Hi everyone! I wanted to tell all of you THANK YOU for reading my post and letting me know that you enjoyed it. My passion and appreciation of roses is enhanced by sharing it with others. It always brings me great pleasure to hear all of your thoughts as well. I always love your feedback and even though it would take too long to respond individually to each of you, I read each & every one and enjoyed your input. I am going to post more of the other roses I love & miss, since I felt bad leaving some of the others out...and Eric kind of encouraged me...lol. I hope you all enjoy that post as well. To answer a few questions posed to me: jumbojimmy....Reports of Charles de Mills fragrance vary. I have read that it has no fragrance, mild fragrance, and lots of fragrance....I have no fewer than 50 rose books and none of them can agree on whether Charles is fragrant or not! When I visited the Montreal Botanical Garden I could not detect fragrance on their Charles de Mills. However, my Charles is VERY fragrant. I guess all noses pick up scents differently and maybe it even varies according to soil, temps., etc... I guess you will have to find out for yourself if he is or isn't! organicgardendreams....I can't vouch for whether Yolande would do well in CA....hopefully the many posters from there will help you out w/ your question. She certainly doesn't need the cold to bloom, like the Albas & Gallicas so I would think she would do splendid in warmer climates unless certain diseases might be an issue. Jean....Felicite will get fairly big, but not usually as huge as her Alba sisters. Albas do need space; they are not small bushes. But you can prune her a little to keep her in bounds. Somewhere in the 4-5 foot tall range. Some Albas can top 7 feet and my Belle Amours have shot up to over 8 feet! Here in zone 4 there really aren't any roses that are as impressive in size as the Albas. Next to our puny hybrid teas that die back every year, the Albas look like Jolly Green Giants! Thats another reason why I love them. She really IS worth it to have in your garden even if she is your only once-bloomer. She will be done blooming by the time the Japanese Beetles start up and she stays quite healthy the rest of the summer so you won't have to fuss with her. And that fragrance will win you over. She is such a beautiful, feminine rose that I couldn't imagine not enjoying the pleasure of her, even if only once a year. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter.... only come once a year, but we still look forward to them, right? Thanks again, rose friends! Celeste Charles de Mills, my blooming machine....

moving this down....

My youngest niece's wedding was a riot. The groom does not dance, so he decided there would be no dancing at the wedding. They did have a three piece jazz group. Of course everyone thought you were supposed to dance so watching people try to gyrate to the jazz was hysterical. They both love fly-fishing and had a fishing theme -- ahem. The wedding cake had a fish on top that looked like it was dead -- seriously, a dead trout lying on top of the cake. There was a groom's cake and I never did decide what that shape was. The centerpieces were bowls of goldfish. Cute -- but what do you do with 100 goldfish after the wedding? In the end, a good time was had by all but there was a lot of eye-rolling and tongue biting. Yes -- kudos for you for pulling this one off. It will make a good family story for years. I wish the couple much happiness and a home of their own!

Some rangetops for islands use an island trim at the back which sticks up above the top of the counter. Our Bluestar for example: The back of the Bluestar island trim has a couple of screws so it isn't terribly pretty. Our fabricator made a trim to cover the back: Since this is an open burner range top, the trim allows air intake to feed air that comes up from under the burners when they run. In the range version of the Bluestar, it also feeds air for the oven. Perhaps the lips on the counter are covering similar island trim behind the burners under the hood or they may have just been put in as a small barrier between the hot surfaces and the back island counter. In any case, it seems an odd spot for a knife block - a utensil caddy maybe, but a knife block? Having your "sheets, cups and tissue boxes embellished" with your house number is kind of weird.