For most folks, when friends come to visit for a couple of days they’ll send a little note of thanks when they get home. When your friend is a garden blogger, they’ll blog about your garden.
My friend and English garden tour travel partner, Layanee, did just that, posting about my garden here on her lovely blog Ledge and Gardens.
The Woodland Garden and, we hope, future Moss Garden
It’s very interesting to see someone else tell the story of your garden through their eyes with their camera. It was Layanee’s first visit here, although she has seen many photos of my garden over the years on this blog. As we walked around the winter devastation she said more than once, “I haven’t seen this view!”
I particularly appreciated Layanee’s view of what we are currently calling the Woodland Garden. Our hope is that over the years moss will cover this area to create a serene and green woodland setting. On Layanee’s advice, we cleared the underbrush and hauled in and spread about 10 tons of stone dust. (Well, “we” didn’t do it. My 6’4, 180 lb 20-year-old son did it.) The stone dust will keep down the weeds and provide a surface for the moss to grow.
It’s nice to have friends in the horticulture business who can give you free advice! By the way, you can get your own free advice from Layanee and her radio partner, Sam, by calling into their Sunday morning radio show, “Garden Guys.” You’ll have to find your own strong 20-year-old to do the heavy lifting.
Winter is not the best time to visit my garden, but Layanee kept reassuring me that she could see the “bones.” I do hope that she returns when things are growing and green. Better yet, come visit around July or August when I could use an extra pair of hands weeding it all!
Layanee with my little dogs, Sarah and Sophie
Thank you, Layanee, for a wonderful visit and such a kind thank you note.
Robin
When I was in my 20s, I imagined a glamorous career that took me to big cities and beautiful places. I wanted to experience the world via planes, trains and automobiles, rub elbows with famous people and dine at chic restaurants, clinking glasses with witty and interesting people.
That’s not exactly how it worked out. Oh, there is plenty of travel. But as you know, travel isn’t all that glamorous anymore.
Airports are among the most unhealthy places in the country, over-crowded by hurried and often distraught travelers, abysmal, heart-attack-inspiring food, mind-numbing delays and nowhere to sit. Big-city cabs are atrocities on wheels. They smell terrible and there is always a spring in the seat sticking up into my bum. More than once I have questioned my good judgment for getting into a car with one of these dangerous and dangerous-looking men.
A good hotel can be a small oasis of sanity, but it’s still a hotel. And you don’t get to pick your neighbors. How many amorous couples, giggling girls and drunken good-old-boys have I had to share a wall with? Yes, I am the kill-joy who knocks on the door at 2 a.m. and explains that she has to get up at 5:30 a.m. for work.
To travel, I must also leave the serenity and quiet of my country home. I have put the care of my little dogs and pet chickens and the watering of my fragile container plants in the hands of my husband and son. God only knows what devastation occurs while I’m gone and gets tidied up before I find out about it.
And while I’m enduring airline delays and munching on stale sandwiches with the other weary travelers, I always think about what I’m missing at home—tons of vegetables that should be picked, weeds plotting world domination, flowers blooming and fading. There are also the peaceful surroundings and views, such as this serendipitous view through the garden gate. (Don’t these two mourning doves look like they were sent from central casting and told to look like lovebirds?)
Mourning doves prettily perch on the garden bench. They kindly waited while I snapped their photo.
Although the travel isn’t easy, I will admit though that the people are worth the effort. For example, among other recent travels, I headed to Chicago for the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, where I had a fabulously good time rubbing elbows with some of the most interesting people I know–other garden bloggers.
“So where are all your fabulous photos from Spring Fling?” you ask.
Well, it seems that since I live in a rural area and don’t get to socialize all that much with other gardeners, I completely lost my head and forgot to take photos. Oh yes, I have a few photos from the Chicago Botanic Garden and a few other places, but not so many of my old and new gardening friends. So if you weren’t there yourself, head on over to the official Spring Fling website and see who was there.
Next year our Spring Fling will be in Buffalo, New York. Will someone please remind me to stop talking and take some photos?
Some of My Recent Examiner Posts:
Easy homemade pita bread
Using flowers to beautify the vegetable garden
Must-have plants: Baby Blue Eyes
Great ideas: Make an edible flower tower
Robin
I swear this is not a chicken blog and that I’m going to write something about gardening soon. But given that the weather has been too cold to do much of anything gardening-wise and the chickens are more interesting than dead-looking plants, this is what I have to work with.
Besides,I thought you would want to see this.
T. Boone, the critically injured chicken, is on the mend and being funny again. He still can’t make it onto the roost bar, so here is his new bed at night.
“You can’t see me! I have dis-ta-peered!”
By the way, if you’ve visited me before, perhaps you’ve noticed a few tweaks and changes. I have widened the copy area, which also allows for larger photos. For some of you, the font on the post may also have changed to something more readable. There are also some new badges for my Examiner columns and, gasp, an Amazon store on the right.
Can you let me know how this looks to you, particularly if you have been here before and have a basis for comparison? Are there any issues or problems on your screen?
Also, the issues I have had with my links page have been resolved, so I will be updating all my gardening and food blog links. I would like to include brief descriptions. If you are already listed–or would like to be–and would like to give me a few words to describe your blog, please use my contact form to send me your preferred description.
Thanks to all for visiting!
Robin
