Thanks Ronda, pretty rose! Ingrid, Thank you. I appreciate the kind words even though I am not here that much anymore :-). Kate, thank you. I hope the pugs are doing well and still dancing in their tutus. We miss our Beauregard terribly but we have two new rescues. Here are Harvey and Barney. Harvey is an older fella and Barney is a puppy who is a holy terror that likes to eat my roses. We love them. Carol, Happy Birthday to you a little early! Carolina

I was telling hubby about my sharing my latest 'escapee' on the forum here and he said, "Well, you know, when you said you had an escapee the ONLY thing I kept hoping was that you wouldn't say, 'The tarantula escaped.' Since it was just a caterpillar, it was no big deal." Yeah, ya see, last summer, I had OTHER critters escape...a few of my Madagascar Hissing Cockroach babies got out and it was one of those, "uh oh...I am REALLY in trouble now!" because I didn't NOTICE the escapees for, oh, about a month! I still keep hoping I don't spot one around here somewhere (although I really doubt I would but you just never know!). I mean, did I share how my little adorable Shih Tzu found a dead MOUSE the other day? Here I am, enjoying the afternoon in the backyard, reading under the umbrella and THINKING she was chewing on one of her chewies (she just brought it out) when next thing I know, DH says, "What the heck is THAT?!" and I said, "Oh, Cheli's been chewing on her chewie, does it look nasty now?" and he said, "Uh, I think it's something else, hon." Of course, Chelsea is UNDER my chair and refuses to come out. She had found some dead mouse, who knows where, and was apparently chewing on the leg or something. EEEUWWW! Good thing it was dead and dried out and flat and...although I freaked and called the vet immediately. (Found out the neighbor had put out rat poison three months ago but still I don't know where she found this thing)

It's VERY clean inside and out, completely empty except for nice wood blinds which are going with the house and the appliances (fridge, stove, washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, even the coffee maker), and freshly painted in neutrals. We have a lawn service maintain the outside since we no longer live in Durham and 2 friends check to make sure everything is OK (one lives across the street). Price is now $169,900, down from $174,900. I don't think that really changed anything for price shoppers, since we catch the $150-175 lookers with both prices. We don't want to drop so low in price that we can't afford to negotiate at all. We will most certainly have to offer some kind of closing assistance to any buyer, since there are still new houses being built in the area, although most of them are more expensive ($190+ range). So save the money for staging and lower the price is the consensus? Should we drop price now in the slow season or wait until there are more lookers in the spring so we can advertise New Lower Price? Of course, spring would also bring more competition. This is the first time we've had to sell a house. When we relocated from MD to NC, the relocation company bought our old house. We didn't have that luxury this time :( I just don't know the best way to go about getting the best price in the shortest amount of time, how to find that balance. If staging helps sell faster then I'd be willing to throw some money at the house rather than have it sit at the same price. OTOH, of course I don't want to waste any money. Since so many of the houses on the market in our area are still occupied or are new builds, they all have furniture, so maybe we are at a disadvantage by being empty. So many decisions...

I have Teas and Chinas here, too, but I've stopped worrying about them. Some of the ones planted in the ground get hit hard by Winter, but grow so much during Spring through Autumn that I treat them like Buddleias.* For example, "Bermuda Spice" was cut back to a few inches above the mulch line after its first Winter, then to about 12" above the mulch line after its second Winter. Both following growing seasons saw it reach about five feet in height and width. This Spring it kept a few longer lengths of cane, and is now about six feet tall and five feet wide. "Bermuda Spice" is in a rather unprotected site, but it gets virtually all-day sun. This, I think, allows for it to rebound easily. Some of my other Chinas/Teas are planted against a house facing south. In this rather protected area, most have far less Winter damage to anything other than the tips of growth that didn't ripen in time for Winter. In this respect, they have about as much Winter damage as do my Bourbons and Austins. I have 'Napoleon' planted in this area, and while it was hit hard its first Winter, it has been growing and growing since then. Right now, the longest canes leaning against the house are about a foot over my head -- I'm 5'11" tall. The main cane at the base has a diameter greater than a US $0.25 coin. I imagine I'll remove between two and three feet of length after Winter -- if not for damage, then to simply reduce lankiness. About half of my other Chinas/Teas I keep as pot-pets. Last Winter was their first, and they spent it in my enclosed-but-drafty back porch with windows. They sort of just "stopped" -- some dropped leaves but some didn't, and stayed that way until I brought them out in late March. The only growth I lost on any of them was due to not being watered enough, and that was replaced during the growing season. I'm coming to learn that the Chinas/Teas I have are not quite as averse to being "pruned" harshly by Winter as many seem to say -- so long as what gets cut back doesn't have more than one season's worth of growth invested in it, and so long as the growing season provides them with ample heat, sun, water, and soil nutrients for regrowth. Also, if you're thinking of trying them, I'd suggest getting them in Spring and babying them in pots for their first growing season. Then you could plant them in Autumn, putting them in the ground more deeply than other roses, buring a few inches of cane. Or you could overwinter them inside somewhere, making for bigger plants to go in the ground the following year. Admittedly, trying any of this family as climbers would be a pipe dream here -- RIP, 'Jaune Desprez' -- but they seem to be doing OK as sort of the rose equivalents of Buddleia bushes. *For those of you not familiar with what we do with Buddleia bushes here, they're traditionally cut back to between 12" and 24" in late Winter, then left to "go wild" through the growing season, being just fed and watered and dead-headed but otherwise left alone. :-) ~Christopher