A New Year, a new garden, a soon to be new me?

Finally, it's 2013, a year I never dreamed I would be so glad to see. As many of you know, 2012 was my very own personal "annis horribilis", in which I not only lost my beloved partner, but also was uprooted from the home we made together and lived and gardened in for 13 years. I am well and truly grateful to be almost through that terrible "year of firsts" that comes after losing a loved one.

 So many of my friends, near and far, have gone through illness, death of a loved one, job losses and relocations, in the past year or two. Through my own experiences, I really, REALLY know how they feel and can say my mantra for life now is "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone we meet is fighting some kind of battle." It doesn't cost us anything to be kind to one another, although events in the world can often make us wonder. I have been so blessed by the kindness of my family and friends, and am determined to pay it forward in whatever ways possible.




It was difficult finding the time and energy to write blog posts sometimes in 2012. I was busy setting up and running bloominganswers.com, which in late December celebrated its first year of existence. It continues to be a work in progress, and of course it's only as good as the participation of its members, but I am optimistic that we'll continue to grow and bloom. Y'all are welcome to join--it is free, thanks to support from local businesses who advertise on the site. Everyone who joins gets vetted to make sure they're a real person and not a bot, but that's for all our protection.

 2013 finds me in a new location, as I have written before, with some mature shrubs and trees, some goutweed (!%$&@*&?!!), and otherwise pretty much a blank slate on which to create new gardens. So I'm spending time this winter planning and thinking and dreaming and slobbering over plants, books, websites, catalogues. You know the kind of thing I mean.

 In all this planning, I will be assisted by my loyal feline companions who like to supervise me when I'm at my labours...such as Doodlebug, here seen in his normal position crowding other things off my desk!

 And certainly I'll be doing plenty of container plantings, as I have done in the past, as portable gardens. These may be serving a dual purpose. I was supposed to have my first knee replacement on this past Thursday, but after 5 hours waiting at the hospital, they cancelled me and sent me home. No word on when the surgery will be rescheduled. IF they don't get it done well before spring, I may discover that most of my gardening will be done in containers, as my knees are seriously limiting what I can do these days. No matter. It's not fatal, and I will be a pain in the medical system's side until such time as they get the job done.

While I dislike making resolutions and tend to avoid them at every turn, I will say that I plan to do more book reviews this year, as I had somewhat slacked off from them along with everything else to do with bloomingwriter over the past year. Some of the books I'll be reviewing have been around for several years, such as Bill Terry's terrific books (one of which was published last year) on my beloved Meconopsis, or blue poppies. I'll be kicking off with Amanda Thomsen's terrific new book, Kiss My Aster!, which is definitely a winner for gardeners of all skill levels.

So that's it. No huge lists of resolutions, no retrospective on last year, no ginormous plans, other than to keep putting one foot in front of the other, one word in front of the next, one seed, one plant. I thought about shutting the blog down after seven years, but I still consider blogs valuable and useful and fun--and it's a way to give back to my loyal readers, and to encourage all of us to grow great gardens. Happy New Year, from me and the kitties to you and yours--may we all bloom joyously this year.