Blog FAQ 2018-2020

A blog allows me to communicate with potential & current readers in a direct and informal way which feels natural to me after all these years of conversing with people.  We can chat and communicate about garden products, travel favorites, or other ideas without any inherent baggage getting in the way.

Several of my starting posts will be based on previous iterations of my journals, so the timelines will seem odd. But I have to put them in some order . . . Also, many posts will be image-heavy. I’ve designed the pages to handle them, but there may be some lag time.. [ I just changed my Hosting outfit in October 2020 and am using Litespeed servers to address this. ]

Also, all my links to internal and external pages are designed for increased accessibility by using italics and underlining wherever the theme allows.. Most or all images use ‘alt tags’ as well. I hope this helps. Positive comments are helpful regarding this.

Everybody’s welcome in the garden.

In the future there will probably be a chat link when I’m in the office, for fast chats. For now though, I’ve got a contact form like everybody else. This way my readers get the facts about useful garden methods, designs or products without a sales angle as I earn my keep out in the world.  I’ve always tried to only recommend things I’ve used or seen used successfully through a season.

I should also declare to all the lawyers that I am not considered “an expert” in these fields – just an avid enthusiast about my core subjects . . The Terms of Service page is here in case you are a lawyer.

More gory details are also on the Policy Page here. With 2019, comes COPPA, Brexit and the EU’s GDPR rules – it’s getting more complex just to blog.

Also, however – I am planning to be a sales affiliate of companies like Amazon, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and several independent sales companies.  The products and services that I link to on this site are ones that I use or have used myself and am proud to recommend. [2022 update: The affiliate $$ has dried up by 2/3, so it’s not worth it to put in all the linking & research effort – especially Amazon.com. I have kept linking to IronWoodTools.com for the cutting tools, just because they’re so well made . . . ]

So, here goes. . . .   Subjects I write & photo about include:

Other bloggers may contribute with new content also, since there is a huge knowledge base out in the travel & gardening communities.

My picture taking is 1 level above amateur, and I use my Pixel cell phone – so many pics will look less than staged, but will convey the subject well, I hope . . . Also, I use paid & free stock photos of famous sights like Lady Liberty or Venetian gondolas, (since they’re fabulous quality) and many catalog images for flowers, tools, & trees.  Where I can, I add attribution for others’ hard work.  (Photographers don’t get enough credit on the web.)

I hope this gives the reader an overview of what to expect, so you can come back often & read, enjoy, & add good comments to the new posts.  I try to have 2 posts a week published with pictures, but sometimes there might be 1 since researching, adding links, and adding pics can take a surprising amount of time – especially when I’m updating from my journals.     BONJOUR . . .

Acknowledgements:  My thanks to my Wife, who tolerates my writing schedule, and children. Rory for comments on earlier drafts; Nick for advice on cyber security; and Meghan for help on cooking as well.

Of course, responsibility for any remaining errors in content or style is mine alone.