Christina - you're welcome. It does not grow like other tea roses I have - it does not flop around, but grows into a sturdy round bush, and then blooms forever. Anita - so happy to hear that Cass gave you a clone of my really old LV for the Cemetery - I will look for it the next time I am there. That makes two of the "old ancestor's roses" from our garden that are now in the Cemetery - this one and "Schmidt's Buff Giant" (aka Anna Olivier). It is nice to know that clones of my ancient bushes are there - I understand that sometimes roses have declined in commerce, and finding really old old bushes to make clones from is good? Jackie

GreenieBeanie, I tried the .Mac service and was actually very disappointed in it - but that is a completely personal observation here. On June 18th I instead registered the domain name http://www.myblogpix.com (aptly named) and use it for hosting all my blog pix on my blogs (I maintain three blogs at present). For $11.95 a month I have 2 Gig's of storage, 25 Gigs a month in transfer allocated, and can have up to 25 email addresses that will hold 2 Gigs each. It works for me. I love iPhoto too BTW. It has been my primary means of keeping my photos organized on my Mac. Since I moved to Louisiana on March 15th of this year I've taken over 2,200 photos! Yes, that's a lot, but I figure a digital camera is such a wonderful thing and years from now the photos will still be in pristine condition - no fading, cracking or crumbling. And of course - I make regular backups to DVD to insure I never have to worry about losing my precious photo collection. A few days ago I started writing a Mac Software blog. I plan to add a brief review and link regularly to some kind of useful Mac application I run across. While some may be commercial (shareware) I am planning to try and cover only freeware applications as a rule of thumb. I'm finding my passion for gardening and my passion for computing work so well together it's as though that's how it all was meant to be from the get-go. I am Borg. You will be assimilated... Here is a link that might be useful: My New Mac Software Blog

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I just learned about a company that makes a product for staining brick that I thought you might like to know about. The company is called Masonry Cosmetics and you can buy a DIY kit for just $119 that looks like it is enough to do the front of your home. The guy emphasizes it's not a paint, so you're not going to experience any cracking or fading or peeling like you could if you whitewashed or painted the brick. What got my notice is you can lighten the brick, not just darken it! Click on their name for some before and afters. It still looks like brick - not painted brick. All the natural variations in the brick are still there! Also, to answer your question above - if your windows or wooden, they can be painted. Many houses have vinyl windows that cannot be painted - those are typically white or cream.

Nice home. You could add a weathervane to your roof without changing the roofline itself. [https://www.houzz.com/products/smithsonian-eagle-weathervane-polished-copper-prvw-vr~54912933?m_refid=PLA_HZ_54912933[(https://www.houzz.com/products/smithsonian-eagle-weathervane-polished-copper-prvw-vr~54912933?m_refid=PLA_HZ_54912933&device=c&nw=g&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3LGb9pr82gIVkFYNCh1dpQnjEAYYByABEgJmnfD_BwE) Wouldn't paint brick -- it would defeat the low maintenance purpose of brick. Anything that is painted will, inevitably, need to be repainted and can look really awful as it gets that way. You could add a forward facing gable centered over the front entry. Unless you make the roof steep, you could do this below the upstairs window. Keep the ridge of the gable no higher than the downstairs gable. Use this new roof to extend the existing porch forward several feet at the entry to visually make that part of the house the focus of the front of the house. You could use large wood posts with a natural wood finish to support the front of this gable and also change out the metal front porch posts for the same kind of posts. [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/suggestions-on-curb-appeal-garage-or-carport-dsvw-vd~896858[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/suggestions-on-curb-appeal-garage-or-carport-dsvw-vd~896858) http://arealive.co/rustic-front-porch/rustic-front-porch-front-porch-designs-front-porch-ideas-exteriors-porch-designs-front-porches-and-porch-rustic-front-porch-bench/ With this change you could change the style of your home to one that is more rustic. If you use formal round columns and/or add either rock or brick to the bottom of your posts, you could create an entirely different look for your home and redefine the style to be your own.