Hi folks, Glad you enjoyed the photographs. Hopefully I was able to transfer my excitement at seeing for the first time a rose I had heard of, but never seen the blooms in real life. They are definitely more than I hoped for when I saw their color, but again as some have cautioned it is one moment in time and a particular spring for temps rain etc so color change is no doubt possible. But gads a new bloom colored apricot - peach rose totally hardy, going 6 to 8 feet and cloaked well in blooms in zone 2 and 3 ... me, I have died and gone to heaven. My ones in the garden are surprizing me as Leo suggested they would. I had a crooked eye when I received them because of my limited experience with suckers, but they are flourishing after about 4 weeks in the ground, along with Suzanne, Butterball and Haida (sp?). The beautiful and graceful pink did not have a label that I could find but it had the genes to me of a pimpinefolia due to the leaves and form. However I now believe it to be too double to be "double blush burnet" as mine is definitely not that double and is 5 or 6 years old. There was also a near pure white semi-double "pimpinefolia" just beginning to bloom with no tag that I need to go back and check when the college is in business hours ... got to find the curator and get a map. I know 4 or 5 years ago I received, or saw a map, of the gardens in some periodical where they were advertizing an open house and rose sale. I have to dig more as a fast pick of google did not find it. By the way I finally got the first official blooms in my garden today of "previous years plants". First was Cornhill's Mary of Scots" that is not totally cane hardy for me(lose half the length of the new canes) and Theresa Bugnet - every year I appreciate the latter rose more and more. For some reason primula is very slow this year but as usual excellent cane survival - nada damage except maybe an inch on the tips of 5 foot canes - in a year that smacked the mordens and explorers - don't get me wrong I like those roses but there more 4 to 5 zone ones to me. My further excitement is the - not hardy - Geschwind's Orden had enough canes left and it will give a nice bloom this year along with De la Grifferaie. Both after only the first winter.

Here are some of mine: ACROPOLIS - unusual shrub rose from Meilland AMBERLIGHT - interesting tannish-yellow FL from LeGrice BROWNIE - bizarre but wonderful colors on a FL from Boerner CIRCUS DAYS - strange GR from Williams, has so many petals it often never fully opens and gets a weird incurving spiral COFFEE COUNTRY - beautiful FL from Viraraghaven FESTIVAL FANFARE - oddball striped sport of FRED LOADS; tries to become a climber and has weird, floppy blooms FIELD OF DREAMS - newer shrub/FL rose from Umsawasdi sold by Certified Roses; often gets these random streaks IRISH CREME - my favorite truly brown rose KALEIDOSCOPE - gets those weird color combinations of mauves and rust and browns with occasional yellow spotting MODERN MAGIC - love the stripes and random speckling on this Christensen FL RAINFOREST - the wonderfully weird greenish-mauve little FL from Ralph Moore RED INTUITION - the gorgeous two-toned red stripe florist rose from Delbard REMEMBER ME - my favorite orangey/peanut butter colored beauty RUSTY - a wonderful, streaky russet FL from Delbard and Certified Roses SHEILA MACQUEEN - the really weird orange-turning-green FL from Harkness TERRA COTTA - rust Meilland florist rose

Well, this is not truly "repurposed" but maybe sort of. In 2004 I rented the Riverhouse from a friend for a year. The house was on tall open legs, because located right on the river. The a/c and heat ducts came through the floors in front of the windows. So I could not put much furniture there without blocking air flow. In the bedroom, I also did not have enough wall space for my 66" wide 14 drawer chest. So I put the bed in the middle of the room centered under the ceiling fan. I BACKED THE TALL CHEST UP TO THE HEADBOARD. I also painted the back of the chest lavender. Someone else might want to wall paper it or cover the back with mirror tiles. By doing this, I created a small private dressing area where I could be hidden even if someone was sitting in the living room and my bedroom door was not closed. I really enjoyed this arrangement. Essentially, the tall chest became a room divider. Is that repurposing? I also cut some tall bamboo from the yard of the house we ended up buying, also on the river, and I built a canopy frame from the bamboo. I hung my beloved Mombasa mosquito net curtain from the bamboo frame. That worked fine, but my engineering skills were not up to par, because one night the raffia wrappers holding it all in place just FELL. It was a good idea while it lasted!!

Wishing I had pix - my mother's home is full of lamps made from antiques: a large coffee grinder, wooden planes (the carpenter's type) & several kerosene lamps like the 1 pictured above - a couple have dark green glass shades, which look very nice w/ the brass. My dad made them all back in the 50s & early 60s, when it was all the rage, apparently. My parents did a lot of antiquing back in the 50s - they lived in Long Island & would drive out into the country on the weekend to auctions. Here's a pic(not mine) of what the wood planes look like - the lamps have brass tubing & drum shades covered w/ natural burlap...