Today, I finished taking the pictures of the gardens on a local 2008 Tour. After the Stockade Secret Garden Tour last weekend and the gardens on THIS tour, I covered 20 places altogether.

To see these beautiful, personal Edens that people have created in their yards is a wonderful treat. Bursting with ideas, I plan changes in my own garden, and meanwhile resize selected pictures for web pages of the tour itself.

The people I meet are no less interesting than their gardens. From small gardens to huge, sprawling "parks", I meet the nicest people! Having a camera and doing this work gives me a real edge in that I can arrive before the crowds and hear the stories of how their mini-paradise may have evolved. How many years they have worked on it...what is their favorite feature. There is something about the natural settings that make communication easier. And I get to admire and feed my soul in the process of this work.

Now begins the work of choosing 8 photos of each garden, and "writing" the HTML pages, linking the whole thing together so that like proud parents, the gardeners might send their link along to family and friends for sharing.

In case you haven't guessed, I love this part of my "work". It is unpaid - a public service really - but priceless in the experiences and sights I get to share in. I am "reposting" the photo here, as it doesn't seem to be showing up above.