, I wonder why? There were no signs posted that even hinted that an old garden rose might be on the property and I had to ask, and be shown where they were hidden away. I bought a "Mme. Alfred Carriere" Rugosas, and a "Paul Neyron" beside a "Felicite Parm." If I'd been a newbie and bought Paul Neyron and F.P." I would have wondered why the Felicite Parm. never re-bloomed Luxrosa

Oh yes, many times. And I imagine this post is going to be long...... After my mom passed away I moved into my dad's house to keep him company (long before I married). Due to my mom's illness they had separate bedrooms. One night I was asleep in my mom's bed and something woke me up. My mom was standing at the end of the bed wearing what she had always called her white Mexican wedding dress. She smiled at me and told me that "everything would be alright", and then she was gone. We had given that dress to one of her good friends several weeks before who had always loved it. Many years later I had returned to work after a 3-month medical leave of absence. A couple hours after starting work I was standing by my office door and all of a sudden my legs went out from under me and I fell on the floor. I couldn't get up, my whole body was weak and like jello. I had such a horrible sense of emptiness. About 20 minutes later one my assistants paged me and told me that my step-mom had called and said that my dad had just passed away. She told me later that she lost it when she called and couldn't talk so just told my assistant about my dad. I felt so badly for that girl having to deliver the news to me. To this day I know exactly when my dad passed away because I felt him passing. That was over 21 years ago. I always knew that my dad was near me, always. I could often smell his pipe tobacco, which was a special blend and very distinctive. Sometimes when I needed it, sometimes for no reason, and I felt that other times were 'just because'. When my husband's dad passed away my DH told me that he could smell my dad's pipe tobacco for several days after (but I didn't) . When we moved to this home, in another state, nine months ago, I kept thinking that my dad wouldn't know where I was. Sure 'nuff, about a month after our move there was his distinctive pipe tobacco smell, altho it was only that one time. I grieved horribly for my dad until one night. I had a dream that he was driving his motorhome, my step-mom was in the passenger seat and I was kneeling between them. We were going down a tree lined street and could see police cars on a parallel street with lights and sirens, hundreds of them. We knew they were looking for us. My dad said he couldn't figure out why they would be after us. I told my dad that it was because no one was driving the RV. He said, "what do you mean? I'm driving!". I told him no, that he was dead and to the police it looked like there were two women in a speeding motorhome with no one driving it. We all busted out laughing and kept laughing. I woke up laughing, with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard (it woke my husband up too), and that was when I knew he was telling me he was OK. Now to the more paranormal part.....my husband and I lived in a home for 18 years. We were always seeing something dark out of the corner of our eyes but when we looked it moved away. When one evening I mentioned it to my husband he gave me a funny look and said that he's been seeing the same thing too. It was a male figure all in black, with a black coat, sometimes with a hat, sometimes not, that alway stood at the end of our hallway waiting for us to notice, then he would turn and walk down the hall. Even one of our neighbors saw it once. One of our dogs, a German Shepherd, would talk to it, at least that's what we like to think. When she started 'talking' we knew he was around but just couldn't see him. She often would wake us up in the middle of the night with her talking and tail thunking against something. It was like she would be listening, then answer, then talk more. Our other dog would cock her head and wag her tail while staring at something but didn't 'talk'. It really was kinda neat. We lost our 'talking' dog right before we moved from that house and my husband swore he could feel her head under his hand when he was watching TV for a long time after. I only had one freaky experience while living in that house. I was taking a shower one night and the bathroom light got really dim and it got really cold, even tho I was taking a hot shower. It was if someone had stood up on the toilet next to the shower, between the wall light and the shower, and was looking over the shower curtain bar, at least that's the feeling I got. Only lasted a few seconds then it was gone. Never happened again. When we had to move (due to my husband's job transfer) to another city we often wondered if we should have told the new owners that the house had a friendly ghost living there. :) We lived at our last home for almost 10 years and only had one experience a couple years after moving in. I was sitting in my home office facing the hallway door and saw a medium sized white dog trotting down the hallway. Our other dog was also a large GS and lab mix with no white in her coat. We didn't have a white dog and I knew I hadn't left an outside door open. Two days later we lost our remaining dog unexpectantly. About six months later we got another GS mix dog and to the day we moved, last year, I was always afraid that I would see that white dog again. This is fun to see what experiences others have had. Jenna

I think they pretty much always have a sale going on. Their website has a Clearance section, listing many items. I just wish they issued coupons occasionally that were good for the regularly-priced merchandise. Here is a link that might be useful: Country Curtains Clearance

Ok, three of my favorite voices around here--Palimpsest, Ideefixe and Oakleyok--have pretty well covered all the bases, but just to recap... The three biggest causes of Decorating Remorse--other than watching TV decorating shows & wishing you had done something other than what you already did, I mean--are Being in too big a hurry & buying something just to have something (rather than have nothing), Worrying about inconsequential stylistic labels & categories, and Buying brand new pieces. I did without a sofa for five years rather than buy something merely to be have something to sit on, I don't worry about what style supposedly goes with what, and I never buy anything new. Well, almost never. The most expensive thing in my house is an early 19th century sofa, for which I forked over 850 of my hard-earned dollars, and the two-months-long diet of peanut-butter sandwiches that paid for it was worth every bite. The second-most-expensive thing I ever bought was also the only thing I've ever bought new: a gigantic 3-piece arched mirror set out of a popular catalog that looked very handsome in the photo but which turned out to be a piece--well, three pieces--of junk, which I should have predicted, since, Hello!, it was in a popular catalog. All I can say is I must have been on Nyquil that day. Anyway, I seldom make mistakes, but when I do, I don't brood & beat myself up over them, so I hauled them down to the service entrance lobby of my building and in a few hours, they were gone. The sofa I'll have forever.