Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Cranky Curmudgeon Experiencing Blotanical Withdrawl

Today my morning routine did not go as planned.  I was looking forward to a round-the-world tour of my favorite gardening blogs. But when I tried to log on to Blotanical,  the site was down. I raced around the blogosphere checking in with other blogs to see if there was any news as to why the site was down. I even checked the weather in Australia--Blotanical's founder Stuart Robinson is from  Busselton, Western Australia--to make sure mother nature was not to blame for Blotanical's disappearance from the radar screen. When I came up short on answers I was forced to move on to Plan B--laundry and vacuuming. This made for a very cranky Curmudgeon. 

Blotanical, where garden blogs bloom

Blotanical is a social site that brings together blogging gardeners of different ilks and stripes from all over the world. From professional gardeners, garden writers and nature photographers to complete novices like the Wenches, you can find it on Blotanical. I have my own page on the site, "My Plot", which contains info about me and my garden. I learn about other gardeners and their blogs by visiting their plots. My favorite tool on Blotanical is the ability to search for garden blogs by geographical location--France, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Caribbean and of course all across the US and Canada.

Hey! I just checked and Blotanical is back. But it's way past lunchtime now. Making it around the world before I need to leave for work is going to be a challenge. Heck with laundry! Who needs clean socks anyway!

--Curmudgeon

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROFL
No - clean socks are not required - but a daily dose of Blotanical is!
K

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

I am curious how many of us spend this morning "shaking" computers, trying get the Blotanical?!

Gail said...

I thought it had to do with my switching to the new feed burner! Change is good right? Now, back to our usual routine! gail

Daphne Gould said...

When I woke up it wasn't down yet, just molasses slow. Slow enough that I quit trying. When I got back it was down and I wanted to see my blogs. Remembering the names of all of them is really hard. Luckily it came up soon after.

Kerri said...

Yes, that was rough, wasn't it? Withdrawal indeed! Having to resort to vacuuming and laundry? Ugh! (I meant to vacuum...really!)
But now Blotanical is backed...all is well with the world, and Curmudgeon has no excuse to be grumpy..except that she doesn't have any clean socks.
Not to worry :)

Anonymous said...

Uh uh ... I thought it was only me with the problem. I got hooked on Blotanical and thought I messed up something that I can't access it anymore. I'm glad everything's ok.

Anonymous said...

Stuart and http://www.blotanical.com/ rock! And the Weed Whackin' Wenches rock too!

Unknown said...

It was very odd, wasn't it? It worked out okay for me because I went out side and looked at birds, made a proper supper, finished two articles, had a nap...It's amazing how connected we are to this world and how we all get anxious when something goes amiss at the mother ship. So to speak.

Anonymous said...

I wonder, was it just a thing with Blogger? I feel like I checked it this morning with no issues. But then again I'm a Wordpress gal. :) We do have to get our daily fixes, nice if it's just coffee and a little garden blog-hopping instead of the hard stuff.

A Cuban In London said...

Many thanks for the lovely poem you left me on my blog. And I hope Blotanical doesn't give you that kind of scare again :-).

Greetings from London.

garden girl said...

It won't be long before Blotanical withdrawal is recognized as a bonafide medical condition! ;)

Jan said...

We must have all looked ridiculous if anyone out there was watching the earth with a magnifying glass:) Frantic because we couldn't get on Blotanical, we walked around chewing our nails, looking out the window, finally saying, 'hmm, I actually have a LIFE. I need to do something here for a change"....I totally relate to your sentiments!

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Karen! I loathe doing laundry. any excuse to put it off. LOL. Dishes, on the other hand, I love doing.

I will bet there were many of us Tatyana!

Change is great, Gail--as long as it doesn't affect my morning routine! LOL!

Definitely frustrating, Daphne. I'm just glad whatever the problem it was resolved in a matter of hours.

Curmudgeon said...

No more grumpy curmudgeon, Kerri! Today my morning routine went smoothly! But I still need to finish up the laundry before Wing Nut gets home. She will be most cranky if her socks are still unwashed. LOL!

Hi Blossom! Yes, all is right with the blogosphere again.

Thanks Flowergardengirl! I'm going to rock on into the laundry room now...

Curmudgeon said...

So true Jodi. I was worried that something had happened to Stuart. Glad that all is well with the mother ship!

Morning fix is so right, Karen! I've gotten off coffee but guess my Blotanical addiction is worse than I thought.

De nada, Cubano! Que disfruten de la nieve!

Curmudgeon said...

ROFL Garden Girl! Wing Nut knows better than to talk to me before I've had my morning dose of garden blogs!

Curmudgeon said...

Too funny Jan! Sigh. Yes, life and laundry await.

Anonymous said...

The trouble with a virtual gardening community is that we are helpless when it disappears in a puff of (virtual) smoke!
Luckily I duplicate the blogs I read on Google Reader so I had a back up means of access.

Curmudgeon said...

Yes, easygardener, keeping a list of blogs I read on my sidebar made life tolerable. But Blotanical does have some nifty features.

Lona said...

Should we thank Stuart or blame him that we got some house work done :)
I really miss it when it is experiencing net work troubles. My house is probably in better shape went it is though.
Lona

RantWoman said...

Sometimes some corner or other of the internet just barfs. It has hairballs or it's overcome by nausea and constipation both. Perhaps the diagnosis is slugs or gerbils or giant caterpillars. Well there are probably much geekier ways of expressing these maladies, but the point is that you might not necessarily want what that corner of the internet has got. SO be glad it's all better now and miss it when it's out, but you don't have to share the germs too.

Daniel Mount said...

Wing Nut, The Bella/Tara story is worth a million. D.

joey said...

'twas a scary moment :)

Viooltje said...

That was so ....curmudgeonly !

Tina said...

It's not back yet for everyone, but Stuart has sent a message about it. It might be up and down for a few days.

Eliza said...

I'm glad to find this post! I had just joined Blotanical (on Feb 4th) and then days later it disappeared along with a DNS error message every time I tried to reach it. It looked so much fun so I hope it comes back up again.