Haywood Community College
A post I did not want to do…
One Final Word, well two in case the second is not well-known. W4W is ending as a meme. There are far too many memes and too little time for all that participate, posts spanning and linking to four and five similar memes at a time. That is a lot of visiting if you do the considerate thing.
North Carolina Arboretum Nature Trail
I may still do W4W as a post like today, and welcome anyone to do the same, but not as an official meme. I hope you have enjoyed the W4W posts, as I have enjoyed doing them very much.
It gave everyone a chance to either express what they know or explore what they didn’t. It was a chance to go outside the box, or venture outside your own garden – a post where photography skills could expand or shine.
Bertolet Sawmill, Daniel Boone Homestead
Many chose to look inward and reflect, to stretch the realm of putting pen to paper, so to speak, with poetry and prose. Others presented photos that were so beautiful, and all inspired by a word.
Please look back through and see the wonderful posts that came from W4W from bloggers around the world. The word is the inspiration, and the ways in which it was interpreted became the beautiful result of creativity and originality. So what is the word for this Wednesday?
One final word….
Daniel Boone Homestead
Pastoral
pastoral |ˈpastərəl, pasˈtôrəl|
adjective
1 (esp. of land or a farm) used for or related to the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle: scattered pastoral farms.
• associated with country life: the view was pastoral, with rolling fields and grazing sheep.
• (of a work of art) portraying or evoking country life, typically in a romanticized or idealized form.
Gring’s Mill, Berks County, PA
And the word I was going to use that some may not know….
Sacro-Idyllic
Sacro-Idyllic – A landscape that shows an ideal countryside. I picked this word to end where we started with bucolic.
Old Barn in North Carolina
Just added this below to help clarify sacro-idyllic…
sacrosanct |ˈsakrōˌsa ng (k)t|
adjective
(esp. of a principle, place, or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with.
Poppies in Wheatfield, New York
Thanks to all that have joined over the past year. I very much like the thoughtful posts that linked in. It was much appreciated.
Water Colorist at Chanticleer
Take a look at the posts below and click to see those that participated. Pick a word you fancy!
- Harmony
- Inspiration
- Tracery
- Time
- Reflection
- Weathering
- Accidental
- Texture
- Ephemeral
- Evolution
- Repose
- Illumination
- Serendipity
- Diaphanous
- Bucolic
It was a long road for W4W, but we end where we started.
The next post on GWGT will be back to the gardens. It is a look at the open gardens of the Lewiston GardenFest. If you remember, I am a committee member for this event.
Hi Donna, that is so sad for our W4W! I am sure most of us who diligently participated here will agree with me that this is the most challenging meme we join, and personally i put more time and thinking about it, but it was most rewarding! We can release deeper thoughts looming beneath the obvious and we are glad to realize we have them if given more thinking. Just like now i immediately opened your site to look for the word, because i missed last month due to computer problems. But all things end, i know! So i wish to convey my gratitude for giving us the chance to dig deeper in our psyches and found something hidden in there. I will miss it, but life goes on, blogging goes on. Maybe in a little while you will be thinking of something again, of course. Donna is Donna, always putting in new things, and we thank you. More power and God bless!
Lastly, all the photos here conveyed melancholy, as most endings are! But the spirit goes on, to soar in higher realms.
Thanks much Andrea, I will miss your W4W posts.
Loving your post – just give me a book and I could find a quiet spot to read, reflect, ponder, daydream, etc.:) Have a Great Day!
Thank you, I could lay down in those fields and just watch the world spin.
Donna, I agree – the number of memes can be overwhelming. Thanks for hosting W4W. I’m sad to see this thoughtful meme end. I didn’t participate often, but I enjoyed reading and viewing the interpretations of other bloggers.
Are there not a host of new memes? I got overwhelmed with them. Thanks for enjoying W4W.
Such beautiful photos (as usual). The poppies especially caught my eye – but everything just looks so serene and beautiful
I loved that poppy field. I was just driving by and the grounds keepers were moving the field. I only had my iPhone and did not take a photo. When I went back a few days later, there were still some poppy patches and I had my camera this time.
Donna, I am sad to read that this meme has come to a close. I have really enjoyed participating. I think Andrea’s comments above express how I feel too. Thank you so much for hosting this challenging meme! Your posts and photos are always inspiring and everyone that participated really pushed the bar higher. I would love to participate one last time. It may be posted later this week since we are preparing for a trip to the farm.
I be sure to see a last W4W from you Karin. Your posts are always inspiring, words and images.
The beauty of this place is incredible!! the poppy fields and the meadow with Daniel Boone is my best!!
Thanks Barbie.
I concur with others above and I am sad to see this end…if you do decide to do an occasional word post, I would love to participate…it was one of the best and as a person who loves to write, a fabulous challenge. W4W is indeed Sacro-Idyllic!
Donna, you always had great W4W posts. I will be sad to not see them.
Donna, I came late to the party, but I’m going to miss it also. It was one of my favorites and I thank you for hosting it. You did a wonderful job of conveying “The End” and ending with the Daniel Boone homestead makes it seem like there’s another beginning. And I have never seen Chanticleer look so inviting, which is saying something.
I know, the word should have been End, but I will probable find words to post about in the future.
Thank you for creating the meme. I find memes very overwhelming so I only participated a few times. I will continue to look forward to reading your thoughts on gardening. – http://mary-goingnative.blogspot.com/
I am doing a page on garden tips and ideas, but it may not happen that fast due to my travel schedule this year.
Very nice words and demonstrative photographs to illustrate their meanings!
Thanks, Tina.
Thank you all!
Andrea, I am so grateful you joined along with the others in this meme. I am thankful for your thoughtful and meaningful comment. It meant so much to me. The same applies to all of you leaving your kind comments. And Andrea, you are right, I never stop coming up with ideas, see below.
Like many, I am saddened too, but memes have been popping up left and right, and I think it takes away from the spirit of a meme to be linking here there and everywhere using one post. Just my humble opinion, and not something that happened much here, but I decided before it did, I would bow out in deference to all the other memes.
I liked W4W because it was different. It challenged and it made one think creatively. Now the other blogger who started W4W the SAME week that I did can happily resume his postings without competition.
I am replacing W4W with Garden Moments. A single photo needing no words, but not omitting them either, that captures a special garden moment happening sometime over the month or during a week. Not sure yet. Maybe a simple moment where you pause, stop and choose to remember.
It will NOT be a meme, but anyone can surely post an image and label it Garden Moments. It would be nice if they don’t turn it into a meme though. That gripes me when people ‘borrow’ ideas that they did not originate, and run with them as if they did. I have been seeing quite a few copycatters out there that did just that. I have a post I will upload tomorrow on actual stealing. Yes, it happened to me, and it has nothing to do with blogging, well,not directly anyway.
I am planning Garden Moments to be an exceptional image that happens, but not necessarily exceptional as photography. Just a happenstance capture, or an oddly pretty critter visiting the garden. If I had small children, it might be that ‘just perfect moment’ when you catch them in play and want to freeze the memory. Sort of like that I hope. It makes you look at what is around you a little differently, appreciate the simple, cherish the ordinary, praise the uncomplicated.
Similar to Happy Monday that I did a long time ago. Something to maybe bring a smile, or even a sigh. It is still in the think tank, but you know where I am headed. I was even thinking it may not even have to be my work, like a reblog, something you have to just see and remember. Who knows, much to contemplate for something so simple. A look at Moments for Tomorrow, Captured Today.
But thanks again to all for your kind words and past participation.
Hi Donna, I did not often get to participate in your W4W a little bit because of time constraints and a lot because of my sad lack of organization. I did like the challenge it presented though. It made it fun and interesting to see what everyone else came up with. Thanks for presenting us with the opportunity to get creative.
It was fun to read the post that others created. I was always pleased and surprised.
Thanks Jen for noting participation. That leads to a further comment.
I did not mention that in my reason for stopping W4W because I much appreciated each and every contributor. The posts for others were always thought provoking and very creative – great reads. It is the fact that too many memes are populating the blogoshere, and most don’t take much effort, and many are pretty much the gardener’s own garden at some different time of the month or year. Nothing wrong with that, but it is too time consuming and too similar for a gardener like me with a teeny plot.
It relates so much to the question of “Is Garden Blogging Dead”. Well it just might be heading that way when all the bloggers get burnt out posting the same stuff over and over to join four or five memes. I know as a reader, I feel that way, it gets overwhelming (for how many) and monotonous (for how repetitious).
And as a blogger. I have noticed a tremendous drop in readers from Blotanical overall. I get maybe three or four a day, on a good day, maybe 15. My belief it is not that the posts are uninteresting or have nothing to learn from, but that bloggers are just too committed to doing all these memes and have little time to actually read them or countless others.
Same with GBBD. I get at most three visits total. My blog provides many times that with bloggers who click to go there. It is pretty disproportional. I am guessing many others have seen this also. And how many read the posts and leave no comments. I started doing that, and it is wrong, so I just stopped. With memes, it is a race to get to the next one, and to just make sure to leave a trail that others may visit their post. Not all are like that, but most know who is.
I forgot to mention in the previous comment of mine, posted to all, that I had a blogger friend who quit blogging because another blogger blatantly swiped the meme this person was doing. What a shame to lose such an interesting and well done blog over this. Rather than see W4W take that route (I kept mine going even though there was another Word on Wednesday posting going simultaneously and a recently new one on Sunday too) it was bound to lose readership due to all the other posts happening on Wednesdays. I would rather quit while at a high point than wait until the ‘ratings’ drop. As you can see, a lot went into the decision to stop W4W as a meme.
I never did participate, but I did enjoy reading the thoughtful posts your W4W inspired. I support Wildflower Wednesday – that is ‘my garden’. Saddened to read that someone took your meme idea and ran away with it. I do prefer to choose one meme and aim my blog post there.
I did not think you ever saw my posts, but did notice you commenting on those linking in. I am glad they provided good reading for you. Thanks for stopping in on the final one.
I viewed your W4W posts as very educational. I agree with Andrea that the photos are a bit melancholy. I don’t always participate in meme’s, many times I forget. Guess I just do my own thing. Your new one sounds interesting, will keep my imagination open to Garden Moments. Love your photos and your thoughts, always a great read.
Thank you much, Janet. These posts gave me a chance to talk design. I don’t do that often because so many of the gardeners here know so much already. Design leans more towards landscaping, and many have gardens that evolved over time, not necessarily designed from the beginning. I never know what direction to take in posts on large landscapes vs home gardens.
Donna, I’m not generally a huge fan of memes, but I’m sorry to see this one end. I didn’t participate but did enjoy following it, because every post by every blogger was a surprise. The words really did promote creativity and bring out fun and interesting ideas. My impression is that most memes give people a way to take part in the blogging community, which is lovely, but often at the expense of the bloggers’ individual voices, which is a pity. They provide a basic prompt and a kind of safety net, but they’re also generally predictable. W4W never was, and I loved that. Your Garden Moments idea sounds lovely — a way to evoke/remember wonder and delight, which is most of the point of gardening, after all!
I guess you are right about the community aspect, but it still makes for a long day blog hopping all the memes. Thanks for writing in Stacy. Good to hear your points.
I am going to miss W4W. Andrea said it so much better than I, but that is exactly how I feel. I always loved participating, even though I found it challenging. But that was part of the fun!
They were a challenge, especially the ones that other bloggers suggested and those from the random picker.
Even though I rarely participated since posting on a Wed. during the school year was nearly impossible, they were fun to read. Your photos were perfect for pastoral. It’s one of my favorite words.
They were fun. And educational too.
Donna, all good things must come to an end, and W4W WAS a good thing. You creatively expounded on a theme with thoughtful commentary and beautiful photos. The series will live on in the archives.
You are right, They are pretty highly searched topics.
Donna – your blog and posts are always compelling. It’s one of the many reasons your readers keep coming back for more substance. (I have a lot of catching up to do, having fallen out of the Blogosphere for quite a while; the W4W link list above sure looks like the right place to start!)
I like that you said they have substance. Thank you so much for that.
I always put more effort into posts that I write for memes than my regular ones because I feel that I have to be on my best behaviour so as not to let the meme host down.
Your meme is/was my favourite.
Funny how it started off being a meme about posting photos to describe a word but we all added a bit extra. It was you leading by example that made the difference.
Having said that, change is good, and I look forward to seeing how your blog evolves.
You were the one that provide evolution. That was a really hard word in a way. It brought out some great posts from those participating. Thanks for always joining.
It is too bad that W4W is ending – I really enjoyed it. I do agree though that there are too many memes out there, to the point that I can’t remember which one is what week (though I don’t have the best memory, so that might not be saying much!)
Your photos are beautiful, and I enjoy how much your blog focuses on photography. It makes me think more about how I take photos of the garden. I look forward to seeing your Garden Moments.
I too confuse them because so many revolve around one’s own garden. I decided to stop participating and just concentrate on doing my own thing.
It is indeed a shock for me to come back from a month’s break from garden-blogging and read your announcement. Your meme is inspiring, and more than that, you develop a rapport with us, your participants, that is meaningful. I feel I know who Donna is, from reading your take on the word for the week, and seeing where you train your lens. And you know who we are, and you tell us that you’re listening to our voices. For that I thank you, dear Donna.
I shall certainly devote a post to the last W4W.
Rosie Gan
Rosie, I am so sorry about W4W. You always had the most well thought out posts with your special poetry. I can not spell what they are really called, sorry. I will be looking forward to you W4W. Thank you again for your participation.
Sorry to hear about this Donna. I wish I could have participated more and regret that I could not find enough time to do so. I enjoyed reading the entries. Like your posts, they were mostly thought provoking and insightful.
As promised, I’ve written the last post for W4W, Donna, a farewell and a celebration. There isn’t a linky, I see, for the final prompt, so if you’d like to read it, it is at this link : http://mygardenhaven1.blogspot.com/2012/07/idyllic-pastoral-scenes-of-emerald.html
Thanks for a lovely journey on W4W.
Rosie