While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put. ♥ Anne Tyler
OMG Girlfriends, 2,300 comments, this definitely wins the award for most exciting Giveaway so far! Aren’t you amazed? Who knew!? Most of the time we hum along so quietly, like a big happy quilting bee or something, and then suddenly, this! I like it!! I just wish I had 2,300 of these special little books — you all deserve one! I don’t even want to set Vanna* in motion — ‘no winner’ means everyone is still a winner!
I have exciting news: our girlfriend Georgie contacted the Gift Shop at Hill Top Farm to see if she could order a copy of the special edition book to be sent to her, and GUESS WHAT? She Twittered to tell me — they’re all sold out! I was really surprised, they had lots of them only a month ago when we were there and now they’re all gone!
WHEW, we came so close to missing it! Not really, I don’t think missing it was ever part of the plan! What it means is that our little book here is the very last of them, ever in the world, that still has no real home.
So I think it’s only fair, because so many people are on vacation at this time of year; I’m going to let the contest go on a bit longer; I don’t want anyone to miss their chance! There’s only this one last book; it’s not going to happen again. And this way everyone stays book-winners for a little bit longer . . . I told Vanna*, take off the sparkly white dress, get back into your jeans, go to the beach or something, it’ll be a couple more days. ♥
This is how I feel when I read your comments (both to me and to each other), that you want me to “stay” — what a nice compliment that is, thank you all so much! ♥ I hope you feel the same way when you read my blog!
As for the “mystery rose” on Beatrix Potter’s house, you guys came up with some great ideas as to what it could be — I’ve been checking them out on Google. The old rose called Zephirine Drohin seems to match all the characteristics I could see in the roses on Beatrix Potter’s house. It’s a tall climber, will do well in partial shade, smells wonderful, do you think it’s too pink to be it? There were a couple of others you suggested that I thought looked great too. Albertine is gorgeous, I’m not sure if it will do OK in the shade, but it’s beautiful , and Caroline Testout was another. I wasn’t sure the cabbage rose Centifolia would grow tall enough. I also found this chart of David Austin roses that bloom well in partial shade . . . See what you think. I think I can’t go wrong with any of them! Loved your input. I know exactly where to come from now on when I have a question about something!
I also love the Fairy roses we have bordering our garden, they grow so well, are now climbing up the rhododendron planted next to them making a very interesting wild-looking thing in our garden. But I think the flower is a bit too small for the spot I have in mind.
Here are some special roses I’ve had good luck with; a glorious peach one called “Just Joey” and the prolific yellow one called “Julia Child.” These are the ones that send me to the moon . . . both of them bloom and bloom, and are deeply scented. Put your nose in there and stay awhile! The gorgeous white one is “Iceberg.” But none of these is a climber.
Here’s the arbor Joe’s been working on since we got home, with sweet “New Dawn” climbing roses on it. This photo was taken a while back; both the arbor and the rose need help right now! The trees in our garden have gotten bigger, and although we’ve thinned them, this rose hasn’t been getting the full sun it prefers . . . so once Joe finishes and repaints the arbor, I’m thinking the Beatrix Potter rose, if I can find it, not requiring so much sun, may look wonderful here. And keep us immersed in the memories! (BTW, a movie I just thought of, if you haven’t seen Mrs. Miniver, you would love it, especially the parts about the “Mrs. Miniver Rose,” and when she buys the hat–I don’t own a lot of movies, but I do own this one!).
And here’s what we plan to do with the arbor as soon as its finished! Ahhh, yes, this “traveling armchair” is very happy to be home! I am back working at my watercolor/book-writing schedule: up early, before the birds, while it’s still quiet, painting for the Diary, feeling like we (me and kitties) have the whole island/world to ourselves; then Joe and I include beach-glass-hunting on our walk out to the water; there’s sun tea and checking out girlfriends gardens in the afternoon; walking downtown at night with Joe, for ice cream or a movie (we saw the oddly interesting and very original Moonrise Kingdom last night — fun link! Maybe better than the movie!); I can’t tell you how much I love being in my own home sweet home where I can play house to my heart’s content! (And don’t think this is some sort of unnatural perfect world here, there’s plenty of laundry, dentist appointments, and weeds in the garden to balance everything out! Life is normal around here!)
But I don’t mind, it all fits into the general scheme of “playing house.”
And the Book! I’m having a wonderful creative time putting it together. I think you are going to love it. Even better than the blog! At least, that’s my plan. ♥
OK Girlfriends, if you haven’t left a comment yet for the Last-One-in-the-Whole-World darling Beatrix Potter Book (scroll to the post just below this one if you have no idea what I’m talking about!), here’s your chance; just a couple more days and we’ll announce the lucky winner. And don’t worry, you can leave as many comments as you want, either in the first post, or this one — Vanna* (so talented) knows to only count one comment per person — and I always love to hear from you! ♥ Soon I’ll show you how England was decorated while we were there. So festive! Happy day girls and boys! Stay! XOXO
PS. fyi . . .* Vanna White is what we named the Random Number Generator for the blog. But we just call her Vanna. And here’s my theme for the day . . .