Wordless Wednesday: "As blinding storm gusts fret thy shore, And wild waves lash thy strand" L'Anse Amour, Labrador

You are all my Valentines...following up on last week's discussion

As is very typical, life got extremely busy over the past week or so. Appointments in other areas, car problems, interviews for projects I'm doing, plus this one big project that will have me quite occupied until August, all conspired to keep me from doing a whole lot in the way of followup on the post that has generated a huge amount of discussion and feedback. That post, of course, is about encouraging other garden bloggers.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: THANK YOU to all who have read and commented, brought suggestions to the table, put your own suggestions into action, inspired others. With more than 80 comments, it was obvious that this topic matters to many people, and that there are great ideas on giving a helping hand to others. I call it blogging karma, helping out others the way some of us were encouraged when we began, but I wasn't surprised that a number of people mentioned that they wished they'd had some sort of a mentor or feedback when they were starting out.

Starting out has its challenges, to be sure. How do other people know where to find you? Well, although it's not a perfect answer, one great place to start is by registering at Blotanical. Many of us who are active there regularly go through the list of new bloggers, and while it's impossible to read all blogs, we do what we can to visit other plots, welcome new bloggers/Blotanical members (because you don't have to be a new blogger to register there, of course) and encourage them to participate and have fun. There are drawbacks to the site--it grew rather quickly, and Stuart IS working on navigation and speed issues, but he does this as a volunteer project, not a fulltime job, I stress, so it takes a while to revamp something as large as the site.

A number of people have come up with their own ways of drawing attention to newer blogs. This can be a challenge, because so many of us read many online now, have our favourites, and wonder how we can possibly add any more (I'm abandoning housework, personally). Some are choosing to adopt a few blogs. Jean at Jean's garden is doing a Garden Blog(s) of the Month post, an excellent idea. She picked out three blogs from the newer ones listed on Blotanical, and highlighted them so that others can easily visit.

Charlotte, our intrepid Galloping Gardener, writes entertaining and delightful posts as she gallops around the world visiting places many of us will only get to see through the joy of reading blogs. She's chosen a handful of blogs to promote on her blog, and you'll find at least one or two or five that you'll want to follow regularly, too.

Teza was the first to take up my little challenge request, and promptly put up a sidebar on the righthand column of his blog with a different blogger being promoted every week. I liked this idea so much that I’ve done it myself. You have to check weekly and mouse over the photo to see what the blog of the week is, mostly because the widget he and I are using doesn’t allow a lot of editing. As neither of us told the blogger of the week who they are, it's a surprise for them when new visitors start arriving. I like giving nice surprises to people. Sort of like Valentines. Hence the pink-flowered collages in this post--pink and red are known as Valentine colours, and I thought I'd start with pink just because it's a nice contrast to the snowy days many of us are having. I'd give you all chocolates, or blue poppy seeds, or something if I could. A virtual hug and a floral sign of gratitude is the best I can do for now.

Jen from Muddy Boot Dreams suggests that people pick out a link or two from her blogroll and visit those; also a good idea, especially for someone like Jen who keeps her blogroll regularly updated. Drop by some sites and they have all kinds of blogs listed, some of which no longer exist, or haven't posted in months, etc, and that gets annoying for those looking to visit new-to-them blogs. I've been guilty of not housekeeping mine at times too (note to self--do that!)

Cindee at Moonstone Gardens is including the link to a "Blogger of the Week" at the end of her posts, too. I like what she says: "I'm hoping it will funnel some readers to new friends around the world." Nicely done, Cindee!

I know there are others doing similar things, but I'm supposed to be writing plant profiles right now so I can goof off later tonight, so I'll leave you with two things. If you're doing something cool to promote other bloggers, please leave me a comment, and I'll add you to this post with a link, of course.

Speaking of links, ways to get others participating, and just plain fun, I was really glad when Jan at Thanks for Today began blogging again. It both meant she was feeling better, and that we’d get to enjoy her heartfelt posts and stunning photography. In her typical generous spirit, Jan is thinking about the planet and about other bloggers, and is focusing on Earth Day, which is 22 April in the US and Canada alike. Jan believes that every day ought to be Earth Day, which is a good point, but as a way of encouraging lots of dialogue on the topic, she has created a giveaway to entice bloggers to write a post for Earth Day and sustainable living. Pop on over to Thanks for Today and see what she’s offering and what she’s asking.

That's it for today, friends. Again, thank you all for your enthusiasms and wisdoms. One more round of pink festivities to everyone.

LATE BREAKING NEWS! I don't know what's going on today, but I've had a gazillion spam comments try to go through on this post. I approve all comments but it's getting annoying having to wade through to my layout section and reject the spam comments (I'm afraid of publishing one somewhere by accident and not being able to find it) I'm disallowing anonymous commenters for a day or so to see if that stops them. As far as I know, anyone with a blog, google id, etc can still post.

Skywatch Friday: The World's Highest Tides...and a little history

In my Wordless Wednesday post, I put up a photo which many of you thought was quite cool, and more than a few of you wondered about. Since it WAS Wordless Wednesday, I didn't offer any explanation other than the title, so I thought I'd explain a bit in this complementary post, just in time for Skywatch Friday.

I live on the west coast of Nova Scotia, overlooking the upper Bay of Fundy, home of the world's highest tides. A couple of years ago I did a post explaining something about the geography of our area. One of the characteristics of our area is numerous tidal rivers, including the Habitant River, which flows past the village of Canning and out to the Minas Basin. Because the river IS tidal, the waters rise and fall twice daily. In the cold of winter, ice forms, of course, and that gets tossed up into chunks like giants' ice cubes, along the muddy banks of the river. The photo from Wordless Wednesday was shot early one morning when there was hoarfrost on the trees and there'd been enough very cold days to make ice, which had been shuffled around several times by tides. Mist rising off the mud, ice and water just added to the mood.

I mentioned the aboiteaux, which is an Acadian word meaning sluiceway. The Acadians who settled here in the 17th century reclaimed hundreds of acres of fertile lands along the rivers and inland from the Minas Basin by building long dykes made of earth and rock, which held back the tidal waters and made the fertile acres available for cropping. This worked with the Basin, but what about the rivers? They had to flow, but the Acadians didn't want the salt water backing up into the croplands above the dykes. Their solution was to create one-way sluiceways, les aboiteaux, built of wood and with a flap at one end to allow the river waters to flow towards the Basin, but not to allow the seawater to flood back over the croplands.

The Wellington Dyke, in Lower Canard, both holds back the sea waters and has a modern aboiteaux which keeps the tidal Canard River from flooding the agricultural lands behind the dyke walls. This dyke and sluiceway, unlike the one at Habitant, would have been built by the British settlers who located in this area after Le Grand Dérangement, the Expulsion of the Acadians, in 1755. This photo shows the tidal part of the river at low tide...

And this is it at high water. Quite a different situation.

This is all a very timely post for several reasons. During the Expulsion, the Acadians were removed from their homelands, in what is now Nova Scotia, and many of them went south...both to Louisiana, home of what are now referred to as the Cajuns...and some went on to Haiti.

In standing on the dyke walls the other day, I thought about the tenacity of those first Acadians 250 years ago, and how their spirit of determination held them together as a people even in the face of being displaced from their homes, their farms and livestock, from all but their lives. They went elsewhere, and built new lives, and in time some came back here and reestablished, and are proudly here to this day.

Determination. Undaunted spirit and will to survive. The waters didn't defeat them, and neither did the politics.

post writen by jodi (bloomingwriter)