How-To Videos are the Greatest Thing Ever

I'm only being slightly hyperbolic in my post title. While books are great, I do love the proliferation of YouTube videos that actually show the viewer how something is done. It's incredibly useful, especially for visual learners. The only trick is finding the right video for you amongst the thousands out there. Since my topic is my garden, a quick search for "gardening" on YouTube generates so many hits it's almost overwhelming! So I went to my reliable source, Veseys (love their catalogue!), and found their YouTube channel. From there, it's easier to narrow down what I'm looking for, and find suggestions of similar channels. Here's something I will need to do for my deck this year: refresh the plants in my pots and baskets.

Podcasts are a lot of fun.  Over the past few years, I've watched several TED talks on various subjects, and I have several podcasts I listen to on a semi-regular basis.  They're all geeky!  I found a great TED talk on gardening in your apartment that was very interesting. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment.html

Pin All The Things

Week Four of nb23 brings me back to something I'd let fall by the wayside: my Pinterest account. I first started an account on Pinterest when it was all the rage; the new exciting social media platform that everyone at work was using. I first heard about it from my sister, and soon I was pinning up a storm. But I let my account activity slip away as time went on, which is too bad because Pinterest is very useful. I created a "Garden Wishes" board and have collected several interesting pins of things I would love to do in my garden. Some I will never be able to do in my small yard, but it's fun to dream! One thing I would like to try is a toad house. I like toads, and they're good for your garden. My only worry is that I'd make the little house, and then no toad would actually want to live in it! There are lots of pins on Pinterest with different ways to make one, some much fancier than others! I'm traveling to New York City in the spring, and followed two of New York Public Library's Pinterest boards (they have 31!). One I followed is called "NYPL Gifts", which is full of images of lovely things for book lovers, and the other is "Nature's Pride", which contains images from the NYPL digital collection. I will definitely be stopping into the New York Public Library, to see the famous lions and see their fantastic collection! Between a wonderful library and Central Park in bloom, I think I will have everything I need.

Words Vs. Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words.  But what if the words were also a picture?  That seems to me to be the case in using the Wordle image generator.  I enjoyed playing with the different layouts for the image, but much preferred the words to be a mix of horizontal and vertical, rather than slanting across the image.  It was easier on my eyes. 

Copyright for images is broken so often that I'm relieved to find sources where it isn't a worry.  (Sites like tumblr have constant problems with people stealing and reposting artwork and photographs, claiming them as their own). 

To tie to my theme, I have a small yard and deck, so I generally go the cottage garden route.  Planters, small shrubs, some bulbs--whatever strikes my fancy. So here's a picture of a cottage garden on this winter day.

This quote is from Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous Roman philosopher and politician.  Judging by his quote, little has changed since the days of Julius Caesar.  Click on the box below to view!

Goodreads - will it be good?

I have dragged my heels for a long time about joining Goodreads, mostly because I didn't want yet another social media account to track.  But since signing up was made so easy through Facebook, I decided, what the heck.  It was easy, and I've already found a few of my Facebook friends also posting to Goodreads!  To keep with my gardening theme, I looked up one of my favourite books, Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden", and it was fun rating it, and reading all the comments.  I usually avoid online comments like the plague ("only a fool reads the comments!" should be a 21st-century proverb), but since these comments were from people who love reading, they were more interesting.

I've made Bibliocommons lists in Vision before, and it was fun to make another.  I find the lists are quite easy to make, though I wish there wasn't a limit on the number of items you can add!  And I find I have to remember what book I want to appear on top of the list, and remember to add that last.  But that's just a little personal quirk.