My grandma taught my Mom who repeated it to me, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!" and... "If you look hard enough, you can find some good in every one." My Grandma (her pet name for me was "Obbie"...for some reason, I didn't pronouce "Grandma" and "Awe-bee" was the name she answered to when I was a small child. Even her neighbors & lots of friends called her "Obbie" throughout the years of my growing up. She was a "hired girl" on farms when she was a teenager...she was married and divorced at a young age...she was widowed after another marriage to my grandpa of 26 yrs...she worked in a bakery, she operated a cafe, she ironed clothes in her home for other families...she was always a HARD worker!...she passed that on to her 3 daughters & family. Here are some of my precious memories of my Grandma, Obbie that I wrote back in 1984 for a genealogy book my Mom created: In the back yard, Obbie had lots of flower gardens. I once found the cactus garden with my bare feet when I jumped a fence playing (where I shouldn't have been)! There were also lots of sour grapes, good ripe strawbeeries and lots of green apples. We were never without homegrown food at Obbie's. And, oh, that homemade jar of strawberry jam. Of course, inside the house, there were always homemade chocolate chip cookies. And on Sundays, the smell of Obbie frying chicken (that my 'grandpa butchered). Anyone was welcome to show up for Sunday dinner! Obbie taught me a few of the things every woman was supposed to know before growing up. The ol' treadle sewing machine put out lots of doll clothes and pin cushions. Crocheting chain stitches (by the miles). Obbie crocheted each grandchild an afghan for graduation. Never being bored at Obbie's, there were always old catalogs for cutting out paper dolls and clothes. (Ok, Gjers, I could go on & on...but I just want you to know that I was very blessed...I was a "crouper" as a child and finally outgrew it at 12 yrs. old...but my Obbie would always come running when I got sick...with "warm 7-up" and hugs. Anyway, I will end this post with a poem I wrote for this genealogy book (she died when my first grandchild was 4 mos. old): "My grandma, Obbie, always had time for her grandchildren. She was never too busy to forget us. I am the lucky one even to have had Obbie for my grandma... If I can be as strong, as you were strong, If I can give, as you have given, If I can be kind, as you always were kind, If I am loved, as you are loved, If I am cherised, as you are cherished, If I am mourned, as you are mourned, Then I can say..my life is truly blessed. Obbie passed on her love for gardening & flowers to me...as my grandpa did also...and my Dad. Here is a pic that I am so fortunate to have of my Grandma holding me in her backyard...I lived in the same household the first 2 yrs. of my life...and her LOVE shaped my life. Ahhh, pretty sentimental stuff...but I enjoyed all of your sharing and wanted to share a bit of this special lady! Thanks, Jeanne S.

Love reading all your stories! Great thread. My sis & I were 15 months apart and we usually got the same thing every year. One year we "graduated" to 20 inch J.C. Higgins bicycles from Sears cira 1958 or 59. They were identical but we realized after a couple of days that the reason we could tell them apart is because my Dad, excuse me Santa had put the handle bars on Sis's bike upside down lol. Believe it or not, she wouldn't let him change them to the correct position. She liked being backwards LOL. Mother always put a lot of thought into our stockings, the best fruit and candies. Daddy always read from the same Night Before Christmas book when he tucked us in on Christmas Eve. It had this red velvet stuff on Santa's suit on the cover. My birthday is a week before Christmas and I believe that book had been a birthday gift. When you have a birthday that time of year, you get used to birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas wrap LOL. We always were involved with the Mary & Joseph manger scenes at the church, and with the Christmas program as my Dad was the church pianist. I was always Mary, apparently because I was chubby lol. My cousins were the other actors in the play each year. Nice to look back on that period, because I don't see any of them very often now. Mostly when a relative dies, or maybe a reunion once a year. And I remember the year we got Thumbelina dolls (they moved slowly when you cranked them up), my Barbie (it had 3 wigs!), and the year I got a Polaroid Swinger camera and GoGo boots, white of course, LOL. Still have that camera, and it always made terrible pics (black & white only), but my parents went to a lot of trouble to find that one, they were sold out because it was the trend that year. The way they found my camera was because my Dad worked part time that year at the Camera and Craft store, and he was the photographer for the Santa photos. I remember waiting on him at the mall while he worked. He had a full time job, and used that camera store job to buy equipment for his home darkroom. That was a fun experience too, developing film. Now it's mostly digital, but I enjoyed doing that at home when I was a kid. Ended up in printing profession myself and got more than plenty of darkroom work later in life. I enjoyed my kids each Christmas, now I'm making new memories with the 2 small grandsons. They're such a joy! Holidays hugs to you all ~tenderlee

My favorite combination was a dark green mid sized agave inside a haze of Foo Foo Muhly with the setting sun behind it. It rocked me in the mall parking lot, if you can imagine that. I rarely EVER step foot in malls and usually I am in a rotten mood when I do. I am not much of a pink person, but I admire things that go for broke in what they do and this one does that. I do like the pink haze , it is like setting sun fog. I never hung out at the county fair. Being the big city intelgensia child that I was, I was denied the kewpie doll/corndog experience and was denied salt taffy and cotton candy . Poor poor me. I know it theoretically and have seen it in movies so there is that. But I do not go there when I see Foo foo muhly do its thing..It is starting to be used a lot in big plantings everywhere in Texas. Which is a good thing that coporate landscapers are going first to our Natives and looking for solutions that take less water and fertilizer.I hope it does not become the ubiquitous muhly in the way that Pampas _ _ass has. You see the Deer muhly and pine muhly. too. I just picked up some wispy plain jane bloomers, Weeping Muhly (M. dubioides) or Muhly dubi-dubi-do(my name). It is definitely more one for texture.It is an Arizona native so I am hoping for success in the xeric and low nutrient factors. The summer reduces colors around here to dull buff tones and greyed out greens. Then when all is just starting to cool down to a livable 70 degrees, the world just gets juicier, the light warmer and gold, young chartreuse, red and purple peek into the palette and the there is a rebirth in color and this pink fog fits right in but near the top of the scale.. I do not see M. capillaris as out of place in the garden experience. It might not be as sparse as the high plains prairies . But it is a native of the coastal prairies of Texas. A slightly different look. I have not been successful with growing it in the severe treatment that I give most of my plants. It might have something to do with the placement in a pocket of dirt in solid white hard caliche. I really should be nicer if I want things to thrive..Maybe I should give it another try. It needs a bit more water than what we have been having lately.

Nice pictures of Fl.