Where I blog

Ronni Bennett got me to thinking about where I blog. As I was photographing my space, I found myself looking from many different angles at the area where I sit down to commune with the Blogosphere. I realized the environment of my study is about connection, interaction, and relationships with people, plants or animals. For example, can you see the toy mice waiting for Ada to join me on my desk? They are on top of a little blanket my mother gave me the last time I was visiting her in Israel. It has become Ada's favorite place to sit. The cat sitter recently told me when I returned from a trip out West, that Ada sits there when I am away. Each morning she and I bat the mice back and forth to each other in a "welcome-back-and-good-morning" type game to get the day started. Facing me on the wall are photographs of pets who have died, favorite postcards and some sayings that inspire and fill me with hope. Alongside the large window where I look out at the woods of Fairmount Park and especially at the huge old oak tree, there are an abundance of Christmas cacti and violets that I have grown from their own saplings and cuttings over the years. In a month or so they will all be blooming in a chorus of color, a celebration of the space they occupy. Plants have accompanied me all my life. I acquired a love of them from my mother - directly and completely. I have always marveled at how she is able to turn any environment into an interesting, exotic and beautiful growing space. And I have always adored the ways she talks about each plant. She knows their habits, likes, dislikes, and is always amazed and intrigued by what they do and how they grow.

I discovered blogging almost three years ago when we relocated to Philadelphia and, as many of you know, it has been my main source of social connection and interaction. In addition, it has been a looking glass into my psyche helping me uncover uncomfortable aspects of myself as I share them with supportive readers, some who have become what I consider to be close friends, more intimate than most because they have read my writings about my deepest and most difficult feelings. Recently, Ronni wrote a piece about the changing blogosphere and social connection waning through other ad-filled social media sites. Her insightful post, along with taking pictures and reflecting on "where I blog," brought me back ever so lovingly to my Mining Nuggets, this blog, which was born out of the ancient pains and tribulations of my first ever site: Tamarika: In and Out of Confidence.

A year ago at Mining Nuggets: Be back soon

Comments

[tamarika]

Hi Danny!
Yes, it is usually like that. Sometimes I have piles of books and papers at my feet or strewn all over the floor. But serene it is, with only the sounds of birds, squirrels and chipmunks of Fairmount Park coming through the window. On the other hand, sometimes it is *so* quiet it becomes isolating and lonely. Depends on my mood, I guess!

[Danny]

Is it always this neat, Tamar? I'm impressed! I blog either scrunched up on my bed in a position that screams for a chiropractor or else out somewhere in L.A. surrounded by tons of people. Your space seems so peaceful and serene.