Best ... gardening ... blog ... ever
Douglas E. Welch is as into gardening as he is well-versed in the technologies of the Internet, and it makes for a very informative and readable blog, A Gardener's Notebook.
The best part, for me anyway, is that he's in Van Nuys, about five blocks away from us, so anything he does over on his spread will probably work on ours. And from a purely Web-tech standpoint, he's doing all kinds of great things -- video, audio podcasts, Google ads, Flickr photo sets --- all the stuff I'd do if a) I had the time, and b) knew what the hell I was doing. That's what Josh Kleinbaum is for here at the Daily News -- he understands all this stuff. I can barely work iTunes, which Ilene is kind enough to help me with as I moan, "How do you look up a song?" "How do you delete stuff," etc.
Anyway, back to A Gardener's Notebook and Douglas Welch. I don't know him, but I see all he's doing here on his various blogs and such, and in the yard, and I'm in awe. All I can manage half the time is throwing down water so everything doesn't die. Never mind my back-lawn-installation project that was stalled because of summer's oppressive heat. All I do nowadays is pick tomatoes before the possums get to 'em. He's got posts going way back to blogging's infancy. Check out this gem: Refurbishing an Older Garden, and his weeding video. Dip into the archives, which go back to 2003, and there are probably three full gardening books' worth of tips -- I wonder if Doug has considered turning them into an actual book.
Doug also has this blog: Career Opportunities: Helping to Build the Career You Deserve. Sheesh, does the guy have enough going on?
And while I consider the many, many auto dealers on Van Nuys Boulevard pretty good neighbors (would you believe that a three-story Keyes parking garage actually improved our neighborhood?), his house is directly behind Keyes Toyota, and he's had to endure quite a bit with the construction going on at the dealership -- I think they tore down his back wall to install giant lights or something. (I couldn't find the blog post where he talks about this. He must mave deleted it, or my search skills are on the feeble side.)
Finally came across your kind words and wanted to say Thanks!
The parking garage has turned out as best as can be expected. There were some issues with the construction and I wonder what might have happened if my wife and I didn't have the abilty to be around so much. At one point, they were going to take 6 inches off the back of the lot until we expressed our displeasure with that fact.
No lights on my side, which is a definte improvement over the old lot. Trees have been planted in the green belt area they left, but we had to ask for a few more trees to help mask the building a bit more.
Thanks again!
Douglas