I feel your pain. When I read the heading "just dropped in" I thought of the song "I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in" and the condition of this forum is lacking, but why? Have we covered all the bases? In looking over all the back posts have we answered every question? I doubt it, there is always something to be said about your own garden or there is information to share. As an example, let me share this with you. When I go to gardening symposia I feel that if I learn just one thing then the day was worth it. At one symposium I learned about cornus florida - the native dogwood. Cornus is the genus and is Latin for dogwood. One would think florida means it was discovered in the state of Florida but florida is also Latin and stands for flori (flowers) da (lots of).
That information won't change your life but might make you look like an expert someday if you plant someone in the audience to ask the right question.

Well eddie you just dropped in too eh? Nice to see you. I can't understand why this forum never took off, there has been periodical spats but it was never consistant and a clan necessary for longevity and communication never developed. I will forever take issue with Ken Druse who used this forum for his own purposes and gave hope that he may return the favour but he took what he needed and split and may well have set the tone. Nice one Ken. There were others, Elizabeth who was the opposite to Ken Druse and was shot down, Lisa who exchanged her husband for a Toyota pick-up and told the story here, John with an ego as big and brittle as an ostrich egg. You, eddie, a story teller, a song writer a snake oil salesman. I just dropped in and you are the only one here. Hi.

Ink, Yes, this forum has been awful quiet as of late but I think people are out there reading it. Some are too shy to post and others may wait till they have something profound to contribute. This forum is not the only one in this condition, the Master Gardener forum is also mighty quiet. I remember Elizabeth ( Dr. Whorticulture?) as a prodigious poster. She got upset and rightly so at being banned right after she had paid a fee to join this forum. LIsa? Isn't that the one who always took my ideas, reworded them and reposted them as her own?
Good to hear from you Ink. I'm here for the long haul. I may not have a lot to say but I won't let that stop me from saying it.

I think people come and go, yes many still read, but many more have gone off down the paths they found for themselves. I do my website and teach/facilitate here and there. Taking photos, writing plant descriptions and metatags does not make lofty prose, it's just nuts and bolts ag docs.

Okay, anything to keep this moribund forum from total decay. I finished my manuscript on bristlecone pine biology and it came to a mere 21,000 words. One publisher liked it but rejected it because the shortest book on their list is about 3X that. Three have not yet gotten back to me, but I'm not optimistic. More words would either belabor points already made or add content I do not want. I figured this might happen and have been looking into selfing it. Going by "printing on demand" would give me an atrocious looking and overpriced book. Good book printers are hard to find. Maybe I'll learn to do plumbing.

pinetree,
Do you have many color pictures? Is that why you think that good printers are hard to find? I self published my first book after the original publisher went under, and found a great printer, at a great price, in Michigan. I found that this was much less expensive than print on demand, although you do have to pay up front for a number of copies, as well as pack and ship when you have an order. There were no full color pics in this book, so I can't say if they would do these at a reasonable price.

>>She got upset and rightly so at being banned right after she had paid a fee to join this forum. Who paid to get onto the forum?, or any forum for that matter? Goodness the web is full of free stuff and much of it is good, so why pay?

And INK, just because you were the first to point out no one had posted for a while, does not mean no one visited and thought about posting. I certainly did, but real life and deadlines got in the way.

For me real life involved a move (with kids and cat plus husband) and the loss of one newspaper had that used me as a stringer - cannot justify someone out of state though. I am filling my time finding work to compensate for that, plus unpacking boxes of stuff.

I always said though that summer was quiet on the boards - we add gardening and social stuff to our life, and if we do not take away time from contracts already in the hopper, then we have less time for chit chat on boards.

aah katie, the road to hell hey, how easily it got paved with good intentions. The reason you don't post, be honest, is because no one responds. If this was an active resource you would find the time to stay in the loop but as it is more or less a lame duck why bother there are more productive ways to spend your time.

What is the difference in using:

that or which

and

which is best: can, could or may?

Trudi, my love, either or, it is the attitude that counts and yours is up yours.

My attitude is up, but yours seems so down.

Perhaps you need to take a walk for inspiration. Go to Marineland and throw marshmellows to the bears, or visit Clifton Hill and eat a Beaver Tail with some chocolate sauce, or go for a ride on gondola and look at the mist over the waters.

Well, well... GardenWeb has left the gate open and Poppa sneaks through. Steals a peek and sees weeds sprouting along the path. The bird bath is tipped over and cracked, last year's leaves are blown into a corner and hunkered down. Broken branches are laying in the weedy flowers, their boned fingers scratching across the walkway as if the dying beds had sprouted arms and tried to claw their way from the yard. The gate swings and bangs in the breeze, a broken latch fails to catch.

"Darn", poppa thinks. "They've escaped!"

I don't know why but that bit about the leaves blown into a corner made me laugh. C'mon Poppa, don't you have anything disparaging to say about anybody? More later, gotta go to the Farmers Market before it closes.

Are you back yet eddie, did you get lost? Tell us what kind of farmer you bought. I went to a flea market once, I have never paid for a flea they just seem to arrive, is it the same with farmers? Imagine a market economy where you only bought what you need/want/like. How popular do you think a mosquito market would be?

Last year at the Farmer's Market I had a booth, my brother had a booth and my cousin had a booth. This year I dropped out because mostly I was people watching, which was fun, plus I spent any profits buying things from the other merchants. They started out with 6 soap vendors. Of course that didn't last and now there is one. Funny thing Ink should mention the mosquito, here in Georgia it is our state bird.
Someday in the future I hope to sell persimmons and gourds at the local market. Meantime, I hope everyone here has a gourd day.

I'm having a not-so-gourd day, so I started browsing around the boards to amuse myself. Instead, I frightened myself when I found this thread and a Kenny Rogers song started going through my head - and then I read that Eddie had the same reaction. It's quite frightening to think my mind works like Eddie's. (Hi, Eddie!)

I wish I had a good excuse like Katie who has moved to a new home. Instead, it's the day-to-day grind that has me worn down. The car keeps breaking down, the fridge leaks water at random moments (well, not so random, it usually happens about 10 minutes AFTER you wanted to be in bed), my son went to Guatemala and brought home bronchitis for the whole family - you get the drift. I keep slogging away, but every time I turn around, another dam* tribble falls out of the cupboard at my feet.

I've been involved in some volunteer work for a cause I strongly believe in, but lately the administrative issues have been outweighing the real issues, and I feel like I am wasting my time. I'm giving strong consideration to pulling in my horns, resigning from my volunteer job and refocusing. I saw an ad Saturday night for a "life coach"; maybe I need to hire one?

V., who dropped in to consdier dropping out

And why is it your eye sees "consdier" right after you hit the Submit button?

Consider my post corrected.

Oh V - my heart goes out to you. Those pesky little things in life really do make a whole heap of trouble at times.

As for the volunteer thing - I was lucky, I was waaaaay overcommitted in Indiana, so when we moved to Pittsburgh, I pulled up the drawbridge and said 'No More'. It kinda worked.

Now we are in Atlanta GA and I am ready to jump back into things. I hope I have learnt my lesson about committment but time will only tell. There are doers in this world and 'fussers'. I prefer to solve the problems not fuss about what needs to be done. The blessings of a corporate life is that you can reinvent yourself every few years.
I am now a Southern Belle!!

Katy, you've hit the nail on the head with the doers and the fussers. Hmm, maybe we should be hitting the fussers on the head?

Y'all realize what you have done? You have moved into Eddie's backyard and you've told him! Beware of what may just drop in on you...

V.

I hear you on the volunteer stuff! NFPs are a pain in the butt for sure, the only way to get away from the fuss is to seek adminstrative level so you can be the fusser and no longer the fussee. Network, NetWork, NETWORK until you make the grade--then everything gets a LOT easier.

T, who has a life entirely dedicated to NFP work and loves it but wishes sometimes to be able to escape into the garden more often than is possible.

PS--V, years back I had persistant bronchitus that wasn't healing fast-enough with AntiBs. A dear friend from the Caribbean brought to me a gift she made herself. It was a bottle of fresh lime juice squeezed into an equal amount of honey, then boiled to blend and strained to remove the lime solids. Amazingly, a teaspoon every few hours seemed to save my throat and ease the cough. Diminishing the "wracking" that shakes your chest and hurts so bad, spared my body enough energy to begin healing. I feel for you and your family and know how lousy it is to have bronchitus--it takes weeks to heal and weeks to feel back to normal again. I hope you all are over this soon.

One reason it never took off was that newbies were considered interlopers, shunned or denigrated for attempting a post, muchless writing.

Perhaps part of the problem is that both writing and gardening are somewhat solitary avocations, so that people who write about gardening are probably a cat's whisker from being hermits. The tradition of the cranky garden scold in horticultural literature is not entirely an artifice.
Don

Boy, Don... I am at odds with you on that observation. While it is probably not too difficult to find an individual who can fit that mold, it doesn't have to be that way. Attitude is a choice!

I approach both gardening (in the broadest sense) and writing as celebrations of what I do. Thomas Church had it right when he titled a book, Gardens Are For People.

Gardening should not turn people into hermits -- those that become hermits are making a poor choice. Take a few of those extra tomatoes down the street to the wheelchair-bound, elderly neighbor and tell me that gardening isn't happiness. Invite the little neighbor girls riding their bikes down the street to take a bouquet of daisies home to their mothers. Daisies can become almost a weed in the garden and look much better gracing a dinner table than being added to your compost heap. In the process, you are able to garner a little more 'neighbor' in the word, neighborhood.

Write an old friend a letter describing the wonders of your garden and then tell me the word "cranky" ever enters into the reader's mind. Life is good. Writing has the power to make it even better.

IronBelly

ps: Come on in Patricia. The water is fine.

Iron... well, I was kind of kidding (except for the cranky part)... by the by, if you get up to I.C. next spring, stop in for a garden tour and a drink. The azaleas are nice in May.
Don

Don,
I thought that posting was a bit out of character for you. I gladly accept your invitation.

Trust me when I tell you how much joy your few written words have given me. (See... It works!)

IronBelly