My View on the Toronto Civic Service Strike

Beautiful Skies
June 27, 2009

It's now day 8 of the Toronto civic service strike. By far the media focus has been on the garbage piling up in temporary dumping areas. Of greater concern is the city of Toronto has hired a firm to come in a spray insecticides nightly to "ward off insects and rodents". Worse yet in the midst of this type of problem the residents of Toronto seriously are behaving like babies! Heck even Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello called Torontonians a "bunch of babies" in their response to the garbage strike although she later apologized for that. Well, I do think they are being a bunch of babies and I'm not going to apologize for saying so!

Less than 24 hours after the strike began there were reports of garbage piling up in Toronto and illegal dumping. What the heck? Give it a rest! I'm sorry but I just don't understand why Torontonians couldn't be a bit more prudent with their garbage production especially in these times when so many are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. What are they doing? Spring cleaning just because?

Heck, we could easily go several weeks and do so in the winter not putting out garbage. We average 1 bag of garbage weekly and it does not include organic waste. Organic waste can be composted so is a valuable resource. We put our recyclables out biweekly and while that is more that a garbage bags' worth it is still less than the average household because we follow the first rule of being eco-friendly and that is to reduce. We still have a long way to go. A few years ago I saw a rather interesting documentary where a family of 4 was able to reduce their garbage output to 1 grocery bag for the year. Now that is our goal!

Torontonians need to start taking responsibility for themselves. All those bags of garbage do not just magically disappear when you put them to the curb. They go somewhere else where they are someone else's problem. Now they are finally realizing it is their problem. This is a perfect time for each and every Torontonian to do their part. Get involved and reduce your garbage production!

I'd like to address the issue of the insecticides being used by the City of Toronto. This is an environmental nighmare! Insecticides do diddly when it comes to rodents or other small animals that get into the ever growing piles of garbage. What they do is get into the ground water and make their way to Lake Ontario causing possibly irreparible environmental damage affecting all the Great Lakes waterways. They are already putting humans at risk as one being sprayed causes respiratory problems. Yet we have the Ontario Pesticide Ban and Toronto was a leading city getting that through the legislature. Residents can be fined for using these pesticides but NOW. the city of Toronto turns around and uses the very same pesticides banned without regard to the future health of their residents. For shame Toronto!

For shame Toronto on so many levels! And yes from a fellow Canadian you are being a bunch of babies!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant

[from my email files]

From The London Times:

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and eight coaches, or buses.
It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 (about $1.40Cdn) and coaches £5 (about $7).
This parking attendant worked there uninterrupted for all of 25 years.
Then, one day, he didn't turn up for work.
"Oh well,", said Bristol Zoo management, "we'd better phone up the city council and get them to send a new parking attendant."
"Err, no", said the council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."
"Err, no", said Bristol Zoo management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?"
"Err, NO!" insisted the Council.

Sitting in a villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at £400 (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming seven days a week, this amounts to just over £3.6 million ($7 million)!

And no one even knows his name.

-----

I got a chuckle out of this but thought it best to check out the story so did an online search. According to the Evening Post, the story is an urban myth that began circulating online about 2 years ago (more here). It likely was started as an April Fools joke. Still it is fun to ponder whether it could actually happen. Stranger things than this has happened!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

BYBS Celebrating Life

This past week week the entertainment world experienced the loss of Ed McMahon, Farrah Faucett and Michael Jackson. In the aftermath of the shock and cushioning the mourning is the celebration of life, of what these entertainers left behind - their legacy. How wonderful it is that we can look back and see this legacy despite whatever troubles and tribulations each of these entertainers faced during life.

This week really is a reminder to question ourselves about the lives we are living. It is a reminder that at any moment our lives could end. Are we living our lives the way we want to be remembered? Are we showing others we celebrate the joy of life each and every day? Are we leaving a legacy to future generations? It's hard to celebrate life when the wolf is at the door and times are tough but through that the greatest blessing is to celebrate life each and every moment despite its ups and downs!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

RIP Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

Into the Night
June 23, 2009

Yesterday was a sad and shocking day for many. Early yesterday morning Farrah Fawcett lost her long fought battle with cancer at the age of 62 (more here). She was known as the 1970's "It Girl". I will always remember her as one of Charlie's Angels and her influence on hairstyles during that time. Everyone tried to mimic her flowing hairstyle! RIP Farrah and thanks for the memories.

As the storms went through yesterday I powered down the computer and television. When I finally got back online the shocking news of the sudden death of Michael Jackson was setting Twitter on fire. Like many I was shocked! Today fans worldwide are gathering in large groups to remember and pay tribute to the King of Pop. The world is a better place because of your music. You will be sadly missed. RIP Michael and thanks for the music.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Unsettled Weather

Evening Beauty
June 23, 2009

After such a cool, wet spring the weather as turned very hot and humid. We are very fortunate that due to our location we have not had to turn our our AC yet! Others have had theirs on for the last couple of weeks or more. The hot, humid weather always means the potential for severe thunderstorms. Yesterday we experienced several short power outages as the storms went through. There was amazing ground to cloud lighting. As I quickly type this another line of thunderstorms are almost ready to hit. It's already dark and very still with just a hint of thunder getting closer and closer. This series is quick moving as my husband called me less than 10 minutes ago with the warning. It was clear then! As the storms clear it makes for great photo opportunities. This was Tuesday night's sunset. Isn't it gorgeous?

Ok, time for me to power down.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Wordless Wednesday - Antique Beauty

Antique Beauty
June 14, 2009

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Labour Stopages

On the Horizon
June 22, 2009

I woke in a lousy mood! There was no rhyme or reason for this mood other than another sinus attack but really in comparison to most this appears to be a rather mild attack. An excellent time to get a rant on is when you aren't feeling 100%. So it didn't take a whole lot after turning to my favourite Toronto news station cp24 to really tick me off. First the Toronto city workers are on strike.

Well, all right maybe those jobs could go to some of the many in Ontario that really would like a job. Their union is not doing them any favours. Heck, Windsor garbage workers have been out on strike for 11 weeks now. The striking workers under CUPE receive weekly strike pay from CUPE National Strike Fund which amounts to a mere pittance to their normal pay, only a few dollars a week. I heard a figure of $25 per week but that hasn't been confirmed. At best it is no more than $100 per week. So in these hard economic times you tell me who can afford to have their pay cut to a few dollars a week? How long can striking employees last before food and utilities come onto the chopping block? How long can before house costs (rent, mortgage) can no longer be met. The sad reality is there are going to be employee casualties out of this strike. Sadder still is the ones affected by the strike that depend on daycare. Some of those folks are going to end up losing jobs simply because they cannot find immediate replacement for the daycare they had already arranged. I should point out that unlike the last city workers strike in Toronto the pope or queen or any other dignitaries are not scheduled to visit so the city is not under any pressure to agree to anything. In fact this time it looks like they might just wait things out. Just perfect! Just what Ontario needs is more people out of work!

Now if that isn't bad enough both Bombardier and the LCBO are threatening strikes. Bombardier actually settled with the CAW this afternoon. The LCBO is scheduled to walk out at 12:01 AM Wednesday morning. Here's the thing, Bombardier did a responsible thing settling the labour dispute to the benefit of all. The LCBO well, who really cares? I'll bet beer and wine sales will soar. Yes they want job security but trust me anyone being self-employed has never had job security and some days earning $10 an hour would be a huge blessing! So get over yourself already. Anyone wanting alcohol in Ontario will have either stocked up by now or will go outside of Ontario. Those near provincial or US borders will simply go across and get what they want.

An LCBO strike is virtually meaningless aside of the fact it is the first one in their history. It will hurt hotels and restaurants but you know the Ontario government aka Dalton McGuinty doesn't really care about small business in Ontario and that apathy is wearing off on other Ontarioians. LCBO workers will try to get their demands heard on deaf ears while the Ontario government loses $5 million dollars per day for each day of the strike and you know where they are going to come to make that up, don't you? As far as I'm concerned liquour sales in this province should have been privatized a long time ago. The government no longer has to be paternalistic. I think we can think for ourselves, thank-you very much. But what the province is really saying is drink up so we can fund our hospitals but don't drink and drive wink wink because we don't want too many people in our hospitals.

Today, I found cp24 news irritating because of the sensationalization and the irrational people dumping garbage wherever. I mean come one, seriously how much garbage can some one create in one day? And how much can garbage stink in one day? The media is feeding into the fear of the people and people are reacting. For shame! People in Toronto are flipping out because their garbage has not been collected for a day. Give it a rest! Honestly! We have garbage pick-up once a week and recycle pick-up every other week. It is not uncommon for us to put our garbage out once a month or once every 6 weeks and then it is one small bag. Why? We have learned how to reduce garbage and if anything the citizens of Toronto need to learn is to reduce their garbage. Simply tossing it out in a container does not take care of the problem! Those self-centred inconsiderate imbeciles who think they can just drop their garbage anywhere well deserve the fines given and I might add I think during the strike those illegally dumping should have fines doubles. I'd love to see environmentalists get involved in this strike. Reducing the garbage put out would solve a lot of problems including not having to have as many garbage collectors. That way the city could hire extra day care workers to keep those who really want a job working!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

BYBS: Happy Father's Day

To all the father's out there, I hope you have a wonderful day! I have a few special things planned for my husband who is the best father in the world. It will be a relaxing, family oriented day to let him know how much we appreciate his role as husband, father, grandfather and mentor. He fills his role without fail always a role model for his family, always providing, always supportive, always loving and laughing. He learned to be a good father from his father who learned to be a good father from his father. In return he has taken those lessons to become a good father and pass those lessons onto our kids, a couple who are now fathers as well. And so the cycle continues through the love of a father passed to his children...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Speed Warning

[from my email files]



I always love opening email to find a bit of a chuckle. It might be a good idea to pay attention to this sign as it appears to have an element of truth to it :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Quiz for People Who Know Everything

[from my email files. Note it is not National Mental Health Day today, but feel free to pass this along.]

Quiz for People Who Know Everything

This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn't. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?
4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them. {dweeb is not an answer}
7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'
   

Answers To Quiz:

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends: Boxing
2. North American landmark constantly moving backward. Niagara Falls - The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.
3. Only two vegetables that can live20 to produce on their own for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb.
4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.
5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew in side the bottle. The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.
6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.
7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar. Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation mark, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.
8. The only vegetable or f ruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce
9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S': Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.
   

PLEASE DO YOUR PART... Today is National Mental Health Day. You can do your part by remembering to send this e-mail to at least one unstable person. Well, my job's done! Just don't send it back to me. I've already flunked it once.

-----

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Deadhead

Deadhead
June 14, 2009

Floating and hidden debris is always a problem for boaters though-out the boating season however, it is particularly problematic during the spring and after heavy storms. Deadheads are sometimes referred to as sinker logs. These can be very dangerous as they can punch a hole in a large boat and destroy a small boat. Deadheads are almost impossible to see at night. We found out about deadheads first hand a couple of weeks after we bought our boat. We hit a deadhead taking out our outboard. We were extremely lucky to be able to limp our boat to shore where were were able to secure it to a dock. From there we had to find a way home then arrange to have our boat towed and repaired. This brings up a couple of issues.

Some residents living on waterfront property toss yard waste into the water without realizing the danger branches and larger pieces of wood floating in the water present. This should never be done and in fact in most areas residents tossing debris into the water can be fined. It is quite common for residents living on waterfront property to have fire pits close to the water's edge as well as a variety of furniture on their docks or beach. During periods of high wind or storms it is common for firewood and any unsecured items on docks to end up in the water. It is very important that items on the dock be secured to prevent this from happening. Firewood and other items on the beach need to either be secured or removed when not in use. Unfortunately parks along the water are sometimes the target of vandals who toss picnic tables and/or garbage bins into the water. While boating you have to be constantly observant for any kind of debris in the water.

As a boater you have a legal and moral responsibility to help another boater in distress. There is a greater risk of serious harm or death on the water for boaters who suddenly run out of gas or breakdown. Any boater that comes across this situation should tow the disabled boat to the closest shore to get the boat out of harms way. In the event you come across a disabled boat with people in distress in the water, immediately call for help as you approach, get floating devices to them if they don't have one on, cut your motor then if possible pull them onto your boat without you getting into the water. Apply emergency first aid if necessary. Remain with the disabled boat until further help arrives.

Boaters also have a responsibility to help make the waterways safer for all. That means not dumping anything from your boat into the water and removing anything from the water that doesn't belong there. It goes without saying that the same rules that apply to drinking and driving apply to drinking and boating! Whenever we see something in the water that shouldn't be there we remove it if possible. This pay it forward environmental stewardship applies not only to our daily lives living but also when we are boating. If we can't remove the hazard (eg. picnic table, large tree trunks, other large debris) we report it to the Coast Guard who will remove it.

Last Sunday we encountered several smaller pieces of debris and the pictured large log. The floating log definitely could have done a fair amount of damage had a boat been going fast and hit it. My husband decided to try and get it out of the water. The problem was the log was almost water logged and very slippery. Pulling the log out of the water definitely was not as easy as it sounds! He managed to get a loop of rope around the log and pull it up onto our swim platform then secured the rope to the tow bar. Once the log was tightly secured we putzed to a safe spot where the log could be dropped of onshore. Notice the putz? We had to putz because if the log broke free plopping into the water there was the potential of damaging our boat. After enjoying that bit of fun we continued on to enjoy a wonderful day of boating including stopping in St. Clair, Michigan to enjoy a lovely, relaxing meal (read more here) and do a bit of sightseeing.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Wordless Wednesday - Peaking Through

Peaking Through
June 14, 2009

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Family Relations :)

[from my email files]



A little girl asked her mother: 'How did the human race appear?' The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve; they had children; and so was all mankind made. 'Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, 'Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved. 'The confused girl returned to her mother and said,'Mum, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys? 'The mother answered, 'Well, Dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family, and your father told you about his.'

-----
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Two All Beef Patties...

Have you ever noticed that the old becomes new again? A few days ago I saw a commercial bringing back that famous jingle "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles on a sesame seed BUN". Back when I was considerably younger than what I am now this was a favourite schoolyard chant. I grew up in a very small community. We got exactly 4 channels on our small black and white television! I can remember the excitement when our small mom & pop grocery store brought in PopTarts® and freezer pizza. That was the extent of our fast food!

A couple of times a year we would ride the bus to the closest city to spend the afternoon shopping as my Mom never learned to drive. On those trips we always ate at the Metropolitan lunch counter. They made the best BLT's around and not only could you watch yourself eat but watch other shoppers thanks to the mirrored lunch counter wall. I was probably about 9 when the McDonald's restaurant was built in that small city. The bus drove right past it making it way to the downtown core where we shopped but we never went there because we would have had to take a cab and my Mom was always scared of missing the bus home. I was so excited when we finally rode to the city with friends and they stopped at the restaurant. I ordered my very first Big Mac®. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Sure the burger was good but it wasn't as good as the Met's BLT and the restaurant wasn't as interesting as the Met's lunch counter!

While I really enjoy eating out, to this day I am still not a huge fan of fast food restaurants. At 590 calories for a Big Mac®, 34 g of fat and 1070 mg sodium I'm glad I did not acquire a taste for fast food restaurants¹. The sad thing is that cutesy little jingle will dupe another generation into thinking this is good food. Some children actually eat one of these burgers every school day and then again on the weekends. No wonder we are seeing such a spike in morbid obesity in children, increases in diabetes and health problems due to excessive sodium. Isn't it amazing what an seeming benign little jingle can archive?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

BYBS - Patience

The past week has really been about spring. So far it has been a cold and wet spring one that doesn't beckon you to the garden. The weather finally turned warm enough to spend a bit of time in the garden. If you have been following my blogs you will know we moved here in 2007. We have been doing a massive rip out followed by replanting. Unfortunately this has been a long and slow process as we slowly discovered what needs to be eliminated and what needs to be kept. Through this the real blessing has been patience. Patience to wait through the season to see what had been planted by the previous owner. Patience may be a virtue but in this case it is a blessing!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Blog Police

Some Say Weeds
June 4, 2009

In my daily jaunts through the blogosphere I come across many interesting blogs. Quite often I will stop and read or even make notes of something about the design I liked that might work with one of my own blogs. This morning I came across a blog entry on I Love/Hate America, a blog that I have visited before. Her recent post which is now closed to comments was the inspiration for today's blog post. She mentioned feeling she could not be herself on her own blog, getting annoyed and upset about comments left, always posting on schedule, not posting just for the sake of posting, some complaining about her pictures and the blog police. I think every blogger out there can empathize with this blogger's feelings!

The only real blog police I have come across were the narrow minded owner and moderators over at Entrecard. They thought they could dictate content and design of blogs in their system. Well that worked out well as the decent bloggers left in droves leaving them a splog (spam blog) haven. The only folks that can actually police you are your blog host if you are doing something illegal. That's it!

With respect to my own blogs:

If I thought I could not be myself I would certainly not be blogging! They are my blogs, my rules, my values and my views through my eyes. My blogs are a reflection of me, what I believe in, where I've been, where I'm going and what's important to me. If I'm not happy blogging then you are either going to hear about it in a rant or I simply won't blog. Blogging is always and should always be about the blogger! I determine content, design, colours and tone of the blog.

I always encourage comments and while they are moderated as most bloggers do unless they are blatant spam or purposely nasty, they are approved. Here is the problem with comments. Some people under the cloak of anonymity feel they can say whatever they want. They feel they can criticize to high heaven and sometimes it has nothing to do with the post itself! Sometimes it is little more than a personal attack likely because the comment felt compelled to lash out at someone because he or she was having a bad hair day. I had one criticize the colours I chose for my cooking blog without even knowing why those colours were important. I had another tell me that with such good content it's a pity I didn't use a spelling and grammar checker. Now in the comment regarding colour my attitude was "oh well, c'est la vie" but in the comment about spelling and grammar I thought "ok, time to proof read a bit more carefully". Comments can be constructive or destructive but they are just that. I don't let them get to me but at the same time if someone feels compelled to leave a nasty or personal attack comment I don't feel compelled to pass it along to my readers!

Blogger came up with scheduling blog posts which is really a fantastic tool when used properly. I use this feature if I know I'm going to be away for an extended period of time and for certain special posts that run on the same day each week like Wordless Wednesday posts. Other than that I really feel that blog posts should be spontaneous. Something catches your eye as you're surfing, blog about it. It's the right now, in the moment that makes blogging fun and interesting. To blog simply to blog is what blogging is all about. I can't tell you how many times I have taken a picture then spontaneously blogged about it.

Pictures are a wonderful addition to any blog and they are a reflection of the blogger. How dare anyone ever criticize a picture a blogger has put on their blog? True it might not be something you like but it is something the blogger liked. There was something about that picture that even for a brief moment caught the attention of the blogger enough to include it in the post. It doesn't matter whether you see the relevance it matters that the blogger saw the relevance.

With respect to the blog police:

You have no authority over blogs so don't even bother trying. You can leave a comment and I may or may not consider it. In fact I may or may not publish it. If you think you can do a better job, set up your own blog and do it! In the meantime quit trying to force your views about what a blog should be on other bloggers.


Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Behind the Scenes of Blogging

Promising Skies
June 4, 2009

This past week I've spent working on my blogs behind the scenes tweaking some of the code. The biggest change I made was adding meta tags. This is code that tells the search engine bots what the blog is about by adding a description and keywords. Sounds easy, doesn't it? It turns out that there are character limits for each of the meta tags. If they are too long search engines will ignore or ban your blog. The meta tag for description must be worded properly, under 150 characters and cannot be just a list of keywords. The meta tag for keywords must be under 874 although you should use considerably less than that with no keyword repeated more than 3 times. Trade and brand names should not be used in your keyword tag unless you own them. Keyword spamming or using keywords that have nothing to do with your blog will get your blog banned from some search engines. I used an online meta tag analyzer to make sure my tags were correct. With that done I stumbled upon a site that explained back links, why they are important and how to check them.

Back links are those links coming into your blog from other websites or blogs. Ideally you want more back links than out going links on your blog. You get back links by leaving comments on other blogs or in forums and groups. You also get back links when your blog is referenced by another blog or you are added to their blogroll. However, I quickly learned that there are dos and don'ts for both back linking and out going links. Out going links should not go to a site that has been blacklisted by one or more search engines. Some out going links should have the 'rel=#nofollow' to tell the search engines not to check that link but you have be careful with using this as what it can also tell the search engines is you don't trust that link. There is also indication that one major search engine is going to start treating nofollow differently penalizing those who use it too much. This isn't much of a problem for my blogs but for someone writing a 'make money' blog there are some links you definitely should not use. Some back links cannot be controlled as anyone can add a link for your blog on their blog. Search engines understand that. You can control your back links with respect to which blogs and forums you comment on so choose these wisely. These types of comments must not be comment spam simply to get a back link!

All of my blogs have a lot of images but the search engines don't see the actual image so the image content does not get indexed. To get the search engines to index the image content I found out you have to use the alt"" portion in the image code. For example in the image above I changed the alt"" to alt"Promising Skies sunset". Now the image content will be indexed so if someone searches for sunset this image will be included in the search results.

Looking back over the last few day, I learned an awful lot about search engines! There are a surprising number of search engines each with their own way of evaluating your content. Your blog may appear as number 1 or on page 1 on one search engine yet on another may not appear until page 3. The ever present concern over page rank (PR) is Google specific so while it tells you how your blog is viewed by their bots, it says nothing as to how other search engines see your blog. Without meta tags the chances of search engine bots finding you are greatly reduced. You increase your chances of being viewed by search engine bots if you submit your blog to them. That is an invite for their bots to crawl your blog content and index it. I also found out that you get more attention from the search engines by regularly adding content to your blog but changing your template too often will get you less attention. Tweaking your template is better than doing a dramatic overhaul of your template. The best you can do is have good meta tags, submit your blog to search engines and keep creating good content on a regular basis. Once you've done all this focus on having fun blogging!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

So You Want More Traffic to Your Blog?

Blogging is not quite as easy as it seems. Getting traffic to you blog is critical and it involves a fair amount of work. There are a few key components that any blogger who is in it for the long run needs to consider aside of content and design both of which are critical to the success of your blog. Your personality as in you the author must be first and it must shine. Let your readers see both the good and the bad but especially with a personal blog if you are talking about the bad take the humorous approach. All the content and personality will not do you a lot of good if you don't get your blog indexed in the search engines!

Wednesday afternoon I got close and personal with search engine optimization (SEO) for my blogs. I found out a lot about SEO! First you need to add meta tags to your blogs. You can have excellent content but the search engines don't see your blog the way bloggers or your readers do. What the meta tags do is say hey here I am much like a beacon in the dark guiding the way. They guide search engines to your blog. Meta tags must be formatted properly and there are guidelines as far as properly formatting (here). I used a couple of online tools to help me with the SEO:

• Wordtracker - will help you find good key words for your meta tags
• Scrub the Web - a free meta tag analyzer and you can submit to 10 search engines
  

A few notes on using key words. Do not spam! No keyword should be used more than 3 times. If you do some search engines will ban blog. Don't use keywords that pertain to your blog! Sure you can add a lot of key words and I don't need to explain this but trust me the search engines don't like the bait and switch technique. They will ban your blog meaning you get no traffic from them. Don't use trademark protected words! That is a sure fire way to get banned from the largest search engine and you really don't want that. Constantly monitor your keywords! From time to time you will need to update your meta tags.

Be warned after you have added your meta tags and submitted to search engines it can take up to 10 weeks for your blog to be indexed. Do a search of free search engine submissions and continue submitting your blog. Do the same thing with directories but remember it will take time for your blog to be indexed. Just keep adding your blog every chance you get!

Ok, now with my meta tags in place and submitted to search engines there are a couple of ways to go. I chose to ping my blogs first. Pinging is another beacon that says here I am! If you don't regularly ping you are losing the prospect of gaining new traffic. I used Ping My Blog but there are other ping services out there. Essentially you should ping your blog after each update or at least once weekly. What a ping does is sends a message to critical blogging sources like directories and search engines to say I'm alive, well and still blogging. Regular pinging means more traffic to your blog!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Wordless Wednesday - Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses
June 4, 2009

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Dear Mr Google

Evening Moonrise
June 4, 2009

As many of you know I author five blogs. Since their inception they have continuously been modified and updated not only with respect to regular blog posts but also their over all design. The over all design involves the background, header, any titles, fonts and layout. All of my blogs use original graphics that I have made myself for the purpose of blogging. They help set the mood for my blogs. In addition to that all of my blogs have several as in almost every post original pictures I have taken myself or images I have created as part of my post. In addition to the design I try to provide quality content. Why does any of this matter?

In the world of blogging there is something called PR (page rank). That's determined by Google and it determines where you are in Google's search engin. It does fluctuate depending on the age of your blog and how you are maintaining it. Apparently a lot of bloggers are seeing their PR cut due to the new algorithim Google is using. So here lies the rant. In the last PR update Google saw fit to cut the PR on this blog and Canadian Perspective. They left the other blogs alone having decreased my gardening blog in their last update. Now this is despite regular updates, using appropriate keywords, creating what I feel are nice layouts and creating backlinks. So here is my open letter to them.

Dear Mr Google

I work hard to keep my blogs updated with good content displayed on what I feel are rather pleasing templates. Take a look at my side bar. See that Adsense listed there? Well that makes you money of which you give me a mere pittance despite me doing all the work. How fair is that? Cutting my PR means less traffic to this blog which ultimately means less money to you. Now I know the piddly little bit of money you make off of my blogs don't really matter to you in the big picture. Heck you already have enough money so you really don't need any more. So maybe I should just use my own form of PR for you and just eliminate those ads from my blogs. I'm sure my readers won't mind in the least!

Sincerely,

Garden Gnome


Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

A Little Monday Humour

I hope this cute video brings a little chuckle.

Enjoy!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

BYBS - Wonder of Youth

The past week has been relaxing, peaceful and uneventful. The underlying blessing through the week has been the wonder of youth. It's spring and we are surrounded by youth from new little seedlings to the wonderful little ducklings quietly nesting under our bushes. We have baby bunnies, baby robins and baby Morning doves. The swans visit us daily with the cutest, fluffy little cygnets. As if that wasn't enough parents of oldest and youngest grandbabies visited this weekend. Oh my gosh!

The small hills in our yard that the lawn service hates are a total source of amusement for oldest grandbaby. "Come on Poppa, up the hill" over and over! The water traffic took on a whole new perspective. Those pesky stones Grandma and Poppa are trying to get rid of made a resounding "plonk" when oldest grandbaby tossed them delightfully into the water then melted into fits of laughter. And so the weekend went with us re-discovering the world through the eyes of a toddler. What a beautiful blessing!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Shortest Letter to the Editor

[from my email files]

*****

"The NHL obviously fears that if Hamilton gets a professional hockey team, Toronto will want one too."

Ed Shannon, Toronto , The Globe And Mail, May 9, 2009

*****

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

The Walk

The Pond
June 4, 2009

The past week or so has been rather peacefully enjoyable and uneventful. My husband is feeling much better, the kids and grandbabies are all happy and healthy, the weather is cool but nice and I feel great. Seriously the most excitement I had was opening a seldom used online email inbox to find 200 spam messages! While this makes for wonderful day to day living, it doesn't provide much fodder for blogging! I decided to take a walk last evening and as always taking the digital camera with me. We live in a gorgeous location on the Great Lakes waterway so there are always lots of beautiful photo opportunities so the camera is pretty much joined at the hip.

As I walked, I stopped several times to take pictures of interest including this pretty picture of a small nearby pond. If you look close towards the far end there are wild lily pads in bloom. Unfortunately the close-up pictures of the pretty yellow blooms came out blurry so I'll have to try again. I managed to get several great pictures that will provide something to blog about. At the same time the walk provided some nice, relaxing exercise. When I got back home, I sat on the dock until the mosquitoes came out then made my way to the sunporch where I sat enjoying the sunset and sounds of the water. It was really a lovely way to end the day!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Wordless Wednesday - Ontario Countryside

Ontario Countryside
May 30, 2009

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

First Boating Trip of 2009

The Wake May 31, 2009

Sunday afternoon my husband went down to wash and clean up the boat. I didn't go as I needed a bit of peace and quiet so it was a surprise when he called telling me to lock up the house and go to the dock. He called from the boat! I managed to get a few great shots as he pulled up to the dock. A lot of people get great pictures from their boats but quite often don't get a picture of their own boat as it's cruising through the water so that was rather nice. I climbed into the boat and we were off on a slow putz. Despite being cooler and windy earlier in the day, the sun was bright and warm. It was a very pleasant outing!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Weekend Visitors

Weekend Visitors
May 30, 2009

Meet our weekend visitors. Aren't they adorable? Our first year we got to know a family of Mute swans (Cygnus olor) who visited our dock daily. When we first met them they had 3 cygnets, two males and a female. As the second summer drew to a close only one cygnet remained. Mute swans mate for life and care for their young through the second year. When the young swans leave, the couple has another clutch. This year's clutch is 2 cygnets although it could have been more. It is quite funny as the male (cob) and female (pen) swans are quite tamed. They come close enough we could pet them if we wanted to and unless we made a sudden or threatening move, I'm sure they would let us. We always feed them a whole grain bread and lettuce. Some feed them dry dog food but that is too high in protein and can cause malnutrition in Mute swans. A mixture of poultry layer pellets and cracked corn can also be used as a feed.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009