Just keeping everyone updated - Vintage sent out the roses that are still left after the first rush and that's posted below. Among these, I see an additional recommendation for The Prince's Trust that I got from Vintage a few years ago, and it's a red climber that very enthusiastically wants to grow. It was probably the biggest band plant I've ever seen at nearly 4 feet long, and it put on another 5-6 feet in its first year. It's a very healthy happy climber in my zone 5. Cynthia Remaining list as of March 6: Ch "Ferndale Red China" 1 ChCl Setina 1 E Jeannie Deans 1 Fl Centenaire de Lourdes 1 Fl Europeana 1 Fl Fire and Ice 14 Fl Fred Loads 1 Fl Holstein 1 Fl Impatient VID 1 Fl Jazz Fest VID 1 0 Fl Kirsten Poulsen 3 Fl Lili Marlène 1 Fl Lipstick 1 Fl Orange Garnet VID 2 Fl Playboy 1 Fl Showbiz VID 2 FlCl Heidelberg 9 1 HB "California Malton" 1 HM Heinrich Conrad Soth 1 HM Verdi 2 HP Dr. Masaryk 4* HP François Arago 5* HP Marguerite Guillard (Loubert) 8* HP Mme. de Staël 15* HP Paul's Single White Perpetual 3* HP Rose de Bouffarik 2* HP Silver Queen 1* HP "Souvenir de Mme. Berthier" 5* HT Blithe Spirit 1 HT Broadway 1 HT Chivalry 3 HT Die Welt 2 HT Ellen Willmott 1 HT Frances Ashton 1 HT Harry Wheatcroft 1 HT Kalahari 3 HT Love VID 1 HT Macho Man 1 HT Maria Callas VID 1 HT Movie Star 1 HT Peach Beauty VID 1 HT Slava 2 HT Tropicana VID 1 HTCl Amy Johnson 1 HTCl General MacArthur, Climbing 1 HTCl Queen Elizabeth, Climbing VID 8 HTCl Reine Olga de Wurtemburg 9 LCl Casa Blanca 2 LCl Coral Dawn 1 LCl Crimson Cascade 1 LCl Doubloons VID 1 LCl Dr. Covell's Carrotrooted Understock 2 LCl Eden 6 LCl Étendard 1 0 LCl Gold Rush VID 2 LCl Golden Threshold 3 LCl High Noon 1 LCl JACclam (aka America™) 1 LCl Joseph's Coat VI 1 1 LCl Lawrence Johnston 4 LCl Leverkusen 3 LCl Olive 5 LCl Pelé 4 LCl Rosendorf Schmitshausen 1 LCl Salita 8 LCl Sympathie 2 LCl Tempo VID 1 LCl The Prince's Trust 1 LCl White Cocade 2 LCl William Baffin 1 2 M "Joséphine de Beauharnais" 15* Min Magic Carrousel VID 1 Min Oakington Ruby 1 N "Lingo Musk" 1 N Narrow Water 1 Pol Ave Maria 5* Pol Mme. Taft 2 4* Pol Petite Marcelle 24* Pol Rösel Dach 16* PolCl Rose de Montplaisir 4* R America 3 R Baby Shower 4 R Chevy Chase 5 R Cooper's Burmese 4 R Dr. Huey VID 4 R Harry Maasz 1 R "Mystery Muse" 3 R Not Cherub 4 R Purity 7 1 R Ramona 3 R Roserie 2 R Wartburg 1 R Windermere 3 S Ferdy 10 S Hamburger Phoenix 7 S Illusion 1 S Romanze 1 S Rosy Cushion 4 3 S Salmon Wings 7* S Sandrine David 2* S Yellow Butterfly 3 S/AUS John Clare 6 S/Aus Red Coat 1 *Starred items are French Imports priced at $30 each

Even our lawyer IS concerned about their death and infirmity contingency. In all his years as an estate and realty lawyer, he said he has NEVER seen that kind of contingency. Especially their infirmity contingency. He wanted it defined. It was defined by their lawyer mostly as a loss of the ability to make a decision. So NO, I am not heartless when I pray for them to live and be healthy up until our closing. I only wish them to last until I sell them my home.... I wish to close without having to worry about putting my home back on the market once again!! I don't think I could bear going back on the market again if anything happened to this sale. These people may be paying cash for the sale of our home, but they only put down 1k as a good faith gesture to purchase. Paying cash for full amount.. with only 1K in cash as a deposit could mean they could walk at any time until closing! They would not be out much if they did so. However, I doubt that they will do that, but you never know. Still I will not really RELAX until we officially close a month from now. Rental agreement is now in place, they didn't budge much on their rental price but we don't want to rock the sale of our house at this point. They only made the offer to buy because they knew we could rent the house back to them. So they will be making a nice profit on us from renting it back to us for 3 months. And we are alright with that... considering we actually were better about giving them a good price for our home.. we didn't dicker as much as we could have. In the meantime, our house inspection turned up with no major problems (which I assumed would happen- but who knows if there is anything lurking beneath the surface) although we are still being tested for radon... which who knows what that will be??? Never had one in all the almost 30 years we have been here. Hopefully, we will pass that. The building inspector will be picking up the containers on Monday at noon and said he will be able to get the results before the time expires for us to go under full contract.

Oh boy here goes. Rude people, me me people. I hate going to the store and people blocking the isles so you have to turn around and completely go back the way you came because no matter how many times you say excuse me they ignore you and wont move. People who cut in front of you or push you out of the way because they are much more important than you are apparently. People now a days seem to have no respect for their fellow humans. It is all about me and what I want and get out of my way no matter how polite you try to be to them. I too prefer to help animals over people. I have tried and tried to help people. I will donate to battered and abused women's shelters or homeless shelters. I will provide clothes and food. But. I have found over and over people just don't want to be helped. You offer them jobs or ways to help themselves and the excuses I have heard as to why they wont/can't work the job offered is beyond belief. They refuse to work at McDonald's for minimum wage, they can't work this or that job because they have a bad back, leg. They want offered cushy desk jobs with high paying salaries because they are too good to take a job less than that even though they haven't went to school. They'd rather beg for help than help themselves and that irritates the you know what out of me. I have people that clearly have a disability, they could qualify for it. I sent them the information offered to help them every step of the way. They won't take the the time even do it. I have a friend who husband drinks a lot. She is the only one working. They struggle month to month, they call me for money. I used to be stupid and give it to them because they have 3 kids. He'd spend it on alcohol. I would send gift cards to people instead of giving them cash, they'd sell them. I have donated my time to homeless shelters, crisis centers and so on and so forth and the same thing. There are more people who would rather live on streets asking for hand outs rather than help themselves. Battered women who kept going back to their abusers. People who have drug issues they blame on things that happened to them when they grew up. I grew up like a lot of these people. I was physically, psychologically and sexually abused growing up. I understand what they are going through. They refuse to listen, they hold that self pity and use it to their advantage. On and On, I just gave up. Animals can't help themselves and most of them are there because people are irresponsible or don't care or are just plain cruel. I would much rather spend my time and my money on something that can't help themselves and are there because of people. And honestly I believe that a lot of those animals would help themselves if they could and they are so much more appreciative of the help that they receive than most of the people I've ever tried to help. I let little things roll off my back. I don't get upset about the shape of a plate or what people choose to wear, though the pj thing does kind of bother me because it really does take literally 2 minutes to throw on regular clothes. The roadside memorials are sad and people grieve in their own way and I too always try to acknowledge them as someone did lose a life and that makes me sad for them and their families. If people want to dress their animals and it makes them happy so be it. I love to see people who truly love their animals, it tells a lot about a person on how they treat other living creatures. I do not like to see non service animals in the stores though. Where I live it is common to see people put their dogs in the grocery cart and wheel them through the grocery store and I do not feel an animal in a food store or really any type of store is sanitary. I see them even at the high end stores at the mall. They put clothes in carts and the animal is laying on them and they decide to put them back because they decided they don't want the items and now someone with allergies could possibly end up trying on that item and have a severe reaction to the hair. I am another who didn't listen to voice messages left on my phone. I am hearing impaired and sometimes it was just difficult to understand or hear them. My service provider offers voicemail to text and that was the greatest thing for me. As someone else mentioned sometimes the messages come out interesting but you can get the gist of the message.

Nice home and yard -- far from a disaster. Would NOT paint the brick. You could paint your front door. Is there a deep bold red wine color that you like that you could use for your door and any storm door frame ... with or without adding a brass or stainless steel kick plate at the bottom. https://www.pinterest.com/carenpinette/front-door-color/ If you painted all the painted surfaces of your home -- gable end, porch, fascia -- a medium gray color chosen from within the brick, the contrast would not be as stark and, in my non-pro opinion, would be an improvement. While I'd not have chosen that roofing with those brick, I'd still NOT change the roof only for looks -- not worth the considerable expense to do so -- but do consider the colors in the brick when actually is time to change the roofing. In the meantime, it is possible to darken the shingles. https://www.hunker.com/13401213/how-to-change-a-shingle-color If you have all bronze window frames in good shape, keep them; however, if you have a mismatch, consider painting them all black. Since the walk path from driveway to front door is soggy, you clearly need to work on drainage. With the absence of a distinctive slope to the yard adjacent to the front of the house, that requires creating a path for the water to run off. Although a French Drain could work, it could also require more maintenance. Instead ... A wide shallow scoop that can be mowed without other maintenance may well be your best option. In your case, the scoop should be an "L" shape parallel to the front exterior wall of the house and turning to be parallel to the sidewalk leading directly away from the house. The scoop may be wider and more shallow or deeper and less shallow depending upon what works in your yard. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/435582595190669883/ You'll also need to make sure the water from your gutter downspouts is being moved farther away from the house before it is released into the yard. https://www.twofeetfirst.net/how-to-bury-a-gutter-downspout/ You can have the water released above ground or to the first solid pipe, you can attach a different pipe with holes in it into a buried ditch filled with gravel to disburse the water underground in the same way a drain field of a septic tank would. https://www.thenaturalhome.com/septic/ Another alternative that might work IF you have a drop off near the road: With a slope in your front yard, you might be able to create a very short knee wall about a dozen feet or from the front exterior wall of the house, above which would be your walk path -- paving stones with grass growing between them. https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=grass+and+paving+stone+walk+path&client=firefox-b-1-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTxtGI_7npAhVamHIEHYXGA64QsAR6BAgKEAE&biw=1324&bih=648#imgrc=nJStdELGb78dmM A very short one step high retaining wall would still enable the yard to drain down to the lower level. https://www.homedepot.com/c/ah/how-to-build-retaining-wall/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90d68eac94  To create a knee wall for yard drainage, you'd need to dig out the front yard between that knee wall and the road. Have the ground above the knee wall have a very slight slope from house to knee wall so the water will drain off that part of the path/yard to below the knee wall. Put grass above the knee wall with paving stones buried so their tops are ground level and move any shrubs between house and knee wall to below the knee wall. If you need a place to put the dirt you remove to create the lower level, building codes permitting, you could add a raised planting bed either in your yard -- less stooping for your gardening -- and/or create a raised planting bed along side the property line to create a green privacy wall/fence. If Aucuba bushes will grow in your planting zone, they'll keep their leaves and look good year round. If liriope will grow where you live, it makes a good plant outlining a sidewalk and/or driveway and/or parking area. Do know what utilities may be buried in your yard before digging. Consider adding a tree on the left sunny side of the house about halfway from the back of the property to the front -- one that will provide shade in the summer for a side yard patio but let the warmth of the sun come through during winter. Also, consider move the bird feeders a bit farther from the house and add a plain concrete bird bath, also visible from your front window and not far from the feeders. By doing this, you will have even more birds coming into your yard, perhaps even nesting in the trees. If you will add landscaping that includes plants with blooms that attract humming birds, you'll have those birds come by to be enjoyed as well.