What fun it was when many bloggers set sail with me to a Desert Island back in the cold days of January 2009. Thanks for the reminder, Karen 🙂 Our challenge was to bring just three plants with us. After some email invitations and bloggers kindly spreading the word it really was a fun packed day trip for us all. What a blogger buzz there was that day and thanks once again to everyone who joined in 🙂
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was organised by Veg Plotting the next month which was a great indoor event for the weary month of February too. Yes, it was good company and chat we needed then before our gardening year really kicked in. It was hard deciding who not to invite, you can see my final dinner guests here.
Oh dear… so I’m a tad nervous to suggest another couple of Blogger Days especially when there are so many regular meme days now (I’ll try to avoid dates to as many as I can although I’m only familiar with a few – details at end of post). For the moment, I’ve whittled the days to two hoping that one or the other might attract the interest of fellow garden bloggers.
What do you think? Do you fancy joining me again and spreading the word via your blogging friends and visitors too? I completely understand if not as I know how time consuming blogging can be. As per last time, if you wish to, please feel free to copy the invitation images below (if you have difficulty just email me and I’ll send you them).
For a suggested GARDEN BLOGGERS’ QUESTION DAY this Tuesday, I was thinking along the lines of we could all post a maximum of five garden/blogging questions in a blog post. Answers would would be invited via comments to that post. If this does catch your eye and you publish a post, do leave a link on my Tuesday post so more bloggers can visit you seeing any questions you might have.
I have found gardeners and bloggers very generous with help and advice during my time blogging and I’m thinking this could be another fun day… lol or my idea might just sail out to a Desert Island to join my plants thriving there now 😉
Question categories are up to you – you might be considering growing vegetables for the first time and want to know what ones other bloggers have had success growing in pots. You might want a plant ID/suggestion. Equally, you could be going on a holiday/day visit to particular area and wondered if other bloggers have recommendations for garden visits (perhaps they have posted on visits already).
It could even be a technical blogging query you’d like advice on. I’ll have to put on my thinking cap here myself… Mmm… I’m sure I’ve plant photos I’d like an ID on 😉 Perhaps, there isn’t enough time for you before Tuesday but if this is something that interests you we could run it again at a later date 🙂
For a suggested GARDEN BLOG PREQUEL DAY the following Tuesday, I was thinking along the lines of what your garden was like pre blogging about it. Maybe your garden is new to you or it isn’t that different since you began blogging. However, perhaps through blogging and reading other blogs you have been inspired to get an allotment for example and were a completely different gardener before. Perhaps, like me, you didn’t feed birds and now you can’t imagine your garden without doing so.
Pre gardenwatching, I was a very different gardener. For example, I’ve just seen 1st bumblebee of 2013 fly towards my window and it caught my eye! I have a small heather (shown below) in bloom just now and my reason for planting it was solely to feed early emerging bees for the year. Pre blog I would never had considered this… I’m not a heather fan either.
Pre blog I was a serious foliage fan and I’m hoping to tell (in as short a post as possible) how my garden/gardening style has evolved since I took my ownership of my present garden 21 years ago. I’ve had quite a few plant interests over the years. Oh yes, whittling down this story is going to be my most serious challenge to date! Lol… it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy would it 😉
Not fun and a serious blogging irritation is past posts with videos that are missing. Actually that’s not entirely true, my time consuming irritation (taking me away from the fun stuff and making this post later than planned) is working through original Google uploaded videos (some 124!) that have been made private since the the Youtube-Google merger.
To say this has been painful doesn’t come close, not only do I have to find which posts they belonged (they were all merged en masse with the same date last October) but I’ve to add my earlier, poorer pre HD quality footage and basic captures as recent ones to my Youtube Channel. I’m actually considering just deleting some old posts but the problem is that they link to a list I have of blog vidoes when I was trying to be organised!
Rant over 🙂 I’m wishing I hadn’t discovered this recently. However, if you have previously embedded Google uploaded videos to your blogs you might want to check them out as they won’t be viewable and you will have a black screen and need to take action too 🙁
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Many regular blogging memes/days known to bloggers include Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day (GBBD) organised by Carol at May Dreams Gardens on the 15th of every month (my February contribution is my first crocus open for 2013 and a heather in bloom) which she has been hosting since February 2007 making it 6 years old this month! Happy GBBD to everyone taking part 🙂 This one attracts many new bloggers helping them meet up in person too via Flings in the US and even in the UK too.
Foliage is also celebrated in the Blogging world with Pam at DIGGING doing a Foliage Follow Up to Carol’s Meme on the 16th of the month. Christina at CREATING MY OWN GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES does another regular date of the 22nd of each month with Garden Bloggers Foliage Day which she started back in September 2011.
End of the Month Views (EOMV) is hosted by Helen at The Patient Gardener’s Weblog – at the end of each month. I like the idea of this one 🙂 Katarina over at Roses and Stuff has a new meme inviting everyone to join her on 15th of each month to post “a shot of one particular motif, in order to document the changes of the seasons”. Then there is Wordless Wednesday which is another favourite with garden bloggers and it’s not easy to guess why 😉 The list goes on…
My intention has not been to start a new meme with the 5 questions post day. However, if other bloggers like the idea then I could give it a another go but in truth I don’t think this is likely. Personally I like the fun of a one day blogging event/theme anyway 🙂
Wishing you all a great week ahead. If you have any comments or feedback on my suggestions I’d love to hear them. If you can’t leave a comment just drop me an email with your thoughts. See you Tuesday 😀
P.S. Hahaha… I’ve lost complete blogger (of six years and three months) credibility now with this post by messing up your blog readers. Sorry, by accident, I hit publish instead of preview earlier… oops!
This post was eventually published with text by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in February 2013.
Comment from Anna …
“Oh I do indeed remember that desert island well Shirl and how hard it was to narrow choice of flowers down. I think I did a follow up post on the ones that got away 🙂 I also recall those dinner parties too – what good company we all shared that night. Your suggestions sound excellent. Will be pushed to join in for Tuesday but I will do my best to make the prequel 🙂 Sorry to read about the fate of your videos.”
Must admit I find the weekly memes don't fit in with my way of blogging – i.e. to write for the moment,. I just join in when my moment and meme day collide although I do like the idea of Wordless Wednesday to post photos.
Ooh both of these look good. I do a few Question Time posts and another is long over due…
… will be pushed for tomorrow as I'm in London and preparing for that today. I hope to catch up with you on Wednesday if that's OK.
Thanks for the link love – Dinner and Desert Island Plants were such fun 🙂
PS – thanks for the heads up re videos – yet another blog thing to look into and fix before the long nights have gone!
PPS – I'm intrigued how you've managed to right click protect your images. Is this something anyone can do? Perhaps I've given you one of your 5 questions 😉
Please email me your images – vegplotting at gmail dot com
Hello again to you all, thanks for your comments 🙂
Anna, it was fun back then and with a smaller garden blogging community it was much easier to keep up with everyone. Yes… everyone will be pushed for Tuesday (I haven’t written a post myself) sometimes timing works and other times it doesn’t – best laid plans and all that. Oh… you are a snowdrop junkie aren’t you – for anyone else who is too take a look at Anna's recent post on snowdrops.
Sue, I can understand your blogging way completely as I write for the moment too (late at night usually). There are many memes I consider (especially the EOMV) and I take photos and then something else happens at home or catches my eye that is current too and I go with that. Yes, I like the wordless Wednesdays too and it gives both me and visitors a bit of a break with a short post. That’s usually my issue, my posts are not daily and with them being lengthier I don’t like to post too often for visitors and don’t have the time to either. I’ve wanted to do a pre blog post for ages and thought a questions day would mix things up for a change… lol… I’ve not written my post so I guess It will be a late night tonight 😉
VP, ah great to hear that you like these ideas although I was thinking you might set up your more regular posts ahead and fully understood you may be busy. Wednesday works for me… I didn’t suggest it as many do wordless that day. You are most welcome on the link love – blogging was quite different then… corny I know but I miss the old days 🙂 Discovering this video issue is a huge pain and what distracted me from posting this one earlier. I hoped it would eventually sort itself automatically but alas no! I should have let the videos go and organise this post instead. As I have a lot of videos on my blogs it is seriously causing me a tremendous amount of work finding which video had been posted when and editing it and the video. I really am going to delete some old posts. I’m cringing as I go through my old footage 🙁 Ah… the right click stuff, I asked other bloggers (posting great wildlife photos) for advice on this and they were a great help – if you want to make that one of your questions go for it. If you don’t, I’ll email you what I did. I’ll need to rack some brain cells now – hahaha. I’m delighted you are interested in this one. I did a Google search to see if any bloggers had run this idea and didn’t see you had – I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes 🙂 I’ll mail you the images now 🙂 Don’t’ worry if you’ve no time I completely understand. I’m happy enough that you thought about it 😀
All our videos are YouTube so I hope they are OK as we have lots on our websites too.
A guess an option for when posts become too lengthy is to split them into episodes and schedule them for consecutive days. I sometimes do that when I am going to be away from home. Partly as you never know who may be reading blogs, I always mention holidays after the event just in case. Call it paranoia but we did once have someone who had been following Martyn's weather blog knock on our door to ask him something about his weather station.
Hello again Sue – I’ll take a guess that all your YouTube videos will be fine 🙂
My problem is that I only joined YouTube in 2009 and prior to that (since Nov 2006) I uploaded via the Google way offered by blogger at that time. There wasn’t much difference in quality then and it was easy enough. Eventually, I started searching for better quality and joined BlipTV which reduced numbers of secs in footage making shaky stuff slightly smoother. I still have a number of videos there (prob another 100) I perhaps should check there too – I’ll fix the pending lot first!
Yes, I have split posts into episodes in the past before but am aware that it means blog visitors are getting posts perhaps too often for me that way – lol – they can get a breather between longer ones. That's me theory anyway 😉 Perhaps, I could give your suggestion a go again – thanks 😀
Ah, I agree completely on not mentioning when you are on holiday and have seen a few bloggers set up posts when they are away too. I’m never that organised – although I do consider this idea. Yep.. . I understand the paranoia.
It’s a lovely day here, hope it’s the same with you – enjoy 😀
Yes it's a nice day here and was yesterday too. Must admit YouTube has improved since we first started to use it
Hi- I have clicked onto your blog via Anna at Green Tapestry and am intrigued by all your memes! I probably won't join in your 5 questions but will keep my eyes and ears open for future ones you post.
Hello to you both, thanks for your comments 🙂
Sue, yes, I agree YouTube has improved even since I joined 🙂
Cathy, hello there! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find something of interest to you 🙂 Sorry, no snowdrops yet from me but I’ll be out to see displays next month 😀
Your memes sound intriguing. I will definitely try to join in on the Prequel Day (if I can find any photos). I host a garden book meme on the 20th, so I'm not sure I can squeeze in a post on the 19th, but I'm sure I'll enjoy reading the other posts.
Hello there HolleyGarden, thanks for popping by 🙂
I'm delighted this has caught your eye and that you are considering joining the Prequel Day – getting photos is tricky. I've had my scanner in action after hitting the photo albums! I had considered running this one first but as it took my a bit of time as I began I decided to swtich things around. This is going to be a fun one and a great way to see what gardeners blogging has changed 🙂