Robert, they are totally different roses but Sequoia listed it incorrectly on their web site. They don't have Secret Garden Noisette, just SGMC. I know this because I spoke with Carolyn at Sequoia. I just don't want you to think you are getting SGN and receive a rose you already have. The Teas can take a few years to get established here. If I weren't an extremely patient person, I probably wouldn't have any Tea's! The first two to three years I wondered what all the fuss was about and then they matured and I fell in love with them. Once their roots are established they take off growing and the blooms are constant and larger. MDC literally sat in my garden not growing more than a half inch for nearly two years. Now she is 6 ft tall and nearly as wide. The challenge of growing roses in our transitional zone is exactly as you say, warm days then hard freezes. It seems I always have some damage but so far the roses have bounced back. Carol

I'm finding the books by Felix Francis to be quite like his dad's. He even has a new Sid Halley. Mary Stewart is high on my list of favorite reads, too, and I particularly liked the Barbara Michaels books by Ms. Mertz.

The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (1969) I first read The House on the Strand the year it was published, 1969, not knowing or caring what genre or subgenre it was considered to be. I have since learned it is classified as science fiction/fantasy, neither of which I usually like a whole lot. It's a good thing that I was then ignorant of such classification because I might have passed over The House on the Strand, a story that has given me immense pleasure in reading and rereading over the years, as well as contemplating it at times between readings. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to write a full-blown review of THotS for this thread, so I looked through some of my earlier notes and writings about it and found a summary that I wrote in May 2005, something that I probably posted here at Reader's Paradise. I can't believe that was almost nine years ago! Reading through that piece again, I think it remains pretty much what I still think after yet another rereading. So below is what I wrote then: The House on the Strand has been classified as science fiction and fantasy, neither of which I ordinarily like a whole lot. Okay, I will concede that the story has elements of science fiction and fantasy -- after all, the main vehicle of the story is time travel. However, I will venture that the main theme is capturing the essence of a time and place in the past, in a way that we as moderns can never quite grasp even when we really and truly want to. Daphne du Maurier used her own house in Cornwall as the focal point for imagining not only its history but the history of the region and its inhabitants during the first half of the fourteenth century (just prior to the Black Plague) -- a brilliant stroke, in my opinion, and one that makes me trust her storytelling more. Not that I expect this story to be a "true" history, but I find that the details of the landscape, time, and characters have the right feel. So much so that I, as a reader, am right there with Dick Young, the twentieth-century protagonist, as we accompany Roger Kylmerth, our guide and the original 14th-century owner of du Maurier's "Kilmarth," on his rounds of the surrounding countryside. Roger, a steward to the widowed Lady Joanna Champernowne, the primary landowner of the region, has the advantage of being able to insinuate himself into all camps. Roger is not always a sympathetic character but he is all the more real for it. Likewise, our contemporary Dick is not always sympathetic: he's married to an American woman who has two pre-teen sons from her previous marriage. We get the feeling that although Dick might love his wife and he has a certain fondness for his stepsons, he would probably do just as well -- or be as happy -- if they just disappeared from his life. He's between jobs and is ambivalent about his wife's plans for him "on her side of the Atlantic." Thus, he accepts his old school chum's offer to take a breather at his family...

Quick, I need easy to get into mostly “feel good“ fictional novel suggestions to get me through ...possibly long no power and maybe hurricane days. I have both my kindle‘s recharged and ready. I really enjoyed Arthur Truluv and the follow up. I’ve looked at a bunch of lists and nothing is jumping out. Don’t really want murder, suspense, war or anything overly depressing . I just want a book that will suck me in from the start.