Myri: Found this site as randomly as things can get,so I don't really know, how are you, what are you?

evy: how am i? mostly good. today a little sleepy and anxious. feeling fairly optimistic about my life. what am i? human. a blob of atoms. a small part of the universe.

julian: Hi Evy! After landing here via search.marginalia.nu, I've enjoyed exploring your site over the last week or so. Your Manifesto stood out to me; I admired how much effort and reflection you evidently put into determining your values, as well as the candidness and clarity with which you shared them. I identified with many of your values and principles as well. All in all, it seems like a worthwhile exercise and I hope it'll inspire others (as Omar inspired you). From what I've read so far, you have one of my favorite sites I've found via Marginalia; I love the introspection, humility, and warmth that infuses your writing. I'm also intrigued by some of the topics you discuss here, in particular your writing about co-living-- seems like a concrete way to achieve connections outside of a nuclear family structure. Thanks for planting this little garden!

evy: thank you so much for this note!! i feel so appreciated for things i care about and have put much care into. i'm really glad you stumbled upon my lil garden :')

Alan: I totally agree. Groups of three are far superior than four. My wife witnessed that my group texts were exclusively with 3 people and now she's experimenting with her own with great results. How funny! I'd like to think there's something celestial about it...have a good day

evy: i hadn't thought about it in the context of group texts instead of hangouts in physical space! interesting, thanks for sharing :)

Vinícius: Not a question at all! But I really LOVED your website! Can I use your website as an aspiration to build my own garden someday, similar to yours? Loved the books page also!

evy: yay thanks :D yes i would be honored to inspire you to make things!! my reading page is one of my faves too

celeste: hi! i found your site by putting my site (celeste.exposed) into metaphor.systems to find similar ones. it judges our sites to be very similar you seem like a cool person (none of this is really intended to be a question)

evy: thanks for introducing me to metaphor.systems, that's a really fun way to find indie sites!! i wandered around your site a bit and had a fun time ^_^ thanks for your message!

wally: What's your favourite knot/tie ? Lovely site <3

evy: thank you <3 also yay for canadian spelling! i tend to prefer the emotional aspects of tying more than a particular tie itself, but i've lately been especially admiring ties that cross the legs over each other in twisty ways, sending toes pointing in different directons :)

Phil: Not a question, just a comment: I like your site, it's fun and sweet! I also like your Hello button - what a great idea! Thank you for sharing!

evy: thank you :D

adam: This isn't a question, but since you don't have a guestbook... I just want to say that the evy.garden story and the site itself is a huge inspiration to me. I'm one of the few who've stumbled across your site by chance. I'll for sure check in often to see what's changing! Please keep it up, and let this autumn weather inspire creativity! :) 🌱

evy: Thank you so much!! I'd been thinking of making a guestbook, so maybe that'll become an autumn project :)

anon: I want to learn how to build a website like this. Where do you suggest that I start?

evy: Yay for making home-grown websites! I recommend doing some html + css tutorials online and then inspect html/css in the browser (right click + "inspect" in Chrome, but other browsers have this too) on some of your favourite websites to see what's going on behind the scenes. If you want to put your html page on the internet, Github Pages is pretty good :)

anon: How did you create this website? Did you use just plain html/css or is there something more involved? It's super cute.

evy: Thank you!! ^_^ Yeah it's mostly just plain html, css, and vanilla javascript. Some of the pages are generated with python scripts to save me some time copy-pasting html. I actually recently wrote about how I made evy.garden on a behind-the-scenes blog that Gossip's Web put together!

Arsene: What is your favorite color?

evy: When I was younger, it was blue. Then purple. Now, many colours bring me joy! I got a red hoodie several years ago and have since grown to enjoy the boldness of red. I love a bright blue sky, greeny blues, dark purples, soft pastels, flowers that glow in the light of dusk.

wesley: how cute am i? :3

evy: pretty damn cute! :3

anon: what song has been a surprising delight, and what makes a song delightful?

evy: songs can be delightful for me for all kinds of reasons, but most commonly juicy layered harmonies or strange qualities that make me go "oh that's weird, cooool". Recently I discovered the album Hawaii: Part II which surprised me in how delightfully weird it was (so many genres and effects - The Mind Electric starts with the song being played backwards?!?) and I love the harmonies at the end of Isle Unto Thyself.

Alex: How do you decide what to read? Does the list ever get completed chronologically? I guess I kinda wonder if there is some microcosm of drifting through life in the inability to complete an array of text.

evy: I have a list in the back of my mind (and also some things on this page) but often I choose to start reading something because a friend has started reading it or mentioned it in recent convesation, and that sparks the activation energy for me to finally pick it up. "The list" is rarely completed chronologically, and in fact there are multiple lists: my bookshelf, my reading page, goodreads, my list of articles and blog posts, things floating around in the back of my head, books i haven't started, books i've started and not quite yet abandoned but don't feel like reading right now. Is there even really a chronological way to drift through life? I want to explore words and life more without feeling as much of a need to move down a predetermined path towards a specific predetermined goal.

david: what has been a source of inspiration for your lately?

evy: my friends are one of my biggest sources of inspiration, and it's been that way for a long time. i made this page partly because a friend did, i've been doing private journalling every day this month because a friend invited me to do that with her, and i've been reading more about community living lately because a friend expressed interest in reading alongside me. and i can easily think of five other fun things i've done or thought about recently because i was inspired by a great conversation with a friend <3

anon: where do you want to buy your first home

evy: idk if i actually want to buy property. but one thing i really want to is to live with a bunch of friends in a long-term community-living situation. i care more about making that happen than buying a home or having the home be in any particular place :)

ruth: What brings you joy these days?

evy: the warmth of the sunshine, trying new things, adding stuff to my garden, calling my partner and laughing with him, cleaning and organizing, moments of quiet calm, moments of deep connection and mutual inspiration

Skyler: What kind(s) of music do you like to sing? What is the inspiration for your jukebox songs?

evy: I really miss singing choir music with people - sometimes I'll put on old songs I used to perform (like this one) and sing along with the recordings. But mostly I just like singing whatever's been stuck in my head recently (lately Joseph's Coat and Orla Gartland songs). The jukebox songs are inspired by a variety of things - for example, the looper songs were inspired by wanting to write music quickly and easily, and the Pink Heart Trilogy songs were inspired by burning man and some things I learned in therapy.

thais: what is a perfect day like for you?

evy: a perfect day can look like so many things, and i can't possibly fit all my "perfect day" activities into a single day, so here's a possible day: i wake up and (before checking my phone) eat a yummy breakfast (2 eggs, avocado toast, some sweet juicy fruit) and go for a walk in warm morning sunshine. on my walk i let my mind wander, and think of something i'm excited to make or do (code or art or music or writing or whatever) and spend a few hours in the morning working on it. then i go to meet a friend and we adventure through somewhere i've never been before, climbing stuff and sneaking around. we talk about things we've been thinking about lately and the conversation helps me understand myself and my world a little better. then i go to a choir rehearsal where i'm singing pieces of music i love with a conductor i respect and admire. i come home and talk to a housemate and/or partner about our days, and fall asleep in the arms of someone i love.

anon: What’s your favourite indoor plant?

evy: I don't know too much about indoor plants, but we had a lot of spider plants when I was growing up and I think it's really cute how they grow little babies on long stems coming off of their main plant.