The one I go to is also Cherished Possessions! I got my antique pine Irish corner cupboard there (it came from Mulberry House) and also my beloved Chinoiserie ladies desk in the LR. I think they USED to be a lot better than they are now, so I seldom go there. Yes, the one on Riverside holds nothing for me, either, as it seems to have lots of BIG (ugly, IMO) things for houses larger that ours. eBay and Craigslist are my faithful companions. I check both each day. I can't wait to finish re-doing the old CL $30 pine cottage bureau I got last year above Farmington and get it in here to hold my TV! Come April, when she re-opens, check out the Mustard House in Buxton on Rt 22. (1420 Long Plains Rd, # 929-8558). She has some antiques and beautiful vintage looking accessories. I got my faux berries etc for fall and winter mantles from her. Would you believe that since I so seldom even walk through my dining room that I forgot I had this antique Ogee clock with pheasants on it?? An eBay treasure. Needless to say, I'll be hanging it above my sewing machine as soon as I finish work today. My sister is lusting after the print that I have there now from a Sturbridge Yankee Workshop sale years ago. Here is the bureau. I have touched up one drawer and will do the rest when I can get it outside so I can see the graining well. Pic is from the ad on CL. Before After

I think the advantage that David Austin has compared to other specialist rose nurseries is that they able to market their roses better and their brand is very well known and stands out. I do love the green logo and the fact they refer to their roses as "English roses" which conjures up images of drinking tea outside the garden. A lot of the Kordes roses don't appear to me much because they lack the defined shape and form of English roses. What I mean by that is when you look at the shape of David Austin roses, they look fascinating! Their appearances look like a piece of art : delicate petals and the complex arrangement of petals inside a shallow cupped blooms. Yes, most of them are not as healthy or bloom as much as other roses but I don't mind. It gives me work to do in the morning - keeps me healthy and fit. If a rose bloom too much it can ended up being boring so a shattered blooms here and there makes me look forward to see it bloom. Having said all that I do noticed a lot of their latest releases are very similar to their older varieties. Unless they change the look people will end up trying out newer roses from other companies. Take for instance Boscobel looks a bit like PAOK... but I love the name Boscobel and usually refer it to a "he" and I needed a "male" rose in the garden. If this rose was named something else like "The Endevour" I don't think I would have fallen in love with it.

Lilyfinch, to be honest I wing it as far as the lines of the beds. I use an edger shovel and eyeball it. I want to be outside right now cleaning up edges and getting rid of sod by the fence but I injured my ankle at crossfit yesterday and I am beyond annoyed with myself. I had tweaked it Monday but Tuesday it felt fine, yesterday I did a bunch of skaters and boom! My ankle told me it was very angry. Sigh. The weather was gorgeous yesterday in the mid seventies so I sat on the porch and daydreamed about the changes I want to make. I REALLY want to find the black and white anemone corms for sale but the only place I can find online that sells them to anyone has been sold out for months on end. I find the hardest part of gardening to be restraining myself. I ADORE formal English gardens which are so full of boxwoods and single varieties planted in multitudes but then I also want a cutting garden with all kinds of blue-based reds and purples and whites and pinks. The other side of the house by the AC unit has morning sun until noon and then afternoon shade, perfect for my hydrangea obsession. Unfortunately the ac units drain so much water that it floods the bed, I rigged up a hose to pipe it away into the grass but not until I realized how bad it was, AFTER my hydrangea all got terrible blackspot, which is pretty rare on a hydrangea. They are recovering slowly. The five hydrangea here in early April are blushing brides. The Japanese Maple was $5 from Lowe's, it had frost damage from a late frost after things had leafed out so I snatched it up because I adore coral barked Japanese Maples. I didn't take many pics of this area, I thought I had but I just checked and no such luck. Here is a close-up of one of the blushing bride's from June And now, they had been so full and covered in blooms but the added water just wrecked them. The rose on the left is about twenty years old, and don't tell anyone, but I kind of hate it. My old co-worker gave it to me because it wasn't happy in her yard, she wasn't sure what variety it is, some sort of David Austin. While it blooms regularly for me, the blooms don't smell like anything and they fall apart within a day, and they are only about an two-three inches wide or less. Meh.

They are called metal soffit coverings. They cover your old soffits and some are solid ribbed metal, and some are perforated metal. The perforated metal lets the soffit holes in your eves take in air flow. They are on a rail, and most generally, you can snap them back in place. Is yours damaged? If not, you just need to go back up and snap it back in. If you saw a critter in there, most likely, it has already taken up residence, and you may want to call an exterminator, before it eats your wiring, and anything else it finds up there. The open vents were one time covered with a vent cover, and then someone decided they didnt want to bother with the painting etc, so they covered over it all. I have the same thing here. They do come in different widths, if you need to replace, rather than snap back in.