Blognality

Ever start reading a new garden blog you've just come across and know instantly whether this is the type of person you'd 'click' with?

All right, take something real life as an example:

You're in the usual gardeners' posture (hands in the dirt, something that's probably not your best physical feature in the air) by the sidewalk on a warm summer day, completely enjoying yourself and oblivious that the rest of the world is still ticking while you're giving a few choice words to, well, whatever makes your language not so nice for children or 80 year old church ladies.

Neighbor #1 pauses. You suddenly find his dog's nose beside your hand and some unwelcome paw help with digging up your prized plant. You look up, he mutters, "Hey, nice flowers," and moves along to his almost bare yard with gobs of hostas, iris and a few daylilies.

Neighbor #2 pauses. He has a dog. You're wired, ready to pounce. But, this man knows better than allow the dog in the flowers. Neighbor #2 says enthusiastically, "Hey, niiiiice flowers! I love those over there and I want to try growing some of those!"

Right off the bat, I know Neighbor #1 best keep that dog curbed, and we ain't got squat to talk about. Neighbor #2? Now, him and I are gonna be bestest buddies!

I find blognality an interesting thing. It's almost like a first impression. Do I care if the blogs I read talk about gardening or something related on every single post? Nope.

You can pretty much tell what a person's personality is through the way they blog.

Take mine for example - since I don't want to pick on someone else :)

I use lots of exclamation marks, hyphens, italics and ellipses (which I know drives a lot of people nuts and yes, I know I use them improperly!), I'm long-winded, pushy, sometimes loud, but it's basically how I talk in real life. I gesture, gasp, and believe it or not, am sometimes speechless or my sentences trail off to silence.

I admit being reserved in telling everything (Sometimes my opinions get me in biiiig trouble). I don't record all my failures, though this is a garden blog I started for the sole purpose of actually recording what goes well, and WRONG, in my gardens. Maybe it's a small fear of letting people know too much about who I really am as a gardener, or maybe it's an unconscious fear of appearing to be nothing but a putz when it comes to plants. I mean, really, who wants to record their failures with foolproof plants. But I resolve to do so. (No, not to specifically look like a putz!) The things I blog about may not necessarily be interesting to anyone else, but I get to have my say about things that interest me at that moment.

Lot's of people's personalities shine through on their blogs, even if they try to curb it. But I wonder how many are so reserved that they won't let themselves shine at all. Who out there in garden-blogosphere would I really enjoy reading, but never know it because they're much too cautious with their own words?

Take Hillbilly Mom. She's my daily dose of humor and lets it allll hang out. My kinda blogger, probably my kind of friend - well, if she gardened. lol.

Are you how you blog? Shine on blognalities, shine on!