Back when I was first hunting down information on cold climate gardening on the internet, I came across a website called “My Adirondack Gardens.” The Adirondacks, as you may know, can be quite cold, and the photos of the gardens were beautiful. But I was also frustrated, because that particular cold climate gardener never provided a way to contact her. Well, I just discovered Trudi has moved her site here, and also has a blog called Garden Scrapbooking. But Trudi still has no email address for me to write to her and find out what part of the Adirondacks she’s gardening in.
I understand the strong desire to avoid spam, but by not offering an email address, you miss the opportunity to make a lot of new friends, too. The programs that are designed to harvest email addresses off the internet read the actual link to your address in the html code, but they can’t read an image of the text. In other words, if you type your email address into your favorite graphics program, and then save it as an image file, human beings can read that picture and type it into their email program–spambots cannot. And only people who are really interested in contacting you will go to that trouble. It’s not cost-effective for spammers to invest the labor. I’m not picking on Trudi. There are other online friends who also withhold their email address from the prying eyes of the public.
I’m looking forward to watching Trudi’s new site grow and develop. And maybe we’ll get to be friends, too.
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
