I love the saddle oxfords and party dress combination! My Mama used to steer me to the oxfords for school shoes and I always hated them. So, I can........and would......spread my toes so wide the shoe salesman couldn't slip them over my feet. I was holding out for Mary Janes or T-straps (patent leather please) or even wedgies. Fat chance. When I was finally old enough to buy my own shoes, the first pair I ever bought was black oxfords. Blew my mother's mind. And if all else failed, and we were stateside....I'd agree to penny loafers. With inflation, they'd have to make them large enough to hold credit cards, now.

Hi, Silverwind! Nice to see you back here. Yup, Bakemom is the other source for sasbes, but keep an eye out in our exchange area--or the main one--for others. I have seeds, too, if you want some! For info on how to wintersow for your potential converts, I think you should just point them to Wintersown.org, and have them go to you, or us, with any questions.

Good Morning, Everyone! Thank you all for the "welcome back". I missed each and every one of you. Stormy here today on this Good Friday. Dark and a bit chilly out. Good weather for gardens though. Glad for the rain though. We've had high temps and high, dry winds this past week and wildfires every day. Nothing close to here, but close enough that I could smell the smoke. My dogs erupted in chorus with every firetruck that passed by over on the highway.(hehehe). I took pictures of the gardens on the 31st. Glad I did, as the hot, dry winds dried out all the pretty yellow Jonquils later that day. Blasted hot winds ruined them before our Easter Sunday family picnic and egg hunt. They were magnificent in chorus with the yellow forsythias, white Bridle's Wreath, and Redbud trees now in full bloom all over the garden. My beloved Jane Magnolia is breathtakingly beautiful this year and smells so wonderful. I planted out some Orange Perfection Phlox yesterday. Tried them last year, but they didn't make it. This rain may ensure these do. I dug around in the bin at the store until I found one, just one package with moist peat inside. Holding it up to to sunlight, I could just make out something possibly alive in that dark green plastic bag. Makes me mad to pay five bucks for dead rootstock. They are not the best looking root stocks I ever saw, but think they will make it. I only need one to survive to establish a nice clump this year for next year's blooms. I also planted a package of purple Liatris and a package of Freesia bulbs for summer blooms. I love the smell of Freesia. Yummy. All the Peonies are up and beginning to make tiny flower buds. Hopefully the red ones and deep magenta ones will bloom this year too. If they do, it will be their first time. Some deer came into the yard this winter and ate the top branches off the one surviving River birch sapling, but it is recovering nicely now. I caged it with a tomato cage and for now they are leaving it alone. They are "camped" up on the hill, hiding in wait for my juicy, delicious roses to start blooming, no doubt. :[ I've been taking the dogs for walks up there every morning and hopefully their pee and poop will make them think twice about coming any closer to the back yard. My English Shepherd could easily take down a whitetail deer. DH said this weekend he would finish stretching field fence around on the inside of the existing barbed wire fencing to keep out critters. That won't keep deer out, but it will keep our dogs in, so we can let them run loose on the property. That will be great. They need the exercise and I need them to do their job protecting the place. They love it, too. Hopefully the raccoons & coyotes will take the hint. Keep Out! Anyhow, so far so good. Gotta go check on my chicks. They poopy up their water really fast and will be ready for breakfast. :) Talk to you guys later. ~Annie

Thank you all. :) I feel like she was sent to us for a reason and we love her so much. She hasn't snapped at me in almost a week. LOL She still doesn't care much for our pug kids but we're making tiny steps in the right direction. I took a chance on her level of trust in me and cut her hair earlier. She done very! well , much to my suprise. Healthwise, she's on a roll in the right direction. Finally putting on some weight (she was 9 whole lbs @ her vet checkup :( ) , her hair is growing back and her owies are healing. I hope on hope there's a special place in hell for the person that treated her so badly and the more I work with her and learn , the more I hope that person goes there. That isn't neccessarily the right way to think but from my experience and in working with her , I've figured out she was absolutly loved , pampered and trained by someone in her former life and then for whatever reason landed in the wrong hands. I took her to a public event and she socially gravitated toward older gentleman and not even knowing them , sat ever so gently next to them at their feet. I really think she was owned by such a gentleman and then he met an unfortunate fate of some type (i.e. nursing home, facility or worse) and whomever was supposed to care for her in a way he hoped, sure failed her miserably. She lets me work with her , love on her and care for her BUT she truly thinks the sun rises and sets on my husband so she certainly puts more trust in men than women. Lucky for her , he loves her as much as she does him or she'd be in trouble (or I would...LOL). Anyways, that's the Honey update. :) Have a safe and happy holiday weekend everyone!!