Learn more about me!

This is my chance to tell you all about me, Glenys Morgan. I grew up on the Canadian prairies, Winnipeg to be exact... where the mosquitoes are the size of torpedoes and the winters are so cold your pee freezes before it hits the ground!

Those minus 40 winters really challenge the prairie gardeners. But great Manitoba gardens aren't only possible... lots of them are downright outstanding!

If you didn't guess from my name, my background is Welsh! Knowing more about me starts with my mother - she was a horticultural student in Cardiff... her passion rubbed off on both my sister and me.

This picture is a real treasure! This is my mother in the family garden in Cardiff. Its hand colored - popular in the early years of photography. I don't know the year but certainly before WWII. The lupins are wonderful but I can't tell you what type of flowering tree this is. Hand coloring photographs is currently in vogue - it never went out of style - but with digital cameras and photo editing programs, creative possibilities have become endless.

I had 40 acres outside of Winnipeg before I started working overseas many years ago. Mostly bush. I had a dozen or so Siberian Huskies and several other four-footed friends. I was VERY passionate about my animals and my garden!

You can't talk about me without talking about Siberian Huskies. See these cuties? What a bunch of mischief they were! Here's Fleet, Patch and Beau. Some days they made my gardening impossible!

I'd lovingly set my spring plants in the soil, sit back and proudly survey my new garden. Then a whirlwind of puppies would tumble across the yard, rip the closest plant up by its tender roots... shake it furiously like their favorite tug-of-war toy. In the end they'd drop it on the ground, MANGLED. But they were so darn cute!

They weren't the only challenge to my gardening! Living in the bush makes for a lot of work. The wild always wants to reclaim "stolen" property. So weeding was a daily task. Lucky for me, the summer days are very long in southern Manitoba and gardening till 10:30 at night was normal for me.

Then when the days got shorter, I wore my headlamp. Same one I used on dark winter nights running my dog-sled teams in the woods!

Living the country life changed many things about me...

• The fox family that lived at the back of my garden. The mischievous young red fox pups that stole my towels and runners every summer. Then there was the hawk that dropped the baby rabbit in my garden, almost on my head!

• And those Christmas blizzards! Ever made snow angels on a sunshiny morning after a huge storm?

• Springs that brought those magical ruby-throated hummingbirds back to my garden.

	Late winter also meant new angora goat kids to care for! I was a "crafty" person... a spinner and knitter with a herd of 14 goats in the barn. Not much about me was a farmer to begin with, but the transformation didn't take long. All baby animals are cute and cuddly but these little balls of energy kept me laughing hour after hour. What characters... and fantastic bush clearing machines!

I spent about 8 years on that farm before going abroad. And every morning I was so grateful to be living in my own little piece of heaven. And the transition was painful.

The second chapter of my life... moving overseas.

I cried myself to sleep many nights. I felt lost without my animals and my garden. Nothing about me felt complete without my gardens. But different opportunities opened up in my life...

But in Saudi, my gardens just died on me. You can imagine what happens in 50 degree Celsius summers! Winters were wonderful but for some reason the tomatoes - and everything else - would succumb to viruses.

So I resigned myself to making my home a greenhouse. And that worked out well for me!

I haven't mentioned photography yet! Its coming...

After a couple of years I paid off all my debts. Time to celebrate. Now I had a husband who loved to travel. After a couple of trips to Europe, everything about me became hooked on travel! Free as a bird, no animals to tie me down and a few dollars in my pocket.

Several trips later, only some purchased souvenirs to show for it... and the memories of course. Don't know how many times I thought "I'll never forget this". And guess what? A few days later - those moments were gone forever. So silly that I didn't capture them!

I'd had inexpensive cameras ever since I was in grade school. Time for a new camera! I picked up an Olympus SLR that stayed with me through photography school several years later. Loved that camera! And I started recording everything because every day in Saudi was exciting.

	I joined a weekend nature group... 4-wheeling adventures searching for desert bounty. Those off the beaten track weekends were fun-filled. And we discovered gems you couldn't imagine sitting in your living room!

As well, my hospital's rec center had the best weekend and in-country vacation trips! Saw every nook and cranny of Saudi Arabia AND saved it all on film!

And I really enjoyed writing long stories home all about me and my adventures... that was before email came on the scene.

Hey, I bet you thought Saudi was just a big barren sandbox. No way! The spring desert pops with plant life. These hardy flowers are desert hyacinths and that year they were plentiful! It rained long and hard that spring - we even got stuck in "bog" a few times.

Looking through my camera lens...

I saw the Middle East, most of Europe, Turkey, and West Africa. And carrying a camera has a way of making you brave! I wasn't used to travel and a bit shy. But meeting people became easier, more natural, with a camera as my "middle man". It recorded people, their crafts, gardens, their history.

My pictures weren't too shabby, either. A few were downright excellent. I had a good eye but no real knowledge about photography. Eight years in Saudi was enough. I wanted to go back home to Canada and study photography.

And study photography is exactly what I did...

Working at the King Faisal Hospital had its privileges - like almost unrestricted internet. I figured my next move out with the help of the internet. I was headed to Vancouver for photography!

After a few months diversion, that is! Landed at my sister's in Ontario, picked up a 4-wheel drive and set off across Canada to the Yukon and Alaska. Now that's a trip and a half! I'd flown to Alaska several times but this trip was special.

Canada is HUGE... the hours upon hours driving alone, and wandering through the Midnight Sun - that nearly drove me mad. That constant light teases you through the curtains and rest was really hard to come by. My adrenaline was all that got me through weeks of sleep deprivation! But the magnificent surroundings... WOW!

All about me there were amazing panoramas of nature, flowers and wildlife in the Yukon and Alaska. Surprising when you think of the short growing season. But they say that the length of day more than makes up for the shortness of summer. After that trip, I have to agree.

Unfortunately, as with all good things, the months whizzed by. A long hard drive back and...

There I was - YIPPEE - Vancouver and photography school.

	If you know anything about me, Vancouver has everything I want, the Rocky Mountains, nature everywhere, glorious gardens and a temperate rain forest climate. Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, VanDusen Botanical Garden - a photographer's dream come true.

Here I am in VanDusen taking a picture of myself for a class project!

Three years later... an honest to goodness photographer! And true to form - my feet got itchy again. This time, Asia seemed like a good bet. Landed a job in Korea. What better way to get some travel photography experience?

I really didn't plan on staying 7 years but I had a good job. Near the end, I did lots of soul searching. My enthusiasm just wasn't what it used to be. I needed to get out of that fog!

The answer came to me in the form of SBI. And the timing couldn't have been better!

Making a living from a website.... REEEALLY?

It took me awhile to make a decision. Its hard to sell me on anything! So I research a lot first.

But SBI offered everything I needed.

Not sure what it is about me but I'm not one for a regular day job - every day, same tasks, same hours! And don't get my blood pressure up by mentioning commuting. I've done more than my share of clutching the steering wheel, eyes glazed over, heart racing inching through a prairie blizzard. Catapulting into rush hour traffic. Fighting a headache till lunch time. Doing it all over again in reverse! Yuck!

I finally took the SBI plunge...

My website definitely isn't a "throw it together in a day" project. Not by a long shot. A great content website is a hefty commitment. SBI talks a lot about going at tortoise pace - building slow and steady. So anyone who wants a quick fix, SBI wouldn't be your cup of tea.

Another good way I get back on track is to read other SBIers' stories. If you want to see how other people have achieved their goals, read a few of the inspirational Case Studies of SBI Owners.

If you think you'd like working at home on your own website, bringing in either some part-time income or going for the full Monty, go to the bottom of my About Me page -- or any page -- and click on Powered by SBI. You'll find all the information you need to make up your mind.

	AND working at home... or searching for gardens all over the world! Now you know a whole lot more about me, and I really hope you join me on my garden travels. Yes, sir! That's my kinda' job! See, I'm smiling!

Most of us have to work so you might as well invest your time and energy into something you're really geared up about. Then it doesn't look as much like darned hard work!

This page about me should inspire you to think about what you'd really love to do in life. Because, as Helen Keller said...

And life is pretty dull if you're not following your passion.

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