Oh my goodness how gorgeous! The swirl and dark curtain designs of the clouds are wonderful. How did you get that bird to fly by in the first picture at just at the right moment?

I am not sure anyone knows yet whether RRD can be spread with pruners. I think it's possible so I play it safe and do a lot of sterilizing. I haven't seen any RRD in two years either. Sometimes I wonder if the Bayer spray I use for blackspot makes the roses unappealing to the mites. Not saying that's so, but I wonder. I have not been spraying miticide but it's good to know about Forbid. I'm sorry to hear about your losses, Austin. That's hard. I lost my dear dog several years ago. I did a lot of looking at pictures of Dobermans when I wanted to get a new dog. Austin is so beautiful, and I think Doberman's are just beautiful. I heard they are devoted and are velcro dogs. But one breeder said you have to be very firm with a Doberman and be an alpha with them, or they might be unmanageable. What do you think of that? Your little Elon is very cute, Ben. I ended up getting three Manchester Terriers that look like little Dobermans. They are also velcro dogs, very people oriented. I think I do better with small dogs. If they act up, I can just pick them up. They do act up! One time they got into a box of cake flour and got it all over. You can see that walking them all together is a little tricky. We also have a tiny Miniature Pinscher who is about 17 years old. Here is a painting my son gave me of the dog we lost. He was 13, died of cancer. I named a rose seedling after him. Jack Daniel. From this photo He was lightening fast. Loved to get outside and take off like a streak down the street. In this picture he was running free. Happy. You couldn't catch him but if you called out , " cheese" you could often get him to come in and we'd give him a mozzarella stick. Neighbors called out " cheese" also. We got a little gate to put in front of the front door that helped to keep him from slipping out. But he was a runner, beautiful when running. Jack Daniel rose

Delicious photos, Jeri and Jackie! That first one of Eugene reminds me of a painter's palette, as if an artist had been mixing up oil paints in different depths and shades of crimson with a palette knife. Yummy! I like the contrast between the egg-yolk orange buds and buttery, creamy blooms on your namesake rose, Jackie. I've forgotten whether either of you have mention whether it's fragrant or not.

@ilikefriday - yes, it’s from ”How I Met Your Mother” - Neil Patrick Harris’ character (Barney Stinson) will say ”Challenge accepted!” whenever someone proposes doing something that tends to be inappropriate. It’s his character’s second most popular catch phrase. https://youtu.be/4iOi_iPNC50 - link showing some of this on HIMYM (I think it started as having him simply accept a challenge - but then morphed into his catch phrase - ”Challenge accepted!”) The above then started a ton of memes/gifs that used the ”challege accepted” catch phrase: So - now I have to place my “little present” in a photo of my bathroom renovation once it’s finished - and post it on my pink bathroom thread!