dlyn

Ok – I am back. I didn’t have the energy to post anything yesterday. Feeling better today though.

So now I can get back to the discussion I started on Monday. I admit that moving my blog and looking back over all that I have put out here in the past 18 months is strange. It has made me wax all reflective about where I started and where I want to go. I started out blogging only for me. It was a creative outlet, though not a journal exactly. Just a place to put a little something out there in the blogospere every day. Like a slow leak from my brain, you know? Its evolved of course – who could have predicted Riley would be such a prolific blogger, after all? People who really know me well certainly could have warned you about things like dressing large squashes up in Larry’s old garden hat and pouring them a glass of Pinot Noir, but for small amounts of cash, they agreed to keep their thoughts to themselves.

I’ve had a few people email to ask why I am moving my blog and the reason is simple – I can do more with WordPress and to run ads on a WP blog, you have to be self hosted. I’ve also had some suggestions that I ought to have two blogs – one for cooking and one for the rest, but for the foreseeable future, I am not going to do that. I like having the different things I enjoy all in one spot – its how my mind works and how life is, so why mess with it?

One of the things I enjoy about getting noticed a bit is that I can share some cool stuff with you guys, like the “Oh Nuts!” giveaway back in December. I have a really cool giveaway coming up in just a few days and I’m working on even more. It is no fun to have these opportunities unless I can share the love a little ya know?

So I answered the first of my questions from Monday I think – why I blog.

What keeps me going to other people’s blogs? Two main things really – relationships and content. We form relationships with each other and, just as we are in our “brick and mortar” lives, we are drawn to people for whom we have an affinity somehow. I remember back in, probably the latter 90s, when, as the prices for computers became more reasonable, increasing numbers of people began spending a lot of time on the internet. It was predicted to be isolating and even ruinous to society. That is hardly the case with bloggers however, as we form friendships that are every bit as real and profound as those with people we see face to face every day.

As for the content, that can be anything, so long as it is interesting and genuine. I visit people who use their blog as a journal, other foodies, garden bloggers, other people who enjoy photography, people who make me laugh or think, empty nesters like me, people with young families, people who live a lot like we do here and people who have lives that are totally different, famous bloggers and obscure ones. I think the bottom line is that I like blogs where you can see there is effort put forth to produce something of quality, because that shows a respect for readers.

I have to admit that working more hours and getting busier with my own blog leaves me less time to visit others and I miss that. And while I greatly admire those bloggers who respond to every single commenter, there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do that. It will improve a bit once I get everything moved and start blogging from there, but right now it’s not possible. If it’s a choice between responding to all the comments or creating, cooking, photographing and blogging a new soup recipe, I have to go with the recipe. I need fresh content, and besides, we need the soup for dinner.

One thing I can do is to thank you for stopping by – I appreciate that more than you can possibly imagine!