It
was a cold, grey day in February (no surprise there) and I was alone at home, high
in the Welsh hills, DH being away on a visit to his mother. Being therefore
without transport for two or three days, lots of lovely, empty time stretched out
ahead of me and I wondered how best to use it. Spring-cleaning, while
I had the house to myself, was a must, but no-one can spring-clean all the
time.
Knitting,
of course, and reading my pile of library books, and a bit of TV watching, but
what else? One of my favourite ways of online interaction back then, a small
private forum, was temporarily offline, but of course there were always blogs
to read and read them I did. But somehow I felt I should be doing more.
I
had been reading blogs with huge enjoyment for some time and one or two
bloggers had been gently encouraging when I wondered out loud whether I might
one day do more than just read and comment. The absence of my forum friends spurred
me on to a snap decision and within an amazingly short time one Sunday afternoon
I’d set up an account with Blogger, registered a blog name, created a basic
template and by the evening had written and published my first exploratory post.
The
five years since then have flown by, as my life has become ever richer and fuller
with the growth of wonderful links and friendships with bloggers all over the world. We share
ideas and interests, experiences and insights, joys and sorrows. The rate of
posting waxes and wanes, as other aspects of life take over at
times, but after five years and close to 300 posts, the sheer pleasure of blogging is still there and continues to bring me back to this most satisfying
of activities. It looks like you’re all stuck with me for some time to come…
Image via Google
P.S. This post will be published while I’m on my
way back from my Big Birthday trip, so there will be no replies until I’m home
again.
May it long continue P. I am very happy to be one of your band of bloggers.
ReplyDeleteBtoB, I'm glad to have you along and thanks for the company.
DeleteLove your cartoon Perpetua and many congratulations on five years of blogging.
ReplyDeleteYou have been such a supportive blogger to people that I know and have helped them out of sticky situations with their blogs.
Whilst you continue I shall follow.
Do hope that your big birthday trip has worked out well - I am sure that it must have held many poignant moments for you both.
The cartoon is great fun, Rosemary. Thanks for the good wishes and your company over the years.
DeleteI'm always happy to share my hard-won scraps of knowledge with blogging friends, though I'm glad to say it's been needed less and less in recent months. Blogger seems to have settled down and become more stable.
The birthday trip went wonderfully well and you'll be hearing about it as soon as I've organised the masses of photos and information I came back with.
Congratulations on five well-spent years Perpetua. If the next five are as interesting to read I may well stop going to the library. (only joking that would be sacrilege). But seriously, your blogs are so full of stimulating content that I hope you never stop.
ReplyDeleteI started with my first post in July 2010 and have now posted 469 works of no literary merit whatever, but will continue to try to externalise my inner doubts fears problems joys as long as I can, always with your example to act as a goad to better things.
Like you, I fail to post when various aspects of life intervene but the lure of the blog is always there in the background.
Long may your peripatetic life-style provide us, your readers, with pleasure information amusement and food for thought.
Hear hear, Ray! Congrats to both of you for being such wonderful blogging friends.
DeleteThanks so much, Ray, and Penny too. I still have to pinch myself to realise it's been a full 5 years since that first post. Where have those years gone? I've had so much fun and am still amazed at the pleasure I get in writing and illustrating my posts, even if inspiration doesn't flow quite so strongly as in earlier years.
DeleteOne of the reasons I love reading blogs so much is that they are all individual and different. It would be so boring if we were all the same. As it is I'm constantly entertained and challenged by the blogs I follow, and that includes yours. Having been away, I'm now behaind with reading of course, but I will catch up... ;)
I'm sure that I'm one of many who look forward to being stuck with you for many years to come. Happy Bloganniversary! And thank you for being one of my most faithful commenters too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ricky. I hope I'll be around to be stuck with for a good long time yet. :-) I enjoy your blog very much and will be interested to see how it develops once retirement arrives and you move to pastures new.
DeleteCongratulations on your fifth blogging anniversary. Your blogs give pleasure and information and allow me to see your world. Thank you for blogging:)
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for reading, Shirley. :) When I started I couldn't have imagined that five years on I would still be writing and enjoying it so much and have so many wonderful friends all over the world as well.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteLike yourself, I took a long time to come to blogging (third anniversary 1st March!) and not it is so much part of daily life it is like sticky tape and paperclips... we miss them when they are not there!!! Like sticky tape and paperclips, we become attached - so am glad you feel the same! YAM xx
Gosh, is it nearly 3 years for you, Yam? I can't claim to be anything like as disciplined and systematic about blogging as you are, but as I said to Ray above, one of the many wonderful things about blogs and bloggers is how very different we all are. I'm not planning on going anywhere for a good while yet.
DeleteCongratulations on completing 5 years of blogging. I enjoy reading your posts which give me a different window on the world. Thank you.
ReplyDelete"A different window on the world". What a perfect way to describe the special fascination of blogs and blogging, Nancy. I've gained so much from the blogs I read.
DeleteI hope your pilgrimage/sister holiday is going really well!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your five year anniversary. As long as you write, I shall read.....every word.
It went marvellously well, thanks, and you'll be hearing all about it as soon as possible.
DeleteI have a long way to go to catch up with your blogging record, but I'm so glad I found your blog.
I'm so glad that you started to blog...I look forward to your posts heaving over the horizon when I turn on the laptop.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am very grateful for the help you have given me on the techie stuff!
I'm glad you're glad, Helen, as it was your blog and Ayak's that were the main inspiration for that spur of the moment decision 5 years ago.
DeleteAs for the help, I'm always glad to share whatever I've managed to learn, though, touch wood, there doesn't seem to be much need for my help at the moment and my WordPress knowledge is very rusty...
Congratulations on five wonderful years of blogging - I continue to enjoy reading and occasioanlly commenting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Catriona. It's lovely to see you whenever you comment and I only wish your blog platform would allow me to return the compliment. It's SO frustrating never to get through...
DeleteIt's great to be friends with you through our blogs!
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed, Penny. I love these marvellous worldwide links. :)
DeleteCongratulations - hope things are going well for you on your Big Birthday trip.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. The trip went extremely well and you'll be hearing about it as soon as I'm organised.
DeleteI am so glad that you decided to blog, and that I found you as well. I more than enjoy each new writing, my dear blogging friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bonnie. The feeling is mutual. I love the way we stumble upon blogs quite fortuitously and find ourselves forging real friendships across the miles.
DeleteOh good. It seems to me that more and more bloggers are moving over to Facebook and Twitter which I feel are much more impersonal and not nearly so interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou won't get rid of me so easily, Vic. :) I'm on FB and Twitter, but the experience there is very different and no replacement for blogging. Instagram too has tempted a lot of bloggers, but isn't for me. Words are my primary focus and for that blogging is unrivalled.
DeleteSo pleased you intend to carry on Perpetua. I have enjoyed your blog for most of these five year, and always feel happy when you pop up in the blog feed. My blog is about one month younger - how times flies! Thank you for your kind encouragement along the way, when things get a little difficult for me. The cartoon is so funny - and probably rather accurate :))
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be blogging for as long as the little grey cells continue to function properly, Patricia. :) Yes, we found each other quite early on in our blogging journey and it's been lovely to have your company from the other side of the world and get glimpses of your life in such very different surroundings. I'm glad to have been of use along the way.As for the cartoon - probably painfully accurate...
DeletePerpetually In Transit has been included in our A Sunday Drive for this week. Be assured that we hope this helps to point even more new visitors in your direction.
ReplyDeletehttp://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-sunday-drive_21.html
Thanks, Jerry. That's very kind of you.
DeleteI am pleased as punch to be "stuck" with you, Perpetua, in that way marmalade sticks to a bun stuck. Your posts are delicious slices into your life and your posts always feel like a companionable chat over the fence, with you words, your soft wit and humor, your faith and your travels.
ReplyDeleteI smiled at your decision one Sunday to start blogging as it mirrored mine one Saturday afternoon. Tom came home and asked what I was doing. He thought I was kidding, or, more likely, didn't think I understood what a blog was. tee hee - I fooled him.
Congratulations on five years of blogging, and here is to many, many more.
"A companionable chat over the fence". I love that, Penny. Another wonderful way to sum up one of the joys of blogging. I plan to go on being sticky for years to come if I can. After all, you're well ahead of me in blogging years so I have something to aim for. :)
DeleteI love the thought of you launching out into blogging in the same spur of the moment way while you had the house to yourself. I bet you didn't have a clue you would still be doing and enjoying it more than six years later. I bless the day we stumbled across each other out in the ether.
I so often think to myself how rich my life feels because of friendships like yours, Perpetua. I could never have imagined that through blogging I would have made friends all over the world, and in doing so, learn so much about this wonderful world of ours. Congratulations on achieving five years. I think I must be coming up on five myself pretty soon! That's hard to believe! I hope your wonderful trip is going well. I can't wait to hear all about it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you feel the same about blogging and the friendships it creates, Debra. It's something I never saw mentioned anywhere before I started, so it was a wonderful surprise and is a constant joy. Long may it continue.
DeleteMy trip mas only 5 days so I arrived home on Saturday after a truly unforgettable experience. Watch this space...
You have summed up blogging so well! I'm so glad you wrote that first exploratory post. I'd never have met you otherwise. Like you, I'm simply amazed at the world that blogging has opened up for me. Never, never, never, in my wildest dreams would I have imagined all that blogging has to offer. I love reading about your life and times. I think of you often. I speak of you and other blogging friends as if you lived around the corner. In my mind, you do live around the corner and half a world away. That is the magic of it all. Keep on writing, please. I will keep on reading.
ReplyDeleteYou sum up the wonder of blogging friendships perfectly here, Sally. Yes, it's like having friends round the corner. It just happens we've never actually met, though we speak to each other regularly and care what happens to each other. Like you I could never have believed this possible, until I started blogging and experienced it for myself. My blogging friendships have enriched my life immeasurably.
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