My 1000th Blog Post

As I approached my 1000th blogspot post, I mentioned it on Facebook and asked for topic ideas. I got a few: "Birds." (Julie) "Me." (Granddaughter, Deise) "Best of blog posts." (Doug) "Topics with mille (Latin for 1000) in the name: Millennium Falcon, Millefiori Glass, etc." (Kari) "The journey of 1000 blogposts begins with one story." (Les)

My 700th blog was posted on my 70th birthday. I went looking for images of 700 and of 70 and wrote about the ones which appealed to me and what they meant to me. I did briefly think about doing the same using images of 1000, but the only of those I found appealing were the ones of $1000 bill, 1000 Euro and a real estate listing for 1000 Venetian Way in Miami Beach.

But another of those Facebook suggestions, I think, suits the best - the one from my son-in-law, Ken: "How I feel about my blog and what has changed since I started it." (With his fall-back idea being "pics of flowers.")

So, here goes, for Les, The story of the beginning: I started my blog August 12, 2009. The title was Firsts and I intended writing about it being my first blog and about being a mother for the first time. (It was two days after Doug's birthday.) I had no idea what I was doing and accidentally hit 'publish' after only the first paragraph. At that time I did not know how to go back into it and continue. It stood as it was. The next day, Second,  continued my intentions of day one and went on to tell about my second son, Preston, whose birthday was the 2nd of August.

I didn't have a scanner yet for those old photos that would go along with my memories. And since my main goal was to preserve those childhood memories, I sometimes found photos on the internet to embellish my words. (The sixth blog, The Light of the Sun, was the first time I did that.)
By September I was getting better at downloading pictures from my digital camera and incorporating them into my blog posts. Then in January, 2010, I got a scanner. The old photos could begin illustrating my memories. (Finding the photo I want is sometimes frustrating, however. I have boxes and boxes of pictures to look through. If I could just get those organized!)

Writing my blog has been almost exclusively for the purpose of leaving something behind for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (and beyond?) to have a sense of who I am/was. (To paraphrase Descartes, I write, therefore I am. I wasn't even going to make my blog public when I first started it and I have never tried to be interesting to the masses. My thoughts, my memories, what is going on in my life, those have been the gist of my posts.

How I feel about my blog and what has changed since I started it? Mostly I feel satisfied with what I've written and shared. What has changed? It seems to me that I don't write as well as I did when I first started. To wit, and for Doug, one of the posts I would nominate for best: "The Deserted Desert Dessert Spoon" (March 6, 2010)

A bird picture for Julie - Two of my favorites - the Ringneck Doves - with the male displaying full courtship feathers.

For Deise, the photo of "me" standing between her and her boyfriend, Jeb, at Devin's graduation party.

For Kari - Millefiori glass is too colorful for my taste but I did find something 'mille' I do like:

Lemon Millefleur Sable Poots. (Dutch Booted Bantams) I would have these in my chicken coop run anytime!

Lastly, again, for Ken, some NPS (not previously shared) flower pics.

 Golden yellow celosia (plumed cockscomb).

 In the tall planter on the right, lemon yellow, double calibrachoa (million bells).

 A bowl of yellow portulaca (moss rose).

 Peach colored impatiens.

 I will once again have a cardinal climber. (Remember the ones climbing on the old windmill tower we used for our TV antenna on the farm?) If you look closely you will see a little hint of red showing already.

This photo is one of the very first pictures I took when I got my first digital camera in 2009 - crown vetch at the roadside park along Hwy 34 west of Glenwood.

I had thought I might quit blogging when I reached 1000 posts but I still have a few states to cover in my Sunday Drives and I will still have a monthly book round-up to report. There are bound to be some old photos I haven't shown yet.

And maybe, just maybe, a few more of those old memories I will want to share.....