Hi Everybody!

Well how nice to be remembered this way! OK - let's answer some of the questions..

1. First of all I am still in touch with Bob Axford but my hubby is Rob Ixer who is a mineralogist. He retires from the University of Birmingham in September and then we are thinking of moving to a bungalow... maybe down in Somerset. We are ruled by a grey poodle/bearded collie crossbreed called Tiffin who we rescued about 18 months ago after appalling treatment by previous owners. He is over 10 years old and thick as two short planks but we love him to death. he can snore for England - Bernard had him removed from the room when we were doing the recording because he was making such a racket....
2. I stopped playing for a number of reasons, smoking in folk clubs, which was damaging my health was the main one but there were a number of others. My biggest love was recording and I knew there was no chance of making another album - the kind of album I loved had big backings and there just wasn't the money to do it. Also I had learned to swim and within 20 months had become a qualified teacher and was teaching 5 days per week. Trying to combine the two careers was pretty difficult... then of course the arthritis was also starting to kick in...
3. The multi-media project had to be shelved after 3 years solid work because we could not get the copyrights cleared for everything. It was to have been a complete archive of my career (Bernard Cromarty has seen it.... check him out for his opinion!). We had permission to put ALL my albums on the CD in the form of MP3s... until we came, of course, to Dave Bulmer and Celtic Music. He wouldn't give permission for the tracks to even appear in that form. Without the early albums it was no longer a complete archive and that was what finally killed it..... Shame - there were over 100 photos, 245 MP3s of almost every song I ever sang, articles, radio interviews etc... it would have made a terrific CD but (Sigh........)
4. The Lost Leader has done incredibly well. I recorded it in 73 but could never release it until I got involved in the web and I'm delighted that this rare recording by Bill Leader, whilst he still had Leader records, is finally available. Fortunately it was a private recording that I paid for and was NOT part of the by now legendary 'Leader/Trailer Catalog'.... I am in the process of buying back the rights to the Plant Life albums I made and I hope to release those as soon as possible.
5. I actually retired in 1992 and never play now - in fact the guitar has only come out of its case twice since I retired and staggered me the first time (after 7 years) by still being perfectly in tune. I now live more or less on the computer and teach computer graphics on-line using a program called PhotoImpact by Ulead. I also provide graphics for web-sites professionally and run three large websites which take a lot of my time (still teach swimming three lunchtimes a week too).
If anyone wishes to write and say hello - order a CD or put their name down to be told when the Plant Life albums come out, I would love to hear from you. Just go to my website (link in post above) and there is an email link there under 'Contact Me' - just click on the little envelope.
Thanks so much for all the lovely things said above - it is genuinely touching to be remembered so fondly. :-)
Lots of love
Rosie