socialize

I was asked to do a write up of Thoughts.com blogs – a 100% free online blog community.

Thoughts.com was given an appropriate name since it was created as a place for people to share their thoughts. It has since developed into a community of bloggers from all over the world.

As free blog communities go there are a few features that you’ll find on Thoughts.com that you won’t find elsewhere.

Unlike other blogging communities members of Thoughts.com can share videos, photos, music files and podcasts. Registered members can even rate other members videos, podcasts, blog posts and photos. In fact, if a member wanted to be able to make posts in the community blog sections of the site they would need to have been rated by other members and have attained a rating of 4 in order to post. So participation and interaction with other members is obviously encouraged.

I realize that many of the people that read my gardening blog have websites or blogs of their own, but not all of you do. Perhaps Thoughts.com might be a site to explore since you can upload your own photos and videos for others to see. If you were to sign up for a free membership you could use your blog as a journal and make entries about your plants or gardening methods.

The best feature of the site is of course that you can upload so many different types of multimedia all in one site. Other blog related communities or for that matter even personal blogs often need to host their photos, videos and podcasts on a variety of sites and then embed code into their blogs or posts in order to show others what they’ve created. Since you can store all your multimedia files right on thoughts.com I’m sure it’s easier to use photos and videos in your posts or point others to these files without having to leave the site.

Another great feature of Thoughts.com is the fact that they reward their top members with a free trip each year. This year they’ll be taking five of their most active members to Las Vegas. It’s an all expenses paid retreat. You can read all about it on the site but the winners will stay in a 4 star Las Vegas resort, have three free dinners and two free shows awarded to them, as well as having round trip airfare from anywhere in the continental United States.

Now that sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I can’t think of any other blog community that does anything like that. The best part is that all you have to do to win is be one of the most active on the site which is easy enough to do if you are uploading photos and videos, having them rating by members and rating other members items as well.

Check out Thoughts.com if you’d like to start your own free blog and socialize with others. Don’t forget to visit the community forums while you are there.

Have you ever sat back and thought about how good gardening is for us in general?

There are obvious benefits to gardening, for example if you grow fruit or vegetables in your garden you have access to fresh fruit and veggies throughout the growing season. The produce your grow is so much fresher than what we can purchase in grocery stores isn’t it? Not to mention that it likely lacks harmful pesticides and other chemicals that could be bad for our health.

Less obvious perhaps are the social, psychological, and physiological benefits of gardening. Maintaining a garden, whether it’s one that produces food for your family, contains a mix of flowering and leafy plants or a mix of both is good exercise, gets us outdoors for some fresh air, and allows us to spend quality time with our family or friends when we are working in the garden, or sitting back and enjoying the view from the patio.

My garden is many things to me. I spend several hours working in the garden from Spring though to Autumn. I know that I get a fair amount of exercise while working in the garden.

When I’m out working in the garden my neighbors often come out to work on their own yards, or simply just to say hello. Therefore I get a chance to get to know my neighbors better and to create a sense of community within my neighborhood.

When I’m not working in the garden, I can often be found either gazing out the window at the lovely flowers, or sitting at my patio table enjoying a drink or pleasant meal with my husband and or friends and relatives.

My garden is also one of the first places that I head after a long night of working as a Nurse in the ER. There is nothing like walking through the garden in the early morning hours to see which new flowers are about to bloom and smelling the heavenly scent of rose perfume wafting through the air. A few minutes in the garden after a long night of taking care of patients and perhaps saving a few lives and I’m almost magically de-stressed. It’s wonderful.

I also take great pride in how my garden looks and I’m very pleased when people stop on the sidewalk as they are walking by our house to look at the flowers in the front yard, or even to stare down our driveway to see the beginning of our backyard paradise. If I happen to be outdoors when my garden catches their eye I usually don’t mind talking to them about the plants I grow, or listening to their compliments.

Why do you garden? What benefits do you derive from gardening?

The many benefits of Gardening

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