Out at dinner last night with friends, Mrs Buster asked, “What is the point of a Garden Blog?”
Good question – which stopped me in my tracks! – and stayed with me all day to-day.
What is the point of my garden blog? Does there need to be a point to it? And why do I do it?
Why do we bloggers blog?
I suspect that each of us will have different reasons, and perhaps more than one.
I have kept dairies and journals off and on for years. Ranging from the self conscious “I hate so and so, they are a cow” mutterings of the teenage years.
Then I have sketchbooks / journals for my textile art, which are more work in progress with life notes.
Also “Morning Pages” as advocated by Julia Cameron, in the “Artists Way” where you write 3 pages of anything that comes into your head in long hand – these pages are not meant to be read – but I found them a wonderful tool for times in my life where I have been stressed or uncertain. And just needed to clear my mind – and find my path again.
Google the question – “What is a blog” and the first part of wikipedia’s response is:-
“A blog (a contraction of the term “Web log”) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary …..”
My garden blog started as a personal garden journal for the garden here as we were doing so much work on it – I wanted some kind of record of the gardens development, it started as a celebration of this garden. Plus a visual reminder that we were making progress.
Then – of course, “Strangers” visited, and left comments. Which was lovely, so here I am today – this is my 101 post on “An Artists Garden” – and now it is so much more than simply a journal for me to record the changes we make.
The first thing I noticed about blogging is “the kindness of strangers” I see evidence of this over an over again and it is an aspect of blogging that I appreciate, all be it in a rather bittersweet way. How easy is it for me to be supportive to some one 100’s or 1000’s of miles away – but neglect to make time to be supportive within my local community. Although sometimes – I suspect it is much easier to share things with strangers rather than burden friends, family or neighbors.
The other thing I enjoy is that some of the commentators – have become “blogging friends” and I do so enjoy a friend popping in to say “hello” without having to tidy the house – or get out of my dressing gown for that matter!
So why do I write a blog?
Simply because I like it.
I enjoy photographing the world about me, I like thinking about things to write. I get a certain amount of satisfaction from actually turning up at my blog dashboard and writing a post - it has become part of my week.
Why do you blog?
If you would care to share why you blog – do leave a link here to your post.
If you don’t blog – perhaps you would care to share why you read blogs.
