“Vanessa” Persian Ironwood

August 2015 – home from the nursery

August 2015 – Just planted

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August 2019 – Today

 

The Persian Ironwood tree (Parrotia persica) is native to Iran, or Persia, as it was originally known.  This is a selected variety introduced in England in 1840.  It’s much more narrow growing than the species, which can get quite wide, tho not that tall.  They’re wonderful 4 season trees, with tiny red flowers in late winter and early spring.  Then in summer the scallop shaped leaves come out with reddish tinges on the margins and very lush growth.  By fall it turns spectacular shades of bright golden yellow, which you can see in some of these photos here.  In winter the bark is the beautiful part, turning a mottled green, cream and tan as it ages.  The form is also quite lovely in winter when you can easily see its branching patterns.

This is a relatively columnar form of this tree and is supposed to grow 20 – 40 feel tall and 10 – 20 feet wide.  I’ve pruned the base of it to keep it narrow so it will fit in between the paths where we’ve planted it.  It’s been growing by leaps and bounds every year.  You can see how large it’s gotten in just 5 growing seasons, and the summer isn’t over yet so it’s still growing now.  It’s pretty cool to see it put on 3 – 4 feet of growth each year, tho some  websites say it’s slow growing.  Not for us!  At first the foliage just flops all over itself and falls down into the paths.  But as the summer progresses the branches pull themselves back up into a more narrow form.  I had to restrain myself to keep from pruning it the first year as I watched this habit develop.  Sometimes it’s best to just wait and see what a tree will do before you lop off a branch or two.  You can’t put them back on you know…

Vanessa, which was named for a colorful species of butterfly, has received the prestigious Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticulture Society, and is also a Great Plant Pick chosen by the Elisabeth Miller botanical garden here in Seattle.  It’s in the same family as the witch hazels, but the flowers on this one don’t have any fragrance.  I’ve never seen a really large specimen of this tree, but I’ve seen lots of photos, and it’s really striking as it gets bigger.  As usual I didn’t really give it quite as much room as it might like so I’ll have to continue to do some aesthetic and therapeutic pruning on it as time goes on.  Right now I’m training a couple of the main trunks to head out from under the canopy of the plum next to it so it will grow up and over the plum and the two won’t fight each other as much.  It’s challenging to do this training but it’s also a lot of fun figuring out just how to get everyone here to get along with one another.

This tree likes the moist peaty soil we have in our little Nature Sanctuary here in Greenwood.  It holds the water well but also drains nicely so there’s no worry about over watering.  I also don’t have to give it nearly as much water as other gardeners here in Seattle say they need to do to establish their trees.  I have a system of counting to a certain number based on how many gallons of water the hose puts out per minute.  Yes, I measured the output of the hose to do this.  Sometimes it gets a little bit nuts to count out all the plants to be sure they get enough water.  At times I can’t seem to stop myself from counting everything I run into!  It’s useful to help the plants to establish well, but it makes me a little bit crazy… 😉

Happy gardening!

Steve

“Red Pygmy” Japanese Maple

“Red Pygmy” Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Red Pygmy”)

I planted this tree as a small sapling no more than 3 feet tall in December of 2009.  I’ve been amazed at its continued good growth in its 9 growing seasons since then.  These days it puts on over a foot of growth all over itself each year, and it’s getting to be quite big for a “small” maple.  I think it likes the deep rich peaty soils we have here.  Its thin, lacy leaves open as a deep burgundy and gradually fade to this lighter shade of reddish green you see here.  In the fall it’s a blaze of bright yellow-orange you can see from across the yard.

If you look closely you may be able to see the winged samaras – the seeds it’s putting on now.  If I’m lucky I may have some little seedlings to grow next year!  It’s been given the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.  I have several other plants in the garden that have received this designation.  No big deal really, but it means authorities across the world, or at least in England, think it’s a cool plant.  So do I…  🙂

This is one of my real success stories here in the garden.  It’s just grown so well.  At one point it had lost a large portion of its bark on one side, for no apparent reason.  I was worried about it so I asked the nursery, but they had no idea what was wrong.  So I’ve just kept it clean and well watered and it’s been healing nicely ever since, tho there’s still a small area without bark.  It seems to be doing fine.  Projections are for this tree to grow 8 – 10′ x 6 – 8′ in 10 years, and it’s about 8′ tall and wide now so that seems about right.  I think it’ll get a bit bigger from now on…  Not bad for a little sapling!

Hope you’re having a great Summer!

Steve

My Last Awards

I’ve been honored to receive many Awards over the last month or so. I”m very grateful to the people who have nominated me for them. But I’m also overwhelmed by all of them at once. I’ve tried my hand at awards before and I’ve found that it’s difficult for me to nominate others because of how many people have such ambivalent feelings towards them. I see them as a good thing – a way to connect with other bloggers and to showcase their work to our own communities of readers. I’ve met and come to treasure many other people on here thru the award system and have tried to be good at following the rules and nominating folks when I can. But I’m going try something different now because I’ve been stuck on how to do so many of these in such a short time. I don’t want my blog to turn into an awards station, I want to be able to blog about gardening and other similar subjects. This will be my last post on awards…

So in that vein I’m going to do something I’ve seen recently on other bloggers sites. In fact I’ve seen this several times and I wonder if it’s a new trend. I’m going to thank the people who have awarded me these awards and go thru each of them in a single post. I mean no disrespect to any of the people who have originated the awards or who do carry them forward with nominations and the various rules they all have. But this the best way for me to honor the people who nominated me and still present the awards to the general community and let them know they exist and are going around to people. I’m grateful to a lot of people here but I won’t be nominating anyone, so don’t fear you’ll see your name on here somewhere. These are varied awards and cover a wide range of aspects of blogging and I am grateful for each of them.

 

 

So without further ado I’ll start out with the first one I got back a month ago from Belsbror, the Being a Light in the World Award. You can find his wonderful blog at:  http://belsbror.wordpress.com/ and I encourage you to go there and read some of his remarkable posts. Each of them has his unique imprint on them and tells us stories of his life and observations and perspectives on it. I’ve been following his blog for some time and have always found something interesting to read when I visit him. I’m very grateful for this award and thank him very much for nominating me for it. I don’t know that I’m a great light in the world but I do try to be one. It’s an important task to try to do this and I’m pleased that someone considers me a light in this often too dark world we live in. We need all the Light we can get! It’s a very nice award to receive and I’m happy to have it. Thanks Belsbror and the best to you always.

 

The next round of  awards are thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Iliana of the White Rabbit’s Gallery. You can find her work at: http://hakescafe.com/ and I encourage you to visit her and read her blog. She is a wonderful blogger and has become a real friend to me over the course of the last couple of years I’ve been blogging. I always find beauty in her work and true wisdom in her writings, some of which are pretty intense but I love that about her work – she really puts herself into what she does and it’s evident in what she has to show us. Whether it’s a beautiful photograph, of which she has many, or the words she attaches to them, which are often priceless. Or if it’s the writings she does about some very intense and important topics, all her work shows an understanding of life’s challenges and joys. She is always there for me when I need to have a friendly shoulder to lean on and has given me some great advice, encouragement and comments in my blog and on her site as well. I feel a real connection with her and I apologize for not being so precise in my dealing with these awards. Each of them has meaning to me and I’m honored to receive them, especially from her. I can’t say enough nice things about her and her work and I really hope you do visit her soon. I know many others agree with me that she’s an extraordinary blogger and will appreciate what she has to offer the world with her work and life.

So on to the Awards… The Versatile Blogger Award I’ve already gotten and am honored to receive it again as it’s a nice one, valuing the way a person can put so many varied interests in one blog and keep it going in context. That’s my interpretation of course, but I think it covers it well. I try to be as versatile in my work as my context allows, which is why I subtitle my blog “Through a Gardener’s Lens” as a focus. It allows me to address many topics besides just gardening and I’ll try to do more of that as time goes on.

The Angel Award is a difficult one for me as I don’t think of myself as an Angel really, but I take the meaning of it. As someone pointed out to me it’s the Work that’s the Angel we’re talking about here and the Presence of the energy of beauty in the work described. I hope I show that in my work as I try to always do so. The work of Gardening is my Angel and talking about it is my joy, as it is for many others. Thank you Iliana for this gentle award.

Next is the Inner Peace Award with a Yoda figure as its logo. I find this a particularly lovely gift to get. I struggle with inner peace all the time, as some of you know,  and to get this award is a real gift to me and telling me that I must be doing something right to receive it. I’m not bragging here, I’m just acknowledging that I have found a modicum of inner peace and I know what it’s like to have it, tho I don’t always do so. But it’s often enough that I feel it and can relate well to this award. Thank you once more Iliana for this precious award.

The final award really isn’t supposed to be lumped in with others but I apologize to the author and put in in here with the others from Iliana because they fit this way. She says this is a thank you from her to me for encouraging her to garden, a nicer compliment I couldn’t imagine getting. Any time I can help one more person to find their joy in the work I find so rewarding is a good day for me. I’ve been talking with her about this for awhile and it’s a great thing for me to receive the Butterfly Light Award for this bit of work, that really is no work at all to me. It’s a gift to be able to share it with all my readers and I hope I turn many more people on to the Light of gardening and its joys thru time.

 

I wish to thank Aquileana  for this last round of awards – the quadruple crown so to speak – four awards in one! Wow! I’ve only known Aquileana for a short time and I’m very impressed with her work and blog. She delves deep into the mythology and the writings of our elders in the western world of the mysteries of existence in meaningful and subtle ways that excite the imagination of all who read her. She puts complex subjects into common language that we can all understand  and I’ve found much wisdom in her posts about the ancient world and its mysteries and philosophies. I encourage you to go to her blog at: http://aquileana.wordpress.com/ and read her posts. She really gets deeply into her subjects and I have enjoyed myself reading her work very much. I hope you enjoy it as well and visit her and see for yourself. Thank you Aquileanna for this Amazing 4 in 1 Award! It’s awesome, and so are you!

The first award in the quadruple configuration is the Inner Peace Award. I’m not sure if it’s the same one with Yoda, but it may be. As I said before I have found a bit of inner peace in my life and I feel good about this recognition of it. It’s difficult to always keep it going but I do try. I guess that’s the best we all can do eh? Try to focus on inner peace so that we can spread it out to the rest of the world and make it all more peaceful. I do try to do that, and I hope you do too.

The next one is the Sunshine Award, given to those who bring a ray of sunshine into the blogging world.  This is a very neat award for a gardener to receive I have to say. It’s just perfect. After all what more do we all want in our gardens but more sun! It’s so amazing for a person who lives in grey Seattle to get this one cause sun is a rare thing for us here at times. We go weeks without seeing it so having it in my blog is a constant source of its beauty. What a nice thing to get. Thank you Aquileana, once again…

Third is the Most Influential Blogger Award. I don’t know about this one. I don’t consider myself very influential and certainly I don’t feel I’m the Most influential one. But I must have an affect on my readers now and then and for that I’m honored to receive this award. I hope my words do influence people for the better and that they bring joy and happiness to others. That’s why I do this,  to turn people on to the beauty of the natural world and all that we have to share in its creation. Thanks for this one too…

Finally is the Awesome Blog Content Award. I guess this one I’ll accept without reservation cause I really do think I have some awesome blog content. I don’t take much credit for it tho since I think it comes almost entirely from my photos and words about the garden, which is the real hero of this story as far as I’m concerned. Every thing I do in this blog somehow relates to gardening and how wonderful it is to do such a thing with ones life. I truly do love it and I think my blog presents a good picture of how cool it can be to do it. I sure do hope so. Thank you for these awards Aquileana and I hope to see you here again in the future, as I will be at your site too. I’m very grateful for this group of awards and hope I can live up to their honors.

So that’s the awards. Now comes the part I have a hard time with so I’m going to cheat a bit here and simply say thanks to all those who read this blog. Any of these awards can go to whoever thinks they fit their work or blog. I freely award them to all the wonderful people who have gifted me with the tremendous honor of reading my work and following or liking my blog. I try to present things that will be of interest to others but I know I don’t always succeed as well as I could. That’s why I want to get back to writing about the garden and be done with these Awards. Tho I’m very grateful, I’m still more of a gardener than a collector of awards. They’re very nice and I’m very honored to receive them but it’s not why I blog- to get awards. I know many others feel the same way I do so from this point on I think I may just have to say thanks but no thanks for more awards. I just can’t do them well enough to feel comfortable accepting them anymore. They’ve been a gift to me and I hope to others and I want to leave it there while it feels good to me and not like a chore, which it’s close to becoming I’m afraid.

So I’ll close this extraordinarily long post with thanks to Belsbror, Iliana and Aquileana for honoring me with these awards and to every person who may want to give me an award I say thank you, but no thanks. It’s enough to have people like what I write and to follow my blogs and comment on them. I don’t need awards to feel like I’m doing what I need to do here, but I’ve been glad to get them so I want to quit while I am ahead of the game with them. So thank you to everyone that has honored me with an award. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s been swell. Now I’m going back to the garden… 🙂

Peace and Love,

Steve

Shauny Too

I realize after re-reading my last post several times that I need to add a bit to it. Mostly I want to say more about the bloggers I nominated for this award. I didn’t do a good enough job of praising them and I intend to try to remedy that now.

I chose them all for one simple reason – they all have excellent blogs that I have read a lot of and they all embody the tenets of this award really well. I want to thank them for what they’ve done for me personally and for the WordPress community with their work. They all engage me in their own unique ways. Each one of these folks has the ability to put their thoughts into words or art on their blogs so that they call to me and draw me in to read more. I have been stimulated, enlivened, entertained and had my thoughts provoked in good ways.

Some of these people are similar to me I think. Others are very different. But they all make me laugh or cry, or see the world in new ways or even confuse me and cause me to question my own views of reality and look at things anew. They all make me feel like I should honor them for their work. And I am so grateful that they are here to share their insights into the world with all of us. They’re the type of bloggers who makes this community so rich and varied and this really is a varied list of folks.

From herbal insight infused with Natural wisdom to Photos that startle and amaze me. From original art that inspires me, to funny stories or takes on difficult subjects, or how to grow a good food garden and have fun with growing things. From just plain silliness and fun to deep insights into the human condition, they all thrill me with the way they work with such grace and ease.

They all are unique and I hope that many people will visit their sites to see them and learn more about their worlds. In a word, I feel a Kinship with these people that transcends the ordinary and that’s such a treasure to me. I value these people so much and I hope you will too when you get to know them as I have. Many thanks to you all for your work and play with your blogs. You are very much appreciated!

I chose these particular bloggers with care, because of all the things I just said, even tho I knew that some of them don’t accept awards and others may feel this to be a burden to them. I apologize if the latter is true. If you don’t want to accept or deal with this award I hope you choose to say Thanks but No thanks, and not be offended by my award to you.

I may be making a fool of myself here but that’s OK. It’s more important to me that I try to explain myself and make any amends I need to make. I care deeply about these folks, especially a few of them, and I wouldn’t want to do anything that damaged or harmed our relationships. So if I’ve done that I apologize and hope you’ll still continue to come around and visit me and I’ll do the same with you, for sure.

I hope I’ve accomplished what I set out to do in re-framing this last post some and offering more reasons why I did it the way I did. Life means taking risks and I’ve just taken one I know, but it’s alright. Relationships take work and we’ve all worked at these and I don’t want an award post to challenge those efforts on all our parts. Thank you for reading my words and I hope to see you soon.

Peace and Love,

Steve

The Shauny Award

I’d like to thank Tamara of My Botanical Garden for my nomination for the Shauny Award. This is a new award and I’ll talk about it in a minute. But first a few words about Tamara. I’ve been following her blog for some time and I really enjoy it a lot. She has a philosophy I can really relate to in presenting her Botanical Garden. She sees them Everywhere and if it’s beautiful it’s a Garden to her. Or that’s how I see it in her posts at least. They are varied and beautiful and cover a wide range of plants as well as other topics. I highly recommend you visit her at: http://mybotanicalgarden.wordpress.com/ and see her work. I think you’ll be very impressed, as I am. I thank you so much for this award, Tamara, and wish you all the best in your future blogging endeavors.

This award was recently originated by Dr. Rex in late November of last year (see: http://hrexach.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/a-new-blogging-award-has-been-created-the-shauny-award-for-blogging-excellence/ ). She saw something in Shaun Gibson of Scotland that everyone who visits his site sees. A wonderful and generous man who researches his subjects well, covers a broad range of topics in his blog, and embodies the principles of this Award so well. You can see his blog at: http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/the-shauny-award-for-blogging-exellence/. I hope you’ll visit these sites and see why this award was created and enjoy Shaun’s work. Shaun says this award is for Blogging Excellence and he chose the rules for this it. I’ll post them now. They’re quite unique:

1. Show humanity, show love, be yourself, don’t be others, don’t gossip, and then share with 10 others.

I try my best to embody the tenets of this award in my life and in my blogging. I hope that this is seen in my work here on WordPress and to those who know me in my life outside of cyberspace. I think these are maxims to live by and they aren’t always as easy to pull off as it might seem. But it’s worth the effort to do so because what else is there if we don’t love, and show our humanity and honesty to others? What’s the point? Being oneself is critical to my way of thinking if we want to be real, and that’s always been a big goal of mine. It’s a constant bit of work but that’s because we’re all complicated people and have many facets to our personalities. I tend to show different parts of myself to different people, depending on the situation. I’m very versatile in that way. That’s why I have 2 blogs on here, one for my world of Gardening, and one for my inner world at Naked Nerves, which is much more intense and deeper in its portrayal of my energies and ways of being. In both of these blogs I try to follow Shaun’s advice to show humanity, be myself and be real, not to gossip and to show Love most of all, towards myself and my topics, and towards those who visit me and read my posts. I dunno if he wanted us to talk about oursleves but it seems necessary to do so if we want to show how we’re following Shaun’s rules. I hope I haven’t blathered on too long but I felt it was important to say these things. Now, on with the program, more or less…

There are a lot of people I could nominate for this award. But in the last 2 months I’ve already received 3 awards and the folks I most want to award this to have already been nominated by me for other awards and I really don’t want to overwhelm anyone, or give an award that’s not desired. No offense meant. In fact I mean it as a compliment to you. I’ll make my list but I won’t be contacting people as I usually do. So if you see your name here and want to accept this award please do. If you don’t want it then that’s fine too. I just want, as always, to honor you for your wonderful blogs and to thank you for being so good to me and to the overall community for your excellent and continuing efforts to make this place interesting and alive with thought and possibilities. I think all these blogs show excellence. They make me feel good about blogging. I know there are many people who deserve this award and hopefully it’ll continue to spread. I hope I help do that even if my way is a bit different. So here are my 10 nominations and I do hope you’ll go to visit them and see their diverse and inspiring blogs:

1. White Rabbit’s Gallery: http://hakescafe.com/

2. Apothecarys Garden: http://apothecarysgarden.com/

3. Palm Rae Urban Pottager: http://palmraeurbanpotager.com/

4. The Belmont Rooster: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/ (deleted, but I love and miss it… and he deserves the honor)

5. Mix and Match Meme: http://mixandmatchmeme.wordpress.com/

6. This Time, This Space: http://thistimethisspace.com/

7. Cancer Killing Recipe: http://cancerkillingrecipe.wordpress.com/

8. Jane Adams Art: http://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/

9. The Jiggly Bits: http://thejigglybits.com/

10. Bipolar Codex: http://bipolarcodex.wordpress.com/

I sincerely hope that the folks I’ve nominated for this award are pleased to receive it, even if they don’t want it or feel overwhelmed by too many awards, as I seem to be feeling myself right now. I think the awards are a very good way to meet new bloggers yourself and to introduce them to your circle of followers and friends. They help to build the community here by our connections and interactions. I mean no dishonor to them by my way of doing this award. Maybe I’m overreacting but I doubt it. I’ve talked to some of these folks and I know they feel similarly, as do many others I’ve been in contact with recently. I’m very grateful for being nominated for these awards but I think maybe I’ll take a bit of a break from them now. If I get another one I will do my best to honor it but I may just say Thanks but no thanks as so many others do. I understand now why they do that. It makes me a bit sad but I came here to blog about my life and garden, not to be honored for it. I get good feedback from the people who read my blogs and I’m very grateful to all of you who are reading this now. I hope you’ll be back to visit me again, and I promise to get back to blogging about my garden as soon as I think of a new topic… 😉

All my best to Shaun and Tamara and to the incredible bloggers I’ve named above.

Peace to you all,

Steve

PS. Please see next post for more information on this Award. Thanks…

The Versatile Blogger Award

I’m very honored that Belsbror has nominated me for this Award. As I understand it, it’s given to people who truly love their blogging experience. Belsbror is a good example of this himself. He sees the unique in the ordinary and he writes about it in evocative ways that mirror his visions. His allusions to diverse concepts in the titles of his posts always intrigue me and draw me in to read more and more of them. I hope you’ll take the time to visit his excellent blog at: http://belsbror.wordpress.com/. It’ll definitely be worth your time to visit this extraordinary blogger and artist. Thank you so much, Belsbror, for this award. I’m very grateful and I wish the best to you in your continuing endeavors.

As usual there are rules to this award and I’ll list my version of them now.

1. Post the rules and the Award badge on your site

2. Make a post thanking the person who nominated you and provide a link to their site

3. Write 7 things about yourself

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers you think deserve this award

I’ll start with the hardest one for me, listing 7 things about myself.

1. I think Redwoods may be my favorite trees, but it’s hard to say for sure

2. I live in a wonderful home with my partner in a quiet part of the city

3. I love mushrooms but I don’t collect them because I don’t know enough

4. I have a 40 acre homestead in the Okanogan Highlands of Eastern WA

5. I used to be a producer, booking agent and manger of musicians many years ago

6. I created a non-profit educational center and hosted many classes in healing there

7. I’m a bit of a goof, sometimes 😉

I’d like to say a few things about these awards before I go further. This is the 3rd one I’ve received in just 2 months and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by them. I have another one waiting for me to do also. I’m very honored to get these awards and I try my best to follow the rules and do the work of connecting other people to new bloggers and turn them on to new ideas and thoughts. I think this is a great thing to do. But I know a lot of people don’t like the awards and I’ve had very mixed results myself in nominating others for them. I’d say maybe ½ of the folks I’ve nominated have never even acknowledged the award and some have even deleted my nomination post to them. Others have just thanked me and said they don’t accept awards. I understand the latter, but I don’t the former. I wish that people would at least say “thanks but no thanks” if they don’t want an award instead of leaving me in confusion and wonderment about whether I offended them or what. It’s hard on a sensitive guy like me to have this happen. I do these awards to try to compliment other bloggers for their work and I don’t fault those who don’t participate. But I’d really like to know what’s happening with the ones who don’t say anything to me about them. OK, enough said. Now on to the nominations…

My 15 nominees are all excellent bloggers who truly do love their work in the blogging world. I appreciate all these sites and more besides, but I’ve already nominated many people I like and I don’t want to overwhelm them so I’m offering a new set of folks to you here than I have in the past. I really like all these blogs and feel that they love what they do and present a blog that engages others and makes them think about new ideas and concepts and gives them a sense of the beauty we all share in this world. It’s an honor to nominate you all and as always it’s up to you if you want to accept the award or not. I just want you to know I appreciate your work and think it’s wonderful and that you deserve recognition. I hope you will follow the rules and accept it but if not that’s cool. Regardless, you have my heart felt congratulations. Thanks for an excellent blog and for offering me a glimpse into your diverse worlds of wonder. All the best to all of you. Thank you for being so loving in your presentations.

Garden Variety: http://gardenvarietynews.wordpress.com/

The Ancient Eavesdropper: http://tylerpedersen02.wordpress.com/

The Not so Secret Life of a Manic Depressant: http://zedmondson.wordpress.com/

Mightwar: http://mightwar.com/

Ray Ferrer, Emotion on Canvas: http://urbanwallart.wordpress.com/

Green Grows Dark: http://greengrowsdark.wordpress.com/

The Loquacionist: http://theloquacionist.wordpress.com/

Lorraine Reguly’s Life: http://lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com/

Butterflies and Gardens: http://butterfliesandgardens.wordpress.com/

The Violet Fern: http://thevioletfern.com/

Making the Invisible Visible: http://maketheinvisiblevisible.wordpress.com/

Gardening Tips For All: http://gardeningtipsforall.wordpress.com/

Getting Naked: http://owlofknowledge.com/

Walk with me on my Journey of Illness to the Road of Happiness and a Life of Fulfillment: http://tlohuis.wordpress.com/

Twng32: http://twng32.wordpress.com/about/

So that’s it. I hope you will go to these delightful bloggers and check out their sites. I’ve followed most all of these folks for at least awhile and have enjoyed what I’ve read and feel that they all love what they do, for various reasons. Some have a burning desire to share what it’s like to be ill in some way and some offer us the joys of gardening in diverse fashions. Some may present other things as well, like travel and photography and visiting the world and showing us things that we might not interact with on our own. This is a wonderful gift these folks are giving to the WordPress Community and I thank them all for being here sharing with us! Peace and love to you all!

Steve

The Dragon’s Loyalty Award

I’d like to thank Lonnie Miller, the Belmont Rooster, for nominating me for this award. He is a real inspiration to me as a blogger who is very involved in the world as well as his blog. He advocates for causes he believes in and also covers a huge range of plants in his blog about “gardening, and plants, and maybe more”, as he puts it. And that “more“ is what makes his blog so wonderful to me. He engages me with his style and he tells stories along with his plant impressions. His wit and humor shine thru his writings. I’m very honored to receive this award from Lonnie because it’s such a very special award and he so embodies the qualities of loyalty with his comments and likes that I think of with this award. More on that soon. I highly recommend you go to his site and view his work. You can find him at: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/ and I encourage you to visit him and enjoy his posts. Thanks so much, Lonnie!

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who offered it to you and link to their site.

2. Display the award on your site and write a post about it.

3. Present 15 or so other bloggers with the award and let them know about it.

4. Write 7 things about yourself.

5. List the Rules.

I’d like to say a few things about this award first. I’ve read that it’s a combination of the Versatile Bloggers Award and the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. That’s a very cool reason for it. But the reason for it I like the best is that it’s given to people who have commented or liked or followed your site and it’s a way to thank them for being loyal fans of yours. Thus the naming of Loyalty and the memory of Dragons who stay true to their ways. I think this is a very interactive award and I really appreciate the chance to thank these folks I’ll nominate for being willing to visit me and comment or like my posts or for following my blog and reading what I have to say. I’ve cut my list down to a manageble amount as I couldn’t possibly list all those who have liked my site, so if I haven’t mentioned you don’t worry. I still appreciate you and hope you’ll continue to come visit me as I will you. It’s about connections as I see it and I feel connected to these folks in a good way thru these blogs.

So here are my choices. Feel free to accept or not as you choose. This is meant as a compliment to you and not a chore, tho it may seem like it when you try to do the work. But frankly I think it’s worth it to encourage those connections we have with each other and be good netizens and bloggers. If you want to take this award and put it on your site please do and follow whatever of the rules you can. I hope people do accept this, as I’ve given awards to others who never even contacted me back and I wonder about that. I know people have different opinions of awards and mine is that they’re a good thing and need to be treated with the respect with which they are offered. I hope you take it this way when I offer this to you. I sincerely do thank you for being a friend to me in the last couple of months I’ve been back on line. So a big Thank You to you incredible people and bloggers. Peace and love to you all!

Jane Adams Art: http://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/

Mix and Match Meme: http://mixandmatchmeme.wordpress.com/

Palm Rae, Urban Pottager: http://palmraeurbanpotager.com/

Apothecary’s Garden: http://apothecarysgarden.com/?wref=bif

White Rabbit’s Gallery http://hakescafe.com/

Arthur in the Garden: http://arthur-in-the-garden.com/

Belsbror: http://belsbror.wordpress.com/

A North East Ohio Garden: http://aneogarden.wordpress.com/

ClanMother: http://clanmother.com/

Cancer Killing Recipe: http://cancerkillingrecipe.wordpress.com/

The Talking Violin: http://thetalkingviolin.com/

She Brings Me Water http://shebringsmewater.wordpress.com/

Sandra Danby: http://sandradanby.com/

Karen Ellis Blog: http://followkarenellis.com/

Edwin Colon Pagan: http://edwincolonpagan.wordpress.com/

So that’s my list. Now I need to start contacting you so that you know I’ve given you this nomination. I wish the best to all of you and hope you know how much I appreciate each of you. Thank you for brightening my world with each visit you gift to me. I’m very grateful.

Oops! Almost forgot to list 7 things about myself. I suspect a lot of people almost “forget’” to do this one… 🙂 It’s always hard to talk about yourself isn’t it?…

1. I’m a Scorpio with a Sag Moon and Gemini Rising, and I act like it…

2. I Love the Fall of the year. It’s when I was born and I have an affinity for the “Time of Falling off and Dying”, as I’ve heard it called.

3. I have Bipolar Disorder, and I do well despite it, or maybe because of it, who knows?

4. It only rains in Seattle some of the time, right? (I’m a cynical optimist…)
   

5. I want to live long enough to see the trees I planted get big. I’ll only be in my 80’s then so why not?

6. I’m lucky to be in love with the most wonderful man on earth.

7. I like to explore the limits of what is known as “reality”.

OK, that’ll do, as an old friend used to say to his sheep dog. Works for me. Time to go now.

Peace,

Steve

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I am very grateful to announce that I have been nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by the Belmont Rooster – Lonnie Miller. His blog is fascinating to a gardener like myself. He’s been at it for years and you can tell. He’s collected hundreds of plants that he talks about and shows us in his posts on two different gardens he’s done. He also sprinkles in some good old fashioned wisdom now and then about the human condition, and that all makes him a Very Inspiring Blogger himself, as well as his other awards and many great posts. He’s a bit of an activist blogger and does a lot of work for his Awards and posts. I think that’s great! You can see his work at: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/ and I strongly encourage you to do so. Thanks a bunch for this Award, Lonnie!

I’m a bit overwhelmed by all this I have to say – simply receiving it is an honor to me and I really appreciate it. It’s my first award and maybe will be the last I don’t know so I’ll enjoy it while I can. I have to do several things I learned from Lonnie in order to accept this Award and one of them is simply to list them. So I’ll list the rules now:

Rules of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

1. Thank the person who nominated you and supply a link to their blog.

2. Display the Award on your post.

3. List the Award rules so your nominees will know what to do.

4. State 7 things about yourself

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the Award.

6. Contact your nominees to let them know you have nominated them and provide a link to this post about it.

7. Proudly display the award logo (or button) on your Blog, whether on the About page, your sidebar, or on a special awards page.

Even Lonnie says you don’t have to follow these rules exactly as he’s written them. Just do your best. The intent is to enjoy the honor and to connect people to other bloggers you think are important to share with the WordPress Community. That’s my opinion anyway…

I’ve done numbers 1,2,3 & 7 already so I’ll try now for number 4. It’s a hard one for me, and for others too I’ll bet. Here we go:

7 things about myself:

1. I love steamed greens with balsamic vinegar and a touch of butter.

2. I just read a series of books about a moral wizard.

3. I like the Afro-Celt Sound System a lot.

4. I adore chocolate, duh… ( I know – too easy.. 😉 )

5. I don’t exercise enough and it’s killing me.

6. I am Not the typical Seattle geek, but a geek nevertheless, I guess…

7. I wear glasses to see this computer but not to see Life, yet.

OK, that’s done. Whew! So, on to the next, and most important piece of the things I have to do – Nominate my nominees. I have to say a couple of things here to explain myself to some people. I got the notion from Lonnie that I had to contact the people I wanted to nominate First and get their approval Before I nominated them. I have since learned that it’s far easier and more common to simply post your favorites and let the cards fall where they may as far as people accepting them. So I’m doing a bit of both. I’d already contacted several people when I learned this advice so to those I contacted I say Thank You for letting me nominate you whether you’ve responded to me yet or not. The important thing is to honor You and say you deserve this Award for your Excellent blog. If you want it I applaud you for being willing to carry it on and follow the rules. If you don’t want to I understand and still think you Rock!

So here are my favorite inspiring blogs as of right now this moment because it could change in a minute when I read something new I like. I’m not fickle but I do like a lot of different things… I could have listed more frankly. Some I’ve followed for a year, some for a couple of weeks, but I like them all and they’ve all meant something good to me. Here are my Nominees, in no particular order. You all have Wonderful blogs that have definitely inspired me and I thank you all for them!

My 15 nominees

1. White Rabbit’s Gallery http://hakescafe.com/

2. This Time – This Space http://thistimethisspace.com/

3. The Bipolar Codex http://bipolarcodex.wordpress.com/

4. The Novice Gardener http://thenovicegardener.wordpress.com/

5. My Botanical Garden http://mybotanicalgarden.wordpress.com/

6. Chris Condello http://chriscondello.wordpress.com/

7. Cancer Killing Recipe http://cancerkillingrecipe.wordpress.com/

8. She Brings Me Water http://shebringsmewater.wordpress.com/

9. To Be Aware http://idolanuel.com/

10. Horticultural Hobbit http://horticulturalhobbit.com/

11. Acair Fearann http://acairfearann.com/

12. The Jiggly Bits http://thejigglybits.com/

13. Kendall F. Person – The Public Blogger http://thepublicblogger.com/

14. Earthing Rocks http://earthingrocks.wordpress.com/

15. The Apothecary’s Garden http://apothecarysgarden.com/?wref=bif

I really hope you’ll take the time to visit these extraordinary bloggers and their wonderful blogs. To the nominees: To make it a bit easier here are a couple of links that tell you more about the Award and how to put it up on your site. I used this and it was pretty easy to do. The hard part is linking all your nominees to your post. That took some time and energy, but it’s just copy and paste so it’s not really that bad. It’s a lot of work to receive these Awards I’m finding and I wonder about the necessity of all the rules. But I see that they are necessary if the Awards system is to continue and I hope it does. I’m doing my best to follow them and I hope you will too if you accept the Award. It’s meant as a compliment to you and not as extra work, tho I know it is.

Posting the Award to your Blog

Here are a couple of links from Lonnie… This is to his post about receiving the VIB Award and he shows you a bunch of possible logos you can use so I’m posting the link to them here instead of trying to redo them all on my site because I don’t know how. Check this out: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/my-very-inspiring-blogger-award/. You can also go to a site that he recommends there to get the story on putting the logo on your site itself in the sidebar. It’s from the site by Lorraine Reguly and has a neat video that explains it well. Here it is: http://lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/how-to-add-images-to-your-sidebar/.

So I guess I’ve covered everything I can think of. I’m really happy that we have these Awards. I notice a lot on some sites and none on others and I wonder why? Now I have a better idea. First you have to be nominated for an Award and then you have to do some work to make it continue. I think it’s a great way to introduce your community to new blogs they might not have heard of or read. It’s a good thing and I’m totally glad I got this Award. But I’ll think twice the next time, if there is one, before accepting I think. I’ll see what this does for me in terms of getting more likes and follows and especially comments. I don’t get many of them and I treasure them all. Please do talk to me if you like my own work. Feedback is essential if we’re going to be good at this and I’ve gotten enough to make me feel like it’s worthwhile to continue but I could use more. I wish that for everyone on here – that you have people like your posts and follow and comment on your blogs. It’s a good system and there are a Lot of us on here so what you say can have far reaching effects. That’s a good thing I think. I always try to speak directly to my readers with what I have to say, and I know that my words will echo out into the blogoshpere for years potentially. Nothing ever goes away on the net…. So blog well and conscientiously and have fun doing it. Thank You all again for Inspiring me with your blogs.

All the best to you all,

Steve