Reasons to Enjoy Blogging

A couple of days ago Sissy tagged me to write about why I enjoy blogging. I thought about the question as I wandered around, enjoying spring in the garden.

In the last post I pointed out the iris from Ellen in the side garden… the ones I hoped would bloom purple-violet in color. Once the buds showed color, I knew this was the spring for purple iris!

This shade is probably too far toward the violet side of the spectrum to thrill Hank, the Lake County Clerk – I think he wants a little more red in the color, but it looks good to me.

Several crepe myrtle saplings and a few nandinas grew on the back garage wall when we moved here, but we soon banished them, and smothered under the crepe myrtles we found a spindly rose. I gave the rose a chance - cut it back, watered it and Philo made it a trellis. This unnamed pink climber throws ridiculously tall canes 12-feet into the air every spring, makes one big splash of blooms in April, and is severely cut back again after the flowers fade. Along the back fence our neighbors have a gloriously full hedge of Southern Mock Orange. Some of the suckers sneaked under the fence, making smaller versions of the big shrubs on our side, so now we have Southern Mock Orange, too.

These three plants are in full bloom now, but they’re in different parts of the yard, and it’s impossible to look at more than one at a time. Out came the floral shears and now the three kinds of flowers form a more exciting composition by being together.

This kind of combination is a reason why I like blogging. It can be very exciting when each of us, blooming in our different corners of the world, has found a place to get together – a place where our talents, personalities and ideas can play off each other, and where they can be seen close up, not at a distance.

I loved reading blogs for a few years, then graduated to commenting on them. Once I started the Transplantable Rose it turned out to be more fun than expected, especially getting to know the other bloggers. Some of us have developed relationships with each other, and we’ve gradually revealed ourselves as time has passed. People are so complex, and have such unexpected things to tell and to teach, that things never get boring. I like surprises, both in blogging and in gardening. That’s why I tucked this small clematis, survivor of the deck at our last house, in at the base of the Lady Banks rose. Surprise!
I could say that I enjoy blogging because I like to write, or take photos, or enjoy learning more about other gardens, and say that it’s been fun to meet other bloggers in real life. These things are all true, but here’s a reason why I think blogging is not only enjoyable but magical:

Although we have no trouble talking, whining, discussing, joking, arguing, laughing, teasing and seeing the value of each other’s opinion in the blog world, this might never happen in the ordinary world. We’re sequestered in our separate circles – at work, in organizations, with family & friends, at children’s soccer games, in clubs, or on vacations. You might zip past my house on a bike while Philo and I would be inside the gate, working on a garden project. I might wave hello if we were in front, and you might wave back, and say hello, too, and that would be it.
But here, through the magical Blogosphere, from all over the world, women & men, of every lifestyle and orientation, old & young, with or without kids, with or without pets, with or without money, or health, or beauty, or physical strength or status - here is a place where disparate people can have genuine conversations.

It is a busy time of year, and I'm not sure who has time to read, let alone write, but if Mary in North Carolina, Gary in Houston and La Gringa in Honduras would like to answer, consider yourself tagged.