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Welcome to my Western Pennsylvania garden. Join me on a "Walk Down the Garden Path".

Friday, October 24, 2008

Meeting at a Crossroad

As garden bloggers our paths cross every day on the internet superhighway. But it is not very often that our paths can cross on actual highways. I was very fortunate to be able to cross paths with two garden bloggers recently, Tina from In The Garden and TC, The Write Gardener.


This meeting was arranged because Tina was going to be traveling to Maine from Tennessee via Pennsylvania! Since she and her family, yes I got to meet Mr. Fix-it and her son Jimmy too, were going to be passing through Western Pennsylvania around dinner time, we made plans to meet at a Bob Evans not far from the highway. TC drove down and I drove over and wham-o, after fighting a bit of rush hour traffic, there were three garden bloggers face to face.



Here's the best picture I have from our meeting. That's TC, Tina, Me, and Lillian.

I was last to arrive to the party, with Lillian the days of getting out of the house quickly are gone. Then it was like Christmas as we all began to exchange little gifts. Tina made me one of her now famous stone markers and brought two gooseberry plants for me to plant in my garden. I will treasure these gifts and think of her each time I see them. TC brought us each a copy of "Tough Plants for Northern Gardens" by Felder Rushing. He wrote the forward for this book and was kind enough to inscribe it for each of us. This book is excellent and will be a good reference in the years to come. I brought some off shoots of my Century plant for both Tina and TC. Each went home with a tiny baby one and one that was a little larger. My original Century plant was a pass along plant from my great aunt and I am happy to continue it's legacy of giving.




The next order of business was the group photo. There were several taken with various configurations of garden bloggers and family. The parking lot had lovely trees filled with berries which made a great backdrop. Of course it was a feat to get everyone to stop chattering away in order to smile for the camera!

We eventually made our way into the restaurant and sat down for lively conversation on all subjects and a good meal to boot. The time just flew by and to tell you the truth I can just remember snippets of conversation, it all happened so quickly and there were often several conversations going at once. Of course there was plenty of garden talk and blog talk, but there were other topics as well. However, we couldn't keep Tina and her family too long because there were still many miles to be travelled that evening and more the next day. And Lillian was ready to be rambling about the restaurant and that is nothing but trouble.

One observation I would like to make about meeting fellow bloggers in person, is that it gives a voice to their blog that wasn't there before. When I read Tina's and TC's blogs now, it will be more personal, and I will hear their voices as I read the posts. Tina and TC, I am so glad we were able to meet and have even a short time to get to know each other a little better beyond the garden and the blog.

18 comments:

tina said...

This is a PERFECT description of the meeting and so touching. It was really great meeting you and hearing your voice and TC's too. You are being so modest, Lillian was an absolute doll the whole time! This meeting was great fun and made our long trip fly.

Helen/patientgardener said...

It is nice to meet fellow bloggers - I have found that I feel like I have known them for ages

Anonymous said...

Hi Cindy, Isn't Tina so sweet? How wonderful that you got to meet fellow bloggers and little Lillian is adorable, even if she slows you down a bit. ;->
Frances
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

Gail said...

Cindy,

Well said! After Spring Fling and then our TN Garden Bloggers' meet up, I could picture and hear each of the gardeners so well. What a delightful time you all had together...thank you for sharing.

Gail

Cindy said...

Tina ~ you are such a dear. Lillian was so good in part because Mr. Fix-it was helping keep her entertained from across the table :)

Patient Gardener ~ that's so true, since we know so much about one another before meeting in person, it's like a reunion of old friends.

Frances ~ Tina is sweet, and so super friendly, she puts you at ease immediately. It's funny, I said Lillian slows me down but really if it weren't for her I'd be slowing down even more. She keeps me busy and that's a great thing!

Gail ~ it really was a lot of fun. Garden bloggers are some of the nicest people I know.

Anonymous said...

How lucky that you guys were able to meet up for dinner. It is nice to be able to put a name with a face and a voice with a blog. What a lovely visit you had with Tina & TC. I treasure the marker Tina made for me. :)

Rose said...

Cindy, I just read Tina's post and recognized Lillian right away before she identified you and TC. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. I like your description of your meeting as "giving a voice" to the bloggers. I feel as if I have so made so many friends through blogging, but meeting them in person would certainly add another dimension to their blogs. What fun!

Cindy said...

PGL ~ Tina is so sweet to make so many of those marker's. I'll always be thinking of her when I see mine :)

Rose ~ There are so many bloggers I would love to meet as well. Having a common interest like gardening you know there is at least one subject to talk about! I guess that's why the Spring Fling is so popular and sounds like lots of fun, although I won't be able to be there :(

TC said...

I can't tell you how much I loved meeting you and Ms. Tina. It's so true what you said about the blogs having a more personal feel now that we've met in person.

You have such a wonderful family, and I can only hope the next meet-up is not too far in the future; my wife is really anxious to meet y'all and was disappointed that she couldn't come with me.

You're plants are resting now in their new home. Thank you so much!

Warmly,

TC

TC said...

P.S. I agree with Ms. Tina; you are being too modest. ;~)

Anonymous said...

It was really great meeting you, your family and TC as well. Lillian was wonderful. she kept me entertained as well. It was a refreshing break to stop from our trip to spend time with some of Tina's friends. I will always have fond memories of the meeting. I hope that some time in the near future to be able to meet again. You have a wonderful family. It was great to meet John as well, I feel that we made friends for a lifetime.

Cindy said...

TC ~ Thank you for such kind words. I really enjoyed your post on our visit and your wife must be certainly be a part of the next meeting.

Mr. Fix-It ~ Welcome and thank you for your kind words. I hope that we meet again soon and until then we will have our memories of this meeting to enjoy.

DP Nguyen said...

That's so awesome that you got to meet Tina! She's such a sweet lady. The tough plants book was published by Cool Springs Press, where I used to work. I always find it amusing that gardeners are using books that I used to help with :-)

Cindy said...

DP ~ Tina is the best and I was so happy to meet her in person. That is so cool that you had worked on that book. I bet that is neat when you run across books that you had a hand in.

joey said...

How fun to meet ... a perfect day. Would be fun to have a big screen TV and connect as we post (however, checking myself out at the moment, might not be such a good idea after all ;)

Anonymous said...

How nice is that!
I agree about meeting bloggers in real life. Adds another aspect for sure.
I'm also a more loyal reader if I've met the blogger in real life.

Anonymous said...

oops - left wrong url

Cindy said...

Jendi ~ it definitely makes it more personal when reading the blog and the comments.