An update showing a form change in one of my figs - Negronne. I got it last year from a local nursery and it was a long, spindly tree with most of the growth on top. Last year I pinched the branches and a bunch of tiny shoots came out of the bottom. Come fall, with all the leaves gone, it looked a little goofy. All that growth on the bottom, then a long/tall stick of a trunk, then more growth above. So I pruned it back to the growth on the bottom. Now, I love how it looks.

Before - 2012 spring/summer


Today - spring 2013




With all that new growth last year I was hoping for more breba fruit. Alas, I only got one:


Now, last year this little cutie tried to give me a breba fig - we all may remember what happened there - the dog ate it :P
I will be keeping this little breba out of the pups' reach once it starts to ripen. 

I haven't been on as much lately - been very busy house hunting and doing doggy stuff. A small brag/update that's OT. One of my pups, Sadie, ran her first agility trial with me (it was a first for both of us) weekend before last. She did very well. 

Video for those who like that sorta thing: 

Nice pics congrats.

Nichole, loved watching you and your dog......good job!
I have a Negronne tree also.....it's my favorite fig.

Nicole, congrats to you and Sadie.

Nichole I liked your tree but loved watching Sadie.  I did a little field trialing with Labs several year ago and that was very hard.  I couldn't even imagine the work it takes to train for that.  Congratulations very nice work.

goss

Great agility run!  Hopefully the Negronne will make up for the light breba crop by giving you an outstanding main crop.

Thank you. We've been training for 1.5 years and we still have a lot to do. She has yet to master weaves. She doesn't want to bend her body. We're working on it though.
She does another doggy sport called flyball. She has fun! It took 2 years of training before she was able to run consistently without going crazy and messing up. Lots of patience.

Staffie Bull?

those leaves look almost like RdB or Nero 600M. narrow and slender. cute looking puppy. i love the look on the dogs will bit of tongue sticking out x) my puppies are so out of shape, after 30 min walk they can't seems to put them tongue back in their mouth along with 5 min stuck at the water bowl. x)

Nicole she is adorasble - love the agility runs! Your Negronne looks nice.

Nichole, I am the proud human of a now 9 year old Staffie Bull named Sammy.

Johnnie - that's awesome. How special to meet someone with two passions in common. Or, at the very least, two things that bring us both joy :) I have two. My second one is Violet and she is very mischievous. She is pictured in my avatar. They are wonderful pups.

Gina - you are so right ;)

I no longer think I have any interest in any other breed. I only wish they were more readily bred in the US. We actually got Sammy from a shelter. I can't see how anyone could give him up but they did. He is also a little trouble maker with quite a personality.

They are hard to find in shelters which is a mixed blessing. On the up side, that is good because we don't want them in shelters. On the down side, if you have your heart on a rescue, you really have to look and be patient. I have noticed an uptick in rescues coming across my facebook news feed via SBTCA rescue. Mostly in California. If you're ever in the market for one, let me know. I may be able to help steer you in the right direction (breeder or rescue)

We just lucked out finding Sammy and knew nothing about the breed. My wife and I do a lot of work with local rescues and we always are looking. Fortunately as a perk we have many eyes on the lookout for us here on the east coast but thank you for the kind offer.

Here is the SBTCA rescue page in case you haven't found it yet in your searches. They list all the known staffords in rescue. Whenever a shelter gets one in that is a possible stafford and word gets to the SBTCA rescue group, they try to get someone to check on it. If it's a confirmed stafford they try to find someone to pull it. We try to bring in and take care of the staffords to get them out of the shelter system.

http://www.sbtca.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=12