8 October 2007
On being appreciated.
Last week I was flattered to discover that Frankie had awarded me an Egel Nest award for blog excellence. Blimey!
I’m never quite sure how to respond when Pumpkin Soup is complimented in this way by people who read it as I end up feeling a bit embarassed and bewildered. I’m not good at accepting compliments!
That said, one of the things I have enjoyed most about writing P’Soup has been the people. I work with a lot of people who seem to regard the internet as a massive obstacle to forming meaningful human relationships and who are rather suspicious of anyone, like me, who disagree. My experience of writing Pumpkin Soup is that it has been a different way of making links with people who share similar interests to me who I otherwise would never have ‘met’. Sure, the people who comment here or whose blogs I read are not my best friends, but I neither need nor expect them to be - I already have best friends. I have, however, had such warm, encouraging and friendly responses to my vegetable growing highs and lows that it seems ridiculous to suggest that the comments and thoughts of people here are meaningless. They certainly mean something to me.
So, thank you Frankie for thinking that P’Soup was worthy of an award. And thank you also to everyone who makes contact through comments or emails. Please keep ‘em coming. It’s so much nicer than blogging into a void.
Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 11:39 am
I agree. I think in the past people formed communities with the people who lived nearby. All your family would probably live nearby. All your neighbours would have similar occupations to you, similar lifestyles, you would talk to them and share your interests and experiences with them and you’d have a lot in common. But now we often don’t live in that kind of community. My nearest relative is 50 miles away. Almost everybody I see on a day-to-day basis thinks I’m bonkers. I quite like being thought of as bonkers but I also need to be able to talk to people about gardening, beekeeping, chickens, and how to live sustainably on the planet. The internet allows me to find people who share those interests, even if they live hundreds or thousands of miles away. I don’t want to lose my real friends and just have internet friends, but I wouldn’t want to lose my internet friends and just make do with real friends. Either way I’d lose something precious.
(08.10.07 @ 1:03 pm)
Hi Mel - I don’t think you’re bonkers. But then, like you, many people think that I am totally potty, so who am I to judge?
(10.10.07 @ 5:32 pm)
Hear, hear. I’m just sad I didn’t discover this interwebulator thingy years ago. It’s been wonderful to find a whole community of other freaks and weirdos with whom I can talk gardening. And blogging about it lets me bore for Britain in cyberspace without my luckless friends having to listen. Unimprovable.
(11.10.07 @ 6:44 am)
Congrats on your Egel Nest award!
Bradley
The Egel Nest
(15.10.07 @ 8:22 pm)
Soilman - freaks and weirdos? Whatever do you mean? We’re all perfectly sane and normal here, honest. Plus, I’ve read your blog and I know there’s nothing boring there. You’ve got the pink gloves to prove it!
Bradley - many thanks and welcome to Pumpkin Soup.
(15.10.07 @ 9:23 pm)