Last night I joined the weekly Twitter chat known as “#Gardenchat”.

One of the questions posed to the attendees was:

Question 8 What were some of your biggest garden failures of 2014? http://t.co/vMWVm3niZt #gardenchat @savvygardening — #gardenchat (@TheGardenChat) November 4, 2014

As you may be aware faithful reader, this is typically my sweet spot. I love self deprecation when it comes to gardening. Failures are way more educational than successes and more often than not, more interesting.

Twitter chats are super fast so you have to be quick on your feet with a response. I put my witty hat on and was ready to fire away on my keyboard. Time to impress the other Twitter peeps with my banter.

But I had nothing. I couldn’t come up with a reply. Nada.

Now I know I experienced a bunch of failures this gardening season and I’m sure I’ll be able to recall them at some point in the future, but last night was not the night. That will have to be a task for another day. And here’s why.

Prior to the #gardenchat last evening, my wife and I were at the kids school attending conferences with their teachers. Now I am not one to brag, but the kids have kicked some major booty this year in school. But beyond their actual grades, the teachers made mention of how they were “great kids” and “great students”. It is hard to not have a smile on your face when you hear that.

I am a sarcastic son of a bitch but once in a great while, I buy into the smiles and rainbows and unicorns and shit. Last night was one of those nights. If the kids are healthy and thriving, it is hard not to walk with an extra jump in your step. Just maybe we kind of know what we are doing as parents.

So that is why I couldn’t drum up any level of negativity last night even though I usually operate within that zone. I didn’t even want to go there. Instead, allow me to introduce you to Mr. Happy Gardener and Mr. Giddy Blogger.

So as I now write this paragraph, I’ve had a night to sleep on it and now I’m ready to make a concerted effort to find me some failures for a blog post. Enough mushy stuff and back to reality. I’ll scan through this year’s pics to jog the memory and will enjoy mocking my shortcomings or yelling at the weather.

Ain’t happening.

I ended up scanning though EVERY picture I’ve ever taken for this blog. What a joyous trip it was through blogging memory lane. I may have even shed a tear or ten.

So please bear with my excessive happiness and know I’ll soon revert back to my sarcastic and complaining ways.

Here are a sampling of my thoughts as I revisited the last few years in my garden/world:

I am thankful that this blog has allowed me to completely grasp why this is so vital.

This blog has captured the journey I’ve taken with my children as I’ve watched them mature into pretty fantastic people. Each unique in their own wonderful way.

Writing/photography has literally saved me from Seasonal Affect Disorder for years now.

Some times you just have to accept what you’ve got and adjust accordingly.

A new found interest in photography accompanied the creation of this blog and allowed to me to look at things I had completely ignored in the past.

While this is labeled as a “garden blog” I think you all realize by now that it has evolved into much more than that for me.

I can write about saying goodbye to my childhood home.

Or why one lemon meant so much to me.

Or even something mindless like where I like to run.

I have a diary of the many trips my beautiful wife and I have taken together.

I’ve been fortunate to have my own garden featured on the Fine Gardening website here, here and here.

I’ve spent time in beautiful cities with other garden writers and enthusiasts and made friends across the world through the wonders of social media.

I even got the chance to interview my garden idol, Joe Lamp’l through a new found love of hosting a podcast.

But more than anything else, this blog has given me the opportunity to be myself and to express myself in ways I haven’t been able to before.

It has never once felt like a job nor has it been difficult to keep up with after almost five years of pulling it all together.

Thank you for sticking with me and for all of your fantastic comments.