Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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When There’s Nothing to Blog About

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lampshade

I sat here this morning with absolutely no idea about what to blog about today. Truly.

I looked through my photos, hoping for some inspiration.

I racked my brain.

Nothing.

I finally found some photos to edit and figured I would simply start writing and see if I came up with anything blogworthy.

And…I couldn’t get on my site.

I tried again and again. Nothing. The server was down.

It occurred to me that maybe the Universe was giving me an excuse not to blog!

I called my host and was on hold for several minutes. And just as someone finally came on the line, the blog was back up again.

So I guess I have to write something.

highlightandshadow

The truth is, yesterday was windy and raw and the high winds went on all day. Scoutie and I hunkered down and not a whole lot happened. I talked to Don several times as I always do, I read, I messed around with some cosmetic changes on the blog, I washed the sheets, made some cornbread – nothing very exciting.

I’m ready for spring. Ready for some work outdoors, for something to jumpstart me out of the same old, same old. I haven’t been able to get motivated.

But I will.

Scoutie and I will take a walk today. That will help.

Writing a blog post every day isn’t always easy. Most of the time, it is. But today? Yikes, it was hard. Really hard.

Let’s close with another shot of Scoutie in my hat. Just because it makes me laugh.

scoutienanook

Happy Thursday.

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Six Years

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iloveblogging

I woke up this morning and as I was making coffee and attending to those first tasks of the morning, I looked at the date. February 17th. What was it about that date? I kept trying to grasp some memory, some thought, that was just beyond my reach.

After the first sip of coffee, it hit me. But I checked my archives to be sure.

I started this blog six years ago. Today.

After reading blogs for several months and wondering if this might be for me, I mentioned to Don that this new thing might be a way for me to indulge my love of writing. And then I mentioned it again. And again. Finally, he told me to just do it.

And I did. Here’s the first post:

Welcome to my blog, Mockingbird Hill Cottage! I have been reading and commenting on various blogs for a long time and now I have finally started my own. Believe me, I will be learning as I go. I’m looking forward to meeting new friends and sharing my thoughts, projects and experiences with you. Mockingbird Hill Cottage is so named because my favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird and my maiden name is Hill. It is also a salute to a mockingbird that serenaded us every night with the most beautiful music when we lived in California. I hope your day is a happy one.

There was no photo. I hadn’t figured out how to do that yet. All I knew was that I had to get a post on the virtual page to make it official.

Was anybody out there? Yes, there were a few people that found me in those early days, thank goodness. But there were plenty of posts over the next year that had absolutely no comments.

I just kept writing.

In those days, there were far fewer blogs out there and it was much less competitive. I miss that a bit. Yes, this is a wonderful community, but in my first year or two of blogging it was a lot more like a small town. Facebook hadn’t taken off yet. Twitter wasn’t in the picture. Neither was Instagram or any of the other sites or apps that take only a minute of one’s time and sacrifice words and story and heft for quick and light.

There are people who say that reading a blog post takes too much time, that Twitter and Facebook are becoming the preferred way to share something in this world of 30 second attention spans. That people don’t want to read a long post. I even read the occasional prediction that blogging is becoming a thing of the past.

All I can say is: If people are having trouble reading a blog post, we’re in trouble. Because if that is true, I can only assume that reading a book must be simply impossible. And that reading an in-depth article simply cannot be done.

I prefer substance.

This medium of words and images, of peeks into each other’s lives, this place where we share our sorrows and our joys, our routine and not-so-routine days, has opened up a whole new world to me. I am forever grateful for the day I hit ‘Publish’ and joined so many others who were exploring this new thing called blogging.

solitary

True. That’s why blogging is so wonderful for me. I can sit here at my laptop, house quiet, the sound of Scoutie snoring on the sofa, and I can write. I can write a journal that is not only for me – it’s for you. I can share my thoughts and fears and happiness and sorrow with you. I can take a photo and instantly share it with you along with some, hopefully, well chosen words.

Pretty gosh darned amazing, isn’t it?

Finally, thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you for taking the time to visit my little home on the Web. Thank you for all the times you’ve commented. Thank you for all the times you have sent me a personal note or an email or a thoughtful gift. Thank you for reaching out to me in times of sorrow. Thank you for words of encouragement. Thank you for laughter. Thank you for You.

I am so very grateful for our friendship.

Happy Monday.

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Blogging: Staying On Course

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lamp

Though I’m passionate about blogging and love the discipline of writing every day, there are the rare mornings where I feel foggy and have a hard time coming up with some idea that is blog-worthy. Where I don’t have the desire to pick up my camera and roam the house, looking for something that will spark an idea for a post. Where my morning cup of coffee has turned into three cups and I still don’t know what the heck I will write about.

Since I write a post every day, 365 days a year, it’s inevitable. I know a lot of bloggers plan their posts out ahead of time. I am not one of them. Since MHC is a daily journal of my life, I obviously can’t write about what just happened or is about to happen a week or two weeks before it actually happens. So, though I might have an idea the night before I post about what I might tackle the next day, often I don’t. I fly by the seat of my pants.

Every blogger works hard to shape their content, to define the blog, to give it her/his personal stamp. This doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. Time to find your voice, time to find what works and doesn’t work, time to define the boundaries of what you will and won’t do. I’ve been blogging for nearly six years (in February) and I have wrestled, along the way, with these questions: should I have ads, should I try to be a ‘big blogger,’ should I narrow my blog into that niche blog territory that might get me more readers and more ad income. The niche question was contemplated for about one minute. I am interested in far more than one narrow category and I wouldn’t be true to myself if I did that. I’d also be bored out of my mind. And that took care of the big blogger question, because most big bloggers are niche bloggers. Not all, but most.

I have a definite idea of what this blog should be, what I will and won’t do, and where I draw the proverbial line in the sand. I earn a very, very modest amount of money from my ads. I would dearly love to earn more. (I want to be the one who pays for our health insurance.) I stress over the placement of ads within the blog. I choose not to have a big banner ad over my header, though I know it will bring in more money. I think that type of ad makes the blog look too commercial and that is something I don’t want. BlogHer has some changes they are going to implement and I might have to go with a very narrow rectangular ad right above the beginning of my content instead of the tower-like ads that are currently on the sidebar – we’ll see.

One of the latest forms of income that BlogHer and, I’m sure, other advertisers have offered is the one that highlights certain words in a post. If your cursor passes over that word, a link or a photo link will pop up. They are supposed to be potentially lucrative.

But, I don’t like them. I find them intrusive and irritating because I often find my cursor hitting one of the dreaded links. An ad will pop up and, instead of reading the post, my train of thought will be stopped as I deal with the annoying ad. And the very look of the highlighted word of text looks sort of spammy to me. If I feel that way, then I’m pretty sure some of my readers will also feel that way.

Please understand, I’m not criticizing anyone else for implementing that type of ad or any other type of ad. Go for it; do what is right for you. Many bloggers are trying to earn a living from blogging. I get it.

It’s just not right for me, that’s all.

What to do? Go for something more lucrative or stay true to my ‘line in the sand?” I have learned to never say never, but really? I have to go with my gut. And my gut says no. That’s not me and it’s not my blog.

I’m so proud of this blog. As of today, I have written over 1,615 posts (the first few years I only posted about 3 times a week.) I started with some very cautious and tentative dips of my writing toes into the waters of blogging. Over time, I have discovered my voice and, thanks to all of you, found my audience. I really think of this blog as my baby and I have done my best to shape it into something I am proud of.

I’ll probably still wrestle with some decisions as I go forward. But I promise to go with my gut, with what my heart tells me is right.

Happy Sunday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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