Party at roses4ever's house! ; ) Now whatever happened to Steve Scanniello? Sure, he invites us to prune his roses on Easter weekend last year, of all weekends, and then disappears. I've noticed a phrase coined around some of these forums "the pot ghetto" - don't know when that started because I haven't been hopping around here but (getting to the point) I have what I will now call a "rose ghetto", lots of roses waiting to be trained, sprayed or something! Roses4ever, yours look great and might get me off my b*tt to do something about mine. Datdog, I think I might have posted this already but I did manage to find an escargot this year. Doesn't look anything like yours yet. Steve, have you noticed Phytolacca americana "Melody" at Seneca Hill?

The $64,000 question is which is better, a daphne odora with impeccable foliage and no flowers or one with tons of blooms and marginal foliage ? Of course, the $1,000,000 answer is one with both awesome foliage and loaded with blooms :-) Just a thought, perhaps your soil might be a bit too acidic with all that mulch. Someone told me a long time ago when I planted mine to ring the dripline with 5/8" minus gravel so that each time I watered it, it would leach a bit of lime into the root system. He showed me several on the low side of a gravel parking lot that were extremely healthy. Mine now have impeccable foliage, although I don't have the bloom you do, hence the above question and answer segment :-)

My favourite Books of 2011 - no particular order - 1) ""Get Me Out of Here" - Henry Sutton A dark -- very dark -- satire set in modern-day London.... Tells of a once-successful financial professional who's on the skids -- yet, still hankers for the luxuries and amenities so many of his ilk had during the '80s - early-2000s - until the global financial crash. 2) "Bleak House" - Charles Dickens My first reading of this classic. Like the above -- another tale of riches-to-rags -- for some characters, rags-to-riches. Teeming w/ delightful or creepy characters, high drama, ugly-beyond-belief slum scenes and human cruelty, enough neuroses to keep a psychiatric clinic busy for a decade (or more!), generosity of spirit, healthy lust for life, etc., etc. ... a rich cornucopia of humanity -- both wonderful and lousy. 3) "Left Early, Took My Dog" - Kate Atkinson Very "juicy" mystery involving a kidnapped spunky little girl and one of the most delightful female police detectives I've ever encountered. ... She reminded me of the actress Dawn French. 4) "King Solomon's Carpet" - Barbara Vine / Ruth Rendell One of the best books she's ever written ... even though I was annoyed w/ how meagre the explanation was at the end -- of a couple of the characters' outcomes. But, still, a fascinating ride -- in both senses! -- the story as well as the hair-raising subway ("Underground" in Brit speak) scenes. Some of the weirdest, most intriguing characters I've come across in a book in a long time! 5) "Bad Behavior" - Isabel Wolff A woman's storybook -- I call this genre -- some call it "Chick Lit", which turns me off. Anyway -- a lovely story about a young, single woman setting up a new veterinary practice in London. She has a very awful secret in her past. A war photojournalist comes into her life, and the secret if blown open. 6) "My Cousin Rachel" - Daphne du Maurier Several of us "chatted" about this in the August thread. I still think the dame did it! 7) "The Private Patient" - P.D. James A professional investigative TV journalist goes to a posh country clinic to have an old scar removed from her face. But much more than that happens to her. Really intriguing who-done-it... although I felt that bringing Dalgleish's personal life into the story interrupted the flow. That's it. This year think I'll read more non-fiction. After going over the lists of all the books I read - 2011 - I noticed I've been reading way too many mystery books! Some books keep popping up in the lists above and in discussion that I want to try -- "IQ84", "Discovery of Witches", "The Assassin's Cloak". Kathy9norcal - You named 2 of my all-time favourite books: 1) "Brazzaville Beach" - Wm. Boyd -- Every time I mention this novel I have the feeling I'm the only person who's read it, as no one seems to've heard of it! Although I've read some awfully good books set in Africa (fict. &...

Hi Anja, That is a very sweet picture and I agree with Donna, they most definitely steal our hearts but we're so much better with them in our lives. Cherish him and shower him with lots of kisses. My sincerest wishes for a very Merry Christmas to you and all the wonderful people on this list and their pets . Very Warm Hugs, Fred