First Anniversary with Blotanical ~Bangchik

I wish I had the writing  flair like some of us bloggers to write something memorable about the eleventh of March. It was the date last year, I got myself registered with Blotanical , a gardening directory, when out of  inactivity due to an operation, I went on with the frenzy of gardening and blogging. Gardening is actually a passion that has long been subdued due to time constraint.

A month after getting myself into the community of Blotanical, I did a post titled  Blotanical: A simple analysis on popularity.I tried to be very objective about gardening, blogging and Blotanical. Here is an extract of that post:

1. Why join Blotanical?
Early Mac 2009 was a non productive period in my life. I spent 3 days in Hospital Putrajaya, Malaysia for an operation. On the day of discharge, Doctor Hari, an extremely nice guy with excessive professional demeanour slipped a 2 week medical certificate into my hands. So I was expected to recuperate at home barred from going to work for two weeks! Yes I enjoyed the brief moments as I peep through the side window checking from far how my garden and plants faring during my absence. Yes, Kakdah had extended her help tending to my needs and the plants as well. The kids were away crowding only during weekends.

Then to rekindle the passionate bond with gardening, the idea of creating a blog arised . I bumped into two local blogs, by Lili of Blossom and FJL of Blog Garden, and it was much of Lili’s remark that I decided to join Blotanical. For Lili to be given a red star, I guess she very much deserved it…Click for more 

2. Blotanical Little Yearly Glamour.

Interestingly, I bumped into the unexpected Blotanical glamour of being tagged in 2009 as The Best Vegetable Gardening Blog, The Best Asian Blog, The Newcomer Blog of The Year third place, Blotanist of The Year second place. [click here]  I have said thank you very much to friends, gardeners, bloggers and blotanist who clicked on Bangchik and My Little Vegetable Garden blog as Nomination and Voting process went on.

3. A present from My Little Vegetable Garden.

I love to end this short post by saying thank you to Stuart for his enthusiasm to keep Blotanical alive, friends who keep visiting and commenting,  to Kakdah for her patience and passion in gardening adventure, to neighbours and friends who continuously open their hands and hearts as we offer them the fruits of gardening labour. We are counting blessings and do appreciate what God has in store out of gardening, playing with dirt, weather and nature. The pictures of our tomato progress replicate this happy feeling.....

the first to appear

the little yellow flowers

the abundance

the latest appearance.

Thanks everyone 

~Bangchik and Kakdah

My little vegetable garden

Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Today is the last day for daily posts.

I have been churning pictures to display and share here in this blog and the Blotanical on daily basis. Out of necessity , I have to make a change. No more daily posts, Only Wordless Wednesday for the next two month. I am going for a long, long trip overseas......

The Wordless Wednesday to be posted later are pictures I have collected earlier, to share here but I will not  be able to respond to your comments. Do come and share your time and thoughts. Garden is the big wide world, Blotanical in its funny way manage to link these little gardens to a much bigger and more meaningful world called Garden of EARTH......... and its ours, all of us.

I will return......

Cheers
~bangchik and kakdah

She said thank you..,

It was quite sometimes ago, that we received a mail from Sweden. A blotanist, Maria Berg mailed a nice necklace to acknowledge the correct answer she was looking for. A simple gesture that connects blotanists across the globe and continents.

It was about the answer I gave to her question. Delima (local name) or pomegranate !!. I wasn't an expert about plants, it just so happened that I had the experience of growing this particular plant before, and had enough knowledge to pinpoint its name. How can I forget pomegranate, its leaves, branches, shoots and fruits. Growing pomegranate had given us excellent juicy fruits many years ago...

Maria, all the way from Sweden was the title of my post on 27th of May 2009 to dedicate this particular Blotanical Friendship. I mentioned about giving the lovely necklace to Adlina, our first grandchild.

The recent festive season, gathered all of us in Perak. Kakdah put the necklace around Adlina's neck. The little girl said "thank you" and smiled.

Kakdah and Adlina

Adlina with the necklace

from auntie Maria Berg, Sweden

Cheers
~Bangchik and kakdah
Putrajaya, Malaysia

Phasing myself within Blotanical

Tuesday, 16.6.2009.

I was going through blotanical, shifting from one section to another, clicking and opening up blogs, read and pick.... Then I realise that the blog and the blogger "bangchik" had just passed 10,000 points mark.

It seems there are 39 blotanists in Guru Sections. These are their names ....

1 Sylvia 39990
2 Nancy_SOLILOQUY 37192
3 CraftyGardener 36160
4 Frances 34911
5 Racquel 31936
6 jodi 29831
7 GardenJoy4Me 27020
8 Veep 26991
9 Robin 23865
10 Vanillalotus 22284
11 WWWenches 21086
12 cherry 20906
13 Sheila 20727
14 auntdebbi 20393
15 Gail 18745
16 LindaLunda 17563
17 tina_inthegarden 16773
18 Jan_Thanks4_2Day 16151
19 Artists_Garden 15450
20 Heather 15047
21 klaraau01 14458
22 Zoë_means_Life 14033
23 DawnHill 13978
24 LetsPlant 13353
25 Linda 13252
26 JaneMarie 12446
27 Northern_Shade 12201
28 Flowergardengirl 12101
29 Aud_p�_Dal 12074
30 gardenerprogress 11860
31 Daphne 11579
32 Tatyana 11409
33 ourfriendben 11201
34 patientgardener 10974
35 MNGarden 10836
36 Kanak 10548
37 Niels 10398
38 DrCraig 10177
39 Bangchik 10007

These blogs have been around, most are updated regularly and some attract massive followers. A little analysis on the 39 blogs within Guru section shows that they were with Blotanical for quite some time.

With Blotanical in 2009 ~ 4 blogs
With Blotanical in 2008 ~ 28 blogs
With Blotanical in 2007 ~ 7 blogs

As for my little vegetable garden, it will remain as a journal to the gardening adventure around our house in Putarajaya. There are many things to be tried and experimented. We may know things through readings, but putting what we know into real gardening is worth the effort. Garden is a little place, where diversity and multiculturalism are put to real test!!.... Occasionally, there will be snapshots of travellings and things I consider worth putting and sharing.

As I was phasing myself within Blotanical, I came across many interesting gardens and gardeners. As the motto says, Blotanical; supports regional diversity and engage gardening creativity.....

To a certain extent, I will always remain a learner definitely not a Guru as far as gardening is concerned. The fun of learning about gardening is as much as the satisfaction out of basketful harvest.

Maria, all the way from Sweden!!

I find it difficult to attempt at answering questions in Blotanical Blogs, simply because of my limited knowledge on flowers, veggies and fruits.

It was all about buah delima (Malaysia) or Granatapple (Swedish) or pomegranate. I fail at trying not get involved with quizzes in Blogworld when I answered Maria Berg. Then a week later, a little envelop find its way across the oceans and continents.

Shall I say..., Maria thank you very much..., things seem to live up to the motto that Blotanical support Regional Diversity and engage Gardening Creativity. And most of all, it rekindle friendship in a big way ....

Now I am thinking what to do next, to reciprocate the friendship waves thats coming........

Back to the gift from Sweden, Kakdah is hinting to put the necklace around her first grandchild, a three year old little girl by the name Adlina. Kakdah will definitely tell Adlina that it is from auntie Maria Berg from Sweden!......

for the moment

the gift will stay in the box, until we make our way to Kedah,

or Adlina come over to Putrajaya

with her Mom, Dad and little brother.

Blotanical: A simple analysis on popularity

Why join blotanical?

Early Mac 2009 was a non productive period in my life. I spent 3 days in Hospital Putrajaya, Malaysia for an operation. On the day of discharge, Doctor Hari, an extremely nice guy with excessive professional demeanour slipped a 2 week medical certificate into my hands. So I was expected to recuperate at home barred from going to work for two weeks! Yes I enjoyed the brief moments as I peep through the side window checking from far how my garden and plants faring during my absence. Yes, Kakdah had extended her help tending to my needs and the plants as well. The kids were away crowding only during weekends.

Then to rekindle the passionate bond with gardening, the idea of creating a blog arised . I bumped into two local blogs, by Lili of Blossom and FJL of Blog Garden, and it was much of Lili’s remark that I decided to join Blotanical. For Lili to be given a red star, I guess she very much deserved it….

Then there were rituals of welcomes from a number of blotanists. For a while due to password mixed-up, I just cant get on with the whole spectrum of Blotanical feature. Stuart gave a link to redo my password….. Things moved from then on. There are so much to see and read.! For the blog “my little vegetable garden” I sort of put a target of one post each day…. I wouldn't know how long can I adhere to this strict and tough performance target; a post each day! As for me, putting things in this gardening blog is good as a permanent record of how gardening interest and outcome slides along the timeline.

TheManic Gardener

About two weeks after being accepted as blotanist, on 22nd of mac Kate of theManic Gardener asked me to look at the popular page and click at page 2. As a newbie I wasn’t really paying attention to this particular feature of Blotanical before… and for all I know I saw Kate’s blog displayed… Subsequently Kate suggested that surely I had noticed mine too, side by side on the same page of popular section. Honestly, that was the first time popularity feature captured my mind as I try to ascertain Kate’s suggestion. I wasn’t paying much much attention to this for some time, busying myself looking at blogs through directory window… enjoying the pleasure of hopping from one continent to another, understanding their way of doing things and the season they are at…. Everybody seems to flash out their colourful flowers and buds… It was so capturing and spectacular! I was still recuperating at home then…. To be honest Kakdah and I had very few flowers to flash around, because veggie is central to our gardening activities ….

On the 4th of April, again Kate reminded me about the blog’s rise in popularity. Little did I realize, my blog was on the first page! …Soon I noticed the regular shift up and down during the course of the day, ranging from 50s to 60s. As usual Kate send a long message cut into 4 sections explaining about this myth of popularity. I clicked on help/forum menu to look for more answers. There was a section where stuart conversed with several blotanist, kate included, whats popularity all about……. For that and her very strong professionalism Kate too deserves the red star!

The myth of popularity

To my opinion, as a relatively new member of such an interesting congregation of gardening blogs spanning across continents, weather and seasons, popularity remains as the by product of blogging adventure, nothing more and nothing less. The administrator has put this feature in place to add some measure of excitement. The ranks are meant to place blotanist in some form of sections, which is good in a way. Otherwise blotanists cannot search through thousands in the list each time…. There are sections according to regions which is a great help to understand more about season , weather and the kind of crop planted there.

Most bloggers will hit and go, whereas some will stay longer and converse in comments and messages. Bloggers interact the way normal people would do ........ everyone seems to be very decent, supportive and very encouraging ....

Blotanical is an important forum and directory, supporting regional diversity and engaging gardening creativity!!

Now I am back at the workplace … but blotanical remains as an important source of reference and interactive network for the world of gardening ….

BLOTANICAL!