Glo - Thanks for reassuring me! I hope your move is awesome! My husband has wanted to move us to Colorado for years and hasn't managed to quite convince me yet, although I think it's absolutely wonderful there. LOL So, Winter Solstice is the same everywhere? (LOL)... I guess you're seeing how little I know... Nancy - Thanks for the tip! I am gonna have to watch the lead hand myself as I way oversowed my cantaloupes this fall. The poor babies are fighting each other and giving me 2 to 5 inches fruits that don't look like they're EVER going to full ripen. I will be much more careful in the future. I'll try to not get TOO excited when I go to plant. LOL Carrie - Wow! That's some really good info. That's exactly the kind of thing I was worried about. I'm grateful for the heads up. Liz - LIZ!!! Hey, girl! Fancy meeting you here and there and now here! hee hee... The whole last paragraph of what you wrote is exactly what is concerning me. I know that I personally wear shorts through-out almost the whole winter except for those few crazy days that we see. 50's or what have you is not cold to me... We do get the occasional freeze, but then a week or two later at most you could have a 70+ degree high! All this in the same few days / weeks / months... it's SO crazy! Oh, and if they're having a plantswap around the 8th of December as well, I sure want to know as I'll be out that way. :-) Blessings, Angela

All need spraying with fungicides here to keep leaves. QE is a classic that should be in all gardens if you can stand a big bush and you're willing to tolerate spots. Eden is a once bloomer and gone. Mary Rose is a nicely floriferous shrub, but spots like any modern HT without fungicide. Abe Darby is beautiful, wonderfully scented, and BIG. He also needs spraying.

Would you like to try a couple of different arrangements? One is to put the big chair back where it was, then place the two recliners together at the end of the room. Put the end tables on either side of the sofa like you had them. Then find a table to put between the two recliners. You can try them angled toward each other a bit or just have them lined up straight at a 90 with the sofa. Between the fireplace next to the recliner, I would probably have a big basket with magazines, or throws and pillows. A tall plant in the corner by the window would be great. Second, take the big chair out of the equation and place the recliners across from the sofa on either side of the fireplace. I would put them on a 45ish degree facing inward. Each should have a small table to use for drinks/lamp/whatever you'd like to put there. This will leave the end wall completely open, but I think it will be easier to imagine different pieces of furniture/art there. Definitely get your furniture placed in a way that makes you think "ahhhh, this is perfect". THEN we can worry about the art and accessories. I was surprised to see two recliners. Didn't you only have one before?

Wow. You guys are great! Thank you all so much for the kind words and encouragement. It helps a lot. And I see I'm not the only one in this boat! I do know that things will get better, and I can always plant new roses, etc. But it's just the loss of the rare roses that pisses me off. Why couldn't it be the more common ones that are easily replaced? Of course that's not the way it goes, altho there were a few of those too! And it's my fault for planting the tiny own-root bands in this crappy soil of ours before they've grown to a decent size. And it's my fault for not keeping on top of the sprinklers to be sure they are covering the entire beds, and my fault for not getting the most invasive weeds and underplantings pulled out when they were smaller. But... that's because I've been so busy, and overly obsessed and buying waaaay too many roses. I'm not growing and cultivating them, I'm collecting them. That's what I do. I collect things. It's sad. It's a sickness I guess. I know that in the coming seasons I will get all the beds done. And Bluegirl, yes I am doing what you said. I plant a rose, or weed part of a bed. In this heat, that's all I can do. It's slow going, but it's nice when I do get something done. Right now tho, I also am now dealing with the death of my 98yr old mom. We've been expecting it for sometime, but it's kind of surreal now that it has finally happened. My brother just flew out from Upstate NY and my sister is coming up from SoCal, so we will be dealing with all the estate and stuff over the next two weeks. I'm not going to get much done in the yard for awhile, except watering. Which is ok, since it's been too darn hot to work out there. By then it will be cooler and easier to do stuff outside. The only drawback now is the days are getting shorter, so I won't have as much daylight to get things done. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done. LOL My life will be so different now. I'll have more time and less stress. Not that Mom was stressful. It was my niece who is my partner in the shop, and who lived with her. She's got mental issues and was a nightmare to deal with regarding Mom. Our lives revolved around her needs and wants, and my younger son and I had to go stay with Mom whenever she wanted to have time off. Now I have freedom, and so does Mom! She was trapped in her bed in a body that didn't work and a mind that was basically gone. I will miss her, but I will not miss the ordeals we went thru with my niece. And I will think of Mom when I'm out there working in the garden. Being out there will help me get over her passing. Judith, your chickens sound wonderful. We only have room for a few. (In fact we're not supposed to have more than 2... which is totally ludicrous... why bother?) Anyway.... we built a decent little shack for the girls and have a run that's 8'x24', but we're going to add another 10-12' in length and use our old satellite dish to put over part of it. It's going to be a fun and funky set-up for them. And next yr... I want some of those Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and Brahmas. Can't wait! Oh and I also am using weed barrier under some of my potted roses. Saves on weeds that's for sure. Altho they still get in the pots. But now I am sort of cultivating some weeds. Those are the goodies for the chickens! They love it when I bring them their "greens!"