It's been 10 years since someone gave me the gift of membership in a gardening site for my birthday. I had just retired from teaching and had a lot of time on my hands; it was nearing winter as well. I had never had time to use the internet for anything except educational information and had no idea gardening sites existed. By the time I registered and settled in, trying to learn to navigate, out of the blue I received a Dmail from somebody who signed his name as Shoe, short for Horseshoe, welcoming me, and then suddenly I found myself in the Welcome forum and I never looked back. It was Dave's Old Garden and at that time it was so friendly I had more new online friends than I knew what to do with. It wasn't very long before there was a request for those interested in writing gardening articles; that message came from Dave himself and as I remember the request was just below the banner on every home page. I jumped on the request, was accepted, and it wasn't very long before Aunt Bett made her first appearance.
The rest, as they say, is history. And when the mood of that site began to go downhill, I never looked back, I simply jumped again on the opportunity to follow Dave and Trish anywhere. I also brought most of my friends with me, including 'Aunt Bett'.
About 5 months ago my life was interrupted by a serious health issue, my computer time as well as any type of winter gardening was interrupted as well. But when I was able to return to this site, I was overwhelmed with well wishes from so many ATP (and Cubits) friends. I think more than all the medical care and all the new meds, it was truly all the online gardening friends who healed my heart and hurried my return to health and to my garden.
ATP just feels like home to me.
Thanks and Happy Happy Birthday!
