Random Acts Of Blogging Kindness

This week I've been the recipient of a couple of thoughtful gestures from garden bloggers. The first was when I recieved an offer of seeds from Caro who blogs over at Urban Veg Patch. Earlier in the year Caro wrote a post about the intriguing sounding Perennial Nine Star Broccoli (Cauliflower). The thought of growing this vegetable really appealed to me. Not only did it sound tasty but the thought of a vegetable that has the potential to crop for up to five years was a most positive recommendation. Caro's post contained details of a nursery where she bought her plants from as plugs. However when I visited their website I was disappointed to find out that they would not be available until 2013. I commented on this sad state of affairs on Caro's blog. Searches round other nurseries and seed companies for plants or seeds met with a blank, so I thought that I could be waiting for some time to try this out. Then sometime last week Caro sent me a tweet, asking me if I would like some seeds which she had collected from her own plants. Of course I answered in the affirmative. A couple of days ago an imaginatively decorated seed packet arrived in the post complete with a generous amount of seeds and most comprehensive growing instructions. I had to smile at her advice "Best grown on allotment unless you want your garden to smell of boiled cabbage'. Don't worry Caro the seedlings will definitely head in the direction of the allotment. She also advised that if you let the plants flower that bees love the white flowers that the plant produces. So not only a thanks from me Caro but also from our allotment bees. I will post about the progress of these plants next year.

The other act of kindness was from Michelle over at Veg Plotting, who tactfully pointed out to me that I have been using the dreadful word CAPTCHA word verification on my blog comments and offering help if needed in remedying this situation. Michelle knew that this verification process was something that I had found frustrating to use when commenting on other blogs. I was seriously thinking that either my eyesight or sanity were in need of urgent review as I've struggled to comment on some blogs and only succeeded after four or five attempts. I was completely unaware that I have been inflicting this process on visitors who may have been trying to make a comment here, as you are unable to see it at your end. I think that it may well be something that Blogger has forced upon its users without their knowledge or consent.

HUGE apologies to those of you who have succeeded in commenting (your persistence is to be admired) as well as to anybody who has wanted to but who has given up (I'm not at all surprised). Hopefully the situation is now remedied. I have now removed word verification. I imagine that this leaves me more vulnerable to spam comments but I will see how it goes. At some point in the future I may have to moderate comments but I would rather that your comments appeared instantaneously.

So a virtual bouquet or in this case a potted cyclamen to Caro and Michelle in thanks as well as to all readers by way of apology. Gardening bloggers are lovely folk as this week has proved.

PS - Please let me know - if you can whether you have have any problems leaving a comment. I sincerely hope not!

BlogCamp

Last Saturday saw me head off to Birmingham where I spent a day at 'BlogCamp'. You may well ask what 'BlogCamp' is. Much to my relief it did not involve canvas of any description. Some hundred plus bloggers from all over the country were gathered under one roof, to attend a one day free workshop for independent bloggers designed to hone our blogging skills. BlogCamp is run by journalist Sally Whittle and the team that runs Tots 100, the largest community of active parent bloggers in the country. Fortunately it is not a prerequisite to have your own tot to be able to attend. There were other sections of the blogging community there including crafters and foodies, although gardeners were perhaps thin on the ground. It was a pleasure to catch up with 'Michelle from 'Vegplotting' again and to briefly meet Emma Cooper. The venue for the day'The Studio' was central, less than a five minute walk from New Street Station and a most comfortable learning environment. The day started with registration and a welcome hot drink plus croissants for those who had not breakfasted. After a lively introductory session from Muireann who blogs at 'Bangs and a Bun', there were three workshops to attend from the menu on offer, a break to enjoy lunch in between, before we all got together again for a plenary session. It was difficult to choose the workshops but after some wavering I attended the following sessions :

Setting Up Your Own Self - Hosted Wordpress Blog - this session covered buying a new domain, setting up hosting, installing a theme and everything else you need to know about this topic. It covered both the pros and possible cons of doing this. I came away with the impression that the process was neither as expensive or as complicated as I thought it might be. It was well delivered by Phil Szomszor in non - teccie language. You can see the slide presentation we saw and some explanatory notes over at Phil's blog 'The Red Rocket'. Whether I will go self- hosted at some stage in the future remains to be decided.


E courses - photographer and writer Susannah Conway shared with us her experiences of developing e - courses. I must admit that from what I had read about the session beforehand I thought it was going to be aimed at people wanting to write e - books but this turned out not to be the case. Still Susannah's experiences were fascinating to listen to and she was generous with the information she shared.

Using photo editing software - up to now I've not done much in the way of editing photos than the odd bit of cropping but this is one area that I would like to develop skills in. I would especially like to learn to use colour palettes to frame and compliment photos as so exquisitely done by Rosie over at 'Leaves N'Bloom' and Liz at 'Gwirrel's Garden'. The session was delivered with humour by professional photographer and lecturer  John Arnold who had stood in at short notice as the original speaker was ill. John's session covered 'Picmonkey' the free photo editor which replaced 'Picnik' earlier this month. Like 'Picnik', 'PicMonkey' can do all photo editing jobs including rotate, crop, edit, apply effects, adjust light, colours, add frames, text, objects, watermarks, etc, etc. I had used 'Picnik' once or twice in the dim and distant past so it it was most useful to be reminded of 'Picmonkey's' similar features and to see practical demonstrations of these features applied to photos generously shared on the day by other attendees.

'Picmonkey' is still in the developmental stage and there are other features waiting in the wings to come online soon such as collages. Since getting home to my own computer I've had fun playing with photos and hope to put some of what I learned into regular practice so watch this space. What is frustrating though unless I have missed the obvious, is that I seem to be unable to save my altered images in 'Iphoto' and also that there does not seem to a simple one step method of uploading them directly to 'Blogger'. I do not think that 'Picmonkey' will be enable me to introduce colour palettes so that is something that requires further research. 


Write ups of these sessions as well as the others are due to appear here soon. Topics included how to be a snark (not sure what one of those is), creating video blogs using Windows Movie Maker and a beginner's guide to search engine optimization to increase your blog traffic. I will be keeping a look out for these write ups as I'm sure I missed a lot of useful information.


There are more blogcamps at other venues in the pipeline for later this year. If you are not already on the mailing list you can get yourself on it here and you will receive information about new BlogCamp dates as soon as they are firmed up. As far as I am concerned the day turned out to be a pleasant learning experience, which took place in a most friendly atmosphere. Although I didn't partake of the cake on offer at the last coffee break of the day, it certainly looked delicious - just wish that I had remembered to slip my camera into my bag to take photos for you. Thanks to Sally and team for such an enjoyable day. 

Chilling Out

No, I did not spontaneously combust on a surfeit of rhubarb crumble back in April but the last few months have just flown by ! The major event during this time has been finishing work. This came about through the opportunity to apply for voluntary redundancy. I debated long and hard about this. Although I really enjoyed certain aspects of my job working with teenagers the job had changed considerably over the years. The direction in which it seemed to be going was getting further and further away from why I went into it in the first place. Rather than providing a universal service to young people, most of our resources were targeted at young people who were disaffected and at risk of social exclusion. As you can imagine a challenging target group :) Although in theory the main part of the work was direct contact with young people, there were also increasingly complex and sometimes duplicate recording systems, which did not always make sense to me and my colleagues. I often found myself working in the evenings and weekends to keep up with it. I was getting increasingly disillusioned with my working life and with the thought of yet more changes on the horizon. So back in December last year persuaded by the fact that I would also get my occupational pension as well as a modest redundancy payment, I applied for redundancy and my application was accepted !

The last few months were spent in a strange sort of limbo as I was still working but could no longer make plans for the future as far as work was concerned. I heard the words ' It's not long to go now' and ' How are you feeling?' from my colleagues so much so that I began to feel that I had morphed into an another being. Three other colleagues who I had worked with for years also left under the same terms so we provided mutual support to each other during this period. I finished at the end of July and was overwhelmed by my colleague's good wishes and some beautiful gifts mainly garden related :) I still have some garden gift vouchers to spend but want to take my time to chose something really special. I will know what it is once I see it.

Since then I have enjoyed nearly four months of just chilling out. I was lucky enough to have a few breaks during the late summer and early autumn so it has taken a while to adjust to this new way of life at home. No complaints so far - I feel so much more healthier and happier.

Although I have not posted on my blog I have been working on it as I would like to unveil it warts and all in the near future. I love reading other people's blogs although I know I am guilty of not commenting as much as I should. I feel a bit like that I have been visiting other people but not inviting them back to my 'home', so I would like to remedy that and join the blogging community.There is a wealth of information out there and people are so generous with their thoughts and experiences. I have learned so much and have laughed, been sad and sometimes amazed at what I have read. I now have the time to blog so no excuses. It will also exercise my keyboard skills as well as the old grey matter. I would be delighted and amazed if anybody should read my blog. I have a little more to do before opening up but that day is on the near horizon.

I will be a more diligent blogger

Another year coming to an end and again I have neglected my blog ! Having just managed to get here after faffing about to change to a Google account it might take me another year to return ! What a year it has been weatherwise. A cold late spring followed by a very hot summer and a warm autumn. It has been the warmest year since records started. The forecast for the rest of the day is gale force winds and rain. I will not be venturing anywhere though. I am off now to sort through my seedboxes and do some sorting out. Still have one or two orders to place. May do that later or if not tomorrow. These fingers are itching to get going again.

New Year's resolution ?

I vow to be a more diligent blogger !

Ring out the old, ring in the new !

2005 is drawing to a close - less than three hours to go. Sitting here listening to the omnibus edition of 'The Archers'. I have only just realised that it is almost Sunday morning and I would have to get up extra early to listen before the next omnibus is broadcast.

I had not realised how long it was since my last blog entry and have vowed to be kinder to my blog in 2006. It has been ages since I have been to the lottie so no news to relate of growings/goings on. Will have to get there soon to take the grapevine down to floor level. In the garden today I was heartened to see snowdrops well through and plump hellebore buds - what joys to come. Now with January on the horizon time to study the seed catalogues and dream of next year's veggies and blossoms.