I tend to be be minimalist in many things.
For instance, I like plants but am quite happy with a carefully tended small number. Some years we've had many potted plants on our deck, but I'm not sure that gave me more pleasure than the few we have this summer. In our front yard we've slowly increased the number and variety of plants, but only at the rate of one or two a year.
My personal learning network is much the same. I don't have a large number of people in my PLN, but I pay close attention to and appreciate greatly those who are there.
Since leaving my old place of employment in June I've been using my free time to tend to and expland my PLN. I've been following more folks on twitter, reading more edubloggers, and blogging more myself. I jumped into the deep end (or is it the shallow end) of online learning with eduMOOC -my first MOOCing experience- and hope through my participation in that strange new learning environment to expand my PLN into higher education, a bit.
Gardening at the level I do does not require great quantities of time, effort or attention. The gardens I help bring to life give me much pleasure but certainly wouldn't put our house on any garden tour. The same has been true of my PLN, but I want to try and take both up a level this summer.
Any feedback on how to do either much appreciated.
The image above is from my high-tech vegetable garden. I grow tomatoes and basil in EarthBoxes on our deck. Once the soil in the boxes is prepared, and the plants put into the soil, the automatic watering system pretty much takes care of the rest. My younger son did a lot of the prep work this year, and he has shown a wonderful almost parental feeling towards "his" plants. I sense the beginning of a long and productive gardening career.