AT PATHO

1. Achievement unlocked : 50 posts

Bear with me. I’m still a beginner. I’m going to take some time to celebrate what I have achieved so far. After a few early posts I have tried to post once a day. This has been hectic at times, but having not much else to do, it has been achievable. Learning to work on drafts and then schedule the finished posts, has helped a lot. But, I have made 50. It’s a start.

2. Finding a focus

At first I had a vague idea of the direction and focus of this blog, my ‘dolls’, my garden and where I live. It seems like this is still fairly fluid. I initially wanted to show off my crafty projects and record what I was making. My current thinking is that my ‘craft’ is not something many people can relate to. Actually the garden is more appealing. I’ve been slowly realising what my readers find interesting. There doesn’t seem to be much purpose to writing a blog if the audience isn’t engaged. Another part of me says it’s still to early to focus too narrowly and I should just keep exploring blogging and it will find its own direction. I think, at this point, I’m just writing about me.

3. Discovering other blogs

I’m spending more time reading other people’s blogs than working on mine. At first I found gardening blogs very interesting reading. All the more because Australia is in the southern hemisphere and most of the bloggers I read were in the northern hemisphere. In the depths of winter, it was uplifting seeing images of beautiful flowers and gardens. It gave me something to look forward to, rather than dwelling on the misery that is Covid. Now I’ve discovered the amazing range of subjects covered by bloggers. I’m currently devouring photography blogs; enjoying their content and hoping to pick up some tips.

4. 1000 hits and very nearly 50 followers

My first follower was my son, then a friend and then strangers I’ve never met, in places I’ve never been. I find it amazing that so many other people read my blog, take the time to like the posts and sometimes comment. I love reading about other people’s lives. Sometimes they live in places that I am familiar with in my own country, but it’s rather magical being virtually transported to other places, only to find that underneath the details, people share so much in common.

5 Discovering challenges and an award

6 Upskilling

I bought my first computer with the leave salary for my first pregnancy. It had 48 K! It was a real luxury back them. It cost a fortune. Computers have been a great tool for work and I will admit to spending many, many hours as a ‘gamer’. But, this blogging business is a test of my patience and perseverance, and most definately a real challenge.

7 Challenges not the fun ones

Getting the site up and then changing the theme to a more advanced one. DAYS LATER finally making it all work again.

Ping Backs. I did it. (Once!) Look at me with the technical language…

8 More challenges, not the fun ones

Organising my photos. Still a work (quite a lot of) in progress. Enough said.

9 Challenges : the worst

Trying to put a watermark on my photos. Discovering that ctrl shift ‘u’ a9 = the copyright symbol. Like, since when is that a thing? AND THEN BEING CAREFUL TO PUT IT ON A STICKY NOTE ON MY COMPUTER SO I WOULD NOT FORGET IT, AND THEN REALISING THE STICKY NOTE HAD UNSTUCK AND DISAPPEARED, AND THEN SEARCHING THE HOUSE FOR SAID STICKY NOTE….AND THEN TAKING HOURS TO WORK IT ALL OUT AGAIN…..

10 Looking ahead

This year I took all my long service leave, a whole year’s worth, to travel the world. A few days before we were set to go, the Pandamic was declared to be a thing and all plans were cancelled. So I’m hesitant to make any future plans. However, I can still blog.

Except for the challenge logos, all the images I’ve used have been current and have been my own. I want to have another look through the thousands of photos I have and share some of the better ones. I’ll continue to try and improve my skills and maybe, treat myself to a couple of better lenses.

If you’re still reading, thank you. I’ll visit you later.