change is a short time a’comin’

I learned right off that blogging is like no other type of writing.  As a journalist,

you get one shot to get it right with a news story, then send it away forever.  You

can continue to improve your plays and magazine articles, but sooner or later

you have to cut them loose as well.

Your blog, however, stays home.  I’ve gone back and tweaked almost every post

I’ve put up.  I’ve even been tempted to edit my  responses to your comments,

but that’s just not fair.  It’s an e-conversation, after all, and the commenter can’t

change her/his  statements.

Blogging is also very much a seat-of-your-pants experience.  I didn’t know for sure

when I’d be ready to first publish, but my mentor, Kathy of kitchenblogic, told me

to just jump in, give it your best and the blog would find its way.  She was right.

I have been making some structural changes.  In the Pages under the header at the

top of the blog, I’ve recently added “Tours” and “Newest Posts”.  “Tours” links to

posts I made early on of the farm and our alternative energy system.  That makes

it easier for new readers to learn the back story on what we’re about and what we’re

trying to accomplish.  “Newest Posts”, right now, is all my posts.  I’ll start to archive

them when I have enough.

I’m moving all but my newest post off my home page because that will make it

much quicker to download.  I like to use photos to tell my stories, so lots of posts

with lots of pics on one page really slow things down.

The photos I use often go wall-to-wall.  I like to do that to show you detail and

bring you closer to the beauty that surrounds me.  Because of that, however, I

was already overlapping the pics with my blogroll.  Most bloggers I’ve read put

their blogroll in the right sidebar, and they often are quite lengthy.  So I moved

mine up near the header, between “Aboot” (well, I am in Canada) and “Family”.

I regret this in a way since it makes my blogroll less visible.  Please check in on it

often.  I assure you I’ll only be adding the best of the blogs.  Today, for example,

I’m introducing two dandies: Golden Grain Farm and SNERKOLOGY.

Golden Grain Farm is the domain of Stubblejumpin’ Kate.  When she’s not outside

actually jumpin’ stubble in the fields of Saskatchewan, she can take you around

the world with well-selected blogs, offer you a Rilke quote and keep you up to date

on 1930’s bohemian Paris with diary entries from Anais Nin.  Her newest posts

feature happy horses, white-assed deers, a plea for slanted roofs and some spot-on

spoofs of both corporate venality and e-harmony.  Dig a little deeper for a video by

by Hilary Grist.  It’s inventive and charming.

For the past eight years, Kate has edited articles on architecture, film, dance and

theatre for The Canadian Encyclopedia.  She’s written two biographies for the site.

She’s been kind enough to list me on her blogroll in the “Doodles dandies” sector.

If I obtain Canadian citizenship, I believe she’ll promote to the “Canucks” level.

Tiffany greets you at SNERKOLOGY with upraised glass.  She’s a woman of action,

willing to drive from her home base in Phoenix AZ to the wilds of Prescott AZ for

target practice.  She’s preparing for the or a Zombie Apocalypse.  When she’s not

doing that, she reports pithily on topics like facing the death of her pet beagle

Gypsy.

On Valentine’s Day, for example, she wrote about how she and her husband aren’t

getting along: “This won’t be a message of darkness and despair, angst and anger.

Pushing through times of unhappiness is probably the most profound demonstra-

tion of love there is.  And that’s what we’re doing right now, pushing through.”

Very well said, Tiff.  Hang in there.

So, please, gentle readers, check out these two gifted bloggers.  And please let me

know what you think of my blog changes.