Blog Comments and Flowers

I don't know what kind of flower this is, but here is its story. 

Last year I chose this flower from Lowe's to plant in this pot because it was red and tall. It had only one bloom on it when I bought it, but I guessed it would grow taller and bloom more throughout the summer. The lady at the check-out counter told me that this was such an easy and pretty flowering plant. She said that at the end of the summer I could dig up the remaining plant and keep it inside for the winter....and that next spring it would bloom again. I told her thank you, but knew that I would never do that! When it died over the winter, I would just dig up what was left and plant something new this spring. 

Well. After about two weeks last spring this plant's red flowers fell off, and the plant just sat there all summer. It never grew any taller, and it never bloomed again. I was so disappointed. It turned out to be just a medium-tall green plant in my pot. (I actually have two pots, planted with identical plants--both of them acted the same way last summer.) My plan was to dig them up this spring, throw them away, and choose something different.

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago to discover that the red flowers were alive! They  both grew taller, and they multiplied. Look at all those red blooms! There was one flower last year. One! And now already there are multiple flowers on multiple stems in both pots. I have no idea what happened last summer or what happened over the winter (I left them outside in the pots all winter), but I am so happy with the result.

Blogger Comments

I love blogger comments! I read every one of them, and I like to respond to them, but.....something is up with the comment platform. A couple of people have told me they have had some problems commenting on my blog. Leanna says that when she types a comment, it disappears when she clicks publish. Trey says that while he can comment, it always labels him as "unknown" even though he is signed in to Google. When I try to reply to a comment on my own blog, it simply disappears when I click publish. However, I commented on my sister-in-law's (Megan) blog yesterday, and she uses Blogger, and it published just fine!

I did thirty seconds of Google research and found that (1) Blogger is outdated (that's what it said!) and (2) Many people who are trying to comment on Apple devices or using Safari are having the same "disappearing comments" problem. It's apparently because Apple, by default, has enabled "prevent cross-site tracking" from all websites, and Blogger needs this feature to publish your comment. So I looked up "what is cross-site tracking" and from what I can tell from my thirty more seconds of research is this tracking is what advertisers and maybe other entities use to gather data about the users???

So I don't think I want cross-site tracking, right? (I don't use Siri, or Alexa, or even the iCloud!) But I want to reply to comments on my own blog! And it's a mystery to me why I could comment on Megan's blog. (Leanna, will you try to comment on Megan's blog and see what happens?)

All that to say, I will work on this commenting thing! Those of you who can still comment, please continue! I am reading them. I enjoy them, and I want to respond. I just need to figure it all out. I have considered switching to Wordpress, but I have used Blogger since 2008, and I don't know if I have the brain cells to learn a new platform. I barely remember how Blogger works! Plus, what would happen to this blog content if I switched. One more note for you techie readers, I do own my domain, www.joyfuljohnsons.com. I just have it redirected to Blogger. (No idea how that works. I set it up years ago.)

Anyone have any advice? Comment please (if you can!)