Back to normal (whatever that is)

If you've been afraid to open your web browser or email for fear that there would be another of my "Rewind" pieces sitting there like an overly persistent pet wanting a pat, rest easy folks, the "Rewind" is over. 

And thanks to the kind people who have contacted me by email to say nice things about the Rewind in general. It has been fun doing it over these last few weeks.

From now on, this little Garden Amateur blog will return to "normal" (whatever that is), which I suspect will be just a few postings every month, whenever something crops up that I think is worth blogging about.

But before I leave you in peace, I just wanted to round off the whole Rewind season by telling you how the blog itself got started ...

It all started back in 2008 because a pair of good friends, Michelle and Evan, were leaving Sydney to live in the centre of Australia, in Birdsville, a tiny but legendary town in a very arid, hot spot in inland Queensland. Evan is a writer, and his mission was to live there for a year and write a book about Birdsville, which he did (and did very well). Many of the tourists passing through Birdsville — and there are lots of them — buy a copy of Evan's book, and it's a wonderful read. Here's the cover.

Michelle told me she planned to start up a blog on life in Birdsville, and that it was going to include their attempts at gardening there, as they are both good gardeners. So, I decided to start up a Sydney gardening blog, partly to amuse Michelle and Evan while they coped with searing heat and the odd dust storm, and also to bring some cool greenery into their sandy-coloured lives.

And so that's how the whole thing started. A bit over 700 postings later, it's still going, if at a much reduced pace compared to the Golden Years from 2008-2011, when I was blogging like a man possessed. 

As the Rewind attempted to show, this blog is mostly about gardening, sometimes in a practical way, but more often in a tone of amused fascination with nature and life itself. Here and there I like to toss in some travel, cookery, Pammy's artworks, a few book reviews and whatever else takes my fancy. And that's what it is going to keep on doing.

Finally, a very big THANK YOU to everyone who bothers to read my ramblings, and an even bigger thank you to all you wonderful commenters as well. Every word you write is encouragement, even if you are merely pointing out another of my lapses into folly.

Onward!