Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Thoughts on Disappearing Bloggers

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Don sneak-shot this photo of me about 4 years ago. I was working on Dove Cottage. Hair in my eyes – my life story. I’m about to start work on the Beacon Hill, on a budget, and I’m gathering ideas. My friend Helga, who lives in Germany, has a beautiful Beacon Hill. She added lots and lots of detail and whimsy. I found myself on Instagram pouring through all her photos. And I search for other Beacon Hills, as well.

I have another blog that has been defunct for about 10 years. If you’ve been here a long while, you might remember that I briefly had a photography blog where I posted a photo a day. Eventually, like a few other blogs (a blog about how to design a blog, my book/reading/review blog) I got bored or exhausted and realized that I only needed one blog; this one, that has been around for 17 years. Anyway, I haven’t deleted that photo blog because it has a blog list on the sidebar which includes blogs about miniatures and another list of general blogs that I was reading at the time. I like to visit those blogs occasionally.

Fast forward to the other day when I was thinking about the Beacon Hill and I dropped in on that blog to see what was new with some of my favorite miniature bloggers.

Most of them have not posted in years. I sort of knew that was happening, but on that day, the reality of just how many miniaturists had stopped blogging really smacked me in the face. A few of them had moved to Instagram. But the others? Where are they?

Of course, there are several possible answers. They got tired of working on miniatures. They’re too busy. They got tired of blogging. They aren’t with us anymore. You know I start to worry about people when their online presence disappears. I worry about it with commenters on the blog, I worry about it when virtual fellow bloggers disappear, as well. I tried looking for them on Instagram, but I wasn’t successful.

My friend, Casey, for example. I’ve wondered about her for a while. She lives in Arizona and she had been experiencing health problems. She hasn’t blogged since 2019. I haven’t seen her on IG. She created that wicker chair that is in the den of Hummingbird Cottage. I won it in a contest. She was so kind and generous with tips of all sorts. The blog is still up, but it’s been six years since we’ve heard from her.

As I glance down the list of blogs, I do see a few that I know are on Instagram now. As is the case with many bloggers, Instagram seems to be the preferred thing. I’m glad they’re still around, but I have to say that IG cannot and is not meant to replace the detail in a blog post. The miniature bloggers who used to blog fairly regularly provided lots of photos and details about their miniature work in each and every blog post. You can try to do that in IG, but let’s remember. It’s called INSTAgram. Instant, quick posts about daily life. And that’s not the same, is it?

On one level, I get it. Life is busy and taking the time to write a lengthy blog post or even just maintain a blog is a challenge. And it isn’t just miniature bloggers. Most of my fellow bloggers from those first days back in 2008 have stopped blogging. There are very few of us left. And, as you know, I have thought about ending this blog. Many of us are older now and aging has an impact. And sometimes you just lose your enthusiasm for something.

So, I’m certainly not complaining! Not at all. I’m observing.

When I first started working on Hummingbird Cottage, I knew nothing. Nothing. By that time, I had accumulated a list of miniaturists that I followed and believe me when I say that those bloggers were incredibly helpful and generous. I left comments with questions. I emailed some of them. Every one of them answered and generously shared their knowledge with me. Some sent me miniatures to help start me on my journey. It was a vibrant community and boy, was I lucky! I was able to pour over the blog posts, look at detailed photos, read the how-tos. I’m very grateful to this day for all of those interactions and virtual friendships.

I’ve written very detailed blog posts about my dollhouse renovations. I’ve made lists of sources. All of that is on my navigation bar. And no, you can’t really do that in any depth on an Instagram post. It’s impossible.

Heck, I sometimes go a very long time without doing any miniature work at all. I’m just coming off of a long break. I got the Beacon Hill during lockdown. That gives you an idea of just how long it has been.

Anyway, it makes me sad. Everything is ‘instant’ nowadays. But some things take time.

And, of course, I wonder about some of those bloggers. Are they well? Is everything okay? I’ll do my best to find out, but it will be a challenge.

Just some thoughts that have been whirling around in my brain over the last few days.

Happy Monday.

Stay safe.

Sixteen

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On this date in 2008, I signed into Blogger, wrote a very brief introductory post, and hit publish. I didn’t even know how to post a photo. But I figured it out shortly after that. And so, this little corner of the online-virtual-social media world began. I was tentative at first, wondering if anyone would find me out there in the early days of blogging. Blogging was quite new and there weren’t many of us yet. But if you followed another blog, that blogger would most likely return the favor, and slowly I built up an readership. The list of what I didn’t know was very long, but you know I like a challenge, so I researched and observed and added a header and tried my best to style my blog. It really reminded me of the Wild West. So many of us were trekking into this new world, trying to build our homesteads on the web.

In those days, enhancing the look of the blog was an ongoing challenge. I was always trying something new. We were pretty much stuck with Blogger’s basic layout. It wasn’t until I moved to WordPress (which was a big deal) that I was able to experiment with new layouts, new designs. I learned a  bit of coding. I really loved it. I did the entire changeover, moving all my posts from Blogger to WordPress all by myself and believe me, I had no idea if it would work! But it did.

The blog has had many different looks in these 16 years, but this current look has been around the longest. At some point, I was happy with it and the need to change it melted away. WordPress has changed a lot, too, with a new block editor function. I happily said NO to that and I stuck with the ‘classic editor.’

I experimented more than once with trying to make this blog a big money maker. Wouldn’t that have been nice? But I finally realized that I would have had to fashion this blog into something it wasn’t. I would have had to stick to one thing – for example, decorating – and promote it constantly, trying to get sponsorships, thinking about keywords, and stats, and all the things I didn’t want to think about. Mockingbird Hill Cottage is about me and my life here in the Hudson Valley. I write from the heart. All that would have been lost if I’d gone the way of the ‘big’ bloggers. In the end, it just wasn’t me.

My dashboard tells me I have written 5,047 posts. It’s actually a bit more than that – I lost a few in the change to WordPress. Most likely around 5,055 or so. I’ve had 182,408 comments, but 50,572 of those are my responses to comments, something I couldn’t do with Blogger in those days, but could when I changed over to WP.

For the vast majority of these blogging years, I have blogged every day. I decided to cut back a bit last year – from 7 days a week to 4 days a week.

Of course, the best part of all of this has been you. Believe it or not, there are some readers from the very first days of this blog that are still with me. But mostly, there are some that have moved on, for whatever reason, some who have passed away, some that are newer readers. Just like in real life. I used to read a lot more blogs than I do now. And many of the blogs I read daily have disappeared, or haven’t been updated in years. Many now use Instagram as another form of blogging. (Though it isn’t a blog in any way, shape, or form.)

ANYWAY. I’m grateful you’re here. I’m grateful for the friends I have made here. Thank you.

But, honestly, I’m feeling that it’s more of a chore these days. I’ve said so much over these past 16 years. Whatever I wanted you to know about our life here, you know. (Believe me, I don’t share everything). I’m not coaching as much anymore – I have a strong feeling that my days of coaching are coming to an end, given my age and the changes in theater and budgets. I hope that is not the case. Just writing those few words brought tears to my eyes. As you know, both Don and I need to and want to work and there’s not much, if any, of that happening now. We can’t afford to travel these days. Our lives are more contained and more routine. In some ways, we really like that. But it doesn’t make for scintillating blog content. How many times can I say: Don went grocery shopping. Made a pie. I cleaned the bathroom, watered the plants, etc.?

Nothing is for sure, but I think this might be my last year of blogging. It costs me money to maintain this blog and my ads help with that. Nevertheless, there are a lot of moving parts, not the least of which is security for the blog, that take a chunk of money yearly. And more than that, I’m losing my appetite for it. I often feel that I’ve said all I can say.

I go back and forth on this issue. I would deeply miss all of you. I might feel rudderless without this blog. So: I don’t know yet, but I’m giving you a heads up. I’ve never worked at any job in my life for 16 years –  just this blog. It might be time to start winding down. But I will stay with it through this year. Who knows? I may stay with it even longer than that. I’ll know more as the year progresses.

Thank you, my friends. Thanks for being here. It means more than you can ever know.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Blogging

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Saturday morning.

The concert turned out to be a big hit, with a good-sized crowd. Don’s friend, John Putnam, has a band and they drove up from NYC and were a huge hit. The other performer was a musician Don discovered who lives in West Virginia. Also a huge hit. John Putnam, by the way, works a lot professionally. He was in the Escape to Margaritaville  orchestra and that’s how Don knows him.

While that was going on, I got a loud warning on my phone about a severe thunderstorm that was headed our way, with warnings specifically for the people attending our county fair. (Just a couple of miles from us.) I looked outside and all I could see was the sky lighting up – continuously – with lightning. At times, I saw an entire streak of lightning in the sky – wish I’d had my camera with me! There was thunder also, but mostly lightning. It looked like a special effect for a movie. But as far as I know, we had no rain. Very strange!

Okay. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It is becoming increasingly hard to think of something to talk about every day of the week. The fact is, there are times when nothing much is happening. We’re older, we’re not working at the moment, and our days are fairly quiet. When you’ve been blogging for 15½ years, finding new things to talk about is a challenge. Don’t worry, I’m not ending the blog yet. I’m just trying to find a solution so that I don’t feel like I have to pull a rabbit out of a hat every day.

I’m thinking of blogging 3 or 4 days a week. I don’t get much ad income anymore – that has decreased for most bloggers. I get enough to help with the odd bill or two, and to pay for the costs of maintaining this blog. Just barely. I’m not sure how decreasing the days I blog will affect that ad income. I guess I’ll find out!

I was thinking of setting specific days for my posts so that you don’t have to wonder if I’ve posted on a certain day. Maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Or Sunday, if that seems better for you.

What do you think?

I love blogging, but it takes a lot of effort on a daily basis. I need to come up with a solution that gives me some breathing space. I’ve held the job of blogger longer than any other job I’ve had, and I’m one of the few original bloggers still doing blogging. And I’m one of a few that blog on a daily basis.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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