SUEONE - LETTER OF THE MONTH

I was browsing through BBC Gardener's World magazine when the words in one of the readers' letters began to sound very familiar. I checked the sender and realised it has to be sueone!! The letter, 'Networking for new friends' was chosen as letter of the month!!
Congratulations Sue - well deserved, and i bet we can all guess which way your cheque will be spent LOL
:)

congrats Sueone!

great job sue!

Good Job!!!!

"eyes"

how exciting Sue!!!!!

I don't know this Magazine! What is the letter and what did it say that let you know it was Sueone? Can you scan it for us?

Hi Zany. This is one of the leading gardening monthly's in the UK, a large glossy affair.

I've emailed sueone as i think she should be the one to tell you about it and hope that that will be ok with her.

Cool! :~)

Well deserved, Sue! Congratulations!

will have to get a copy sue and look you up - well done that girl :)

Thanks all, i'm embarrased!!but it was lovely going to the garden centre and spending my ill gotton gains. Yes you were right philomel, it went straight on garden goodies LOL'
I did try to scan it zanymuse, but ,well, my computing skills aren't too brilliant.i'm not sure where it ended up, but it sure wasn't here!!so I'll type it in, please excuse any spelling mistakes.

Over the last few years I've been unable to do any physical work in our garden,so I've channelled my mania for plants in another direction by turning to the internet. As a result,I've made lots of friends on different garden websites, ans we have all sorts of gardening stories and advice.
I have also swopped seeds with gardeners from all over the world, including the USA, Canada,Brazil and the Netherlands, so my sunlounge and greenhouse are overflowing with seedlings in various stages of developement.
One plant that I'd always admired since I saw a pictiure of it in the gardens at Tresco in the scily Isles,is echium pininana. Three years ago I managed to get some seeds of it and grew on 12 plants. All but one succumbed to the cold, but this year the surviving plant flowered and I'm so proud of it. People stop and ask me what it is, and I've evn had to write the name down for some.
So ,even though i can no longer do what I've always loved, I have found new related interests that have bought me a great deal of enjoyment, plus frienship with people from all walks of life. They say that growing things is therapy, and it's so true.'

And I'd just like to add here that to me in those last few horrendous years when I've been really ill with my M.E. Dave's garden and all of you in it have literally been a life saver to me.I have spent weeks not being able to get out of the house, and coming on here,was and still is such a boost,I know us Brits aren't too good at talking about our feelings,but you lot have really been my saving grace, and I'm so grateful that I found Dave's.It's things like when a guardian angel paid for my subscription-It makes you realise that there still is a lot of good in the world, and peole who do care for others.I've seen it time and time again on here when others have had problems, people jump straight in to help.You lot really are like a second family, in fact I get teased about it a lot by my family and friends, they say 'she's off to her little world again'

What a charming letter! It offers inight into who you are and lets others who are unable to get out in the gardens know that they have options! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Very touching letter Sue one..congrats on being chosen..
I smiled when you wrote "you lot"...British term for "all of you" I think.I was born in England..and love to hear the British way of saying things.
I especially like to watch British shows on TV.

Cheers,
Carol

Beautifully written, sue, from the heart! Congratulations, Doris

Sue, you sure spoke for all of us! Thanks for expressing what I feel too. And what goodies did you find at the garden centre?

Oh, just a couple of little thongs lupinelover, cyclamen, a cou-ple of honeysuckles,some nice bulbs for my pots,bird seed,new bird feeders,compost,plant food ........and some little bits and pieces!!I had a grand old time:-)not very often that I get let loose with money to spend on what I want !!
On a slightly diffent note starzz, what do you call the language in America, do you say you're talking good English? or American?It's just that I've noticed over the last few years how bad we are at using other languages.when most English people travel abroad ,we expect the people in that country to talk english to us, and most places do, but doesn't that make us very lazy?I've noticed that other Europeans on here talk very good English, and from other parts of the world too.I remeber when my girls were younger and went on a Frech exchange, their girls who came over here spoke perfect English, and they were only about 13-14, yet, when mine went over there I 'm not sure that they uttered more than a dozen words in French!When we went to Eurodisney about 5 yaers ago, I told the girls that we had to talk French to the staff, as it only polite to try to use their native language,so I spent a while taeching Jazzy, who was about 6 then,a few french words.the first person we tried to talk too was Scottish!the second was Irish!I gave up after that LOL.

Yes sue, i often find that i get all hyped up to try and talk in the native language and then they want to practise their english. I've ended up in France and Greece with me talking their language (after a fashion, particularly in Greece) and them talking english - hilarious *g*

Sueone..We call it English..but I am Canadian..
Came to Canada as a baby..

I sometimes try to say a few words in French to make a French Canadian feel comfortable..but then I am afriad that they will think I know how to speak it fluently.

have you ever tried to speak to someone french ,then realised that you're talking english ,but with a corny french accent?I don't mean to do it, but it just seems to happen ! I've done it before when speaking to welsh or geordies, you suddenly find that you start using the ups and downs of speech like theirs. I 'm sure some people must think I was taking the mickey, but I wasn't meaning too. It's just that I'm listening hard to how they talk, then find myself copying LOL.

Here in US we still call it "English", and we call what you speak in England (and other UK countries) British, when any difference in the language shows up. Like "what a British-ism" LOL. Then we call what we speak "American".

I have friends and relatives and connections from all over the world, and most of them speak fluent English, but many of them are heavily accented, so it takes a while to catch up with what they are saying. It humbles me that almost the whole world now uses English as the "lingua franca" (common language, but actual meaning is French language). LOL

I don't understand why language learning is dying in the UK - and find it very sad. GCSE students are not learning languages because they say it is too difficult. It isn't!

I speak four languages (but am hopeless at maths!) and this has opened up such a wide range of cultures to me that I would have been denied without the language.

English is now accepted as existing in several forms, none of them the "correct" one. There's British English, American English, Canadian English, Indian English, Australian English, to name just a few.

As for mimicking the person you're listening to - I do that as well! When I'm in Wales I find my intonation beginning to go up and down - I'm learning Welsh by the way, it's a fascinating language; the course is on the internet and if anyone is interested in joining me, I'd be very happy to learn with them.

It's a very sing-song language the Welsh, I love to hear it.I did try learning it, as I was convinced that I have Welsh blood somewhere!We've spent a lot of holidays there, and I just feel at home somehow.
I don't even know if it's because we're not learning the languages at school, I think it's the 'good old British'reserve. We don't like to be seen making fools of ourselves, so instead of trying things , we shy away from them.When you watch other people trying to speak in English,they are trying, and searching for the right words,but we just mumble and look very embarrased,and shout louder!!I know I shouldn't generalise, they are obviously plenty of English who do speak other languages and do it well, but as a whole we're just very lazy about it.

You're right about being lazy - it is so much easier to speak your own mother tongue and there are so many people trying to learn English - although we have been here over 16 years, my DH still has trouble speaking German (although he understands it really well) and, whereever we go, he always manages to find someone who speaks English! At work, they don't want him to speak German as they want to practice their English.

Unless you are in a situation where no-one can speak English and you need to communicate - there's just no incentive to make the effort - unless you're a linguist like me and find language interesting per se!

I too have a Welsh ancestor (great grandfather) and was taken to Wales on holiday every year and told this was where I came from - what happens in your childhood has an effect on you as an adult. :-) With our daughter now living in Wales (with a Welshman) we go there every year and the place feels like home! And, it's so beautiful!