Wow! My 200th posting in nine months of blogging. I thought I was going to start it out with some pictures of some unknown white birds on and around our pond until I got the binoculars out to identify the water fowl and discovered they were just a bunch of white plastic grocery bags. Bummer. (There was a white heron here last spring, though.)
When I began blogging last August it was mostly to share some family history, family stories and some of my memories with my kids. I discovered it also to be a way to fulfill some of my pent up writing desires as well as a means of keeping my mind active. And even though I am mostly doing this for myself, I sometimes wonder if anyone else is reading my musings. Then I get a comment or two posted or I talk to a family member that tells me how much they liked a posting or if I haven't posted for awhile wonders when I'm going to start posting again. Encouragement is just that - encouraging.
There are days when I wonder what to blog about. There are days I have an idea but it doesn't go in the direction I planned. There are days when I think I'll quit blogging. Am I sharing too much? Am I sharing too little?
Sometimes when I don't have an idea, I read what I wrote in my diaries on the date. For instance, 54 years ago today, May 12, 1956: "Went to town this morning to practice." I didn't write what the practice was for, but it was for 8th grade commencement. So I could blog about how the 8th graders from all the country schools went to the High School auditorium in Corning for 8th grade graduation exercises. That was a really big deal.
I went on to write: "Went to Brooks for plants. Dad planted corn at Ivy Rimmer's" Did Dad plant Ivy's corn to help out a neighbor? For hire to make a little money? Or did he rent Ivy's crop land that year? I could write an entire blog about the Rimmer's - who they were, where they lived, who their kids were and how, years later, after they and their house were gone, Mom & I dug up some peonies from what once was their front yard and moved them up to Mom's yard.
"Went to Brooks for plants." That I will save for a future blog - remembering the Stalder's/Stillinger's greenhouse in Brooks; how much I loved going there - how there was a time when we thought it was for sale and Dad was going to help me buy it so I could move back home.
I can't write a bicentennial blog without writing about what the word bicentennial makes me think of - our country's bicentennial, of course - but specifically of the "76" Bicentennial Flag I had flying on our pole at the acreage NW of Des Moines. Preston was almost five years old. He loved being outside. I had been raking the yard. He picked up the rake and was raking the gravel in the driveway. It was a perfect picture - blue sky with white fluffy clouds, the spirea lining the lane in bloom, the flag blowing in the breeze and my little boy working on a gorgeous spring day.
When I began blogging last August it was mostly to share some family history, family stories and some of my memories with my kids. I discovered it also to be a way to fulfill some of my pent up writing desires as well as a means of keeping my mind active. And even though I am mostly doing this for myself, I sometimes wonder if anyone else is reading my musings. Then I get a comment or two posted or I talk to a family member that tells me how much they liked a posting or if I haven't posted for awhile wonders when I'm going to start posting again. Encouragement is just that - encouraging.
There are days when I wonder what to blog about. There are days I have an idea but it doesn't go in the direction I planned. There are days when I think I'll quit blogging. Am I sharing too much? Am I sharing too little?
Sometimes when I don't have an idea, I read what I wrote in my diaries on the date. For instance, 54 years ago today, May 12, 1956: "Went to town this morning to practice." I didn't write what the practice was for, but it was for 8th grade commencement. So I could blog about how the 8th graders from all the country schools went to the High School auditorium in Corning for 8th grade graduation exercises. That was a really big deal.
I went on to write: "Went to Brooks for plants. Dad planted corn at Ivy Rimmer's" Did Dad plant Ivy's corn to help out a neighbor? For hire to make a little money? Or did he rent Ivy's crop land that year? I could write an entire blog about the Rimmer's - who they were, where they lived, who their kids were and how, years later, after they and their house were gone, Mom & I dug up some peonies from what once was their front yard and moved them up to Mom's yard.
"Went to Brooks for plants." That I will save for a future blog - remembering the Stalder's/Stillinger's greenhouse in Brooks; how much I loved going there - how there was a time when we thought it was for sale and Dad was going to help me buy it so I could move back home.
I can't write a bicentennial blog without writing about what the word bicentennial makes me think of - our country's bicentennial, of course - but specifically of the "76" Bicentennial Flag I had flying on our pole at the acreage NW of Des Moines. Preston was almost five years old. He loved being outside. I had been raking the yard. He picked up the rake and was raking the gravel in the driveway. It was a perfect picture - blue sky with white fluffy clouds, the spirea lining the lane in bloom, the flag blowing in the breeze and my little boy working on a gorgeous spring day.
I remember that picture. It is one of my favorites from the years.
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