Good Friends

It is reciprocated hunny xxx I am now being asked by OH as to why I have gone a nice shade of red

I've gone red too - but methinks its due to the lovely hot weather we are lucky enough to be having this afternoon!

u been to lottie then? did u manage to put those sweeties in?

Um, er, no! Going down tomorrow. Sweeties in water.

Missed this earlier as I've been out for the day and then fell asleep when we got back.

I had the pleasure of 'popping round' to Piglet Willie's earlier this year to pick up a few tomatoes and peppers - what a delightful afternoon that was. Met his Missus [gaw'd how lovely is she!!!], he took me to the lotties and I had a good nose round, then back to theirs for a brilliant lunch, and then we went through all his spare plants and I took some [loads] home - and then after all that - he went through his seed collection [HSL has nothing on our PW], and I came home with seedlings, plants, seeds, and a few jars of homemade salsa/chilli sauce. Fabulous.

And then, I met you, our Mo [Allotment Lady], Stephen with a P, and Geoff from here. Stephen with a P brought his good lady and as you know she is a scream. I also brought some of the aforementioned PW peppers and toms to share [hoping they are growing] and we all had a look through AL's seeds that she brought. Then, you and Mo gave me a bottle each [one of oil from you and one of elderflower cordial from Mo], again blimmin lovely!!!!

I'm hoping to meet a few other Grapes, we have almost set a date in the Diary for a meeting with Hay and Lady Wayne and Hayden when they are up here in a few weeks, and we nearly had a Midlands Meet a while back.

I have found some lovely Grapes as well through Faceache....not met them yet but hopefully one day.

I have met pollyfouracre and she is lovely I would like to meet loads more but am too far away from most of you, Hoping to meet up with a few devon grapes.

Well I have met the lovely Bernie and her OH, oh and dexy and cats xx I have also met Stephenwithap and his lovely Maz xx I also met zazen and her OH and those fab plants I got from you are all growing well and thanks for the many many pressies and little notes I have met Geoff who I have not see too much of on here since Arley Hall.
I have also had the pleasure of meeting Pipsicaried aka Sheridan and her family and the lovely Shirley and Madmax.

I hope to meet more grapes possibly at the Southport Flower Show or the Tatton one

I am chuffed I signed onto the vine all those years ago, I have formed some lovely 'real' friendships both online, my mobile and in person.

i've met loads of people from other website and made some bloody good friends - got loads of dog walking buddies and friends to visit or who visit me - made a couple of good friends from here too, but only a couple

this site does seem a bit odd that the meets don't happen so much on here - maybe it's a midlands only thing? something in the water up there??!!

Don't really have any urge to meet anybody from here, prefer to use it more mainly for it's original intent as simply a forum for learning more about gardening. I know the old saying that you can never have enough friends but don't have enough hours in the day to see my existing friends as it is so don't want to add to that. No offence, but I'm not really interested in your personal lives and don't want to discuss mine with you but each to their own etc etc.

Well, I know two Grapes personally, Amandaandherveg and I forget the screenname of my friend Shirley, but I kind of cheated by meeting them through the local Freecycle group first of all, then of course when we met we were enthusing about the Grapevine and QED ! As gardening friends go, I have none better, but like Alison I find my socialising time very limited so don't often get to meet with friends. If truth be known, I lust to meet Grapes' gardens as much as I do to meet them.
I must confess I still use this forum as an information resource rather than an "online tribe"/meeting place and never expected to actually meet up with any Grapes in the flesh, but that is probably because I am used to a health forum site called Healingwell.com; most of the friends I have there are in America or Australia, so I am kind of conditioned to never think of meeting my online friends.
I think it is easy to start off emotionally disengaged on an internet forum (you can tell I'm a man, can't you ?!) but if you get wound up about the subject you are posting queries about, the answers you get break through that reserve. As time has gone on and I've been helped by others, sent JAs and seeds etc, I do find that I regard people more as actual friends rather than just as words on a web page. It does feel kind of odd not to know what people look like etc, (I have a terrible time remembering who is male or female ) but in some ways I think the physical distance can help create a sense of camaraderie; many people judge others negatively by mannerisms that remind them unpleasantly of someone else, online that tends to get filtered out. Of course we are all always looking for the meaning in the words and every so often there will be a misunderstanding or downright disagreement - but it is much easier to forgive and forget or judge charitably if the person is not standing next to you, affecting your life.
I love forums, where there is goodwill, manners and good sense then they embody all that is good about the internet and dare I say it, humanity.

I think making friends however you do it is a good thing.

I'm not really a "friend" kind of person - don't have a "best friend" (apart from LadyWayne), but I do have plenty of people I know I could count on if the chips were down, and several I would consider good friends.

I'm more comfortable in a group environment I guess - I can flit.

Of the grapes I've met (two) I have to say that they were great ambassadors of the vine.

Quite happy to meet as many grapes as possible (and as has been mentioned, plans are a foot to do just that).

Alison thats really sad to hear......its great to meet like minded people and have a proper chat over a coffee....friendships are not all about 'personal lives' are they? Like you say each to their own.

I met Sunbeam through the vine. It turns out we live very close to each other and we have become friends. We don't get the opprtunity often, but when we do meet up it feels for me as though it was only 5 minutes or so since the last time. What helped was knowing we had at least one thing in common (gardening and soon after, chickens) and we soon found more common ground.

I also have a few of you as friends on bookface, and its nice to be in touch that way too. I hope to meet more of you one day.

Why even bother posting that? We all know how you feel about the forum by now Alison, so why put it in a thread which is about and by people who DO want to meet up and make new friends?


I have a bit of a social anxiety thing going on, but I managed to get over it enough to meet Yo&Bob, Dobby & MrsD, and Digger07 (Dave) at Yo&Bob's which was a great day. Also Lynda & Auntie Mo came to visit after I came out of hospital, and Yo came to visit before Esther was born.
All of them are really lovely people and I would definitely call them friends.

When I'm fit to drive again, hopefully I'll be able to do return visits, and meet up with a few other Grapes too. We still need to set up that Mod's Meeting

Bit of a bummer that FionaH lives at the other end of the country, as I would love to spend some time with her but the Vine & MSN will have to do for now.