ROSES to Marc Jeuland of Carrboro, who started the Boston Marathon on Monday as one of more than 22,000 runners and ended it in front of almost all of them. Jeuland finished 15th in the 112th running of the famous road race. He was third among Americans -- in fact, he was one of just three runners in the top 15 from anywhere other than Kenya, Ethiopia or Morocco (Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won the race, for the fourth time). You look down the list of top finishers and see, "Kenya, Morocco, Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia ... Carrboro, North Carolina." Pretty cool.

Jeuland split his Boston Marathon training time between Carrboro and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Former UNC great Joan Nesbit-Mabe is his coach.

Congratulations, Marc. Relax and take a load off. You've earned it.


ROSES to Junior Girl Scout Troop 420, based in Carrboro. The girls in the troop recently completed a project that provided some needed supplies and some decorative touches to the Project Homestart women's shelter on Homestead Road.

The troop did an assessment of the shelter's needs, and set about filling them -- collecting donations of diapers, baby formula and other goods. To raise money to fund the project, the girls planned a holiday "Parents Morning Out", to watch youngsters while their parents shopped.

And the girls didn't just drop the stuff off in grocery bags at Project Homestart; they sewed 35 separate "TLC" bags for the women and children there.

They also worked with members of Kappa Delta sorority -- Roses to you young women, too -- to buy and decorate 15 bulletin boards to go in the rooms at the shelter.


ROSES, on a somewhat similar note, to the leaders of Brownie Troop 62, who recently took the girls to Camp Mary Atkinson for a weekend camping trip -- and especially to one of the leaders, Katie Weber.

When Weber learned that Teddy, a stuffed animal that was particularly special to one of the girls, had somehow missed the ride back home, she turned around and headed back to search for the missing critter.

That was no trip to the corner grocery, either; the camp is more than hour's drive away. Weber -- who as a scout leader is trained, we presume, in tracking -- found Teddy and returned him safely to his extremely grateful owner.

Extra brownie points for you, Katie.


ROSES to the organizers, farmers and visitors who made the 13th annual Piedmont Farm Tour yet another resounding success and gave a big boost to local sustainable agriculture.

Tour-goers made more than 10,000 individual visits to the 35 participating farms in Orange, Chatham, Alamance, Lee and Person counties. Foodies came from as far away as Florida to take the tour, which its organizers say is the largest event of its kind in the United States.

The tour is co-sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and Weaver Street Market. You may not realize this, but we've been living in a center of sustainable food production since long before "locavore" entered the English language; small farms such as Peregrine Farms and Perry-Winkle Farm have been using progressive practices to produce healthy food around here for years.

The sustainable farming, eat-local movement is only gaining steam, and the farm tour, by showing so many visitors how it works, may convince yet more people to pursue a viable, environmentally friendly living from the land.