WOLONG PANDA UPDATE…PLEASE CHECK THIS WEBSITE FOR PANDA’S INTERNATIONAL

All the most current news about the people and pandas of China’s earthquake will be here. Please if you can donate generously to the funds they have started. This is a completely legit and top notch group!

I wanted to show you my new monarch butterfly bench I got myself for my birthday! It finally arrived and we got it put together today. What a great focal point for my new studio garden. My glass studio overlooks this area filled with bird feeders , water features and my chows!! The peonies are from the one I showed you a couple of posts ago. They were so heavy on the tree I had to cut off a bunch to keep the branches from breaking

It seems the pandas fared much better than the people affected by the China earthquake on Monday. Apparently a World Wildlife tour group heading to Wolong panda preserve is still out there and not been heard from yet. Hopefully all is well but it may be some time before contact is made on that desolate stretch of road to Wolong. Much of the road is washed out.

Here’s an update from ,my guide in Chengdu. Even though we heard the good news yesterday about the pandas, it’s always great to hear it again, and again and again.. I was so worried about the babies especially. Sounds like my little Bao Shi is as tough as I thought..lol! (Bao Shi sounds like “boss”)

Here’s his note this morning. He and his family are living in their car at the moment.

“Hello Sandra Miller

I also want give you another good news which is that the pandas in Chengdu are all very safe including your baby “BaoShi”.
Thanks alot for your concern,my house might be repaired in future,the local goverment office sent staff had checked it….
thanks Mickal

Graffiti Gossip has had a serious facelift and I am still working on it..but I couldn’t wait to show you what I have so far!! The technology of blogging has BLOSSOMED since I created GRAFFITI GOSSIP 3 years ago…I mean it’s a whole different animal!!!

Steve was creating his own blog this week and was showing me all the fun plugins in and widgets and I couldn’t resist bringing my own blog up to date as well. Because photography is such an integral part of my blogging I wanted to find a way to incorporate my Flickr albums here as well. OH BOY…they had a widget for that too!!! Woo Hoo!!! Flickr is the worlds premier photo sharing website in the world.

Below is a list of all the changes so far with more fun stuff to come. I still need to design a header/banner but that will come in time.

NEW BLOG FEATURES INCLUDE:

• EASY TO FIND ORANGE THOUGHT BUBBLES WHERE YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH BLOG POST

• STARTING WITH MY NEWEST IMAGES AS OF TODAY…EVERY THUMBNAIL IMAGE IS CLICKABLE TO SEE LARGER AND VIEW DESCRIPTIONS

• EVERY IMAGE WHEN YOU ARRIVE AT THE LARGE VERSION HAS A COMMENT BOX BELOW IT WHICH IS INTEGRATED WITH MY FLICKER ACCOUNT. YOUR COMMENTS WILL SHOW UP IN THE BLOG AS WELL AS FLICKR WHICH IS FUN! THE IMAGE COMMENTS ARE DIFFERENT THAN THE POST COMMENTS WHICH YOU ACCESS VIA THE ORANGE THOUGHT BUBBLES
  

• IN THE LEFT HAND COLUMN TOWARD THE TOP IS AN 8 THUMBNAIL WIDGET SHOWING MY MOST RECENT IMAGE POSTINGS ON FLICKR. REFRESHING THE SCREEN WILL SHOW A DIFFERENT ASSORTMENT. CLICKING WILL TAKE YOU TO LARGER IMAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS

• YOUR MOST RECENT COMMENTS LEFT IN THE BLOG WILL BE IN THE LEFT COLUMN UNDER “YOUR GOSSIP” . HANDY WHEN I’M ON A TRIP AND THERE ARE LOTS OF NEW POSTS BEING MADE. YOU CAN SEE EASILY IF I HAVE REPLIED TO ANY OF THE COMMENTS THIS WAY TOO.

• LINKS TO MY ART AND MY PHOTOGRAPHY ARE ALSO IN THE LEFT HAND COLUMN

• POSTS ORGANIZED BY “TOPIC” AND MY ARCHIVES (OLD GOSSIP) TAKE UP LESS ROOM WITH PULLDOWN MENUS

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I love May!! It’s my birth month and this year will be my 50th gardening season so I’m trying to see it as how much I have grown both in spirt , plants and of course years…rather than seeing 50 as a terrible thing. The photo you see of the little girl is me…45 years ago in my dad’s garden in Owatonna MN. The seed doesn’t sprout too far from the flower does it? I know I’ve posted these pix before but just found them again today and thought they were May Day material! THANKS MOM for hanging onto these old images….they mean the world to me

For as long as I can remember I have considered the entire month of May to be my birthday. It’s a magical time where the ground is coming to life and old plant friends come back to say hello once more!!

I used to give out May baskets full of goodies but this year I guess it will just have to be a virtual May Basket to all my special friends and my family

Have a glorious day everyone….. Sandra

A mini garden album for you to enjoy..click on thumbnails to view larger!

View more photos >

The most recent comments are at the top of this list. Click links to read

YOUR GOSSIP

• Sandy Helm commented on A few favorite Tai Shan pix and my Geomap of the trip
• Pat Pearson commented on Video taped live version of my panda presention! Thank you Craig!
• Diana commented on Video taped live version of my panda presention! Thank you Craig!

TRAVELBLOGUE DESTINATIONS

Select Category AFRICA 2007  (27) CHINA 2006  (13) FAMILY  (21) GARDENS  (34) GRAFFITIMAGERY  (4) MY DESIGNS  (59) NEWSLETTERS  (14) NY & DC ZOO 08  (17) PANDA TRIBES  (8) PROJECT PANDA ADOPTION  (64) STUDIO  (111) THAILAND 08  (37)

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