Yes indeed dear rose grower Sherry! Buck up, we are all cheering for you! Looking forward to photos of piles of weeds!

best wishes

claire

I am so happy to see you back, Sherry. I so missed your wonderful posts. You are a great writer and I found everything you wrote so interesting and inspirational. I know you have many years of gardening left in you. I lost my first husband too, and I know how incredibly painful it is and how debilitating it is getting through it all. I know your garden and roses can carry you to a happier place that I know your husband would want you to be in going forward. Welcome back!

Oh, welcome back, Sherry! My condolences. I too, lost a husband to cancer and know how heartbreaking it is.

I still come across many of your old posts and enjoy them very much. I SO look forward reading your new ones. Hang in there with Houzz. There’s still some of us diehards left, and we NEED you! Lisa

Oh, WELCOME back! You've been missed.

Take things at whatever pace works for you, and take the advice of comtessedelalouche: Be kind and gentle to yourself. You deserve that.

Sherry, it's so good to see you post here again. I was a fairly recent member when your husband became sick, and I enjoyed reading your posts, especially as you grew Tea roses too.

I remember a photo of you and your husband at a dinner somewhere, faces alight, and so engaged in each other. It reminded me of how I felt about my husband. I do understand the inertia, and so agree with what comtessedelacouche has said.

I read a while ago that putting one's hands in the dirt was good because of contact with beneficial bacteria (or something like that!). I wish you well, and hope that you have the will to get out there soon, and find some pleasure in gardening again. I, too, look forward to your posts. I have missed you.

Trish

I probably did receive it, Jin, but replying was not something that was in me. I do thank you for thinking of me. I'm happy that there is still a few people I remember here.

Trish, I remember your Australia garden, and look forward to your spring pics. I think when our weather here cools a bit, I will be more eager to get out there. But the wild onions that have taken over are really daunting. I'm wondering if I need to lift some roses just to really get rid of the obnoxious things.

Jeri, as usual your words are filled with peaceful comfort. I will try to be patient with myself and my garden. I remember how impatient I was at the beginning of this garden, and now is my opportunity to "know what I wished I knew then" and use that knowledge patiently. Well, that would be a lovely goal anyway.

Comtesse, thank you for such sensitive and sensible words. I don't really know why the outside of my house has held so little interest and even reluctance for me. Maybe walls give me security that the open sky doesn't. When I've been out there, it's been fine and even enticing, but those feelings don't hold. Another step in the journey. Easy does it, I guess.

At least I can post a comment today so onward and upward. Thank you all for the lovely welcome!

Welcome home! You have been thought of and missed dearly. It's so nice to have you back amongst we rose crazed again. Having been ill myself this past year, and unable to garden at all, I know all about head high weeds. (Why is it that only the weeds grow like that and not the garden plants?) I've just started to feel better and get out to assess the damage and it is daunting. But after I got one little patch done it looked so much better that it's given me the push I needed to go on. If we both start with just one small patch and work a little bit at a time maybe we'll get our gardens ship shape again!

Welcome back, Sherry; I'm glad to see you again. I hope working on your garden, however dauntingly neglected, will help you--I think it will, mine always does. And remember, you don't know what life holds for you, there may be good surprises in store.

Seil! So we're in this boat together, are we? OK, we can do this! One piece at a time. Thanks for the encouragement... And I'm so glad you're feeling better!

Melissa, thanks for the welcome. I remember all the hard work you put into your garden and still do, I'm guessing. Yes, the future is unknown and brimming with surprises. For some reason I'm feeling better about things. I suppose I knew this would happen. You're such an encouraging group. Who would have thought there were others with head-high weeds! So we can encourage each other. What a blessing you all are to me. Thank you!

I am so very sorry about your husband, Sherry. Glad you are back.

I was thinking about you a few days ago, wondering how you were or what caused you to be absent. I'm sorry for your loss. Hope your garden will help pull you forward.

Sherry, I am very happy to have you back amongst us. I was hoping that when you were ready, you would reappear.

So sorry for your loss, but happy to see you back. I once read a passage by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale that the cure for a broken heart was to get down and scrub the floor - by that he meant go do meaningful work. I have found that to be very true and am sure that when you see the first buds in spring appear on your roses, clean out your beds, you will feel happiness and inspiration again. All the best to you......

Judith

Sherry, I was so happy to see that you were back on another post but never saw this one until now. It could be Houzz or me, but at any rate I'm so glad you've found your way back to us. There have been changes for most of us, I think, and in my case it's been rabbits decimating my garden this year, and my no longer having the energy to do squat. Still, the garden motivates me to totter around, at least when it's not too hot. I have the hope that under the weeds you will still have roses that are waiting for you. I remember your beautiful Mme. Abel Chatenay in the front, and Cl. Maman Cochet on the fence in the back. If there is truly nothing left you'll have the supreme pleasure of choosing roses all over again! We'll be with you all the way.

Sherry- great to see you back! I’m sorry for your loss. I enjoy your writing and plant inspiration.

Sherry, welcome back! As a fellow-Florida gardener, I have thoroughly enjoyed all your posts and your blog. I’m so glad you are finding ways to nurture your healing, and I can already tell you’ll continue to inspire us all. :-)