About Wobbly Garden

If there’s one thing you love doing with family and friends it’s Sharing Ideas (gardening, home D.I.Y projects, books to read, places to go). 🙂

But what if Friends and Family are simply Too Far Away?

Far Away Places

Whether you have moved somewhere new or everyone is just too busy to see you right now, that exchange of ideas is missing.

If you miss the shared knowledge about the things you do in your garden, around the home and in everyday life, and if you’re looking for inspiration, tips and a bit of entertainment – you’ll find that right here.

I’m guessing that since you are here now, you are full of ideas of your own – ideas you want to try.

But maybe you…

Want to read real-life tips from people doing the same things as you.
Want to see how projects begin, progress and sometimes fail.
Have no clue how to share your own ideas
Feel isolated
Don’t have friends who share a specific passion

No matter where you are in your life or how much experience you have, you want to discover more, and share your enthusiasm.

You want to feed your creative juices or perhaps you just have a curious nature.
You know that the saying ‘Learn something new every day‘ is something worth striving for, however small or large the lesson.
But – you don’t know how to find the material to discover what ordinary people do and make in daily life. You feel stuck.

I feel that way too and I believe a GREAT way to Un-Stick is to share knowledge.
My aim is to help by….

Bringing People Together

In any field, no-one knows it all. We all need to interact with other people to increase our knowledge, to discuss and experiment with ideas other than our own. If nothing else, feedback on our ideas is always helpful. Not everyone is able to drop in to see a friend or colleague with similar interests. Some live in remote places or do not even know anyone who shares their passion.

I created this website with one main aim – to remedy the situation through letter writing, bringing interested parties together in a friendly way.

Letters shared can bring people together. Being personal in nature, letters to one person have a friendly, informal tone and reflect the personality of the writer (as well as their relationship the person to whom the letter is written).

By writing a letter directly to one person there will naturally be references to people and things that the recipient already knows about, and if the letter is read by someone else, questions inevitably arise, creating a dialogue, an ongoing discourse.

While people are so busy, repeating the same news to multiple people becomes tedious, if not impossible, and this has lead to the rise of the round-robin letter. I know they solve an insurmountable problem when time is short but in general, they lack the personal touch; a feeling of connection.

Round-robin letters can feel very impersonal (to the reader) and frequently end up being a list of events and achievements (They can be very boring! – Shh..).

Writing a personal letter tends to be a one-to-one activity that, it is hoped, is undertaken with a sense of joy and love.

While writing a personal letter is something that is good for you, good for your friend/sister/brother et al. and highly enjoyable too, we don’t have time to write to every person with whom we’d like to communicate.

Of course there is social media, but for many it is too immediate and full of noise. Many people do not want to, or cannot join for various reasons.

I asked myself:

How can we achieve the back and forth of a personal letter while sharing it with other members of the family and friends?
And:
Is there a way such a method could be useful to people outside our immediate circle?

The idea of publishing letters on a web site was born.

There are several advantages to sending messages this way.

Messages with pictures and videos can be read easily.
Readers can re-visit older letters any time.
The content is searchable.
Anyone can read the letters and keep up with our antics.
Letters online are interactive via the comments box and visitors can discuss ideas and thoughts with me, and one another, right there on the page.
Posting on the site creates an archive, or a sort of diary.
Older letters can be added from time to time.
Projects mentioned in the letters can be linked to ‘How To’ pages.
Material suggested by visitors can be added.
The sky’s the limit!

What Does this Achieve, and can it provide any value to anyone – You perhaps?

Making A Difference

Interactive Online Letters really can be a way to bring people together and make a difference.

Isolated people can become involved.

What Do I Write About?

Anything and everything! Gardening features often and my mother, who has her own small garden, is always interested to hear about ours, preferably with photos. collection

Gardening

How the garden is doing, gardening projects including landscaping, planting, harvesting and eating. Occasionally, we help with other people’s projects and people help with ours. Some are long-term projects and take ages to complete.

Wildlife

I talk about the wildlife in our garden and what we do to to encourage more. There are birds a-plenty, insects and reptiles, small and large mammals and the wildflowers and trees that support the wildlife.

D.I.Y.

Then there are things we make about the house and DIY. We’re always servicing tools or vehicles, and mending things.

Ideas

Of course, as already mentioned, no-one knows how to do everything, but I love finding out new things. Sometimes I need to refresh my memory and if in doubt, I look things up. In the course of my research I often come across great ideas. I write about the things that I learn as well as funny things that happen.

Books

I mention the books I am reading and ask for suggestions.

People and Places

I talk about gardens and other places we visit, people we meet, curious discoveries and sometimes, our achievements. We also reminisce about old adventures.

Writing Useful ‘How To’s’

I aim to add pages that show how things mentioned in the letters are done or made.

The Letters

IMPORTANT: Most of the letters as they appear on this site are selections from my own correspondence with my mother. Some appear in their entirety but many are edited to exclude material of a sensitive or deeply personal nature. Names are changed or abbreviated to protect the identity of people mentioned.

The real dates of Birthdays and Anniversaries are not included although I may add a fictitious date for readability.

Letters contributed by others are treated in the same way and may be edited before publication.

Why did I call it ‘Wobbly Garden’?

I am somewhat wobbly on my feet, our garden is big and hilly, and my gardening skills are limited – though learning all the time! Results are unpredictable and can be surprising. I live in a crooked house, I am asymmetric myself and there is little or no symmetry in my surroundings. I fall over quite a lot. Having so much to maintain, funds for living expenses are always tight. My life is pretty wobbly all round.

With everything so precarious, and the garden featuring so much in my life, ‘Wobbly Garden’ popped into my head closely followed by ‘Wonky Stina’ for my nom de plume, and stuck.

More About the Letters

Writing in a Bubble

Writing to my mother regularly has been a life-long habit that I continue today. Yes – there have been long breaks at times, but I always pick up the pen again.

I love to write to my mother but sometimes I’m stuck for something to say. When that happens I only have to look out of the window to see a plant, a bird, an area of the garden or even the weather. Anything like that that will set me thinking about something I can talk about.

We used to write on paper, find a stamp and pop it in the post. All through the years when she was working, my mother’s replies were often a few short, unrelated sentences that read exactly how she spoke. She would write on the first scrap of paper she could find. I treasure those letters.

Around the time when my mother retired, it might have been before, but certainly late in life, my sister encouraged her to use a computer. By then her hearing was failing and she no longer used the phone. She began to use email and since then, mostly, that is how we have carried on.

We do return to pen and paper from time to time, simply for the enjoyment of holding the letter in our hands. We carry it around, unfolding it again to savor the vision of the person writing, enjoying the familiarity of the handwriting.

Sometimes, once I start writing, I find an email becoming rather long and perhaps a picture or two would help tell a story. It occurred to me that letters like that might be easier read on a web site, especially if there were several pictures. Also, it could be easier for my mother to find the ones that she might like to re-read.

Hmm, and maybe family and friends, and even others might like to read them too.

So it’s August 2017, my mother turned 99 this year and I have made this site. I won’t be adding every letter I write – you didn’t really expect that, did you?

I will add some that were written before the birth of this website;
we’ll see how that goes.

Just a Bit About Me

When I’m not being a gardener and general fixer, I draw and paint – or is it the other way round . . .?
(when I’m not drawing and painting, I’m gardening or fixing things:) )

When the weather is inclement I can often be found tapping away at my computer, maintaining my websites and those of a select few friends who either don’t have the inclination or the ability.

I am interested in loads of subjects, too many to list here. I guess you will discover some of them if you read the letters.

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