A year ago today and 365 posts later!

(copyright Sam breach)

It's hard to believe that I have been blogging for a year. When I looked back to my first post I had a good laugh, I was so naive. I had to get my daughter Sam to talk me through setting things up and then I took some very slow steps. This is my very first post Life Begins. I think Sam must have told me how to link to her post and then I had to learn how to upload a photo, I remember being so nervous but then thrilled when it worked a couple of posts down the line. It was really only Sam and Beccy who were reading what I had written and a few of Sam's readers who were kind enough to welcome me with nice comments.

The very first comment I received from outside the family was from Stephanie Dispensing Happines she said:
(Welcome to the world of blogging, Sam's Mum! Your daughter and her writing are a source of (pleasant) distraction for me, daily; I'm sure you'll get the hang of this quickly, and we'll all be here to cheer you on!)

Some of Sam's food blog friends, still visit Beccyand me regularly and they encourage me to expand my limited cooking skills (there's been plenty of debate about English food so we won't go there!!). Anyway I love trying the recipes I find on their blogs so thank you Barbara, Cookiecrumb's (with the gorgeous Bean Sprout) and Asha (who first commented after my halloween post, and has introduced me to a lot of Asian food and culture).

I never imagined that I would so quickly become addicted to my new hobby. Nor that it would also cause me such a lot of frustration when I didn't know how to do things like adding to my side bar, changing the colour of text and much more but I have fumbled my way through and I know a lot more now than I did then. Finding Sally and Enidd via Beccy broadened my horizons as they both write such clever, amusing posts.

By January of this year I was lurking on a lot of blogs sometimes commenting but mainly just enjoying. Wrongly, I assumed that if I made a comment and didn't get a reply, the person was trying to tell me they had no interest in what I had to say! In fact I now realise that is probably not the case, and if it is then I am less sensitive. I'm happy to leave comments without worrying as I find that recently I have not been able to respond to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to visit me and comment.

I think the event that really had a significant impact on my blogging was the introduction of Fun Monday- I tentatively joined in by showing the view from my front door and gradually a few Monday's later I found a host of new blogging buddies. I have experimented through the fun monday posts and learnt how to put together slide shows, albeit very amateurishly and joined in several swaps and quizes, currently Willowtree is providing lots of fun with his daily trivia(l) quiz. Many of you I feel I now know quite well and reading little snippets about your life and family is like dropping in on old friends to catch up and share in each others joys and the sorrows. I now have a very long list of buddies on bloglines and I can't read every post I want to in one day (that's why I sometimes leave comments in little batches). There are too many of you to mention individually but you know who you are and I ♥♥♥ you all.

PS. Earlier today I was so disappointed that I had to pass on the opportunity to meet up with Sally and so was Sam. Sally if you read this, I got back from the airport at 13:15 so I sincerely hope there will be a next time and this hasn't put you off calling me if you are this way (Beccy would have been green with envy if we had met up and Sam said I should have suggested you come and have coffeee with her, then I would have been green and I actually didn't think of that!)
I wonder if we will all be blogging a year from now!!

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September 20th 2006: Life Begins