In a Vase on…erm, Sunday: Five Years a Blogger

I am taking the liberty of posting my Monday vase a day early – because today it is five years since I began blogging and combining the occasion with the first showing of this lovely vase has been my plan since Christmas when I received it from talented Elder Daughter. She painted it at one of those paint-it-yourself pottery places that have sprung up and the thought that clearly went into the design and application brought tears to my eyes (in a way no other present has ever done) when I opened the completely unexpected gift  – just how much more personalised could a gift be? And isn’t it beautiful?

Today the vase holds some pretty pink pleasurable preludes of spring, notably the Anemone coronaria ‘Sylphide’ which I have failed to grow to flowering stage up to now and therefore thrilled to have achieved this year. Started off in pots in the greenhouse in October and November they suddenly began producing buds and were duly cossetted last week in the hope there would be some open blooms today, which there are – hurrah! Equally sudden in producing blooms is the fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris, culled from the woodland and adjacent path edges and opening from tight bud to full snakeshead glory within an hour or two of being brought inside. Reducing potential hellebore flop, slightly ‘over’ hellebore blooms were added as in this state they tend to hold their own for more than just a few days. Completing the pretty pinks are Pulmonaria ‘Trevi Fountain’ and the strikingly bright Bergenia ‘Abendglut’. The square profile of the vase with its gradually splayed sides allows the blooms to gently and attractively loll over the edges.

Like most of our garden blogging community I had little concept of where my tentative entry into blogging five years ago would take me, either figuratively or geographically. It has enriched my life in unmeasurable ways through contact with other bloggers, increasing my knowledge and gardening skills and forging on-line supportive friendships with a diverse bunch of people. Geographically it has taken me up and down the UK from the Outer Hebrides to Gloucestershire to meet other bloggers and there has been a similar and generous two-way flow of plants and seeds around the UK and beyond. For me, there is a joy to be found in the actual writing too, the ‘long form’ of social media as Loree of Danger Garden put it when she talked her 8th blogging anniversary last week. Although I deliberately reduced the frequency of posts after the first two years as my immersion in blogging world (and simultaneously in my garden) deepened, it still satisfies an inner ‘need’ to write, sometimes in poetic form as regular readers will know. So hurrah! for blogging, and garden blogging in particular 🙂

In a Vase on Monday, now into its fourth year and an integral fixture of the week for many of us, has been an unexpectedly successful feature of this blog and despite an anniversary of its own every November it seemed a fitting tribute to the personalised gift from Elder Daughter to combine this blogging anniversary with IAVOM just for today. Even without a blogging anniversary, you can still share the occasion and seek out material from your own garden or foraged nearby and pop it in a vase to bring you joy during the week, creating your own IAVOM post with links to and from this one so that we can share in your pleasure.

Finally, a big thank you to all readers of this blog, whether regularly, weekly or just occasionally. Thank you for enriching my life with your comments, support and friendship – long may it continue.