Happy Anniversary To Me

Good Morning, Friends. I am up before the sun this morning. The Head Gardener put on a different hat  way before the crack of dawn to take a trip to the mountains. Guess who could not fall back to sleep? I quick-brewed my coffee pod and settled in to read my blog. I was commenting on a dollhouse blog that I have just joined, introducing myself when I realized that I have had an anniversary. I began Welcome to the Garden Spot August 5, 2010 after doing some Goggling on toads with my grandson. He had question about a toad that we had found in the yard. I stumbled on Robin's Nesting Place, a wonderful blog about garden, flowers, birds, photography, blogging. I realized that I could do what she did: Blog. Robin was my inspiration to begin. Today her life and blog have moved on, grown, evolved, as life does. She still blogs, but now more about the beautiful furniture that she re-purposes and less about her garden life. We are Face Book Friends now.

I went for a month without any comments, no followers. I got depressed. Upset. At some point I removed all of my photos, so the early posts don't have any photos. Dumb, I know. My first follower was my best friend who lives Elsewhere. We grew up together. Rode our horses on the mesa west of Denver. Spent Saturday nights at the cowboy dance halls. We are both educators. I don't think she reads the blog. She joined because I twisted her arm. I have blogged about her granddaughter, Shey who lived with us while she attended the university. Side note: Did I tell you that Shey is now a grad student and a TA who will be studying English Literature and teaching freshman comp at the University of Northern Colorado? So proud of her. Anyway. I digress. My second follower was my daughter Heather. Then my second daughter Jen signed on. Bless family and friends.Some of my favs have faded away. I miss them, wonder what they are doing. Hope they are okay.

Then I received my first comment from Carolyn at http://www.thisgrandmothersgarden.com. I was so encouraged. She found me through Blotanical where I began to make more friends. I added more followers by joining a garden blog hop.

Kelli at KellI's Northern Ireland Garden has been with me since that first August. Thank you so much. Having traveled to Ireland, but not Northern Ireland, I enjoy having a friend there. She is a brave gardener whom I admire because she has a great talent for starting plants from seed--successfully. I also have several friends in the UK where I have toured twice, desperately wanting to return before I get too old to travel. I love your photos of the English countryside and reading about your gardens and your English life. On my father's side I am totally English, with some Irish and German on my mother's side, so I am in touch with my English roots, for sure.

I have made friends literally all over the world, some close to home, others in faraway lands that I may never travel to. You all read about my wonderful trip to the Denver Botanical Gardens to meet in person Pom Pom, who keeps a sweet homespun blog that always makes her readers feel uplifted at the end of a good read.

From the plains of Colorado to the tropics in Florida, to the rolling English countryside, from Canada, to Australia and Holland, I have such sweet followers who are happy, cheerful, wise, creative, and such fun to blog with. I daydream about traveling to all those faraway places and meeting my virtual friends who take me on such wonderful armchair get-aways.

Since I started the blog, we have lost our pets that I featured in a series called Meet the Pet Children: the cockatiel, Stevie Wonder 22, Jasmine 17, our little girl kitty, Country 18, the cat who loved ride the EZGO with us, and sweet Max 15, our German Short Haired Pointer, all of whom lived with us for nearly 2 decades. The biggest loss, The Head Gardener's mother 82 passed, too, after many months suffering horrible dementia in a nursing home. She loved to garden and loved to help her son putter around the yard.

But we gained two new babies, Nathan now 5 has finished his first week of kindergarten and little Lily who is God's little reminder of who really is in control, now two. Not to forget Boone Doggle, the rescue pup that has far more energy than all 5 grandchildren. The Head Gardener retired shortly after moving to the Garden Spot in 2009, then went back to his job part time--twice. I retired, too. And we are busier than ever. How does that happen?

I have dug into my old photo archives, even fired up the old MacPro laptop to look for those early photos but it so badly suffers from old age that I gave up the search opting for one photo that says it best: I heart you.

Finally, let's not make this all about me because the blog is as much about you, especially in a time of need to ask for support, patience, and prayer to get through a difficult time. We offer each other that extra bit of support, understanding, compassion, love and prayer. Through our little notes of support we can reach across both ocean and land through this miracle Internet to say we are here for each other.

So Thank You all for following Welcome to the Garden Spot. And a special thanks to a brother who reads the blog and saves his comments for Face Time.

Have a wonderful week end and thanks for stopping by.