Roses, roses, roses

Have you noticed that is it is an amazing year for roses? They are bursting out all over in our area, the cottages just clustered with them, it's as much as I can do to stay on the road as I drive through the villages taking them all in. No one has finer roses than my parents, and many of the ones in their cottage garden have been there since I was young. I recently acquired this green vase and had such a hankering for some big, blowsy roses to put it in, I asked my mum and dad if I could raid their plot. These are their roses and they are just delicious....they smell even better than they look, if that's possible.

They lend themselves to modelling next to the scraps of vintage linen I picked up at Newark. There is a man who just sells small pieces of fabric for £4 and £5 a piece, and I found some beautifully coloured bits from him last week. 
Why has it been such a good year for roses? The David Austin expert I heard a couple of weeks ago said it's because they love cool, damp conditions. That makes sense, then. 

Out came the iPhone for one last shot, I love how the dark red rose has turned inky black. And talking of roses, I was walking through Peterborough city centre today when this vision caught my eye....

It's an original Horrocks 1950s dress, part of the window display for the local FE college, and not for sale. But isn't it a cracker! I am not used to seeing things like this  in Peterborough, but things have been improving a lot recently.